Freshly Vegetarian: Ashley See on Transitioning to A Vegetarian Diet, Including Tips, Health Benefits & Recipes

Remember when I said I would be blogging some recipes from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day soon? Soon is now. You see, yesterday was Thursday and my biweekly healthy baking adventure continues as I make morning treats for my dad's colleagues.

Oatcakes are seemingly everywhere. If you haven't heard of them, no pasa nada, I hadn't either until recently. However, once they hopped on my radar they were there to stay. I can't seem to shake 'em! Every bakery I peer in has them showcased; every farmers market has them featured...heck, even my local co-op is selling them as an afternoon pick-me-up! Despite this influx, it wasn't until I heard a gal pal proclaim her love for oatcakes that I figured it was time to find out what the big deal was.

Now I know.

I cannot decide if these make for a better breakfast, snack or dessert. They're light enough to be eaten after breakfast without messing up lunch, yet strong enough in sweetness to pass a dessert They're also portable enough to survive as a purse riding snack, hello healthy airplane food! Whenever you choose to eat them is up to you (if you're me then that's within 45 seconds of pulling them out of the oven), just make sure you have a hot cuppa something to wash them down with.

Smitten with the comforting taste these oatcakes pack, there was something about these that tasted familiar. It's warm...it's maple syrup-y...it's French toast! So I think it's fair to say: if you love French toast, you'll love these oatcakes. Pretty impressive for a recipe that doesn't call for a flake of cinnamon, eh?

Also impressive? These oatcakes have 5g of fiber and 5g protein in each cake.

 

For those with special dietary concerns, I think these oatcakes are pretty flexible. I already substituted the eggs , so if you want to completely veganize them then you could easily leave the butter out and use all coconut oil. I don't know a lot about gluten-free diets, so if you're gf and use this recipe then let me know what tweaks you made. Lastly, if concerned about sweetness, see my notes after the jump.

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This week, I had the pleasure of making one of Marion Cunningham's recipes from The Breakfast Book, and whoa mama!

If you want to make a snack for tea time, or gift a somewhat unusual, larger than life loaf of bread, then I think this is one to consider. It's a tad sweet, but that's to be expected with anything including raisins.

Biweekly, my pops has a meeting with all of his colleagues, and when I discovered he was supplying them with Safeway doughnuts, I happily volunteered myself to bake alternative goods instead. Who doesn't love an opportunity to hone their baking skills, especially without the promise of having to eat the resulting bounty? My pops naturally agreed. All meeting attendees are men, most are somewhat health conscious and avoid heavily sweet things. My kinda crowd to bake for.

Aside from being fairly healthy, the only other stipulation to what I make is that it must go well with coffee. Cannon Beach city hall, the workplace of topic, neighbors a lovely little organic coffee roaster, Sleepy Monk (their site seems to be down currently, here's their Facebook), that makes some of the best coffee -- also the strongest -- that I've ever had. (And bear in mind I don't say that in politeness; I've lived in Seattle, and with coffee connoisseurs, so I'm familiar with what good coffee tastes like.) So needless to say, the staff is hooked on good coffee and any accompanying treats must go with their cuppa Joe.

After a few months of practice, I think I'm beginning to really get the hang of what they like. This recipe makes either two regular-sized loafs, or one freakishly large round loaf. Since I only have one bread pan, I opted for the one round loaf, and it rose to be jumbo. Now when I say jumbo, I mean JUMBO! Shocked by the enormity of the resulting loaf, I couldn't help but measure it: 11" in diameter!

Pardon the terrible photo, but here's the loaf to scale with a medium-sized apple:

I halved that big boy, and sent a half to work with each of my parents (naturally after sampling a piece myself), and both workplaces gobbled up every last bit before 9 a.m. My mom didn't even get a slice!

Without further adieu, the recipe:

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Sometimes you need a reminder that tropical places do exist, and are likely warmer than where you are. Often times, crawling out of bed when I can see frost on the windshields from my bedside is a challenge; however, having a tropical warm breakfast is incentive to get up and welcome the day. So ladies and gentlemen, I give you a pineapple-y treat.

If I would have never made pineapple and basil sundaes, I would have never known that basil and pineapple go together so well. So it might sound a bit weird to add basil to this, but I promise it's a good idea.

