Happy Labor Day weekend! We've been working hard to get the most out of our last weekend of summer break, and that included a lot of cooking, baking, and indulging in some special treats.
This weekend I experimented with carrot puree. I ended up making carrot cake chocolate chip cookies and some carrot banana bread. The banana bread didn't turn out quite how I'd hoped and needs some tweaking, so I won't be sharing a recipe for carrot banana bread quite yet.
However, what I ended up doing with the sub-par quick bread is definitely worth sharing!
Cinnamon banana bread french toast with bananas and walnuts.
Marie Catrib's here in Grand Rapids makes an out-of-this-world vegan french toast with carmelized bananas, peanut butter and cinnamon raisin toast. It's even available guten free. Amazing.
So, for Vegan Mofo's restaurant meal theme today, I decided to put my own spin on this decadent breakfast treat.
I slightly modified the french toast batter recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Vegan with a Vengeance.
Ingredients:
1 loaf of day old banana bread or other quick bread (zucchini or pumpkin loaf would work great here, too!)
1 C. Non-dairy milk
1/4 C. Chickpea flour
2 T. cornstarch
1 t. Vanilla extract
1 t. Cinnamon
Sliced bananas and chopped walnuts, for serving
Directions:
Slice the bread in 1/2" thick slices. In a large, shallow bowl, whisk together the non-dairy milk and cornstarch until well blended. Add the chickpea flour and cinnamon and mix again.
Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat. Dredge the bread in the batter and place on the skillet for a few minutes, flipping when you have a nice golden-brown coating on the bottom.
Top with bananas, walnuts, maple syrup, and a dusting of extra cinnamon if you want!
This french toast was amazing paired with a hot cup of vanilla chai tea. Enjoy!
Do you like tea? What is your favorite? I am a huge chai junkie and as soon as the weather gets a little colder, I'll be able to justify a daily partaking of this pumpkin chai deliciousness!
Vegan Month of Food has arrived! Every year since going to a plant based diet I have silently admired this celebration of vegan culinary pursuits across the web. Bloggers get together to get the word out on how delicious, colorful and exciting vegan food really is.
This year I'm going to try my hand at participating in Vegan Month of Food! I'll be following along a set list of inspirations for posting different recipes or tidbits of info on the life of a plant based home cook.
If you'd like to follow along with the fun, hop on your favorite social media outlet (IG, twitter, etc...) and search #veganmofo or #vgnmf15 - You'll be sure to find such an abundance of mouth watering vegan meals, your head will explode.
Today I am sharing what we had for breakfast this morning! I didn't look at the Vegan Mofo prompt for today until this afternoon, but thankfully I'm constantly taking pictures of our food, and we happened to have a pretty great breakfast today; so it all works out and I'm excited to share it with you!
This breakfast comes with a handy tip - always cook more grains than you think you need at one time. Whenever I make rice, quinoa, millet, etc...I make extra. They come in handy for leftovers in countless ways; breakfast being one of them.
Cinnamon Cardamom Quinoa Porridge with fruit
This breakfast will will keep you full all morning, and satisfies your morning sweet tooth without loading up on sugar. The best part? You can use leftover quinoa and have a hot, satisfying breakfast ready in minutes! Perfect for fast paced weekday mornings!
Serves 4
2 C. Quinoa (cooked)
2 t. Cinnamon
1 t. Cardamom
1/4 Maple Syrup
1/2 C. Almond or other non-dairy milk
Fruit and toppings of choice (I like to top ours with homemade granola and hemp seeds for added protein)
Combine the quinoa, cinnamon, cardamom, maple syrup and almond milk in a medium sauce pan and cook on medium heat until warmed through.
Serve and top with fresh fruit granola, nuts, seeds, cacao nibs...and whatever else your little heart desires! It's that easy!
