Rockin' the french toast

you know how i said i'm picky about my tofu scramble, and how i only like my own? well, i feel the same way about my french toast. i've tried a couple of recipes and they just don't do it for me. here's my recipe. the key is using bananas. they brown the bread really well, and they add a natural sweetness so you don't have to drown them in maple syrup-(although a little syrup never hurt nobody nohow).

jewbacca's vegan french toast:

you'll need:
really stale bread (a loaf of crusty french works best, but i used old hoagie buns in the pic above)
2-3 super overripe bananas
1 1/4 c. non-dairy milk
1t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1t vanilla
1T flax seeds

cut your loaf of bread in nice diagonal shapes if you feel fancy. otherwise, get your bread together and set aside. if you don't have stale bread handy, you can dry bread out in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, but check your bread to make sure it is good and tough.

take those wet ingredients and puree the shit outta them in a blender. pour the mixture in a nice wide shallow bowl.

heat a NON STICK skillet. use oil or non-stick spray if you do the low-fat thang. PLEASE use a non-stick skillet or you'll just be pissed and sad. dredge your stale bread in the french toast mixture and cook for a few minutes on each side, flipping it until the sides are nice and toasty brown. for some fun presentation, you can also dip whole pieces of less stale bread in the mixture and put them in well greased muffin tins for french toast cups. this isn't my idea, i just saw that somewhere once. you can also take your stale bread and crumble it up mixing it with the french toast mixture and press it into a shallow casserole dish and cook it at 350 for about 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean, then you have**VOILA**french toast casserole!

now how about that interview? bianca from vegan crunk has this interview thingy going on, and i thought i'd play along. lemme know if you want in the pool, k?

1) If you could only get your protein from one source, which food would you choose?
i'm a sucker for tempeh. i could easily eat an entire package by myself.

2) How did you choose the name for your blog?
well, it is my observation that most (not all) but most non-vegans view vegans as pains in the ass. granted there are some vegans out there that warrant that label, but i don't really think i'm one of them. conversely so, i think some omnis are a pain the ass. i guess if i think about it even further being a pain-in-the-ass knows no age, gender, sexual identity, faith, political party, or eating habit. i gave the blog the title because i wanted to challenge the omni notion of: why is it "normal" for you to eat the way you do, but annoying to you that i choose to eat the way i do? for the record, i am a live-and-let-omnis-live vegan. i don't fault anyone for eating the way they choose to eat. my partner is an omni and our son is a vegetarian.

3) What's your all-time favorite dessert?
chocolate chip cookies just outta the oven. to cut down on the sweetness, i like to put a scoop of vanilla soy delicious on the top.

4) How long have you been veg? And what sparked the change in you?
i've been on and off the veg wagon for years. i started when i was 15 after reading an article in sassy magazine. i didn't know how to cook then so i ate a lot of pb&j sammiches. in 1999 i went vegan because my girlfriend at the time was vegan. she did all the cooking. so when she left, so did the vegan eats. i mean i tried, but how fun is it to eat nothing but luna bars and soy milk? i bounced back and forth from vegetarian and omnivorism. i guess i just forgot about my connection with food. in june of last year my supervisor brought in a copy of veg news with her to work and i read it cover to cover. i thought to myself, y'know why did you lose your way jen? what can you do to get back on track? i decided that day i'd get back on the bus. i made a 3 week transition from veg. to veganism and haven't looked back since. i did a TON of homework and practiced some vegan cooking. each week i got better and better. now i LOVE to cook for myself and i really don't miss the way i used to eat. i consider making omni food vegan a fun challenge.

5) If you were president, what's the first thing you would do? outlaw fast food restaurants, factory farms, and create a financial incentive for farmers to grow quality organic food for EVERYONE, not just those who can afford it. i'd also create a 'green initiative' that gave tax breaks to any individual, family, or business that utilized green practices: organic farming, recycling, eating a vegetarian or vegan diet.

To play along:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." If a few people want interviews, I will randomly pick 2.
2. I will respond by commenting on your blog with five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.