bread

Recipe of the Week: My Favorite Open Faced Chickpea Salad Sandwich

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There is no denying it bread does not last long in this house, especially if it is in bagel form. Both the husband and I are addicted to toast, bagels with tofu cream cheese and sandwiches. To keep our addiction in check we don’t often buy bread but rather eat it out (which isn’t often) or Neil will bake us up a small loaf (much more manageable). One other way that we have been able to keep our addiction in check are wonderful sprouted breads that are from the freezer section; it seems that if the bread isn’t on the counter we won’t eat a loaf in two days (or less).

 

 

Our current bread love is French Meadow Bakery which makes bagels, wraps and bread both gluten free and not. We seem to always have something in our freezer nowadays and I love it. My favorite products are the bagels especially the hemp bagels with tofu cream cheese, thinly sliced onions and tomatoes, capers and a little salt and pepper- YUM! Also did I mention that one hemp bagel has 19 grams of protein and 13 grams of dietary fiber! This is a huge plus especially since being pregnant I need to make sure I am getting a good amount of both.

When my sweet tooth hits I turn to the sprouted cinnamon raisin bagels which honestly don’t require any topping but are wonderful with almond butter and banana. These t0o are filled with protein and dietary fiber- Win!

 

 

Now I would eat most everything on a bagel but sometimes you just want toast or a sandwich and that’s when I turn to the 16 Grain & Seed Bread.  This bread makes a fabulous sandwich or toast, I especially like to use it for open faced sandwiches.  Recently I made up a bowl of my favorite sandwich filling, chickpea salad, and topped a few slices of 16 Grain & Seed Bread along with tomato, red onion and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast.  I stuck the slices under the broiler for 4-5 minutes and voila I had the best open faced sandwich- double yum!

 

My Favorite Open Faced Chickpea Salad Sandwich

  • 1 15-oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 2 carrots, minced
  • 2 celery stalks, minced
  • 2T onion, minced
  • 1/2T Triple Blend Flakes (or kelp flakes) (optional)
  • 1/4 Cup vegenaise or your other favorite vegan mayo
  • Tomato and Onion, thinly sliced
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • Nutritional yeast

Place your chickpeas in a bowl and smash them with a potato masher.  Add the carrots, celery, onion, kelp flakes and vegenaise and mix to combine.  Top slices of bread with the mixture and then layer with onion and tomato.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and nutritional yeast.  Place on a sheet pan and broil on high for 4-5 minutes.

Unfortunately Open Faced Sandwiches Aren't Very Photogenic

DC Recap- Day 3

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Day 3 started off seeming like it was going to be good with breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien but boy were we wrong. First off our waiter was a bit of a condescending jerk.  Then when the food came it was mediocre- the salad was overly vinegary and the tofu scramble was extremely oily.  We were disappointed with the meal and then we waited for almost 30 minutes to get the bill …while the waiter passed by us over and over and over. Oh well one bad EXTREMELY overpriced meal over our entire vacation that’s not too bad. Ratings:
Value: 0/5
Food: 2/5
Vegan Friendly: 2/5
Atmosphere: 0/5

Amazing teas from Baked & Wired

After our disappointing breakfast we walked to Georgetown where we spent most of the morning enjoying the weather, the sites, and the shops.  I indulged in a sale at Lululemon and then we had lunch at Chipotle and loved it.
After enjoying our morning/early afternoon in Georgetown we headed to the Museum of Natural History.  Once the museum closed we headed to RFD for a drink before our dinner at Zaytinya one of Jose Andres restaurants.

We had the most amazing dinner at Zaytinya!  The concept around the restaurant is small plates that come out in waves.  We let our server know we were vegan and she let us know the vegan options (there were a good number).  We ordered 6 items as well as a yummy drink and turkish coffee.  I would go back here in a heart beat.

Warning these photos below are lacking in quality because they are from my iphone but the food was amazing.

Ratings:
Value: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Vegan Friendly: 3/5
Atmosphere: 4/5

99 Bottles of Beer…

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The Hubz and I are “beer aficionados” or at least we like to think we are (more the Hubz than me) ….if you aren’t laughing you should be.  Anyways we really do love beer especially really good craft beer; we are lucky to live in Vermont where there are tons of craft breweries. Anyways so as many of you may have seen me tweeting the Hubz and I had a mini beer tasting on Monday night. So we rated the beers based on what we liked the best (5 being best and 1 being worst), however below is the order we drank them in:

Victory Storm King Stout- 3.5- great flavor and hoppyness which I love

Long Trail Harvest-2 this was just okay.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale-4-loved this! it was not too sweet like some pumpkin beers are; it had great spice and overall flavor we will be purchasing this again!

Sierra Nevada Tumbler-3-this was alright but not my favorite, not my least favorite either.

We enjoyed the Sierra Nevada Tumbler with Squash and White Bean Soup & Sour Dough Bread - p.s. if you are interested in being a tester for my soup e-book e-mail me! More details soon!

Southern Tier Harvest (my favorite)- 5! This beer was delicious! A great fall beer with lots of hops!

Victory Festbier-1.5-this beer was pretty much a fail. Very boring and little flavor.

While we ate, drank and were merry the fur baby did this:

warning drinking too much beer may result in this

Review: French Meadow Bakery

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French Meadow Bakery was kind enough to send me some products to sample and I am now in love with their products. I received the Hemp Tortillas, Our Daily Bread, and Hemp Bagels. Although all the products were good, my favorite was the bagels. They were just the right size and tasted great with tofu cream cheese. These little bagels were hearty and filling. The bread was great as well, just pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds and then toast until lightly browned. They make great toast for breakfasts or sandwiches, especially Tofurky. Lastly, you can’t go wrong with some sauteed veggies, black beans and salsa stuffed into one to French Meadow’s Hemp Tortillas. At this point you should be jumping off your couch and running to the store and checking the freezer section for these products. If you don’t see them then head straight to customer service and request that they carry them!

 

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Banana-nut Muffins

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Yesterday my husband comes to me asking if we have everything for banana bread because we had 3 very over rip bananas that were going to go to waste. I decided why not make banana-nut muffins so much easier to grab and go.

Banana-nut Muffins

1 and 3/4 cup self rising flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup natural sugar
3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1-1/4 cups)
1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk
1 unsweetened applesauce cup (you know those ones you pack in lunches or ¼ cup applesauce)
2 tbsp. agave nectar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 400F and spray a 12 cup muffin pan with non-stick spray. In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In another bowl, mash the banana with the sugar, soymilk, apple sauce, and agave nectar.

Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Fold in the walnuts, and pour into 12 muffin cups- I like to use an ice cream soup. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.