TED Talks: Food Revolution

Stuffed French Toast

My boyfriend and I were craving some breakfast food for dinner, so we decided to whip up some french toast. Instead of just the normal french toast we decided to kick it up a bit by stuffing the french toast with cream cheese and fresh strawberries and topping it with a raspberry and blackberry glaze. 

Ingredients: 

• Texas toast bread 
• 5 eggs 
• 1 container of blackberries 
• 1 container of raspberries 
• 1 container of strawberries 
• 1 container of cream cheese (we happened to have mixed berry and classic cream cheese)
• 3/4 cup of sugar 
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 

This recipe will make about 4 stuffed french toast which will take 8 individual slices of toast all together.
 

Starting with the berry glaze you will want to combine 1 cup of water, 3/4 cup of sugar, the containers of raspberries and blackberries, about 4 or 5 strawberries chopped into small pieces all into a pot over medium high heat. Once it comes to a boil reduce to medium low heat and let it simmer. You'll want the glaze to reduce by half. It'll take 10-15 mins. 

In the meantime whisk 5 eggs into a bowl. Adding a splash of milk or water along with a teaspoon of cinnamon. 

Dip the individual slices of Texas toast bread in the the egg mixture. Making sure to coat the entire piece of bread. 

Melt a tablespoon of butter in a skillet that has been heated to medium heat. Place the coated piece of bread into the skillet and let cook until golden brown. Should take about a minute. 

Flip the toast and let the other side cook for another 1-2 minutes. 

After taking the french toast out of the skillet, let it cool for a few minutes. Then proceed to spread the cream cheese evenly over the toast. We used both regular cream cheese and mix berry cream cheese. Then add strawberries on top. After that you'll want to start the process over again. 

By this time the berry glaze should have reduced by half. It should be thinker consistency almost like gravy. 

After the other french toast is done cooling, spread on more cream cheese. 

Put the two pieces of french toast together and cut in half. Pour the berry glaze and you can dig in to this mouth watering french toast! 

Veggicate Podcast

Hey everyone! In this podcast I interviewed my good friend Chelsea Huddleston who has provided me with incredible support on my choice to become a vegetarian. She has great insight on the benefits of becoming a vegetarian so check out the podcast to hear what she has to say!  

Vegetarian Chili

The secret ingredient for this meatless chili is in fact "meat"...imitation meat that is.  This spin on Chili is an unexpected treat that you could feed to any meat eater and I can guarantee that they would not be able to tell the difference. I fed this to my roommate who eats meat on a regular basis, was fooled by this imitation meat. In this recipe I used Meatless Crumbles made by Simple Truth, the main ingredient being soy. You can find these meatless crumbles at any main food supplier HyVee, Dillon's, Natural Grocers, or Walmart.

Ingredients:  

• 1 package of Meatless Crumbles 
• 3-5 fresh/frozen tomatoes (we happened to have home grown tomatoes that we froze) 
• 1 onion 
• 3 cloves of fresh garlic 
• 2 cans of tomato sauce
• 1 can of pinto beans
• 1 can of kidney beans 
• 1 can of Rotel 
• 1 tablespoon of dried basil leaves 
• 2 tablespoons of ground cayenne red pepper (I like my Chili spicy, if you don't put 1 tablespoon) 
• 2 tablespoons of chili power 
• 2 teaspoons of cumin 

You'll want to start out with a large pot. Drizzle about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of the pot. Add chopped onion and let it cook for 2-3 mins on medium heat then add the meatless crumbles and let that cook for a good 5 mins or so. 

 Once the onion and the meatless crumbles are cooked your going to add the 2 cans of tomato sauce, 3-5 fresh or frozen tomatoes, (you could also use can whole tomatoes if that is what you have on hand) and 1 can of rotel. Let that simmer for a few minutes.

 Once you let that simmer for a few minutes its time to add the assortment of beans and all the spices listed above. You are more than welcome to add more or less of the spices depending on taste. I also decided to add a dark beer I happened to have in the fridge that added a deep richness to the chili, so that's also an option for you.

Let the chili simmer on the stove for 30-40 mins. The longer you let it cook that better it will taste because it gives the flavors time to come together and marinate. Resulting in some delicious "meatless" chili. You could serve the chili over a baked potato or fries topped with some sour cream and cheddar cheese. I prefer my soup the classic way, in a bowl served with some crackers. Enjoy!!