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The Kitchen Recessionista

So, here we are, in a recession. Let's eat!

5 Christmas Breakfast Ideas to Make the Morning Fun (and Festive!).

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Longtime readers of these pages will know what a sucker I am for breakfast and/or brunch. Whether we’re in the early morning hours or noon on a Sunday or even on a harried weeknight when breakfast for dinner beckons, I’m always game for the most important meal of the day! And when Christmas Day rolls around, I’ve got to admit, I love a hearty meal to get the day started.

That’s a family tradition for me: As a child, I have very distinct memories of my grandmother bustling around the kitchen, making sure her sausage-egg casserole was baking up to par and reminding my grandfather to put another pot of coffee on to perk. Casserole, grits, all the fixings – she did it up right, and I’ve never forgotten this.

All of my grandparents have departed now, celebrating the holidays in the Great Beyond instead. But I can – and do – keep their memories alive through our family traditions!

Some of these recipes would be right at home on the family table of my childhood. Some of them might give my grandparents – solid meat-eaters, all – a bit of pause, or at least a look of bemusement. But I like to think I’d win them over at first bite. After all, I learned from the best!

1. Sausage-Egg Breakfast Casserole.
Now, this is a recipe my grandparents would recognize! I’ve taken my grandmother’s traditional recipe and veggie-cized it, swapping vegetarian sausage, Violife cheddar and Just Egg for the original versions. The final result is so much like what I remember growing up, it would have been perfectly at home on our family’s Christmas breakfast buffet all those years ago! Each year, LeeLee and I look so forward to this casserole – we typically only have it around Christmas or New Year’s Day – and each year, its savory flavors sing. And the best part on a busy Christmas morn? We can make it ahead of time! Win-win!

2. Tofu Rancheros.
Move over, huevos rancheros – your tofu cousins are here to stay! My famous tofu scramble recipe is the star of the show in this dish, which comes together in a snap and is super-easy to make. Double the scramble recipe and feed a crowd – you’re limited only by your tortilla supply!

3. Sausage and Egg Breakfast Sandwiches.
Admittedly, you’ll get the best use out of this recipe if Santa brought you one of those little Hamilton-Beach breakfast sandwich makers, which is a true workhorse in our tiny kitchen! Just Egg and the veggie-sausage (or bacon!) of your choice fuse wonderfully in this sandwich, which takes less than 10 minutes to make and is the perfect way to kick off a Christmas morn. 

4. Perfect Plant-Based Protein Shake.
Maybe your holiday festivities start later in the day, complete with a Christmas lunch or dinner. You’ll still want a little something to fortify yourself before the day gets moving! My plant-based protein shake is guaranteed to hit the spot. It’s a go-to in our house for regular days and holidays alike, and will ensure you’re satiated enough to NOT mow down the entire bowl of Aunt Suzanne’s Chex Mix when you first come into the house for a holiday luncheon. 

5. Moscato Mimosas. 
Oh, come now, you didn’t really think I’d offer all food and no festive cocktail, did you? This moscato mimosa came about by a happy experiment, and it’s become a celebratory staple. Pull out your champagne or wine glasses and get to toasting!

What are some of your favorite holiday recipes or traditions? Let’s hear about it in the comments!

:)

New Recipe: Perfect Plant-Based Protein Shake.

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It’s the time of year where everyone is trying to get right with the Lord, nutritionally speaking, and I must say I am no different. It’s definitely well past time to atone for the sins of December – oh, who am I kidding, January and February too! – and this protein shake is just the ticket. It’s become a go-to for me for both breakfast AND lunch – though not on the same day! – and I know you’ll love it too.

The beauty is in its simplicity: Just good, healthy fruits and vegetables coming together in glorious concert. The end result is a slightly sweet, incredibly filling, and extraordinarily revitalizing shake that will keep you revved-up all day long!

Let’s cut right to the chase – you’re not here for a long preamble. Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think!

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Perfect Plant-Based Protein Shake.

The beauty is in its simplicity: Just good, healthy fruits and vegetables coming together in glorious concert. The end result is a slightly sweet, incredibly filling, and extraordinarily revitalizing shake that will keep you revved-up all day long!

  • Author: KitchenRecessionista
Scale

Ingredients

1.5 cups almond/soy/oat milk

1 scoop of your favorite protein powder (I like Vega All-In-One)

1 cup (or two hearty handfuls) fresh spinach leaves

¼–½ cup (or one handful) blueberries

8–10 baby carrots

1 banana

Instructions

Layer your ingredients, from top to bottom, in a high-speed blender (the Vitamix is my go-to), then crank the speed up from low to high and let blend for 30-45 seconds. Serve in a tall glass and enjoy!

Vegan Sausage, Egg and Cheese Waffle Breakfast Sandwiches.

