By Amy Dell, Vegetarian Resource Group Intern<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My arms were full when I made my way up to the\nOur Daily Bread building. Our Daily Bread provides hot meals to those in need\nand also acts as an employment center, run through the Catholic Charities. I\nhad to first drop off two vegan casseroles that fellow intern Emily and I had\nmade the previous weekend before I could make my way to my cooking class. With\nmy bag of ingredients, I made my way through the building and met with VRG\nVolunteer Marcy Schveibinz who runs the Healthy Cooking Class at Christopher Place\nin Baltimore. Christopher Place, a part of Our Daily Bread, is a residential\nemployment center that provides education and training to formerly homeless\nmen. To learn more about Christopher Place, visit: https:\/\/www.catholiccharities-md.org\/services\/christopher-place-employment-academy\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n I was so excited to work with a new group of\npeople and share food and conversation while also teaching! I had spent time in\nthe weeks preceding the class preparing a lesson plan and picking a recipe to\ncook. I decided that I wanted to make Eggless French Toast from VRG\u2019s own Meatless Meals for Working People<\/em> by\nDebra Wasserman and Charles Stahler. Something about French toast sounded\nperfect as an example of how a few easy switches can make your favorite meals\nvegan. Plus, who doesn\u2019t love French toast? Marcy suggested adding berries for\nsome summer-y flare and color. With my recipe in mind, I created the lesson\nplan based on a few main themes that I wanted to address: vegan comfort food,\neasy vegan ingredient replacements, and how food can be used to bring people\ntogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The class consisted of six men who were excited\nto meet me and get started with the class. When I said that we were cooking French\ntoast today, many of the men\u2019s faces lit up and they started asking questions\nabout what I was going to put in it and telling me their own recipes. After\nsome quick introductions, Marcy and I started peeling the bananas and mashing\nthem up in a bowl. To that, we added soy milk, maple syrup, and cinnamon. As I\ndescribed what I was doing, I also asked the men about their daily diets, their\nfavorite foods, and their experiences in the program. I learned that many of\nthe men eat a lot of chicken, but they said they were interested in adding more\nfruit to their diets. Marcy and I then talked to the men about the health\nbenefits of fruits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even though we had a little trouble getting the French\ntoast to cook right on the pan, the men were very understanding and supportive.\nThe pan was not nonstick, and so the French toast stuck to the bottom of the\npan before it was cooked. After a few tries, we were able to get the\ntemperature right and fry up some delicious French toast. When we were\nfinished, the men were eager to try what we had made. As the men ate their French\ntoast and berries, they went around the room and shared something they learned\ntoday. Many of the men shared how surprised they were that you could use\nbananas instead of eggs in French toast and other baked goods. One man even\nsaid he would make the recipe again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Below, you can find the complete recipe for the\nEggless French Toast and my lesson plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Vegan Whole Wheat French Toast with Berries<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ingredients for 3-4 servings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 Ripe Bananas<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 cup unflavored soymilk<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 Tbsp maple syrup<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00bc teaspoon cinnamon<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7 slices whole wheat bread<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 teaspoons oil <\/p>\n\n\n\n Berries to top<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recipe: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mash bananas in a bowl. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Add soymilk, maple syrup, and cinnamon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stir well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Soak bread in mixture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fry in a lightly oiled (non-stick!) frying pan\non both sides over medium heat until lightly browned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Top with berries<\/p>\n\n\n\n To purchase Meatless Meals for Working People<\/em>, visit: https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/bookstore\/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=2&zenid=0931010b82bf2fbbc2c9ff71a9443f26<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lesson Plan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Helpful Tips and Tricks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amy\nDell is an intern at The Vegetarian Resource Group. For more information about\nVRG internships, see https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/student\/index.php<\/a>\n\nTo support VRG outreach,\ndonate at www.vrg.org\/donate<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Amy Dell, Vegetarian Resource Group Intern My arms were full when I made my way up to the Our Daily Bread building. Our Daily Bread provides hot meals to those in need and also acts as an employment center, run through the Catholic Charities. I had to first drop off two vegan casseroles that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13820,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13819\/revisions\/13820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n\n\n\n