bacon{ish}

Hello there!  Hopefully you are able to see my blog this morning, as yesterday was a major flop.  Apparently you guys crashed the site!  :)  Not a bad thing, but definitely an annoying process to deal with.  I was sitting by the computer all day waiting for correspondence from my host.  I will be switching hosts as soon as possible, as my current host [Super Green Hosting], did a horrible job at communicating with me today!  It took entirely too long to hear back from them.  However, the important thing is the blog is back!!  Thank you all for being so patient!! 

This is Thursday’s post that most of you probably didn’t see yet.  I’m hoping to get another post up tomorrow afternoon, but if today is anything like yesterday, that will be a long shot. :)  It’s turning out to be quite the crazy week!

Yesterday at Whole Foods, I spotted perfect looking organic strawberries.  They were bright red and the perfect medium size.  $8 for 2lbs wasn’t a horrible price, so I snagged them up.

In 24hrs I’ve eaten over a pound.  They are mouthwatering delicious. 

I just had to make strawberries n’ cream oats again!  If you’re freaked out by putting cottage cheese in your oats, try ricotta, or vanilla yogurt. 

A few people mentioned not enjoying cooked strawberries.  I have an idea for you!  Blend the strawberries with your milk/water mixture.  You’ll get delicious strawberry infused milk, that will probably taste even better than this bowl.  Super strawberry infused!  I must try it out myself!

I finally made a recipe that I’ve been eyeing up for awhile.  I saw a quick + easy recipe for tempeh bacon, over at Healthy, Happy, Life.  The one other time I made tempeh bacon, it had more ingredients, had to sit in the marinade for an hour, and wasn’t as delicious.  Not nearly as delicious!

The sauce took all of 3 minutes to throw together and the tempeh strips only need to sit in in for 1-2min on each side.  The key is slicing the tempeh as thin as possible. 

My favorite brand of tempeh, which I’ve mentioned before, is West Soy [particularly the 5-grain].  I’ve tried at least 3 others, but this one always comes out on top.  The other brands always seem to have a strange bitterness to them, but this one doesn’t in the slightest.  It’s not certified gluten free, but doesn’t seem to be causing me any issues.

3min to make the marinade

3min to let it sit in the marinade

3min to cook

Can’t beat that!

Obviously this is not real bacon.  You’re not going to fool anyone by telling them this is bacon.  However, it definitely has a smoky, charred flavor that will remind you of bacon.  It was crispy and even a bit juicy from the marinade.

The secret ingredient is a product called liquid smoke.  I purchased it just for this recipe.  I think it was $1.99 at Whole Foods.  How have I not used it before??  It would be amazing to add to black bean burgers and a myriad of other things.

This would be a great vegan breakfast side with a big stack of pancakes, waffles, or French toast. 

What better to do with tempeh bacon, then make a BLT.

Well, sort of.

Swap the bread, add a crisped brown rice tortilla.

Swap the lettuce, add spinach.

Add avocado.

And lay on the bacon{ish}!!!!

I poured the leftover marinade on top for a sauce, which sent this wrap through the roof!

This was a mess to eat, but without a doubt worth it.  New to tempeh??  You must try THIS recipe or the husband’s breaded tempeh.  I still think his breaded tempeh is the best tempeh recipe ever.  And that is my unbiased opinion! :)  However, the tempeh bacon comes in at a close 2nd.  At some point soon I’m going to make a GF version of the breaded tempeh, because I miss it!!

 

My taste buds are doing a happy dance tonight!

Time to get to stripe painting tomorrow!!!  Goooooodnight!

Ashley