Have your French toast and eat it, too.

I woke up this morning longing for a traditional breakfast of eggs and grits with a short stack of pancakes and real maple syrup. I lingered on this thought as I counted the days left on the cleanse.  I was a bit bored with toast or cereal, so I leafed through my cookbooks to see if their might be a solution to my breakfast woes. Can you believe it?  I found a recipe for Vegan French Toast. Who knew such a thing existed? It was too good to be true, so I had to put it to the test.

Three slices of vegan french toast later, proved the test to be successful.  I love the recipe.  It was just what I needed to help me forget my dearly missed omelets and biscuits. David, on the other hand, did not love the recipe. To him, the vegan version of this dish did not come close to the real thing. He felt like it was a tease - "You can't have your favorite cinnamon raisin french toast smothered in butter and maple syrup, so this will have to do." He did eat every bite on his plate in spite of his "dislike" for this particular recipe.

I know you are all wondering how to make vegan french toast, so here's the recipe taken from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook.

Vegan French Toast

3 Tbsp flaxseeds - These give the toast an "eggy" feeling and provide omega-3 fatty acids.
1/3 cup water
1 cup soy, rice or almond milk - I used soy milk.
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch ground nutmeg
8 slices whole grain bread - I used sprouted grain bread.

Grind flaxseeds to powder in coffee grinder or blender. Whisk or blend ground seeds, water, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Make sure they are well blended. Pour into shallow dish. Dip bread into flax mixture, coating both sides. Place bread on oiled, hot griddle or skillet. Cook each side of bread until golden brown. These are stickier than regular French toast so you may need to add more oil to the pan when you turn. Repeat with remaining slices.

Makes 4 servings

I topped our vegan french toast with fresh blueberries and strawberries and drizzled the slices with agave nectar.

Kitchen Tip:
I cleaned our coffee grinder with dry rice before grinding the flax seeds.  This was a great tip I found online.  Grinding rice in a coffee grinder removes coffee bean residue and odor, and it works like a charm.

Today's Menu:

Breakfast:  Vegan French Toast topped with fresh straweberries and blueberries and drizzled with agave nectar

Lunch:  Amy's Bowls Brown Rice and Vegetables (dairy and gluten free) and a mixed green salad with grape tomatoes, carrots, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins and Annie's Naturals Lite Italian Dressing

Snack: Lara Bar

Dinner: Smoky Seitan, Pinto Bean and Hominy Stew.  David made this stew for dinner. (Yes, ladies, he's good in the kitchen.) He substituted the seitan with tofu since seitan is a gluten product. This stew is spicy, but the heat is nicely balanced with the smoky flavor. Here's a link to the recipe:  http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&enrid=893C391C0E30767F0E48BD18B3C626203F0D35228CA89744DA08F6D63BE08B45&buddy_email=daveheelga%40yahoo.com