Savory mashed potato pancake

My non-stop craving for veggies seems to have abated a bit.

Thank goodness.


This morning I wanted pancakes.

Mashed potato pancake.

I will let you in on a secret. I have, in the past, been fairly obsessed with the mashed potatoes they make at Draeger's.

Their mashed potatoes (which can be picked up at the deli counter) are creamy and rich with a nice onion bite from a generous addition of green onions.

While I love those potatoes they do contain cream AND cream cheese (which is why they are so wonderful) but now a days they are, unfortunately, a little too rich for me. 

So I decided to make a mashed potato pancake using the ingredients (the ones I could remember) that make the Draeger's mashed potatoes so wonderful.

Mashed potato pancake with a side of sauteed broccoli rabe.

I threw some things together and ended up with a crispy pancake that was deliciously rich and creamy in the center. Wow! It was amazing!.

The recipe made a huge pancake and I only used one medium/small red potato.

Shallot, red potato, Tofutti cream cheese, Tofutti sour cream, broccoli rabe, green onion and eggs.

The pancake looked a bit lonely sitting on the plate so I topped it with a poached egg and added some broccoli rabe sauteed in some olive oil.

Then the egg looked a little too naked.

Black pepper and fresh chopped parsley.

And you can guess what happened next...

I enjoyed all this with a small espresso with soymilk.

The potato pancake is a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. 

I also think this would also make a great dish to bring your significant other when you bring them breakfast in bed:-)

 Savory mashed potato pancake

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 medium red potato, chopped
1 shallot, minced
1/4 of a green onion, chopped
1/2 tsp of fresh chopped parsley
1 egg white
1tsp of All Purpose Flour
1 tsp of Tofutti sour cream
1/2 tsp of Tofutti cream cheese
a pinch of salt
ground black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp of olive oil

Instructions:

Chop up the potato and place it in a steamer over med-high heat for 10 - 12 minutes. Obviously you can skip this step if you have some leftover mashed potatoes. I would suggest using about 1 cup of mashed potatoes.

When the potatoes are tender mash them with a fork and stir in the shallot, onion, parsley, egg white, flour, Tofutti sour cream, Tofutti cream cheese, salt and pepper. It will be a slightly sticky mixture.

Put a skillet on the stove on medium heat and add in the olive oil. Take the mixture and flatten it between the palms of your hand. You want a thick pancake at this point. Place the patty into the pan and use the back of a fork to gently press the mixture till it is approximately 1/4" thick.

Flip the pancake when you see the edges begin to brown. Flipping the pancake can be tricky if you went with one big pancake so make sure to have your largest spatula handy. Cook the pancake until the other side is brown.

Plate your delicious golden brown pancake and top with anything you like. 

Suggested toppings: a poached egg, a dollop of sour cream or if you are feeling very decadent a dollop of sour cream with a spoonful of caviar.

Note: You can easily substitute regular sour cream and cream cheese in this recipe.

The apples and eggs connection

What do apples have to do with eggs?

Ta da!

An egg coddler with pretty pictures of green apples.

My sister is moving soon and she is clearing out her kitchen. When I was over visiting the other day she offered me a couple of egg coddlers. 

Since coddled eggs was on my re-make list, I said, "Yes!"

I like my coddled eggs extra cheesy and extra herby (I am officially making that a word, if it isn't already).

First, I put in some mozzarella and a pinch of chopped fresh basil and chopped fresh parsley.

Then one egg went into the coddler.

This is when I realized that my old egg coddler must have been a small size because one egg would fill it up all the way. So, the coddlers my sister gave me were definitely medium sized - that or somehow I managed to buy the teeniest, tiniest eggs on the planet...

So, in went egg number 2.

A little more mozzarella and herb mixture on top.

This is the point where most cooks add in cream but I just whisked together 1tsp of unsweetened soy milk, 1tsp. of Tofutti cream cheese and 1/2 tsp. of Tofutti sour cream. I added in a pinch of the herb mixture and a dash of salt.

With this much 'cream' added the eggs, the eggs will have more of a loose custard-like texture. If you like your eggs more set add less of the soymilk mixture.

I screwed the lid on the coddler and set it in a pan of boiling water (covered) for 6 1/2 minutes. Leave it in for 7-8 minutes if you like your eggs more set.

This dish was outstanding!!

The white stuff running over the yolk - that is not egg white - that is melted mozzarella - Yum!

 I also grabbed one of the tortillas from the leftover taco and crisped it up in a skillet and then dusted it with Parmesan.

You can either scoop out the eggs with a spoon

Or use the tortilla strips for dunking and scooping

Five minutes later it looked like this:

All gone!

