On the rare occasion that we ate at McDonald's before our vegetarian/vegan days, I loved their McGriddler sandwiches for breakfast. The sweet maple-y favor of the pancake paired with the savory spice of the sausage was a fantastic combo. So, in an attempt to provide an interesting breakfast for my kindergartner, I made a veganized version of the McGriddler. Just as tasty, and quite a bit healthier to boot!! There's really no recipe to share with this one. I made Isa's pancake recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance (obviously making them "silver dollar" sized). I made a big batch of these in advance and froze them for quick weekday breakfasts. Add one vegan breakfast patty (I have no brand loyalty here, so buy what you like), plus a side of maple syrup for dipping, and it's a quick, tasty breakfast in minutes.
I realize this isn't the healthiest breakfast to send my kid off to school on, but in my opinion, it's better than an empty stomach. She's not a breakfast eater (she prefers to be awake for quite sometime before she'll actually eat), but she will eat this with no reservations. She does like tofu scramblers, but I just don't have the time for that in the morning. It's a struggle to get her to eat cereal, and any sort of "health" food muffin is left on the plate only slightly nibbled. So, short of waking her up at 5 a.m. so she has a few hours before breakfast, this is what she's been getting a few days a week. If there are any other parents with picky breakfast eaters out there, I'd love to here what your kids are eating for breakfast........maybe some sort of breakfast "cookie".....got any ideas??
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I'm not a parent, but I'm a McGriddle lover, so I am very interested in this dish of yours! I am going to try making it for brunch tomorrow (valentine's day breakfast!) and see how it goes over with my normally meat-loving boyfriend :)
ReplyDeleteMine's the same way-- doesn't eat breakfast right away. Luckily for her, she's only 3 and we don't have any place to rush off to in the morning. I do worry about her when she starts school, though, because she'll probably go off with an empty stomach more often than not. One thing that she will have early in the morning is a smoothie or sometimes fresh juice. For her smoothies, I do fresh fruit juice, a few different types of fruit, some kale and sometimes a meal-replacement powder. I just found one at Whole Foods that is good called Vega (I tried an envelope of the "natural" flavor). It does give the smoothie a somewhat gritty texture and it does have some flavor to it, so I wouldn't suggest adding an entire envelope to the smoothie at first. The good thing is that most of the flavors come in the little envelopes so you can try a few different ones to see which you like best without investing in an expensive bottle.
ReplyDeleteIf she likes the sausage pancakes, maybe you can try making them into a seed or nut butter and jam sandwich. Or maybe some Tofutti cream cheese and jam. Tofu scrambles also keep very well, so you could even make up a batch on the weekend to give her for breakfast throughout the week. I wouldn't suggest freezing it, but I do know that they will last for several days in the fridge just fine.
I don't know if it's vegan or not, but I've always been very partial to those No Pudge! yogurt brownies. I'm pretty sure they freeze OK and are surprisingly healthy (though perhaps the cost of the mix might be a deterrent). If that fails, I would try making your own faux meat using Julie Hasson's recipe; I've always been wary those premade sausage patties because they mass produce them with stabilizers and such. Good luck!
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