heartyspoonful

Having lived in Canada for more than a decade, I can honestly say I feel rather Canadian now because we never run out of maple syrup. Once I see our stock run low, I'll buy another can of maple syrup a.k.a. the syrup to end all syrups. That's what keeps me sleeping like a baby at night, knowing we won't run out of maple syrup. (I'm joking, obviously, but I think I'm making my point at how much I love this thing.) 

Pancakes weren't a foreign concept to us growing up in Asia. However weird that may be. Whenever my grandmother would visit us from California, she'll whip up stacks of pancakes for me and my brother and she'd drizzle a lot of maple syrup to the point that our pancakes look like islands about to sink down an ocean of syrup. Gone were the days I didn't worry about sugar contents. Our school cafeteria, priding itself to cater the wants of students from different cultural backgrounds, started to offer hotcakes for breakfast or early morning snacks... But that syrup was anything but maple. I'm sorry to say this, but corn syrup just sucks. Obviously, once I set foot in Canada, the land of BeaverTails, famous Ryans and hockey, I just needed to take a shot or two of maple syrup. (No, that didn't happen, although I think I overate pancakes because I wanted more syrup.) 

I've moved on to French toast since then. I even use maple syrup as a substitute to sugar. Heck, my favourite marinade for tofu and tempeh is maple syrup based. I got a thing for maple and it just won't stop. 

But let's go back to French toast. Obviously, being vegan, the eggs and milk have go to go. And I'm also all for making recipes healthier, but without having the flavour suffer. You can have the best of both worlds, in my honest opinion. This recipe is pretty great if you don't want your boring (but delicious!) ol' PB&J sandwich and you're feeling pretty adventurous. You can't mess it up! 

Oh my lord. 

Easy Vegan French Toast for One 

Makes 1 French toast sandwich

Ingredients: 

You know what's so great about having foodie friends? Inspiring each other to try new foods! In my own experience, I think my friends and I discuss food more than we talk about boys and relationships. It's just more fun to talk about different kinds of foods, healthy and for comfort. When we're tired from work, food is our go-to. When we're heartbroken and frustrated in general, we turn to food to mend all the broken pieces. We laugh and drink and eat as merrily as Hobbits. Truly. But then again, as is normal to almost everyone, we also have a love/hate relationship with food. Especially after a few days or weeks of hearty meals and the scale declares there's extra baggage that needs to be dealt with. 

My friend Becky and I are so compatible in so many ways. We're both health-conscious, who love yoga and running. We both love to cook and meal prep is a must activity for us. We love trying new restaurants and more importantly, since we both cook, we love trying out new recipes. She mentioned that she was making stuffed peppers and since I've never made stuffed peppers before, I just new I should add it to my (growing) list of recipes. So, here goes.

Vegan Stuffed Peppers

Makes 3

Ingredients: