tofu scramble

Dining Locally: Penny Cluse

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Occasionally the Hubz and I like to have an early morning breakfast date during the week; yesterday just happened to be one of those days.  Lately our favorite spot has been Penny Cluse Cafe in Burlington because of it’s early hours, delicious coffee and tasty tofu scramble. Yesterday morning we stopped in and had settled on the Pesto Tofu Scramble, a griddled tomato and dry rye toast, oh and of course coffee.  Well come to find out the pesto which we had asked about on our last visit and were told was vegan actually is not vegan. So we decided on the peanut-ginger sauce instead.  The waitress feeling bad about our last waitress misinforming us  brought us each over a complimentary glass of tangerine juice.

My Trio of Beverages

Peanut-Ginger Tofu, Griddled Tomato and Dry Rye Toast

The Peanut-Ginger Tofu is really delicious.  The sauce coats the tofu perfectly and you get great flavor with every bite.  Also the ginger is really a mild flavor and balanced perfectly with the peanut. “I really like how the sauce is kind of crispy too and the ginger, well you can tell it’s real ginger not just a flavor” – Quote by The Hubz

The Griddled Tomato is my new favorite breakfast item.  Cooking the tomato locks in all the juices and just creates a whole new depth of flavor; place it on top of the rye toast and you’ve got a winner.

As for the beverages I would say they have one of the best cups of coffee in town.  The water was refreshing.  The tangerine juice was surprisingly not overly sweet and I really enjoyed it- I may even order it next visit!

Just a heads up to vegans interested in eating here the homefries are not vegan.

Ratings:
Value: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Vegan Friendly: 3/5- all though not a ton of vegan options the ones they do have are delicious.
Atmosphere: 4/5

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

Recipe: Tex Mex Tofu Scramble

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The nice people at Nasoya sent me a few coupons to try out their Tofu Plus which is tofu that has been fortified with B2, B6, B12, Vitamin D and Calcium.  I love any opportunity to get more of these vitamins into my body especially B12 which is the trickiest B vitamin for vegans to get. The tofu is great and does not taste different then any other tofu I have had.

Tex Mex Tofu Scramble

Serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 1T olive oil
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 small green bell pepper, diced
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 sweet potato, diced
  • 6 button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1t EACH of salt, paprika, garlic powder and Italian seasoning
  • 2t EACH of chili powder and cumin
  • 1/2t black pepper
  • 1/2T nutritional yeast
  • 1 block of tofu, drained and crumbled
  • water as needed

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add in the onions; cook for 3 minutes.  Stir in the bell pepper and sweet potato; cook for 3 minutes.  Stir in the mushrooms and garlic; cook for 3 minutes.  Stir in the spices and a little bit of water if necessary; just enough to evenly coat the veggies without being too dry.  Stir in the crumbled tofu and let cook for 7-10 minutes, adding water if necessary so the mixture does not stick.  Lastly, stir in the nutritional yeast and then taste for salt and pepper.

Serve with salsa, hot sauce, chips and guacamole.

Pantry Challenge Update- Tofu Scramble

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The winner is:

busymomto5- “our house eats sooo much hummus!”
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I know that in my last update I had said that I had given up on the challenge due to a lack of pantry items however after some consideration I decided that I could do at least another week however I would need to pick up a few pantry items (4 cans of beans and 2 cans of tomatoes).   Yesterday breakfast was leftover quinoa chili I just couldn’t wait until lunch to eat it.  For lunch I had noodles with chickpeas, earth balance and curry powder, simple but yummy.

For dinner I used my sample of Wildwood Organics Sprout Baked Tofu – savory flavored.  I threw 3 shallots, 2 cloves of garlic and the tofu into the food processor and pulsed to break it up.  I threw it in a pan with some vegetable broth and toasted in some nooch, paprika and chili powder.  I added a frozen mix of corn, onions, peppers and black beans and 2 handfuls of spinach.  I had some Ezekiel bread left in the freezer and toasted it up to have with our scramble- unfortunately I didn’t photograph any of this.

I’m going to do a mini giveaway- I have a bunch of coupons for free Cedar’s products including hummus, salsa and their new creamy hummus- If you would like a chance to win, leave me a comment by 8pm on January 21st.