Vegan Mofo #12: Breakfasts on the go - healthy breakfast bars

Nat is a tour/bushwalking guide. His job has its perks (ie. getting to go bushwalking around many pretty places in Tasmania and getting paid to do it) but it also has its drawbacks (a day trip starts by nat leaving before 6.30am and getting back well after 7.30pm). Having said that - some of his multiday trips require him to leave before 5am so I am not complaining too much about getting up at 5.45am for the day trips.

Because its way too early to have a decent breakfast I have been looking into cooking some breakfast bars for Nat to take. I was having trouble finding something that I thought looked nice and had almost given up hope (it either had too much oil or sugar or used banana or tofu so wouldn't keep for very long). But then as I was making myself a dandelion coffee (really good coffee substittue - I would reccommend it) I saw on the back of the soymilk container the perfect recipe... ok, well almost the perfect recipe. (It was a different soy milk that I had because I had run out of my normal one and the local shop only stocked this one)
I pretty much followed the recipe but veganised some of the ingredients and changed the nuts and fruit (ok -I didn't actually measure anything specifically - I just bunged it all in roughly according to the directions- I was really tired).

I was really pleased with the results. Its crunchy but not too crunchy - sweet but not too sweet and held together really well. And it was really REALLY easy. I will be making these a lot more often.


Breakfast on the go breakfast bars

2 cups rolled oats
1/3cup dried apricots - chopped
1/2 cup dried dates - chopped
1/4 cup almonds (chopped) or sunflower seeds
1/4 cup coconut flakes (optional - I was going to put them in because I thought they would be nice but I forgot when I was making it)
3 tbsp agave or maple syrup
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp coconut extract (or vanilla)
1 cup soymilk
egg replacer for one egg (I used organ no-egg)

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celcius
2. Place all ingredients in large bowl
3. Spray bottom of pyrex dish (20cm square) with cooking spray or line with baking paper
4. Press mix into pan and bake until golden (approx 30mins)
5. Let cool completely and then cut into bars.

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Oh before I go - I got so SUPER excited yesterday. I was walking back from the city Library and I walked past a little store that I know sells foreign food (ie. American and British comfort food mainly). I have never had the need to go in there but I thought that now I see so many recipes online with american ingredients maybe I should check it out. Well what did I see... a few really gross things like marshmallow spread and peanut butter and jam swirled into a jar - "biscuit" mix (which I now realise to be scones) and lots of Hershey's chocolate products to name a few. But what got me super excited was that I found this:




LIQUID SMOKE!!
YAY!!!

I was hoping that this would be in there but I didn't want to get my hopes up. So now as the BBQ season approaches I will not feel deprived when I find recipes calling for this little baby. I am rather happy right now.

Vegan MoFo #5 - What we have for breakfast - fat free wholesome banana pancakes

I have been looking at other vegan mofo blogs and there has been a bit of discussion about breakfasts. Now I LOVE pancakes and I made some fantastic ones this morning (recipe and photos further down the post), but first I thought I would show you what nat and I have on a 'normal morning' (when nat doesn't have to be out of the house before 6.30am). Fruit Salad!!! At the moment we are able to get apples, pears, kiwi fruit, strawberries, grapes, bananas and oranges. Top it off with some soy yoghurt and its heaven in breakfast!!!



Well it was a lazy morning yesterday - neither of us had work and I had the perfect opportunity to procrastinate from writing my last assignment by making pancakes for breakfast. Now I have a couple of pancake recipes - some have worked better than others. This one I created as I really wanted some wholesome fat-free pancakes (breakfast is, after all, the most important meal of the day!!) The results are AMAZING!! Yummy moist pancakes. I tried the first lot without putting maple syrup in the batter and I liked them a lot - Some people who like sweeter pancakes might like to put a little bit of syrup in the batter - however I think that if I am going to eat them with maple syrup they don't need it at all!!

Fat Free Banana Pancakes

1 1/4 cups wholemeal spelt flour
1/4 cup soy flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 banana's - mashed
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (or normal vinegar - I only have apple)
1 1/2 tbsp applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp maple syrup (optional)

1. Combine soy milk and vinegar a sit to the side for 5 minutes
   
2. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl.
3. In a seperate bowl, mix banana, applesauce, vanilla and soymilk together until fairly smooth (I still had some small banana lumps which were really nice)
4. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined
5. Leave to sit for 15mins. (During this time I make some fresh orange juice)
6. Mix in enough water to reach desired batter consistancy (I added about 1/4 cup more - the pancakes were still rather thick)
7. Spray a non-stick frypan with cooking spray - pour about 1/4 cup batter into the pan - I can comfortably fit 3 small pancakes into my pan.
   
8. Flip pancakes when bubbles appear on the surface. Cook another 1-2 minutes until pancakes are golden brown on both sides.
   
9. Transfer to a plate and loosely cover with foil - cook more pancakes.
10. Serve with maple syrup, sliced banana or whatever you want!!