Breakfast for Lunch
This may sound a bit extreme, but I made the greatest breakfast I have ever had yesterday, and I had so much left over that I just packed some of it up for lunch today. I make breakfast food for dinner occasionally, but I have to say that this is the first time I have ever brought breakfast food for lunch. I don't guess it really matters though because it is delicious and I love it. This meal is also, believe it or not, quite healthy when you stop and think about it. It's really amazing what you can do with your vegan superpowers.
Biscuits & gravy are one of my most favorite things in the world to eat and I could honestly eat them 3 times a day. The biscuits & gravy that you see here are honestly, the best I have ever made in my life, and it's all vegan! This was even better than what I have gotten in vegetarian restaurants. I just used my regular old biscuit recipe, which happens to be the one found in Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I made one major change though, I replaced 100% of the white flour with whole wheat pastry flour. The biscuits came out yummy, and full of beneficial fiber. What more could you ask for?
The biscuit gravy that I had been making a lot here lately was a recipe from VwaV which involved white beans, and it is very tasty, but this time I wanted to try and replicate the gravy that I had been getting in restaurants. All I did was melt 1 Tbsp. of Earth Balance margarine (this is the only fat in the gravy and it actually helps IMPROVE your good to bad cholesterol ratio!), stirred in 1/4 cup of flour (regular all-purpose), browned it a few minutes, then stirred in soy milk with a wisk until I got the desired consistency. I added some No-Salt (KCl) and pepper, along with 1 tsp. of Sage, then I threw in about 3 handfuls of the Tempeh Sausage Crumbles from VwaV. That TOTALLY made this gravy rock. The sausage crumbles have all kinds of flavor and all kinds of spices that make the gravy look really yummy (you can see all the herbs, red pepper flakes, etc. which make it really delicious). Seriously, this was the best biscuits & gravy I have ever made and I would put them up against the artery-clogging NOT VEGAN ones any day. They were really that good.
I also whipped up some scrambled tofu, but I made the mistake of using some pre-packaged stuff that I found at the grocery store that you just mix up with a pack of tofu. I did doctor it up a little bit by adding some chopped red & green pepper along with a small can of mushrooms. The next time, however, I will just make it from scratch using my favorite recipe from VwaV because that is SO much better than what I made yesterday. The stuff from store-bought seasonings isn't really bad, it's like something you might get in a restaurant, but the homemade version just has so much more flavor. My mistake.
The potatoes and onions were just cooked up in a skillet with olive oil, garlic salt, pepper & rosemary. They were delicious as always. Then I tried something new from one of the recipes that I hadn't tried before in VwaV. The tempeh & white bean sausage patties are quite tasty. They are a lot more delicate than the store-bought stuff, so you have to be careful or they will fall apart on you, but they taste good, and that's really what matters.
Well, that's it for lunch, I mean breakfast, I mean lunch for Monday. Gosh I can't wait to tear into that biscuit & gravy. That stuff is sooooooo good. Can you tell I like biscuits & gravy? It's hard to believe it's actually healthy vegan food. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, the weather here was BEAUTIFUL! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great Monday! See you tomorrow.
6 comments:
Those biscuits and gravy look DELISH! That was one of the first foods I "fooled" my kids with...LOL, now they won't eat b/g with real meat...too greasy they say :)
I know. When I think back to how I used to cook gravy when I was an omnivore, it really does turn my stomach to even think about it. This has so much more flavor, and is not only NOT BAD for you, it is actually GOOD for you. Who would've thought you could make healthy biscuits & gravy?
It transported fine kristie, but there are a couple of things to mention about that. The scrambled tofu was in the container with the lid, so it all stayed put. I did press a piece of Glad Press & Seal on the container with the biscuit & gravy in it, just in case.
But, I normally carry my lunchbox, in the case, in the horizontal position, even if it doesn't matter for what's in there. That's one thing, I guess, that's different about packing lunch for an adult vs a child. For a child, you would have to be more considerate of how the food would travel. As a grownup though, it doesn't really matter to me what I pack because I normally keep the lunchbox flat during the entire trip to work.
That gravy also sets up when it cools off, so it wasn't running around everywhere in the container. It stayed pretty much exactly where I put it until I microwaved it and heated it up again.
I can't believe how easy this gravy was and how yummy it tasted. I am as excited over this as I was the pizza a few days back.
:o)
Oh I LOVE this lunch. I love the VwaV biscuits so much and can't wait to try your version of the gravy. The white bean gravy in the cookbook is excellent, but yours sounds better. Thanks!
I really enjoy your site. I look at it daily. Keep up the good work luncher.
Making the biscuits with whole wheat pastry flour makes a really big difference in look, texture and flavor, plus it makes them a lot healthier.
Yeah, the white bean gravy is good, but it's something different. This was just plain old good gravy made out of healthy ingredients.
I tried making gravy once several months ago using olive oil in an attempt to make a healthier gravy. That really didn't turn out too good.
Using Earth Balance and some tempeh sausage crumbles makes heavenly gravy though. I highly recommend it!
I love using WWPF to bake with instead of all-purpose. It seems to add a little oomph without being as dry and heavy are regular whole wheat.
Looks great! I love having breakfast for dinner. When I was growing up that was the biggest treat. Now it's fun to be in charge and have it whenever I want.
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