Breakfast and I have never had a great relationship. We could just never really make the time for each other. Every now and then, breakfast and I would meet up in a cafe somewhere. We would have a good time together, then bid farewell for another few months. I wanted more.

It seemed like all we needed was a little intervention. Intervention in the form of a good book. Vegan Brunch was that book. This week of the cookbook challenge has had me excited about breakfast food. Not at unholy times of the morning (just yet), but excited nonetheless.

I kicked off the week with the perfect breakfast/snack, muffins.

Cocoa raspberry muffins

These cocoa raspberry muffins combine my favourite muffin-related ingredients, and are so delicate and delicious. And the perfect size for a not-so-guilty mid-morning snack. The only downside is that they’re all gone already.

And to combat my inability to cook elaborate breakfasts at appropriate times of day, a breakfast-dinner.

Italian feast sausages with roasted tomato, ricotta and basil tofu omelette

This was my first experience cooking an omelette, vegan or otherwise. This was also my first foray into the world of black salt. Both were successes. I’d never really liked omelettes in my pre-vegan life. I think I’d eaten a grand total of two. But I could eat these tofu omelettes every weekend. These are so fluffy and vaguely eggy due to the black salt, but not disconcertingly so. The filling of roasted tomatoes, cashew ricotta and fresh basil is perfection on a plate. I know I should try the other fillings in the book, but I feel like we’ve struck gold right here. Why fix what’s far from broken?

The Italian feast sausages also far exceeded my expectations. I’ve never really loved sausages, and I haven’t had great success steaming things in the past. But these were great. I threw them in the oven to keep them warm while I put the omelettes together, and this made them crispy on the outside. I’ll definitely do this again in future.

I served these with baby spinach and some quick pesto bruschetta- or what was left of it. Chadwiko may have helped himself to some (or a lot) of these while I was preoccupied.

With a little bit of preparation the night before, this could definitely be doable for a weekend morning. Vegan Brunch, you’ve changed my lazy weekend ways. And we thank you for it.