Hummus Croutons w/Lemon Vinaigrette (Whole-Wheat, Gluten-Free Option)

Croutons are so easy to make - if you have a crusty or even soft loaf of bread you can make an addicting salad topper. When it comes to "homemade" food, nothing is better than warm, well-seasoned crispy toasts. Combined with tomatoes, greens, Italian herbs and lovingly coated with a nice lemon vinaigrette, this makes an excellent snack.

(Hummus Croutons Ingredients)

• 4 Slices of Whole Wheat or GF Bread
• 5 tbl Olive Hummus
• Minced Garlic Cloves
• Garlic Powder, Italian Seasoning and Salt
• Olive Oil (optional)

(Lemon Vinaigrette Ingredients)

• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• Juice from 1/2 Lemon
• 1/2 tsp Dijon or Stone-Ground Mustard
• Minced Garlic and Basil
• A pinch of Salt and Pepper

(Directions)

• Cut your bread into thick pieces.
• Coat with the above ingredients and bake at 400 degrees until crispy.
• Meanwhile whisk your vinaigrette ingredients together, making sure that everything has time to meld and that the olive oil is the first thing in the bowl.
• Allow the flavors to meld for about an hour, then combine with your favorite salad greens, croutons and enjoy.

Whole-Wheat Croissants

Simple and so cute - these croissants are chewier, denser, crispier and a lot healthier than their original counterparts. Easy for kids to help make in the kitchen and quick enough for your afternoon tea, these are unforgettable croissants that you'll just have to have stashed in your feature for a noshing occasion.

(Whole-Wheat Croissants Ingredients)

• 2 & 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat
• 1/2 cup Light Rye Flour
• 1/2 tsp of Sea Salt
• 2 & 1/4 tsp Active-Rise Yeast
• 1/4 tsp Lemon Zest
• 1 cup of Warm Water
• 1 tbl of Raw Sugar
• 4 tbl Liquid Vegan Margarine + 1 tsp Olive Oil

(Croissants Directions)

• Combine your flours and lemon zest in a large bowl with the yeast.
• Put your sea salt and sugar together with 1/4 cup of your water then mix with the flour.
• Add the rest of the water and knead until everything just comes together and there's a bit of gluten-forming but the dough is still soft.
• Let that rest for about thirty minutes
• Combine your margarine and oil and place them in the freezer until solidified.
• Roll your dough out as thin as possible without it becoming like a pizza crust (about 1/4 an inch). Then, place your margarine in the middle and fold it like you would a present with gift-wrapping paper.
• Take your rolling pin and spread it in every direction once you feel like the margarine has started to soften.
• Once the creases have gone, fold it into the same position again and continue about five times or until you feel about 3/4 of the margarine has spread into the dough.
• Let it nrest in the fridge for about five minutes and then roll it out, cut into triangles and roll and twist until you have your desired croissant shape.
• Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake at about 350 for 15 minutes, then 400 for a few more minutes to give moisture and crust (keep at 350 if you don't want this).
• Let cool slightly, serve with tea and enjoy!

Kittybread/Neko-pan (猫ーパン）

First of all, I want to point out how clear this picture is - I'm really getting better with my photos, don't you think? Second of all - this is another bread themed animal in meme form! It came all the way from a storybook in Japan so why don't you invite it for breakfast, lunch and dinner? You can use any type of sticky condiment onto the bread for the facial features or you can use more bread before you bake it.

Kittybread Recipe:
1 and 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 and 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 and 1/4 cups Warm Water
2 tsp Rapid-Rise Yeast
1/2 tsp Sea Salt

Kittybread Ears Recipe:
1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Rapid-Rise Yeast
Enough Warm Water to make the dough

Mix all of the dry ingredients together (keeping the two recipes separate) and then slowly add the water. Once they are a dough, toss one onto a well-floured board and knead for about 10 minutes or until an elastic ball. Repeat with the other dough and let them rise for about one and a half hours. After they have risen, place the larger dough in a well-greased bread pan and then separate the smaller ball. Roll the two smaller balls into tube shapes and place over the large loaf. Pinch the tops and try to shape them into triangles as much as possible. Let that rest for one and half more hours and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for about 30 minutes or until your knife comes out clean from the insides. Let that rest for an hour and use whatever you like to put on the facial features - I used peanut butter and nori since it was what I could think of.


Enjoy!

Signed,

<3 Bou Shin <3

Quick! Breakfast!

As a (non-professional) food-blogger, I believe that you need to be proud of the taste and look of the dishes you make as well as the way you present it. It doesn't need to be hard to make but it doesn't need to be extremely easy either. It should open up new worlds and new flavors and textures for the palette to experience. In this case, my meal is simple but requires a bit of listening and care, as well as having an abundance in flavors.

Last Sunday I decided to make breakfast for my sister - it wasn't because it was her birthday or any other celebration, I'm just nice like that. I also decided to make it vegan, although she most definitely is not one - she could appreciate what I was doing for her along with the delicious and beautiful food. I made sure that she could enjoy some of the food (she's avoiding a few types of carbs) and I also made it so that I could enjoy the food as well.

The night before I made a loaf of delicious oatmeal bread that had bits of chia seeds running throughout it for an even healthier meal.

Oatmeal Bread Recipe:
1 cup of All-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons of Chia Seeds combined with 1/2 a cup of Cold Water (or another equivalent for one whole egg)
1 packet of Rapid-Rise Yeast (2 and 1/4 tablespoons)
1/2 a cup of Light Brown Sugar
1 quarter teaspoon of Iodized Salt
1/4 a cup of Milled Quick Oats (I used a food processor)
3/4 a cup of Whole Quick Oats.
1 cup of Boiling Water (enough to cover the oats)
1 cup of Lukewarm Water for the yeast

I put the yeast and the lukewarm in a large bowl and set it aside for ten minutes to let it boil. During that time I combined the oats together and covered them with the boiling water, once the water soaked in I added the all-purpose flour and added the mixture to the yeast. After that was mixed together for a few seconds, I added the rest of the ingredients, being sure to add the salt after everything else was added.

