What?? Are those eggs I see in M & K's frying pan?

I need to preface this post with the disclaimer that the following food, although vegan, is not health food. It is not very good for you, and should not be consumed on a regular basis. With that said, it was really delicious and fun to make. The good thing about eating a plant-based diet is that you can spend time thinking of delicious, perhaps even fatty, foods to add to your diet, instead of figuring out ways to the eliminate them. M has a thing for processed meats - he always liked ham and corned beef and anything cured. So as much as he loves salad, he occasionally craves for something a little toothier. Last night he cooked up some seitan ham, which is made of gluten and tofu, seasoned with BacnBits (yes, they are vegan) and liquid smoke. It cooked all night in the crockpot and we sliced it up this morning.

The "eggs" are actually a mixture of tofu and chickpea flour, colored with turmeric, and are sort of a high-protein pancake. The consistency really does resemble that of a fried egg, although the taste is different. To assemble the final product, we toasted some bread and fried up the seitan and the fake egg to give them a little added crispiness.

Some of you may be wondering, why not just eat a regular egg? It would be, in fact, more of a "whole" food. We are blessed (or is it cursed) to have to make so many choices in our diets. Local vs. organic. Whole vs. processed. Low-fat vs. low-carb. Saving money vs. saving time. I remember the first time I walked into a large supermarket, after spending several months shopping at gas stations and tiny country groceries. I was so overwhelmed at the choices among bread and peanut butter that I nearly didn't buy anything at all. It's easy to get caught up in the whirl of Nutrition Labels and Diet Books and Lifestyle Choices. In the end, M and I simply prefer not to eat animal products, mainly because of the methods through which they come to the table. But we still like a good breakfast sandwich.