Veganersary!

It's my first veganersary! Granted, I was not necessarily (ok, at all) completely vegan (for full story see my meme post) last July 7, and I get drunk and eat cheesy food (pun intended), and I love to eat Taria's pastry creations (she's fruitarian but the best pastry chef in Atlanta, so again, humor me), but it's been a good year. I wish I still had my old blog and could trace what I posted a year ago, but I can't. Sad.

I'm forever grateful to Rachael and Kyle and Taria for convincing me through their eating habits that veganism is totally possible--even when one is a pastry chef--and also to you guys, the blog community, for giving me hundreds of new recipes to try out and friendly support over much trial and error.

So, as a thanks and to celebrate, I'll leave you with a tasty breakfast. I know you all know how to make vegan french toast. And I usually make it with applesauce or smooshed bananas. Or sometimes super fancy with challah and vegan ricotta (smile). But with the usual recipe, the bread gets too much liquid in it and stays soggy, even if you fry it till it burns. So I experimented with a bit of vegan yogurt, added spices, fried it, and oh-my-goodness it was just like regular french toast! Crispy fried on the outside, not soggy on the inside, spicy-sweet...yeah, a pretty damn good simple veganersary breakfast.

Much love to you all, you're the best! Here's to another wonderful vegan food-filled year!

Vegan French Toast

1/2 cup vegan vanilla yogurt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp ginger

Mix together the yogurt and spices in a shallow, wide dish.

Dip the bread slices into the yogurt and cover both sides with the mixture.

Fry the bread over medium head with a dash of olive oil until brown on both sides.

Serve with maple syrup, powdered sugar, nuts, berries--whatever you feel like!

Ricotta Stuffed Challah French Toast

Saturday morning--a day I don't have class, a day I don't have to be up at a certain time, my day. Well, almost. My room is next to the back door of the house, so I'm always jolted awake my roommates' or their significant others' early morning tendencies. After lying in bed awake for a bit I decided to make some breakfast and do my favorite weekend morning thing--check up on all of the blogs! You may remember my vegan french toast recipe from this summer (which I can't link to because I deleted my blog...stupid stupid), but today I decided to do a pumped up version of it.

I remembered reading the two different ricotta recipes in Veganomicon last night and I've also really missed being able to order ricotta stuffed french toast at Sun in my Belly--absolutely nothing there is vegan, which is a shame because their coffee is amazing and utterly addicting. Well, hello, I have one and a half loaves of vegan challa sitting on my counter and the ingredients for the ricotta. Brunch time!

I omitted the garlic and basil since I was using the ricotta for breakfast, but the recipe made up tons more than I needed for just myself. So it will probably pop up in some savory dish in the near future with added seasoning. Next time I'm going to play with it more--the lemon was a bit strong, so maybe add a bit less and add in vanilla or something to make it sweeter and richer. The texture, however, is right on. I really think I'm eating ricotta.

As for the french toast recipe, I make mine up a bit differently every time. The measurements are in no way exact--I have no idea how much soy milk I used, for example--and this is one of those times you have to mix by feel.

The end result is quite tasty. Not exactly Sun in my Belly style, but not far off. Fresh berries would have been uber helpful, but I made do with dried cranberries and pecans. Over all, I'm happy with it!

Ricotta Stuffed Challah French Toast

1/2 loaf of Vegan Challah

For the Ricotta:
1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 pound firm tofu, drained and crumbled
(I also added in a handful of chopped pecans and dried cranberries at the end.)

For the French Toast Batter:
1 banana, mashed
1/2-3/4 cup soy milk
1 Tbsp soy flour
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp vanilla

In a food processor, blend together the cashews, lemon juice, and olive oil until a thick creamy paste forms. Add the crumbled tofu to the food processor until the mixture is thick and well blended.

In a pie tin or other shallow dish, mix mashed banana, soy milk, soy flour, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla until a slightly thick liquid forms.

Heat up a frying pan on medium heat on the stove, add 1 tsp olive oil to warm.

Dip challah pieces in the french toast mixture so that one side of each is coated--leave one side of each slice uncoated. Slather the ricotta mixture on the uncoated side of one of the slices, place the other challah slice on top with the coated side facing outward. Fry until golden brown.

Repeat and serve!