Pink Berry Bagel.

Good morning all! I was quite zonked today from an incredibly busy Father’s Day weekend. So all I could focus on this morning was a healthy, hearty, vegan, wake-me-up breakfast!

Get my Pink Berry Bagel recipe using homemade berry jam..

Double Berry Jam. One of my favorite things to do with fresh ripe berries is to make jam. It always breaks my heart to take perfectly ripe fresh fruit and boil it – but at the first bite of jam I never have any regrets. So there are two parts to the recipe. The jam and then the very simple cream cheese blend.

The flavor in this spread is bright and tart with a sweet cream accent. I guess you could call it a berries and Cream kind of bagel.

Cream Cheese. I used a vegan tofu based cream cheese – but you could sub with whatever cream cheese you keep in your fridge.

Sweet Pink Berry Bagels
makes 2 bagels – with plenty of leftover jam/spread

Double berry Jam
3 cups ripe raspberries
1 cup ripe strawberries – destemmed
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp corn starch
To Do: Boil on low for at least 45 minutes. Chill in fridge.

Also needed:
3 Tbsp tofu cream cheese
2 Tbsp Double Berry Jam, from above (chilled)
2 multigrain bagels, toasted

Directions:

1. Make the jam the night before. Store in fridge to chill.
2. In the morning, simply whip together the cream cheese and jam. Toast your bagels. Spread on bagels. Serve!

Easy. Yummy. Fun. Pink! Pairs well with this frosty coffee beverage!

My Weekend was nutso. Good and bad. Saturday consisted of tennis. Well, walking twenty minutes in ninety degree heat hoping to snag a tennis court at the local public courts – this activity was followed by failing miserably – several times. So walking home in ninety degree heat was how we ended our morning. There’s nothing sadder than two tennis-dressed, racket bag toting pedestrians stumbling home from the local courts – without having played a game. However, the heated walk, I will say was a work-out in itself. So a Soy Frapp bevie stop along the way was a necessity. And pretty refreshing. We sat by a fountain and watched the little neighborhood birds picks at bagel crumbs – and little toddlers giggling from the drifting, misty fountain spray. Sunshine.

Next, we decided to forget tennis and go to a bakery! Yup. A bakery. Sticky, sweet delights. But this was not just any bakery. Cupcakes, cookies, little devils.. This was Sticky Fingers Bakery in Wash DC. My husband was dying to try it out for the first time – and I was anxious to see the bakery since it won an episode of Cupcake Wars on Food Network. Hooray and bravo.

After a long metro ride through the dark, sticky, musty, underground maze that is the DC Metro system – we finally made it. It was AWESOME. Review post coming up this week. Don’t miss it.

Then on Father’s Day Sunday my parents came over for a nice brunch. Or what we thought would be a nice relaxing brunch. Not so much. I have never seen such lines-out-the-door at every restaurant in town for Dad’s Day. I guess that’s good news for the dads though.

We decided to go to a DC area Le Pain Quotodien. I usually rave about Le Pains. The NYC Le Pains I frequented several times a week were always (or almost always) spot-on – amazing service was expected and received. But lately the DC Le pains have been quite disappointing to me – it pains me to say that. But I actually walk away feeling more stressed out that when I walked in. Not good. I like to chill when I go out to weekend brunch – not worry about getting my order served to me correctly or having to wait painfully long before my first sip of soy latte.

..I will say that there are a small handful of DC Le Pain employees who rock my world. I just wish the service was much more consistent.

And my Sunday isn’t over .. there’s more..

Luckily my dad seemed to like his Amazon Kindle Dad’s Day gift. (yay)

But the day got even “better” when I decided to leave the lights on in my mom’s car – so when we returned (lotsa fridge-needed groceries in hand) the car battery was dead. Thank goodness for a speedy AAA service guy – and my wonderful husband who saved the day (so I didn’t have to).

..so alas, busy weekend under my vegan belt, today I was craving a nice energizing breakfast. Oatmeal and a lime papaya bowl for me? Or maybe a chocolate shake smoothie. Or maybe some banana bread waffles? Hmm.. What would you have as your perfect Monday morning breakfast after a crazy weekend??

Peruse my options in my Vegan Breakfast Recipe Index or my BREAKFAST tag.