Back from a blogging break with BAGELS to share

Tom and I have recently discovered that homemade bagels are the BEST THING EVER. Bagels fresh out of the oven are far superior to ones purchased in a plastic bag from the store.

We used the bagel recipe from Vegan Brunch which requires a few steps but is easy to put together. The recipe calls for sesame or poppyseeds as toppings, but so far we've explored many different possibilities for flavors.

Our favorites so far:

• garlic
• cranberry
• cinnamon raisin
• chocolate chunk
• onion
• sesame
• plain

Shaping the bagels can be a little tricky, but we'll be getting a lot more practice at it since we plan to make the recipe regularly from now on. I don't see us buying bagels from the store or even the bakery anymore.

We doubled the batch and have a couple dozen bagels to enjoy. Making them in big batches is great because they are easy to freeze and means that there are even more delicious homemade bagels to enjoy!

Let us know if you come up with any other creative flavor ideas!

cheezy tofu bagel sandwich

Yay our first blog post! Tom loves sandwiches, and I'm a particular fan of the breakfast variety, so we're starting things off with this tasty, cheezy, tofu bagel sandwich. We ate this for dinner, but I would place it in the breakfast arena because of its "eggy" tofu patties.



Ingredients

12 oz silken tofu
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tbs olive oil

1 medium sized onion
2 Bagels

1 recipe cheezy sauce or 2 slices vegan cheese
note: we used the cheezy sauce recipe from Veganomicon

recipe makes two sandwiches

Cut the onion into slices. Heat 1 tbs olive oil in a frying pan and toss in onions. Stir until coated with oil and allow to cook.

Put tofu, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper in food processor and blend. Pour remaining 1 tbs olive oil in frying pan and tilt until oil coats bottom. Next is the tricky part. Using a 1 tbs measuring spoon, scoop out tofu mixture and drop into pan (watch out for hot, oil splatters!). Place 3-4 seperate tbs in pan depending on size (see picture).

Allow to sit 4 minutes before touching with spatula or fork. When edges begin to brown and pull away from pan, gently slide fork or spatula under mixture and flip. Don't worry if it gets a little messy, think of it like cooking an egg, not a pancake. Cook until both sides are browned and remove. Continue process until tofu mixture is used up (see picture).

Toast bagels, then load up with tofu patties, cheezy sauce, and grilled onions. enjoy!