why doesn’t healthy taste quite as good sweet and carby?

Mmmm… breakfast. Have I mentioned how much I love breakfast yet? 😉

Thanks to the waffle cart in North Portland, Flavour Spot, I fell in love with maple butter and veggie sausage waffle sandwiches a few years ago. But I’m too lazy to make waffles, so we sling pancakes on the griddle and call it good.

Behold the pancake sammich:

The basic pancake recipe from VWAV with a healthy smear of maple butter and some Yves sausages stuffed in the middle. The back pancake is topped with more of the Mangolicious fruit from Trader Joe’s (I love this stuff!), as I don’t like maple syrup on my pancakes. Nomnomnom…

Last Sunday was the last hurrah for ridiculously good Carby Carbersons, as we are full on our lowish carb (meaning only whole grains and small amounts of fruit) diet now. I made a huge batch of food for lunches for the week Sunday night:

Millet sauteed with some mixed veggie bruschetta from Trader Joe’s, sauteed zucchini and snow peas and some Morningstar chik’n strips. Man, those things are SO fake, but SO delicious. Last week I made some quinoa and didn’t rise it well enough and couldn’t bring myself to make quinoa again, so millet it was! This is only the second time I’ve made millet and I opted to use our rice cooker. It turned out great. P.S. don’t tell people at your work that you are eating millet unless you want to endure lots of jokes involving bird seed.

A post-workout meal. Lettuce unwraps with more Morningstar strips (what can I say, they were on sale), drizzled with fig vinegar with sauteed zucchini and some sliced beets. Light but satisfying with a giant glass of water after having Jillian Michaels beat us to a pulp.

The Saturday before the workout started we went to birthday party for a friend of mine and I made two pies. One was the Peanut Butter Silk Pie (see the recipes section on this site) and the other a new adaptation of that same recipe: Grasshopper Cream. It turned out wonderfully, creamy with a perfect balance of chocolate and peppermint. If you like chocolate and peppermint, you will love this pie, I promise.

1 chocolate cookie pie crust (most prepared ones are vegan)

1 cup chocolate chips
1 & 1/2 boxes extra firm silken tofu (one aseptic, vacuum-sealed box)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp corn starch
1/4 cup vegan milk
1/2 teas. peppermint extract + 1 teeny splash
green food coloring (optional)

Over a double boiler melt chocolate until smooth and creamy, whisking until smooth. Pour approximately 1/4 cup of chocolate into the bottom of the pie crust and let set in fridge until chocolate has hardened. Let rest of chocolate mixture cool to room temperature.

In a food processor combine all other ingredients, starting with the tofu, except for the additional splash of peppermint and the food coloring. Blend for about 2 minutes or until smooth. Pour out about 1/4 cup of the mixture into a bowl. Add cooled, melted chocolate to the mixture and blend again until well mixed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. This would be the time to taste test to see if you want it more pepperminty.

Add the additional splash of peppermint to the reserved 1/4 cup of filling along with the green food coloring if using. Remove pie crust from fridge and pour chocolate filling mixture into the crust. Spoon the reserved green filling on top, pouring it as stripes, and draw a knife though the stripes to make pretty, swirling patterns.

Set in fridge for at least 4 hours before serving. Pie will have a thick and creamy, pudding-like filling but should hold up well and make stable pieces.

P.S. No one will ever know it’s tofu, I promise.