Easy Eggless Egg Salad

It’s summer and it’s hot. Too hot to constantly be in front of the stove or running the oven. I know, I’m sad too. But, be not melancholy friends! Summer means beaches, picnic potlucks, hiking, camping, super expensive (and horrible) amusement park food and so, brown bag lunches! Which also means…wait for it…wait for it…SANDWICHES! Hooray!

Who doesn’t love a good sandwich? I must admit, I’ve neglected the awesome power ingrained in all of us to make something out of nothing. So much so, that my brain has been working in over drive on how to best cook this or that, rather than just eating it. For example, the other day I bought a bunch of fresh strawberries and I immediately thought to myself, “what can I make with this?” That’s when I knew I had a problem. That’s when I knew I needed to get back to a simpler time when you could just eat the strawberry right then and there and be happy. And as if by fate, in comes my friend Peter who reminds me that when all you have is a few veggies, some bread, and hummus, you can still have yourself a nice little feast. And I sure have been feasting!

I’ve decided to take up quick and easy sandwich making. I will be experimenting with sandwich dressings and spreads and probably also making things that are so simple and overdone by the vegan foodies that if you’ve been vegan for a while you’re probably going to say, “Oh. Great. Another TLT recipe.” Bear with me, I have quite a few non-vegan readers and I’m trying to keep it easy, tasty, enticing, and traditional, for their sakes. And let’s be honest, who of us doesn’t want to see how someone else makes the “regular” stuff? So, since we all know by now that the only peeps who need eggs are those little peep-peep-peepers themselves: the birds, I’m starting with this recipe for a basic, naturally high in protein, delicious tofu-egg salad. I hope you like it!

Agave Sweetened Strawberry Banana Bread

It’s rare for me, but it actually happened — I had leftover bananas, too ripe to eat raw. Now, if you already couldn’t tell from all the banana-centric posts, I absolutely love bananas. I especially love it when they stealthily infiltrate traditional treats like chocolate chip cookies or brownies by way of being a replacement for eggs. This time though, I decided to be a little more traditional. And this time, the strawberries decided to foil my plans of tradition. I also decided to use agave instead of sugar. There’s no fancy reason for that other than that I am baking in someone else’s kitchen and so I didn’t have any unrefined (vegan) sugar to work with. I actually really liked it better this way because the bananas are sweet enough as it is. Sugar may have been overkill. So this is it: a sweet and tasty take on a classic — perfect for summer berry picking season.

Lemon Blueberry Bread

I am and have been completely enthralled by lemons and blueberries lately. It seems that I want to put them in everything. Perhaps it’s the brightness of the lemon rind, or the wonderful color a melted blueberry brings to a dish. I know this combination may sound odd to some, but to those who naysay without trying: I beg you to consider the wonders that came of mixing strawberries and rhubarb, lemons and poppy seeds, or bananas and walnuts. Lemons and blueberries were destined for a civil union! Especially with summer coming on.

This bread isn’t really “bread,” in case you were wondering. This is as much “bread” as a muffin is a cupcake. It’s a lot like banana bread, meaning that it’s basically cake. That being said, it’s moist (even days later), sugary, and delicious and yet, I’m sure you can convince yourself, like I have, that because it’s not technically cake, that it’s wholesome enough to eat for breakfast. Three chins later, you’ll still be glad you did it.

Blueberry Walnut Waffles

I recently acquired a vintage waffle iron courtesy of my lovely, encouraging mother. I don’t recall ever having waffles that didn’t come frozen in a box so, this is pretty exciting! This weekend my friend and I decided to put ye ol’ iron planks to good use. It was quite hilarious watching us trying to figure how to use the waffle iron to make the waffles “just right” and there were several attempts made before we finally got it right. When we did, the result was thick, toasty, delicious waffly goodness. The best part about waffles is that you can freeze them and eat them later! These are so delicious and convenient, I’ll be making a whole batch of these this weekend to take on my two week stay in Boston this month.

Mango-Blackberry-Coconut French Toast

Did I go on a tropical island getaway? No, not so much. Just another Saturday morning in snowy New Hampshire. Saturday mornings have become all about getting up to make a big breakfast, leaving the dishes for later, cuddling with the dog, catching up on Dexter, and not “officially” getting out of bed until noon. Now all I need is someone to come make this for me so, I don’t have to get up at all. Until then, here’s a quick recipe that won’t take away too much of your laze time and proves you don’t need dairy or eggs to have a delicious breakfast. What more can I say about french toast? Oh yeah: It’s freaking delicious!

Go ahead, have it with a mimosa. You deserve it. It’s the weekend.

Tofu Vegetable Quiche with Herbed Crust

Look Ma, no eggs! That’s right. It’s another quiche recipe, this one is bigger and more badass than a mini quiche can ever hope to be. I’ve got way more things going on this week than there is time in a day so, I have to make sure my mind doesn’t wander to the kitchen when it should be studying. Solution? Make a massive quiche and eat quiche for dinner all week. Why the heck not? While most young whipper snapper college students are eating pizza, I’m the old lady who’s enjoying a delicious quiche because “it’s kind of like pizza.” And it is, except it’s a lot healthier.

Anyway, here’s a tasty, savory, eggless dish that’s sure to make your life a lot easier and your dinner guests amazed that it you could accomplish a quiche without eggs. Quiche is not only time efficient and delicious, it’s flexible too! Add whatever vegetables you want, or omit the ones you can’t stand. The crust recipe is arranged, but adapted from the Healthy Happy Life blog. My only issue with this recipe is that the crust isn’t as soft as I would like it to be. I used sorghum flour which can be pretty rough stuff once it’s baked, but softens up nicely over time (read: leftovers). Even if you have a gluten allergy, I recommend using other flours (bean or oat will probably be fine).

Mini Tofu Quiche Pies

So this recipe originates from two places. One, is having left over pastry dough from making apple pie and the other is from being very hungry and not having much around the house but a few vegetable odds and ends from previous dinners.

The pie dough from this recipe is from Vegan Yum Yum, created by Lauren Ulm. You can find step by step photos for it here.  I’ve simply doubled it to satisfy the amount of quiche filling. The filling is a inspired by Fat Free Vegan Kitchen‘s mini crustless tofu quiches.

This recipe is very simple to make (especially if you have the pie dough already made) and very delicious too! It makes for a tasty dinner side (or you could eat a few and have a full dinner) and it also serves as a quick savory breakfast!