Rainy day eats

Due to a statewide flood alert and high wind warnings, I managed to get the day off from school today. We aren't suffering any ill-effects from the storm other than a little water in the crawl space, so I'm taking advantage of some much-needed time to just chill.

This morning I took the time off and made some pancakes. They aren't always my favorite morning food, but they make me think back to when I was in elementary school and I would be allowed 7 or 8 friends to sleep over for my birthday. After a long night of truth or dare [can you believe that Susie likes Jimmy!] and terrible kid movies, we would all crash to sleep in sleeping bags on the floor. Ahh, those were the days, but I digress, this was supposed to be about pancakes. When we woke up, my mom would make pancakes for me and all my sleep deprived friends.

This morning I edited Isa's recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance for Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Pancakes to make some Blueberry Chocolate Chip Pancakes. The only problem I've found with Isa's recipes as a whole is that the yields never quite work out for me. According to the book this should have made me about 10 pancakes, it ended up making closer to 20. Maybe I was making them smaller than I thought. On the bright side, pancakes freeze pretty well can are yummy reheated in the toaster oven.


Blueberry Chocolate Chip Pancakes
1 cup + 5 TBS all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup soymilk
2 TBS canola oil
3 TBS brown rice syrup or maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
canola oil or cooking spray for pan

In a large mixing bowl sift together dry ingredients. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until just combined. Don't overmix.

Oil and preheat a nonstick pan or skillet. Drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto the hot pan and cook until small bubbles appear on the surface, flip and cook a minute more or until pancakes are browned on both sides. Repeat until all batter is used. Serve plain or with maple syrup. Makes about 20 pancakes)


For lunch I didn't feel much like cooking so I opened up a package of Trader Joe's Punjabi Eggplant and made some basmati rice. We don't have a Trader Joe's close to where I live, but my dad was passing one by on his way home the other day and he picked this up because he saw that it was vegan. For a product that looked like canned cat food coming out of the box (I'll spare you an actual photograph here), it was surprisingly good. Not restaurant quality but something I would buy again if I got the chance. The spices were well balanced and it wasn't too oily.

As a last plug, I would highly recommend checking out the new and improved VeggieBoards blog. With about 20 bloggers participating, the site is updated almost every day (sometimes more than once per day) and covers a wide variety of veg*n related topics. Bloggers include myself, Michael (the awesome creator of VeggieBoards), and the lovely Marti of the Fairly Odd Tofu Mom blog.