I always like to enjoy some kind of fruit with my breakfast so this morning I ate this succulent beauty.

A juicy red pear.

 Happy Saturday everyone!

Vegan scalloped potatoes

Vegan scalloped potatoes.

Wow, what a morning it has been. I was up all night with Abby trying to figure out some way to make her feel more comfortable.

We had an appt. to see our regular vet early this morning. And she took one look at Abby (we have been going to her for over 15 years so she knows us well) and said a big upping of pain medicine was needed immediately. Oh.thank.goodness!

The vet seems to think it may be back pain instead of tooth pain. All I know is that Abby, for the first time in days, is relaxed and sleeping like a log. 

But back to the really interesting stuff - the potatoes.

I started off with a mix of yukon gold, red and russet potatoes.

Slice them nice and thin.

Grease a pan with some Earth Balance spread.

The ingredients for the layering: Shallots, garlic and nutritional yeast.

And the layering begins:

A sprinkle of shallots, garlic and black pepper.

A sprinkle of nutritional yeast.

Ok, right here is where I would have changed things. I went way too overboard on the nutritional yeast. I would use a light sprinkling not the avalanche of yeast that I used. Don't worry I corrected for it in the recipe included below.

Then I made what is essentially a white sauce with soymilk, Earth Balance spread, Tofutti cream cheese and salt and pepper.

This is also where I would change things. I carefully tried to pour the sauce so I wouldn't disturb any of the precious nutritional yeast.

And, meh, there is really no need to be fussy at this step. You, of course will only have put a light sprinkling of nutritional yeast on top so you can feel free to just dump it on top.

I didn't end up using the whole pot of sauce because I thought it was going to be too much (and, yes, I was wrong about this too).

Into the oven went this and out came this:

Garnished with a sprinkle of sweet paprika.

 Now I do think it came out looking quite pretty. And I am sure most people would be very happy with it at this point. 

I was not. In my opinion this should be a comfort dish and it just wasn't creamy enough for my tastes. Yup, I should have put in the whole pan of sauce. The potatoes soaked up a lot more than I expected while they were cooking.

So this morning I made more sauce, this time adding some white wine and other seasonings, poured it over what was left of the scalloped potatoes.

And, yes, I went a bit overboard on the sauce. But this sauce came out really, really good. The recipe I have included should put your dish right in the middle between a little dry and too over sauced. In other words, hopefully, it will turn out perfect.

Vegan Scalloped Potatoes

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 large russet potato
1 large yukon gold potato
1 large red potato
2 shallots
2 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp. of nutritional yeast
2 cups of unsweetened soymilk
1/2 Tbsp. of all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. of Tofutti sour cream
1 Tbsp. of Tofutti cream cheese
1 1/2 tsp. of Earth Balance Spread
1/2 tsp. of garlic powder
1/2 tsp. of onion powder
1/2 tsp. of dried parsley
2 Tbsp. of dry white wine
salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Finely slice the potatoes and the two shallots. Finely mince the garlic. Grease a 61/2"X81/2" pan with some of the Earth Balance spread (if you are using a 9"X12" pan you will need to increase the amounts a little bit).

Start your first layer by overlapping the potato slices to cover the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with a bit of the shallots and garlic and add a pinch of ground black pepper.  Sprinkle on 1tsp. of the nutritional yeast and then begin the next layer. After the third layer is complete, top with a light sprinkle of nutritional yeast.

Next, pour the soymilk in a pan and whisk in the flour. Add the Tofutti sour cream, Tofutti cream cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, white wine and a dash of salt and pepper. Let the mixture come to a simmer and continue to whisk until the sauce begins to thicken. Pour the sauce over the potatoes. The sauce should come almost to the top of the potatoes. It is fine if the sauce covers them a bit.

Cover the dish with tin foil and place it in the oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour, uncover the dish and sprinkle with any vegan cheese of your choice. I chose to just dot the top with some Earth Balance spread. Let it continue to cook for 5-10 more minutes. Take it out of the oven and let cool. When the dish is no longer hot - serve up with a sprinkle of sweet paprika for garnish.

Enjoy!

Crispy potato rounds with smoked salmon and sour cream

Crispy potato rounds with smoked salmon and sour cream.

I have been falling behind in my salmon consumption so when I was at Whole Foods yesterday I picked up a package of smoked salmon.

And since I had leftover potatoes from a failed cooking project (pictures of yesterday's cooking failure inserted at bottom of post) I decided to make what is essentially smoked salmon canapes. 


I sliced a red potato into thick slices then put it into a steamer until just barely tender.


