One of my favorite bloggers, Mama Pea from Peas and Thank You, is a genius. She came up with a recipe for a healthy vegan version of Cinnamon Toast Crunch [here], which was inspired by another blogger’s recipe for crackers. Mama Pea’s recipe then inspired my recipe for …*drum droll & dramatic pause…* Peanut Butter Puffins cereal. See how the chain of blog inspiration goes? It’s like Pay it Forward for vegan foodies.

Cranky’s Peanut Butter Puffins
I had to try to imitate Mama Pea’s awesome photag skills. I’m not there yet!

There’s nothing “wrong” with Peanut Butter Puffins to begin with – they’re just, like all my favorite cereals, close to $4.00 a pop and it can get pricey to feed my giant mouth.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. Organic Oat Flour (I used Arrowhead Mills bought from Whole Foods)
• 1/2 c. dry medium-grind corn meal (I used Bob’s Redmill bought from Whole Foods)
• 1/3 c. smooth organic peanut butter (I used Kirkland brand from Costco)
• 1 1/4 c. unsweetened Vanilla almond milk (I used Almond Breeze bought from Trader Joe’s/Target)
• 1 tbsp. sweet organic brown rice syrup (I used Lundberg bought from Whole Foods)
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt

Hey guys!

I’m not a big fan of breakfast — never really have been. I was always the kid who would order a hamburger and french fries for breakfast if the option was available. Anywho. My friend whose going vegan for lent (remember her? post here) really likes French toast, so I thought I’d scour the web in search for a good vegan recipe and try it out. Found it

Vegan French Test (Original recipe posted on VegWeb here) (After pushing publish I realize I put French “test” instead of “toast,” but I don’t have the heart to change it…it shows how heavily academia weighs on me lol)

Ingredients

• About one tablespoon Earth Balance vegan margarine for the pan
• Two cups vanilla soy milk (I used vanilla almond milk)
• 5 tablespoons flour (I used oat flour)
• 3 teaspoons organic sugar (I used Trader Joe’s brown sugar)
• 4 slices of bread (I used Milton’s Whole Wheat)
• Toppings? I used a tiny bit of maple syrup, a sprinkle of vegan powdered sugar, some vegan chocolate chips and walnut pieces

Directions

• Mix everything together except the Earth Balance and toppings.
• Use a bit of the Earth Balance on a pan and heat until its melted – you can use a mix of Earth Balance and cooking spray. It depends on your calorie restrictions (if any), preference, taste and all that jazz.
• While above is melting, soak a piece of bread in the mix.
• Add soaked bread to pan and cook on both sides, over medium heat, until edges are crispy and the center is golden and not too soggy. You may want to use some cooking spray in between flips as the bread tends to stick to the pan (maybe I need a new pan?)
• Remove from pan, add toppings and enjoy!

The results?

Get.In.My.Belly.

I’ll post the nutritional info. later tonight if I can — Thoreau is calling my name and, I’ll admit, I’ve kinda got a crush on that nut.

What’s your favorite breakfast food?

<3,

The Cranky One

Nutritional Info. per slice w/o toppings (calculated with Sparkpeople’s Recipe Calculator):

Calories		141.6
Total Fat		3.7 g
	Saturated Fat	0.6 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	1.9 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	1.2 g
Cholesterol		0.0 mg
Sodium		187.2 mg
Potassium		218.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate		22.7 g
	Dietary Fiber	4.4 g
	Sugars	4.2 g
Protein		6.3 g