Baguette and eggs

I had another restless night last night. 

What to do when sleep seems to be an unreachable goal? 

Make bread, of course!

My French baguette.

I find making baguettes a bit of an intimidating task. And while my baguette ended up looking more like a loaf of bread rather than a baguette - the bread did have decent texture.

And I do have to say, it would be hard to pick a more delicious way to start the day than a slice of warm bread straight out of the oven.

I poached two eggs and made a simple hollandaise sauce by mixing Vegenaise, yellow mustard, lemon juice and almond milk.

The baguette came out crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

The yolk and sauce soaked into the warm bread and made each bite better tasting than the next. Yum!

Oranges on the side.

If you want to try making a baguette you can find the recipe I modified here. Basically, I halved the recipe and only let the dough rise once (I did fall asleep for about 3 hours - hence only one rise:-).

Now I am going to try and get some sleep. Happy Thursday all!!

Crab egg florentine

Crab egg florentine with lime mustard hollandaise.

I woke up this morning wanting Eggs Benedict but the pickings are pretty slim in my cupboard and fridge at the moment so I made some substitutions.

The dish started with a layer of cooked quinoa.

Then I layered on a big handful of fresh spinach.

Next came a generous layer of canned crab meat.

Everything was topped with one perfectly poached egg.

Lastly, the star of the show appeared!

Lime mustard hollandaise sauce.

This was a very comforting and delicious breakfast.

Lime mustard hollandaise sauce

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of unsweetened soymilk
1/4 cup of water
1 Tbsp. of Earth Balance spread
1/2 Tbsp. of all purpose flour
2 Tbsp. of nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. of yellow mustard
The juice from 1/2 of a small lime
a pinch of garlic powder
a pinch of onion powder
a pinch of salt
ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:

Melt the Earth Balance spread in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add in the flour and stir until the roue slightly darkens then add in the water and soymilk.

Add the rest of the ingredients and let the sauce come up to a simmer. Stir frequently. When the sauce starts to thicken turn the heat to low. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian eggs benedict

This morning I felt like making one of my million different versions of eggs benedict.

I was also interested in trying out the nutritional yeast in another recipe.

I wanted to have the egg sit on a bed of mashed potatoes but I didn't feel like going through all the work to make them. 

Instead I shredded one medium potato and two carrots and steamed them. I blanched some spinach for some greens.

The potato carrot mixture turned out surprisingly creamy (not exactly pretty, but, oh well).

Steamed potato and carrot mixture with blanched spinach and a poached egg.

Next was my attempt at Hollandaise sauce. Following my lazy tendencies this morning - I didn't want to bother with a roux.

I added some vegetable stock in a pan and added one and a half cups of water, one Tbsp. of yellow mustard, three Tbsp. of nutritional yeast, the juice of one and a half lemons, black pepper and in the end I did add some flour to thicken up the sauce.

The main reason I didn't want to include any dairy products in the sauce - I just didn't want to have to worry about the sauce breaking if I added in a lot of lemon juice.

The sauce turned out really lemony with a nice bite from the mustard. The cheesy flavor of the nutritional yeast took a back seat in this recipe which I think was a good thing.

I have a family party to go to later this afternoon. Who knows if I will have time to post again today.

So, on that note - Everyone have a great Sunday!