Holiday Help: Make Ahead Tips!

If you want to have time to actually enjoy your friends and family during the holidays (or during any get together that you are hosting) it's important to develop some tricks so that you aren't in the kitchen the entire time of your gathering.  Of course there are always things like store-bought hummus, olives from the olive bar, pre-cut veggies, etc. and even complete feasts that are made for you (like the Tofurky holiday feast!).  But, when it comes to breakfast, there is nothing quite like home made pancakes and tofu scrambles.  I like to have me (and serve my guests) a delicious home made breakfast for the holidays!  And I don't want to be in the kitchen all morning making it.

Today, I'm going to talk about making breakfast ahead, which applies more if you have overnight guests (which we  always do since my family is a bit too far away to do a day-trip).

Make Ahead, Freeze Ahead Breakfast (or lunch, or dinner!) Burgers:
To prepare for Thanksgiving his week, yesterday I made the Denver Omelet Burgers from Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet.  I formed the dough into patties (uncooked) and then "flash" froze them on a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat mat (get one if you don't already have one, it saves a TON of parchment paper!!).


Here's how: put uncooked burgers on the Silpat (or parchment paper) make sure your patties aren't touching or they will freeze together.  Put the whole Silpat lined cookie sheet with burgers on it into the freezer (you don't even have to cover it).  I left them in the freezer on the mat for a few hours (you can leave them overnight, too, it's not a big deal).  Once they are frozen solid, you can transfer them to a tightly sealed ziplock bag and freeze for the duration.  You can do this with just about any veggie burger.

Here are my Omelet Burgers and a few Perfect Pancakes that I flash froze.  

Now, you can cook the frozen, uncooked burgers directly from the freezer.  Just saute for about 3 minutes per side in a cast iron saute pan in a little oil.  I tried a frozen patty today to test it, and it worked perfectly.  They cook right through and brown very nicely (and tasted better and had a better texture than the fresh one I made right from the batter yesterday!).  It pays to test!!

Make Ahead, Freeze Ahead Pancakes: 

As far as pancakes go, you do have to cook those prior to flash freezing.  Allow them to cool completely after cooking. Freeze them on the baking sheet in the same way (on the Silpat).  Once they are frozen, bag em.  Then, you can still use them directly from the freezer.  Just put them in the toaster oven for a few minutes to re-toast them.  I use my oven's little tray, line it with foil and spray the foil with a little canola oil before I put the pancakes on the tray (they can stick if you don't spray the tray) and spray them a tiny bit on top so they get nice and crispy when they are toasting.  I'm sure you could put them right on the rack in the toaster oven, too, without a problem (but I like them sort of "fried" a tiny bit in that extra oil :-)

Now, I have frozen breakfast burgers and frozen pancakes and all I have to do is just saute the burgers and toast the pancakes when my guests come.  Or, when I'm hungry.  SO easy.

Here is my "tester" breakfast this morning :-) I fried the Omelet Burgers right out of the freezer. Works great!

Those pancakes were also frozen and just re-toasted in the toaster oven! AWESOME.

For more easy breakfasts, try my Easy Baked French Toast.  You can make the tofu mixture the night before (I'd say minus the egg replacer, add that right before you are going to pour it over the bread) and keep it in the fridge, then just pour it over your bread in the morning about an hour before you want to bake it!

Also, don't forget you can always buy fresh bagels and just make your own spreads. I like to use Tofutti better-than-cream-cheese and then mix in various things like fresh spinach, herbs, garlic, sundried tomatoes, etc. by blending in my food processor, fun! Home made hummus or bean-based dips are easy, too.  A big pan of baked oatmeal or would also be easy and low-maintenance

You can also freeze cookies and brownies.  Bake them as usual, allow them to completely cool.  Then, wrap cookies individually in aluminum foil and put in a ziplock bag in your freezer.  I guess you could "flash" freeze cookies as well, but I like them individually wrapped so I can just grab a cookie or brownie square out of the freezer whenever the need strikes.

Gotta run, I have to make some vegan sausage patties or maybe the Log Cabin Burgers and more pancakes (banana pancakes!) and freeze them all for T-day weekend.

Are you guys making anything ahead for the big day?  What are some of your make ahead tips?

Baked French Toast

So, this is my go-to brunch/breakfast meal to serve when I have friends over for play dates.  It is awesome, versatile and easy.  Both kids and adults love it. It's a new staple in my house.  Thought some of you might like to give it a try. It is a great choice for feeding omnivore friends!

Easy Vegan Baked French Toast

Serves 4-6.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Butter a 9x13 baking dish (it will also fit in smaller but deeper baking dishes, use what you think will hold the bread covered with the custard, you may need to increase the baking time if you use a smaller dish).

Slice a loaf of one-day old bread (even two or three days old is totally fine) or a large baguette and arrange in your buttered baking dish.  The best bread makes the best French toast. 

In a small bowl, whisk together:

2 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer and 2 ½ tablespoons of water. Set aside.

In your food processor, combine all of the following ingredients:

1 package Silken tofu (the aseptic box kind) I use Mori-Nu, the firm or light kind.

2 tsp. Vanilla extract (Penzey’s if you’ve got it)

½ tsp Almond extract (ditto Penzey’s again)

½ cup Maple syrup (you can use ¼ cup if you want it less sweet)

1 tsp Cinnamon (I use Vietnamese cinnamon from Penzey’s)

¼ tsp Salt (regular table salt)

2 tablespoons oil (I use organic sunflower oil, you can use canola, or any other kind of oil that you’d like, or you can leave it out, no biggie)

For an awesome banana version: Add two very ripe bananas to this mix.  I highly recommend this version. For other versions, see below!

Blend it all up! Once it is totally smooth, add the egg replacer mixture and blend it some more.  Then, add 1 cup (more or less) of almond milk (you can use soy or any other kind of milk here, but I love almond).  Add the almond milk until your mixture is the consistency of pourable custard. One cup of almond milk makes a pretty thick custard.  If you have very tough bread and need more liquid, use more almond milk so your bread has more liquid to absorb. Give it a final few pulses to combine thoroughly.  Taste it and adjust if you see fit J

Pour the custard over the bread that is waiting in your prepared pan.  You can let it sit and absorb for a while or bake it right away.  If your bread is very hard, I’d let it sit at least 30-60 minutes to allow the bread to absorb the mixture.

Top with small pats of butter (I use Earth Balance), sprinkle with sugar (I use organic sugar), and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the custard is set and the edges of the bread start to brown. Let sit five minutes before slicing (if you can wait!). Enjoy with fresh fruit, veggie sausages, whatever you like with your French toast! This doesn’t need more syrup or butter added to it upon serving, but go for it if you want to!

Other great variations:

Nutty Version: Add raw walnuts or pecans (halves or chopped pieces) on top prior to baking.  The nuts will toast in the oven!

Fruity Version: Add berries or whatever fruit you like to the layered bread before you pour the custard in.  Strawberries, blueberries, even more sliced banana, I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t work here.  

Chocolate Version: Stir ½ to 1 cup (or more if you like!) of chocolate chips into the custard right before you pour it over the bread. Add ½ tsp of chocolate extract to the other extracts to give it an extra chocolately punch.  Or add orange extract for a chocolate-orange version. YUM.

Let me know if you give it a try.  I am in love with this recipe. 

Have a great weekend!

<3 Dawn

 It is SO good, I can never get a good picture of it! Anyway, you get the idea.