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In these past few months of pandemic, I’ve been spending a great deal of time with Blanche Devereaux, my sourdough starter. Blanche and I have worked together to make such bready concoctions as English muffins, hamburger buns, pretzel rolls, hot dog buns that became mini-baguettes (which I wouldn’t call a FAIL, exactly), and more. 

But recently, Blanche and I worked together to create some sourdough waffles that toe the line between sweet and savory. Sure, you can absolutely top them with butter and maple syrup and go to town, but they’re also very much at home splitting time with veggie-sausage and other savory selections.

As we finished up our waffles one morning, LeeLee mused, “These would be great as the bread for a breakfast sandwich.”

And reader, he was correct. (Score one point for LeeLee.)

So when the next Sunday rolled around, I rolled up my sleeves and got straight to work. The hearty waffles made excellent “bread” for the sandwich, and cheddar cheese slices, sausage patties and Just Egg came together perfectly for the filling. As I scrambled the eggs, I also threw on a pot of grits, and our brunch came together in no time and delighted us both so much.

You’ll be eating this sandwich with a fork and knife, as it has just too much personality to sit there quietly when you try to pick it up. So with that in mind, if you really wanted to gild the lily, why not top the whole thing with a dollop of syrup? The lines of sweet and savory are meant to be blurred, people. And this sandwich is just the one to do it.

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Vegan Sausage, Egg and Cheese Waffle Sandwiches

Hearty waffles make excellent “bread” for the sandwich, and cheddar cheese slices, sausage patties and Just Egg come together perfectly for the filling!

  • Author: KitchenRecessionista
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 2 sandwiches 1x
  • Category: Brunch
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: Breakfast and brunch
  • Diet: Vegan
Scale

Ingredients

4 waffles of your choice (homemade or store-bought), the more savory the better

3–4 tbsps. butter

1 bottle Just Egg

2 slices of your favorite cheddar cheese

2 breakfast veggie-sausage patties

Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Toast the waffles to crispy perfection and place, open-faced, on plates for serving. Top each waffle with a pat of butter. Place a slice of cheese on one of each pair of waffles.

Next, heat your sausage patties per package instructions and place them atop the cheese, atop the waffles. You’re building a very nice sandwich here!

In an omelet or other nonstick pan, put a tablespoon of butter and let it melt at medium heat, swirling the butter around to coat. Once it’s melted, pour in the Just Egg and let it firm up for a few minutes before beginning to scramble it, stirring frequently (and even more frequently as it gets closer to finishing).

After you’re happy with the consistency of your scramble, divide the pan in half as best you can and spoon half of the scramble atop the sausage patty on each sandwich-to-be.

Then – and this is the best part – put the top waffle on each sandwich, grab a fork and knife (because this is TOO MUCH for hands alone!), and dig in! Serve with your favorite brunch side items.

:)

Keywords: vegan, vegetarian, brunch, breakfast

Vegetarian Travel Guide: Silver Diner, Fairfax, Va.

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Silver Diner, 12251 Fair Lakes Parkway, Fairfax, Va.
Hours: 6:30 a.m.-midnight Sunday-Thursday; 6:30 a.m.-2 a.m. Friday-Saturday.
Menu: https://www.silverdiner.com/menu/
Suitable for: Diner fans! Plus, vegetarians, vegans and omnivores.

Like a beacon in the night, the chrome plating of the Silver Diner beckons weary travelers, no matter the time of day (within reason). From breakfast to lunch to dinner service, Silver Diner stands at the ready to welcome locals and visitors alike at any of its locations.

Now, historically, diners haven’t been 100% great for plant-based patrons. The bacon and sausage are generally plentiful, the meatless dishes lacking, and – in the case of vegans – the dairy- and egg-free entrees are virtually nonexistent. But Silver Diner takes another tack. Sure, it has a passel of non-veg options, but – BUT! – it has a slew of new plant-based choices as well. Just Egg benedicts with tempeh bacon, anybody? Or maybe a tofu banh mi for lunch or dinner?

That’s what I’m talking about.

My friend Denise and I swung by the Silver Diner in Fairfax a few weeks ago after a morning triathlon, all dressed and showered and starving. What seemed like a crazy-long line zipped by in a flash – truly, within 15 minutes or less – and before long we were seated at a table for two, sipping coffee and surveying the options.

Now, Denise is an omnivore, but on this day she found great affection for a dish of avocado toast with all the fixins. I didn’t take a picture because, well, we were drinking coffee and blabbing, but she assures me it was a delightful dish indeed.

Meanwhile, I ordered the aforementioned Just Egg benedict. It’s no secret on these pages how much I love Just Egg, but honestly I haven’t had the pleasure of trying it at restaurants much since its debut! So I was incredibly excited to see how Silver Diner handled the proceedings. I didn’t doubt them, and rightly so; their preparation was amazing. The Just Egg was perfectly cooked, and what brought it completely over the top was the vegan hollandaise sauce that graced the top of the egg-and-muffin dish. Sprinkled atop THAT was the aforementioned tempeh bacon crumbles, and fruit was served alongside. Honestly, it was all I could do not to lick the empty plate when I was finished, but I was 1) with a friend, and 2) in public. So I refrained, though I did look longingly at the leftover molecules of deliciousness.

Also, pro tip: You can substitute Just Egg for regular eggs on any menu item. Sure, it has a bit of an upcharge, but the plethora of options the swap opens up for vegans makes it a no-brainer!

For a brunch lover such as myself, having so many veg-forward options on Silver Diner’s menu makes it an easy choice for weekend breakfast! We’ll certainly be looking up other Silver Diners in our region – and across the land! You should, too.

:)

New Recipe: Vegan Sausage-Egg Breakfast Casserole.

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One of my fondest memories from childhood was when my entire family – grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, cousins – would get together for the holidays, circle around my grandparents’ big dining room table, and feast. Sure, we had all the usual suspects for Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter dinner, but my favorite meal was actually the one that came before it, when my grandmother would make us all a big breakfast to launch off a day of … well, of feasting.

At the center of that breakfast spread was my very favorite dish of all – her sausage-egg breakfast casserole. Oh, how I loved it! All the comforts of home packed into one heaping casserole.

Now, I’ve reconfigured this sausage-egg casserole recipe into a plant-based version that contains no eggs and no dairy. And after several trial runs, it is now officially ready for prime time! Baguette slices soak up the Just Egg and milk mixture, and the sausage crumbles hold their own in the middle. And now with so many great cheddar shred options available, you can’t go wrong with nondairy cheese as a topping!

The recipe is below!

VEGAN SAUSAGE-EGG BREAKFAST CASSEROLE
Serves 4-6

What you’ll need:

½ baguette loaf, sliced
6-8 plant-based breakfast sausage patties (Gardein works well for this), chopped
1 bottle Just Egg (or your favorite egg replacer)
1 ½ cups unsweetened soy milk
2 cups vegan cheddar shreds (I use Violife)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 325.

In a large bowl or measuring cup, combine the Just Egg, soy milk, salt and pepper and set aside.

First, roughly tear each baguette slice into two pieces and scatter them at the bottom of a 9×11-inch baking pan.

Atop the bread, scatter the chopped sausage patties, making sure they’re distributed evenly. Next, pour the egg-milk mix atop the bread and sausage, again ensuring an even pour across the dish.

Top the casserole with cheddar cheese shreds.

Pop the casserole into the oven at 325 for about 45 minutes. After the time is up, check to make sure the casserole has set properly; if it’s not completely firm, put it back in and bump the temperature up to 350 for another 10-15 minutes. 

Slice into squares, serve with all the fixins (Grits? Hash browns? The world is yours!) and enjoy!

:)

New Recipe: Vegan Sausage and Egg Breakfast Sandwiches.

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I do love a breakfast sandwich. I mean, I LOVE a breakfast sandwich.

I love them so much, in fact, that I’ve had one of those cute little Hamilton Beach sandwich makers – you know, the kind that have the two little rings just perfectfor placing English muffins atop the griddle, then topping them with an assortment of proteins and cheese, and then cooking an egg on top of THAT, and then putting the rest of the muffin on top? – for years now, and it has proven to be quite the workhorse. No matter what task I’ve put to it over the years, it’s responded with flying colors.

I especially love a breakfast sandwich in the dead of winter. I’m not really sure why. When there’s snow on the ground and you’re working from home and the heater is blasting and you’ve got your big fuzzy boot socks on, well … there’s just nothing better than a breakfast sandwich that cooks up in less than 10 minutes, pairing ever so nicely with your piping-hot cup of coffee.

But.

As I write this, we are not in the dead of winter. In fact, we are in the heat of summer, with the air conditioning running constantly, the humidity of a mid-Atlantic August bearing down on my neck. But good news! Breakfast sandwiches work just as well in this climate.

Anyway. I digress.

When the people from Just came out with Just Egg awhile back, my interest was piqued right away and I immediately started using it for scrambles, omelets, and all sorts of other breakfasty stunts. But for some reason – I know not why! – the thought of using it in my sandwich maker eluded me for months! Months, I say.

Well, friends, that long dry spell has ended. Last weekend, I fired up the ol’ Hamilton Beach for some good old-fashioned sausage-and-egg excitement, and my life has been forever improved.

Friends, meet the Just Egg breakfast sandwich.

