Milk Bar's Full Vegetarian Breakfast Home-styled

This morning Andy and I prepared for our scheduled "meeting" where we were to discuss some of the details of our upcoming trip.  He brought his travel books, his computer and his moleskin to our dining room table while I brought my own unique contribution, a home cooked, restaurant inspired breakfast. It was a-maz-ing!  In case you didn't know, we are leaving N.Y. for the summer to travel around South East Asia, and we couldn't be more excited!   However, when I know I am going to be away for a long time, aside from spending time with my friends and family, there are always little things I want to experience before I go.   Hence....a homemade breakfast!

I decided early this morning that I was going to make my own version of Milk Bar's full vegetarian breakfast.  My friend, Emily, turned me onto it over one of our school vacations, and I haven't ordered anything else off their menu since.  In case you're thinking, "Milk Bar? What's that?"  Let me please share... Milk Bar is an awesome little brunch spot located on Vanderbilt, right in Prospect Heights.  It has a relaxed atmosphere and a very vegetarian friendly menu.  All their eggs are organic and cage free and the milk they use is bottled on a local farm.  Did I mention how delicious their freshly baked bread is?  Oh yes.

Milk Bar's official website

Anyway, my version wasn't exactly like theirs, but it was close and equally delicious!  My own variation of their vegetarian breakfast consisted of 2 slices of bread cut from a baguette, toasted and topped with melted gruyere cheese and 2 poached eggs.  On the side, was sliced avocado and deliciously cooked home-fries.  I also fried up a side of bacon for the carnivore of the house (not me).

Before I share anymore, I need to give a huge shout out...
This breakfast (and pretty much all of my breakfasts) could not be possible without the guidance of smitten kitchen.  I use her home fries recipe religiously, and she also has an EXCELLENT post that shows you step-by-step how to poach an egg.

So, the breakfast I made this morning was really simple to make.  It went a little something like this:

1.  I started the home fries and bacon since they take the longest to cook.  Whenever I am making a breakfast like this, I heat my oven to 200 degrees and that way, if my timing is off, I can use it as a warming plate so nothing gets cold.

2.  While the home fries and bacon cooked, I grated gruyere cheese,  and sliced the baguette and avocado.

3.  Next, I toasted all the slices of the baguette, topped them with gruyere cheese and placed them in the heated oven so they would melt.

4.  Meanwhile....it is time to poach the eggs.  Very scary, but have faith.  It will work!  Like I said earlier, I followed smitten kitchen's directions to a 't', and I found the vinegar and whirlpool method to be especially successful.  If you don't know what I mean,  click here!

5.  Finally, it was time to plate our food and dig in!  The beauty of poached eggs is that you can throw (not really throw, more like delicately place) them back in the hot water for a very short time just to reheat them.  That way, everyone's poached eggs are done at the same time.

Not the most photogenic plate, but trust me...it was good!