In the original recipe, from The 10 Cent Diet, which I recently discovered, Lori says this can be a breakfast, dessert or snack. With the level of sweetness, and how filling it is, I would say this isn't an ideal snack food -- unless you really dig substantial, meal-like snacks. 

And as for dessert, I prefer having sweet things earlier in the day so I'm more likely to burn it off throughout the day (Ross, an Austin-based personal trainer agrees, as does eat, drink and be vegan & apparently Fit for Life) instead of having it sit on top of dinner and digest while I'm sleeping.

 

 

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Rice?...For breakfast? Count me in.

I'm not sure why I found eating rice for breakfast so taboo, but I did. And let me tell ya, I've been missing out.

Lately I've been experimenting with new recipes quite a bit (will be blogging many of them over the next few weeks), but mainly lunch and dinner recipes. When it comes to breakfast I'm quite predictable: it's bran muffins, peanut butter on homemade bread or porridge/oatmeal.

Yet, in conjunction with seeing rice-based breakfast recipes everywhere (Easy Peasy Organic's Lemony Breakfast Rice; An Open Cookbook's Black Sticky Rice Breakfast Surprise; Healthy. Happy. Life.'s Almond Arborio Breakfast Porridge with Poached Figs & Salted Peanut Orange-Vanilla RIce Pudding, and Whole Living's Hot Rice Breakfast Drink) and having some leftover Basmati rice, I decided to change things up. So, I flipped open The Ayurvedic Cookbook by Amadea Morningstar and found her breakfast rice recipe. On ayurvedic cooking, this is a whole new world (don't tell me those little words don't connote Aladdin's carpet ride for you too) for me and I'm just starting to learn and explore, so I cannot really comment much on that front; however, after making a few ayurvedic recipes and reading a bit, I have found the food, thus far, to be really complimentary to my digestion, as well as simple, straightforward and satisfying.

Anyway, back to rice for breakfast. If you're looking for an alternative that is lighter than oatmeal (especially if you use soy milk) then this is a good recipe to try out.

Recipe is after the jump.

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It's no secret that I love breakfast. Yet, over the last month I've ate light in the morning after reading two books: Skinny Bitch and An Autobiography: My Experiments with Truth (Gandhi).

Both books highlight the importance of eating in moderation, especially breakfast. Gandhi went through various phases of a fruitarian diet--only eating raw fruit and sometimes nuts to exercise self-restraint. Meanwhile, Skinny Bitch points out that breakfast shouldn't be eaten like clockwork because you're used to it, but eating enough because you're hungry. They advise sipping on caffeine-free herbal tea when you first wake, and when the stomach starts growling -- and you're truly hungry -- to only eat organic fruit. You wait for the hunger pangs so you don't interrupt your body's cleaning session, aka still breaking down the dinner/dessert from the night before; otherwise, your body will store the excess food as fat.

I will admit that it does make my walk to work a bit lighter in step, but sometimes you need a hearty breakfast under your belt. Which is why I made Hungry Yogini's sweet quinoa breakfast a few days back and mmm! While I still prefer my fruity sesame porridge, this was a nice gluten-free substitute.

Recipe after the jump.

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Goldilocks had it right, a bowl of porridge is hard to come by - not too hot, not too cold and not too much.

Within the last week, I've been working my weekend pleasure (porridge with dried fruit) into my weekly routine and it's proving worthwhile. Lately I can't handle the acidity in coffee to start my day, so a solid breakfast and a cup of tea are necessary to an energetic morning.

After tweaking a Nicola Graimes's already easy-peasy recipe in Vegetarian: Over 300 Healthy and Wholesome Recipes Chosen From Around the World, I finally found porridge that is worthy even of Goldilocks.

 

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Anyone who loves breakfast knows what a shame it is to rush through their favorite meal. Remove eggs, flaky sweets and some freshly squeezed o.j. from any breakfast fiend's diet and they're destined to wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

This is why I have resorted to pre-cooking and baking my needs for the week on Sundays. Despite my preference, an apathetic gym schedule doesn't justify cinnamon rolls each morning; however, I have found that a daily bran muffin accompanies my morning coffee nicely. It's also handy for a bite en route.

Summed up into minis or jumbos, these muffins are a weekday must.

Some prefer their bran muffins to be filled with raisins, carrots or other morning glory goods, but I like my morning usual stripped down and delicious, hence why I recommend Erin Cooks, Basic Bran Muffin recipe:

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