You can check out the step-by-step recipe below, but the long and the short of it is this: Take an English muffin (I happened to have some homemade ones hanging out in the freezer, but store-bought is perfectly fine). Open it up. Place an already-cooked round of veggie breakfast sausage atop it, followed by the cheese of your choosing (we went with Follow Your Heart provolone). Atop the little egg-cooking griddle thingy at the top of the ring, pour out one-third to one-half cup of Just Egg. Then – and this is important – do not put the other half of the English muffin on yet, for it will sink into the Just Egg. Rather, close the lid, turn the timer to 9.5 minutes, and wait. When you’ve got about two and a half minutes left, put the top half of the muffin on, close the lid back, and eagerly await your breakfast.

VOILA! DONE. And ready to eat. Haul that sandwich out of the maker and get ready to chow down. We served ours with some grits, but any side (or no side) will do. It’s the perfect breakfast for on the go.

Questions, comments, resignations? Let’s hear ’em. The recipe is below.

VEGAN SAUSAGE AND EGG BREAKFAST SANDWICHES
Serves 2

What you’ll need:

2 English muffins
2 vegan sausage patties
2 slices vegan provolone (or the cheese of your choice)
1 bottle (or at least one cup) Just Egg

Cook the sausage patties per package directions. (The microwave is just fine!)

In your trusty breakfast sandwich maker, first place the bottom of the muffins, then top each with a sausage patty, then the provolone. Close the first ring of the maker and add one-third to one-half cup of Just Egg to the second level of the ring (you want to fill the ring halfway to the top). Don’t add the top half of the English muffins yet; that’ll come in a few minutes.

Close the sandwich maker and select 9.5 minutes. Keep an eye on it; you’ll want to take action at 2.5 minutes.

With 3.5 minutes left to go, open the maker and add the top halves of the English muffins. Close it back again, sip your coffee and/or mimosa, and wait.

Once the timer goes off, carefully slide out the middle partition of the sandwich maker to let the Just Egg slip down to the rest of the sandwich. Lift the rings, carefully slide the now-intact sandwiches onto their respective plates, and devour.

:)

Breakfast for Dinner.

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breakfast-for-dinner-4

To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t planned on making breakfast for dinner tonight. No, rather, I have several perfectly good meals on the menu plan for the week that I purchased ingredients for and all! But on my way home, as the windshield wipers beat back and forth like little metronomes and I could feel the damp chill through the closed car window, I knew that neither of my preplanned meals would scratch the itch, so to speak. No, what tonight required was breakfast for dinner. Plain and simple.

LeeLee smiled when I told him of the last-minute menu change – I think he’d been expecting it. So with the formalities out of the way, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work in the kitchen.

I haven’t mentioned much on the blog about my new sourdough starter – it’s been all the rage on Instagram, though! – so perhaps you weren’t expecting me to use it in tonight’s biscuits. In fact, I did not, opting instead to go the Bisquik route instead in the interest of time. But a friend of mine made the sourdough biscuits just last weekend to rave reviews, and I know my time is coming!

While the biscuits baked, I scrambled four eggs, procured by the dozen at the Del Ray Farmer’s Market in Alexandria on Saturday (the same day I learned that our friend Jen had baked the sourdough biscuits – and shortly after both couples had enjoyed breakfast together at Stomping Ground, eating … biscuits! Of all things!). And shortly before the biscuits were ready, I unveiled four veggie sausage links ready for eating.

LeeLee had to work through dinner tonight, but I delivered the meal up to his home office, complete with Cajun seasoning and hot sauce. I like to think it kept him from certain death while hammering out the last of his daily assignments! As for me, I’ll never turn away from a biscuit, especially when it’s surrounded by scrambled eggs and sausage. Breakfast for dinner is always a hit!

:)

Brunch for Dinner.

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brunch-for-dinner

We’re a big weekend-brunch family around here. It’s a rare Saturday or Sunday where LeeLee and I don’t sit down for a hearty meal roundabout 11 a.m., or maybe 12:30, and enjoy all our favorite brunch foods – tofu scramble, or scrambled eggs, or grits, or waffles, or biscuits.

Tonight, he was a bit late getting home, and I had hurried home from work early to greet our friend Mathias, who had come to help me – and by “help me” I mean “do the work” – install a new front porch light, for ours had given up the ghost quite awhile ago. And with Halloween coming this weekend, I knew we had to have it back in working order ASAP!

So by the time Mathias had departed (bless him for his good, patient work!) and before LeeLee had arrived home, I had sort of lost the verve for a big dinner. I scanned the kitchen and immediately landed on the answer: Brunch for dinner!

And so it happened that I put some grits in a saucepan on the stove, followed closely by four eggs in my omelet pan, which I promptly scrambled. I heated several sausage links in the microwave for some extra protein, and by the time LeeLee had gotten home and settled, it was time to eat!

We’ve been eating on our TV trays a little more often than I’d generally care for, and we did so again tonight, but I’m willing to give us a pass. The days have been so hectic, and the nights often the same way, that I feel like a little TV-tray time isn’t the worst thing that can happen to us by a long shot. It’ll do for now!

:)