Then I put them in a skillet with a little olive oil and got them nice and brown.

Then I mixed 1/4 of a cup of Tofutti sour cream and 1/2 tsp. of dried parsley, 1/2 a shallot, chopped fine and a dash of salt and pepper.

Spread each potato with a generous dollop of the seasoned sour cream.

If you are serving these for appetizers, cut the smoked salmon into thin strips and curl them over the sour cream.

I garnished the salmon with little pieces of shallot.

Since I was enjoying this for my breakfast, I added extra salmon.

Oh, and my failed cooking effort yesterday was vegan scalloped potatoes.

It came out of the oven looking OK but the flavors were a bit too dull for my tastes. 

My list of recipes to re-make is getting quite long:

- Stuffed french toast
- Vegan scalloped potatoes
- Dry sauteed string beans
- Massaman curry
- Cheesy quinoa crisps 
- Parmesan chicken tenders
- Coddled eggs


I don't have a lot of veggie or salad dishes to re-make, those always seem to turn out right the first time.

Happy Monday!

Turkey and bean taco salad

It is a beautiful day here and after lunch I think I will spend the rest of the day outside. 

For lunch I pulled a portion of frozen turkey and frozen kidney beans out of the freezer and tossed them into a skillet along with some taco seasoning blend.

While they cooked I shredded a carrot and chopped up 2 celery stalks and some fresh parsley.

Then I made a dressing of lemon juice, mirin, oregano, garlic powder, olive oil and cracked black pepper.

A few handfuls of baby greens went into the salad bowl and I tossed everything with the dressing. Then I sprinkled on about 1 Tbsp. of nutritional yeast.

 
By this time, the turkey and beans were done.

They went into the bowl along with dollops of Tofutti sour cream.

Along with a pear and some sparkling water - this was a great lunch!

I have been spending too much time typing lately. The top of my left shoulder blade is really sore - it is a spot that always starts to ache when I have spent too much time at the keyboard. For some reason I tend to hunch my left shoulder when I am typing.

It is time to start doing sun salutations in the morning so I can stretch out that muscle.

Time to head out for the rest of my day.

I hope everyone is having a good Saturday!

Breakfast Salmon Cakes

The morning recipe started with this beauty:

Pan seared salmon.

I then gathered a random mix of ingredients.

Salmon, dried chopped onions (re-hydrated), grits and popcorn.

I would recommend using yellow onions rather than doing that re-hydration trick but since I was out of onions - I just made do.

I mixed together salmon (crumbled into pieces), Tofutti sour cream, cooked grits, garlic powder, salt, Worchestershire sauce, soy sauce, chives and green onion.

The popcorn? An ill conceived idea.

These salmon cakes turned out great. Because I didn't use egg in this recipe - I didn't have to worry about the patty cooking through. This resulted in a crispy outside but a very moist inside.

I made a lemon chive yogurt dipping sauce to go with the cakes.

But I didn't do any dipping I just added a dollop on top.

I tried a new tea today:

But, unfortunately, it turned out to be very bitter :-(

And I didn't forget the dogs. The food items they found interesting today?

The salmon - 

The yogurt dip - 

But since the salmon cakes contained onion - the dogs did not get any of those.


They did enjoy this - 

Crispy salmon skin on seasoned nori with wedge of salmon on top.

Two big thumbs up from the dogs on this snack idea :-)




Breakfast Salmon Cakes

Serves 1

Ingredients: 

1/3 lb. of salmon - pan seared and crumbled into pieces

1 Tbsp. of Tofutti sour cream

1 Tbsp. of cooked grits

1 Tbsp. of chopped green onion 


2 tsp. of chopped chives

1 1/2 tsp. of yellow onion


1/4 tsp. of soy sauce


1/4 tsp. of Worcestershire sauce

1/8 tsp. of sweet paprika

1/8 tsp. of powdered garlic

1 pinch of salt


Black pepper to taste


1 tsp. of coconut oil


Directions:

Combine the salmon, sour cream, grits, green onion, chives, onion, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator for a few minutes (this will make forming the patties easier). 

Heat a saute pan on medium heat. Add in the coconut oil (you can really use any oil here).

Take the salmon mixture out of the refrigerator and form into patties (about 1 1/2 Tbsp. of mixture per cake. Place the formed cake in the hot pan. Cook on each side until nicely browned. Serve with your favorite yogurt sauce.



Lemon chive yogurt dipping sauce 

2 Tbsp. of greek yogurt

1 tsp. of chopped chives

1/8 tsp. of lemon juice

1 pinch of salt

Combine all of the ingredients and serve.