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Sunday, February 27, 2011

For something different: breakfast. The Vegan "egg" McMuffin.

Yesterday, while picking up groceries, my husband mentioned that these funny looking buns he made the night before tasted like English muffins when toasted. English muffins make me think of one thing and one thing only: Egg McMuffins. Are Egg McMuffins even on English muffins? I have no idea. I haven't had one in YEARS. But that isn't the point, because a few Halloweens ago, my husband dressed up as the notorious McMuffin fiend Michael Phelps. Due to said nature of that costume, we came up with veganized McMuffins and brought them in a paper bag (we tried to aquire a McDonald's paper bag, but things fell through and we had to improvise) to snack on during the party we attended. Fast forward a few years...I make these treats for myself every once in a while and yesterday having something English Muffin-esque was enough to set off my craving. It also helped that both the Yves veggie bacon and the Daiya cheese were both on sale. Score! The only other required item is tofu--to act as the egg.

Last night I was sooooooo excited to go to sleep just so I could wake up to make myself breakfast. And once I got myself all set up, I decided to take a few pictures of the process so I could write up a bit of an instruction blog. :)

To begin, you need a block of "Firm" Tofu. Cut it in half, length-wise, and then cut each half into three even slices. Put a pan on medium/low heat with a bit of canola oil and place the six pieces like so:


Fry these gently (make sure they don't stick to the pan!!) until they reach a golden (but still soft--you don't want "crispy" tofu here) brown. Flip once. Cook the other side in a smiliar fashion. Once the second side has reached its desired colour, grab a cup and put some sea/rock salt into it with about...3 tablespoons (?! I may be completely making up that amount...it could be more like 4 or 5?) of water. Mix the salt and water together with a spoon and then pour the entire contents into your frying pan with your tofu. This will cause some sizzling, don't be alarmed! Continue to fry the tofu until the water has evaporated/been absorbed.

Next, turn on your oven to "broil" and move the rack up to top. Then, take a pizza pan/cookie sheet and place the slices of tofu nicely apart on your pan or sheet. Top your tofu with your choice of vegan cheese. Typically I use vegan American slices, but this time, I used Daiya cheese. Put an even layer on the top of each tofu slice, like so:


Put your pan/sheet into the oven and keep the door open so you can check on things to make sure the cheese isn't getting too crispy/browned. While the pan/sheet is in the oven, take your veggie bacon slices and fry them up on your stove top. I messed up this morning and fried my bacon much too crispy. Try to avoid that, if you can.


While the bacon is frying and the cheese is getting melty, take your bread item of choice and toast it in your toaster.


By the time your bread has popped out of the toaster, your bacon should be ready, and your tofu too!



Assemble all of this deliciousness.


I found that with the thickness of my bread, I needed two pieces of bacon to give the desired amount of bacon-eyness. I also added a bit more cheese to each piece of bread and then broiled that as well on my subsequent sandwiches.

Just looking at these pictures is making me wish I could eat another one RIGHT NOW!

:)

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