Brunch: Carrot Cake Pancakes & Breakfast Potatoes

My kitchen has once again been a little lonely.  Since Mardi Gras I have been finishing up left overs and cooking random veggies.  Sometimes vegans/vegetarians do just eat veggies!  I think I have obtained a slight addiction to green beans.  I started liking them after becoming vegan but now can't get enough of them.  I just made these the normal way with soy sauce, garlic chili sauce, agave and garlic.  Sauted the green beans with some broccoli, added the sauce and heated through.  Just a bowl of veggies is sometimes all you really need.  Saturday I had a veggie sammich from Subway on the 9 Grain wheat bread, mustard, all the veggies, oil and extra vinegar..pretty spiffy for an on the go lunch while in Elk Grove.  If I'm at home I add my own vegenaise but it's good without it.  Maybe I can write to the subway owners to start to carry veganise.  How genius would that be!! 

Sunday my friend and I started PAINTING!!!  I don't think I realized how much work painting really is.  We're only painting the living room which is pretty small (see above for the before) so I thought, meh...this should be pretty easy.  Welll.....maybe not so much.  We had to move all the furniture/stuff to the center of the room, tape everything...which was a pain and took forever, wipe down the walls, cover the furniture with plastic (which we didn't buy enough of so we had to keep moving it depending on where we were painting), and then start painting a primer that seals odors/stains that was alcohol based and smelled awful.  Literally like we painted the room in vodka.  It was BAD!!  We got a little late start too so we ended up only getting to the primer.  We did some touch ups today and are ready to finish with the paint tomorrow.  Luckily we should only have to do one coat of paint so tomorrow should be easy, paint!  With that said I haven't been cooking.  Sunday before the painting began I did manage to cook brunch for Aryn and I. 

I've posted about the carrot cake pancakes before, I got the recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen.  The wonderful Isa is amazing.  Check out her other recipes because I haven't had anything yet that I didn't like.  Although I am having some problems making the chickpea cutlets...my own faults as a chef, not hers.  The only adjustment I made was leaving out the carrots.  Due to comments left I'm afraid I'm going to shred them wrong and ruin them.  They are just too good to ruin, and taste just dandy without the carrots.  Albeit I'm sure less healthy, but if I'm counting probably much more healthy than the actual cake itself so really a win-win. 

Since the pancakes are very sweet I wanted to balance that with some potatoes.  I LOOOVVVEE potatoes.  Really they are my best friend.  If they didn't take so long to cook I would make them more often.  I'm always so impatient for them to be ready.  Any kind of potatoe I love, french fries, baked, stuffed, mashed, salad, soup, on pizza, in burritos..really there is no wrong potatoe. 

Ingredients:
4 medium potatoes
1 red pepper (I used left over roasted red pepper)
1/2 medium/large onion
olive oil
seasoning to taste I like a lot of different ways
 this time I used rosemary
 Oregano
 salt/pepper
 paprika
 
Directions:
1.  Wash the potatoes then add to boiling water (You can peel if you wish but I prefer to keep the skins on)
2.  Once fork tender rinse with cold water and let cool
3.  In the meantime chop the onion and pepper, cook in a little olive oil
4.  Chop potatoes and add to onion/pepper with seasonings
5.  Let cook until browned and crispy

It was the perfect meal to start our tiring painting endeavors.  Please forgive the photos as we were in a rush and I didn't have time to be artistic.  Only one more day to go and then we're half way back to having my apartment back to normal.  Once the paining is done tomorrow I can move the furniture back/remove the tape then carpet is in on Friday!!!  My mom is coming down on Saturday to help me re-decorate.  I can't wait to have my apartment back.  Maybe I'll have more time to be creative and cook/blog!!  I feel like it's been weeks since I've been to the grocery store.  I've gone to get a thing here and there but not enough to get creative, just clean out the place.  I'm planning a trip on Sunday once the place is back to normal.  Can you beleive I'm out of garlic!!!  I almost put garlic in EVERYTHING that I eat and food is going to be pretty bland without it.  Luckily I have left over Chipotle for lunch tomorrow.  =)  I'll be sure to post pics of the "new" (obviously new being relative) digs once everything is back to normal!

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!!