I oiled a small pan and poured the dough into the pan, I then placed it onto the side of the oven and covered it with a small kitchen towel. I then preheated the oven to 350 degrees and allowed the bread to rise for about 45 minutes, and once it had risen to about twice its size I placed it in the oven for about 30 minutes. The time will vary on your oven so be sure to check it with a knife in the middle once you think its done, if the knife comes out clean then the bread is ready, so put it to the side of the oven and let it cool before you slice into it.

If you only want the bread, you can sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon or spread some vegan margarine on top and enjoy. Otherwise, you can slice the bread and place it into some butter and cover it with some cooked apples. I decided to make a caramel sauce with about half a cup of brown sugar, a tablespoon of pure coconut oil and some almond milk once it was finally cooked through.

I set it aside and worked on making my souffled pancake. I set the temperature at 350 degrees and put together 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1/2 a tablespoon of baking powder, 1 quarter teaspoon of salt, 1 quarter cup of sugar, enough soy milk to cover the mixture and 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla. I whisked the mixture together and made another caramel sauce layered with walnuts, and while it was hot and bubbling, I poured the pancake mixture into the pan, put some cinnamon into the middle and swirled it around and finally shoved it into the oven. It took about 15-20 minutes, but you can check with the pancake as you did with the bread.

After I finished that I put some extra-firm tofu into my food processor and blended it until it looked like a thick mayonnaise, then I added a very light pinch of nutritional yeast, salt, and some turmeric. I set that aside and put together some minced garlic and mushrooms with a few bits of broccoli around into a pan with some olive oil on medium heat. I sprinkled a small amount of salt, pepper, and rosemary on them, and once the vegetables looked cooked and softened I put them into a small bowl and cooked the tofu the same way, making sure to chop it up once in a while. Once it looked fully cooked I added the vegetables back in and mixed them together so that everything would be fully incorporated and heated back up. After that, I felt like something was missing - the one thing in any vegan or non-vegan household that everyone needs.

That glorious necessity is (veggie) bacon, whether smoky and crispy or salty, crunchy and hand-made - it's wonderful. Now of course there will be no pig in this bacon - so I decided to thinly slice some tofu long ways and sprinkled it with a dash of paprika, soy sauce and sprinkled it with a small pinch of nutritional yeast on both sides. I put the pieces on the pan and baked them at the same temperature as the pancake souffle, turning them once they start to get a slight crisp around the edges on the bottom. If you like you can also precook the bacon in the pan and then continue with the process as I said before.

After that, pour a little bit of maple syrup over your delicious treats (aside from the tofu eggs) or enjoy them in your plain glory.

I hope you enjoy!

    Signed,

<3 Bou Shin <3

Buns, Buns, Be My Buns

             *New picture will be added soon*

When I tell you that this bread recipe is delicious - it is positively delicious! The recipe doesn't take too long, is easy to make your own, and produces the fluffiest and most flavor-filled bread you will ever eat. You can use rosemary, thyme, oregano or any other herb mixes you like. The key ingredient here is a little bit of garlic powder - which hits off the parade of flavors that hit your tongue. After the wonderful shock of garlic powder being a delicious component in my bread-making (I normally use fresh), I could taste the fresh bursts of rosemary and Italian oregano that I used. There's already extra virgin olive oil in the mix, but  I decided to coat each of my breadsticks with a mixture of salt, garlic powder and more olive oil.

(The bread recipe belongs to Enjolinfam on http//www.food.com/, and is titled "Healthy Italian Breadsticks or Pizza Crust)

After I pulled those babies out from the oven, the aroma hit me with wave upon wave of flavor. I knew it smelled positively delectable - but did it taste and feel just as delicious? Normally I would have waited for them to cool down but that smell was much too tantalizing to me. I picked up one of the smaller buns for a taste test, and after one big bite I knew I was in trouble. Soon I doused it with more of the olive oil-garlic mixture that I used for the coating and had eaten a little over half of the bread on the plate (there were quite a few more before the picture was taken). I made sure to save a bit of the dough and the already baked bread for a meal for the next day, but this time I decided to kick it up a notch. I had a can of chickpeas that hadn't been used in any Middle Eastern dishes yet and I always keep some form of seaweed in the house. I felt that it was time to introduce these two ingredients in the "Not-Tuna style".

I could never stand the taste or smell of mayonnaise before becoming a vegan, meaning that even the alternative "Vegenaise" was out of the question. I decided instead to just wash, drain and mash the chickpeas, strip up about a quarter of some nori, and add in some salt, rosemary, olive oil and finely diced red onions. I tasted it - and it was most definitely to my non-fishy liking. It wasn't too strong and it would go perfectly as a protein filling for this tasty bread. I wrapped up my "Not-Tuna Salad" and stashed it in the refrigerator overnight. I let the buns cool down some more and they followed the same route.

The next morning I heated my oven to about 250 degrees and put my buns on a baking sheet to warm them up. While the oven was being preheated I took out my "Not-Tuna Salad", mixed it up with some more olive oil to keep it from being dried out and tasted it once more. I found out that it tasted even better after it had been refrigerated for a few hours, and after the rolls had been toasted I slit them in the middle and stuffed it with the cool salad. I then proceeded to stuff my face with the delicious sandwich. Perhaps it would have been even better with some cucumber slices. Alas, I didn't have any and could not see for myself, but I was most definitely pleased with what I had then.

Enjoy!

             Signed, 

<3 Bou Shin <3