ipa

Hoppy IPA Day! I trekked via Trek CrossRip Elite (Darth Vader) to a bar that I have not been to since age 20, yesterday, to try a super local brewery’s brews.    The brewery is Radium City Brewing out of Ottawa, Illinois. The beer that I tried and the only beer the bar had left was Passing Time IPA an American IPA with citrusy hoppy goodness at 6.9%. It was very good. I gave it 4.25 bottle caps on Untappd. And because this is a very hoppy day and I’m off of work, I made breakⓋast this morning!    It was absolutely delicious, hence, me blogging all over your face. And I wanna share some pictures. I love taking pictures and my photographic eye has seemed to evolve to another level over the past year.    I made two different Scramble batches in the last week. The first being a Seitan Tofu Scramble and this one without Seitan, but including Eggplant, Cashews and Zucchini. Both Scrambles were basically made the same way and both delicious. That’s the nice thing about scrambles, stir-fry, soup or anything along those lines, throw in them whatever you want or have on hand.      Slightly before the first batch, I made Cauliflower Mashed. And then after taking a few days trying to learn how to spell “cauliflower”, practicing manually writing and typing “cauliflower’ and after many failures and shed tears of disappointment, I decided to give up and just eat the Cauliflower Mashed inside a baked potato. Just like my spelling, I need to master the Cauliflower Mashed and not rely on auto-correct. It would be cool if there was an auto-correct-chef. But, then like the occasional craziness of auto-correcting texts, I’d screw up baking a cake and it would wind up sauerkraut infused cake or something crazy. I’ve only made from-scratch carrot cake twice, but I hate baking. I can handle bread.    I also used already made Pita Bread and made BreakⓋast Pitas with the first batch. Homemade Pita Bread is still by far better than store bought even if it was made there at the store. It was whole wheat and still very good.

Seitan ingredients: -Vital Wheat Gluten -Vegetable Stock -Tomato Sauce/Paste -SeaSalt/Pepper/GarlicP/OnionP -Sunflower Seeds, shelled and slightly crushed -Rosemary, dried and slightly crushed -Fennel Seeds, wholly moly -Carrot and Onion, rough chopped -Bay Leaves and Thyme -Non-dairy Cheese Cloth 😉 Hail Seitan: -The first thing done was bring a pot of Broth, Carrot, Onion, Thyme, CRP, Thyme and Bay Leaves to a slow boil. Simmer. -I mixed the Fennel Seeds, Rosemary, Seeds, SeaSalt/Pepper/GarlicP/OnionP, Vegetable Stock and a little Sugar and Cayenne together in a big bowl. I put the very very very Vital Wheat Gluten in a separate, yet bigger, bowl. I then poured the liquid greatness with the gluten hand kneading slowly but efficiently until a loaf is formed. I wet the non-dairy cheese cloth with water and then spray the loaf with non-stick spray and roll it up.

-Bake for 2-2.25 hours flipping over halfway and adding remaining broth, if needed.

Cauliflower Mashed ingredients:

-Cauliflower, organic & chopped, roasted

-Corn, roasted -Onion, diced & roasted

-Carrot, finely diced & not a lot

-Potatoes, diced & roasted -Cashews, roasted -Tomato GUTS, leftover from Pico Ⓥ Queso -Seitan, diced -Cilantro, chopped -Scallions, finely sliced Garlic, minced roasted slightly -SeaSalt/Pepper/ChipotleP/Cayenne/GarlicP/OnionP -Almond Milk -“Cheese”, I used Go Veggie dairy-free Mexican style -Corn Starch

 Steps:  -I roasted Veggies and simmered Almond Milk. I added seasoning and then roasted Veggies. I then added “Cheese” and Corn Starch, as much as needed, for correct consistency. I enjoyed it chunky and not fully mashed, but I would go about it a little differently. I would keep it oil-free, though. -For the Cauliflower Mashed Stuffed Potato, I roasted a couple of Potatoes on parchment paper face down. I then cleaned out most Potato flesh and threw in with Cauliflower Mashed and put in the empty lifeless Potatoes and broiled with a little “Cheese” on top.

 Scramble ingredients: -Tofu, firm -Raw Cashews -Garlic, minced -Onion, chopped or sliced -Various Peppers, I used green, yellow, orange and red small sliced -Potatoes, diced and niced (made-up word;) -Eggplant, diced -Kale, frozen chopped or freshly chopped -Kalamata and Manzanilla Olives, finely diced and Juice/Brine -Sport Peppers, finely diced and Juice/Brine -Portabello Mushrooms, sliced -SeaSalt/Pepper/Fennel Seeds -Balsamic Vinegar -Avocado, sliced thick -Large Tortilla shells, soft -Daiya 🙂 -Canola Oil -Lemon, juiced

 The BreakⓋast Adventure: -I heated some Canola Oil in a pan and basically added everything as I prepared it. And grilled the Avocado slices on my cast iron skillet. The order of operations after heated oil go; Cashews, Potato, Garlic, Eggplant, Onion, SeaSalt/Pepper/Fennel Seeds, Balsamic Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Olive Juice and Sport Peppers Juice, Bell Peppers, Mushrooms, Kale, finely diced Olives and Sport Peppers, Tofu and Daiya. -I steamed the Tortilla shells and stuffed them with the scramble greatness. I put directly on pan with parchment paper, Tortilla folds down, and baked for 12-60 minutes.

Definitely closer to 12 than 60 minutes. I then threw them on the cast iron skillet and gave them a nice mark. I cut in half, put on plate with more scramble topped with grilled Avocado and took a picture before destroying the Vegan greatness.

 I was at work one night devising breakⓋast ideas and googled Vegan meat replacements. The internet is never 100% correct, but it was telling me that there was Vegan Morning Star “Bacon” and “Sausage Links” at the local Hy-Vee. I was super excited until I physically looked on the packages in the Health Department (my home) at Hy-Vee and noticed they were not Vegan. I was disappointed, but thought of these kickass ways to eat Vegan BreakⓋast and saved some money. I first was introduced to the Tofu Scramble from Vegan Zombie. Check ’em out!

Vegan Zombie

Happy Thursday and Hoppy IPA Day to all! Go for a bike ride, hike or walk, enjoy a good beer and take a few pictures!