Early mornings and seaweed

Quinoa with cashew *cheese* over a bed of shredded cabbage.

I am finding the cashew *cheese* fairly addicting. You can find the recipe here. I changed the recipe quite a bit - I am still tweaking it to my liking but I will post my version when I get it just right.

Self control won out this morning and the cashew *cheese* was off the breakfast menu.

Miso soup, quinoa and seasoned nori.

I was reading about potential dietary deficiencies that can occur when eating a plant based diet. It seems low levels of iodine can be a problem.

But I doubt this will be an issue for me since I almost always eat some form of seaweed everyday. 

For some reason I woke up very early this morning. It was so early that the dogs didn't even bother to wake up.

What do you do when you wake up hours earlier than everyone else? You make miso soup, of course! (you can find my basic process here)

Assembling the soup was easy - 

Cubes of tofu and some wakame went into the bottom of a bowl.

 Then I poured the miso soup on top.

It was a bit of a seaweed bonanza this morning. I used Kombo seaweed to make the dashi broth, wakame seaweed was in the finished soup and the small bowl of quinoa was a wonderul excuse to enjoy tons of seasoned nori.

Yes, I do believe my iodine levels are just fine.

I am looking forward to watching the Oscars later this afternoon.

Happy Sunday all!

A surprise and the secret ingredient

I am sure I noticed, when I was feeding the dogs dinner last night, that the kibble container was empty. 

I suppose if I only fed kibble - the empty dog food container would hold more significance. Last night, I am sure (at least this is what I tell myself), I just shrugged and thought, "I will need to cook the dogs breakfast."

But in my pre-caffeinated state this morning, it was a surprise :-)

This was my breakfast:

This was the dogs breakfast:

This is not a snack portion - but a meal size portion. Abby's meal on the right is slightly smaller.

I will admit to being clumsy and losing the yolk out of Abby's soft boiled egg while I was peeling it. Hence the extra little bit of smoked salmon on her plate.

If you haven't guessed yet - the secret ingredient is Tobiko!

I have been trying to get more caviar into my diet. The nutritional power punch it provides (Omega-3's, calcium, phosphorus, protein, iron, magnesium, Vitamins B12, B6, B2, C, A and D and amino acids).

But it is high in sodium and cholesterol - so it is best served not as the main meal, but as a garnish.

Brown rice with fish sauce and wakame with a soft boiled egg and tobiko.

Soft boiled egg with tobiko and a crispy potato slice on greek yogurt topped with tobiko and scallion.

A refreshing glass of lemonade in my new, very pretty glass.

Time to get some work done!