stuffing (our faces)

It's a veryveryvery vegan Thanksgiving! This year, we stayed home and had a our Thanksgiving as our family of 5.  We missed our friends who were traveling, but we'll get together over the Christmas Break.

Appetizer
 Creamy tomato soup

Slightly modified:
 24oz organic strained tomatoes (Bionaturae Organic brand)
 1 1/2 cup organic veggie broth
 1 cup organic raw cashews
 1 tablespoon onion powder
 2 tablespoons organic dried basil
 2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
 1 - 2 organic bay leaf

Put everything but the cashews and 1/2 cup of the broth in a pan.  Stir and heat.  But the cashews and the 1/2 cup of the broth in the blender.  Blend until smooth.  Add to the soup after it's cooked for about 10-15 minutes.

Note: You can re-blend the soup (pull out the bay leaf before you do!) if you want the garlic to not be chunky or if your cashew cream clumps when you add it.

You can kind of see the soup in the picture below.


Green salad
Romaine
Tomato
Cucumber 

Dressing of olive oil, dijon mustard, honey, balsamic vinegar, garlic.  We never measure. 

 




Home made Tofu-Turkey

We made our own turkey! I found that recipe and it sounded interesting. (Tia totally wanted to make a home made Tofu-Turkey or have some sort of "turkey.")

It totally broke--like people discussed in the comments on that other site. (And I almost dropped it when I was pulling it out of the oven, but I caught it! It was a precarious few seconds that felt like minutes.)  Oh, well.  It was very (veryvery) tasty!
Note, make 2xs the marinade.

We only used 4 tubs of tofus... (we got sprouted, and I was worried, but it came out okay.) We followed the directions on that other site. It was worth making and I'd make it again, but I might think about the way I put it together... A square pan?  I don't know... Maybe I'll try it again as the recipe suggests.  I'll let you know.


Tofu turkey on left, dressing on right.

Stuffing

3 baguettes diced into cubes the night before then toasted in the oven for a few moments (well, some were toasted longer 'cause we forgot they were in the oven and we preheated the oven for pies--oops.  All is well that ends well. The glass container they were stored in didn't break, and thank goodness they weren't in something plastic!)

1 cup (use more next year--1.5-2 cups) celery
1 medium onion (again, use more)
2 teaspoons (?) sage
1/2 bag (4 ounces) dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecans broken up
4-5 cups of broth

(I didn't measure, and I liked the way it came out. Hopefully, I can recreate it.)

Brussel Sprouts
I found this recipe and since I've been on a Sriracha kick lately, I knew I had to make it!  (Everything about this recipe is the same as the original site.  I just put it here in case the web site goes away or something. They get full credit!)

1½ pounds brussels sprouts
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup rice-wine vinegar
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons Sriracha, or more to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Trim the base away from the brussels sprouts and discard. Cut the sprouts in half.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil with the vinegar, honey and Sriracha to combine. Add the brussels sprouts and toss until they are fully coated. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Spread the brussels sprouts on a baking sheet, cut sides down. Pour any extra olive-oil mixture onto the pan and tilt the pan around to distribute it.
4. Roast until the sprouts are crispy on the outside and golden and caramelized on the cut sides, 20 to 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

Mashed Potatoes

(From Forks over Knives, see link above for a picture on our site and then a link to their site.)

Gravy

• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• ¼ cup garbanzo bean flour
• freshly ground black pepper

The gravy went well with the tofu turkey and dressing!  

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

• 2 large Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 bag of cauliflower
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup of cashew cream
• dash of unsweetened, unflavored plant milk
• freshly ground pepper
• Dash of sea salt

Pumpkin Pie 

I made my usual pie.


2 packages of 3/4 pound silken (soft) tofu
2  15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2/3s - 1 cup brown sugar (we always go less sweet) (could be maple syrup)

This makes enough for 2 pies.  We always do one with crust and one with just chocolate chips (in the red silicone pan).  Soy whipped cream on top for the vegans!

The girls were awesome helpers and even took the lead cooking.  Kira made the soup and salad dressing, they all cut brussel sprouts, Tia made the salad and had the idea that we make a homemade "turkey," Natalie made the gravy, and best of all they helped in whatever way I asked! I couldn't have done it without them!  Nick was super helpful, too.  He helped keep things running smoothly and the kitchen clean!

(I have no idea why my pictures of the food are so fuzzy looking, but I'm guessing I had something on the lens of the camera. I wiped it off before I took the pictures of the pies so they are more clear.)

Pumpkin Pillow Cookies and variations

I found this recipe http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2014/10/pumpkin-pie-pillows-low-sugar-vegan.html.  I love finding gluten-free recipes that look interesting.  I thought this recipe looked interesting, despite the coconut. One thing, you may or may not have noticed, on this blog, coconut oil is not used.  I don't like coconut.

I've tried cooking with it in the past but my veggies tasted like suntan oil.  (That's what I think of when I smell coconut--around here, we say I taste the beach when we taste coconut.)

Despite the prevalence of coconut in that recipe, I knew I could fix it.  I added a little more almond butter than she called for (instead of coconut oil) and used maple syrup instead of coconut sugar.  The cookies were very moist; I want to get some maple syrup sugar, but alas, I don't have any still and I'm making the recipe for a second time.

One other thing, the first time I made the recipe I put in A LOT of pumpkin.  I doubled the recipe ('cause 3 hungry girls around here PLUS one hungry husband). On the doubled recipe, I did math and came up with a whole can of pumpkin in the cookies.  Oops.  Really, I should have only used about 3/4 a can for a double recipe... The cookies, with my extra moisture still came out pretty tasty, but they weren't pillow like--chewy and moist, yes, but I expect pillows to be lighter and fluffier. They were good enough to warrant trying again!

This time I used (about) the right amount of pumpkin with maple syrup (so still extra moisture).  I thought the batter looked better and am pleased with how the cookies look and taste. They aren't very sweet, but that's just the way I like them! I added chocolate chips to half the batter (today and the first time). The chocolate chips do sweeten them up and I like them better without chocolate chips (shocking!).

Here's the recipe with my modification, but not doubled.  It made ~24-25 small cookies. 


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups rolled oat flour
1/2 tsp dried ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon (I used 1 tablespoon)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon chia seeds


2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 medium apple, chopped
1/4 cup maple syrup
1.5 tablespoons almond butter (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

topping: cinnamon sprinkled on top before baking (Note, I only did this for the cookies without chocolate chips.)



 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add the oats, chia seeds and spices to a high-speed blender. Blend until the oats are a fine powder.  Pour the dry oat mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the salt and baking powder.

Add all the wet ingredients to the blender container, apple, vinegar, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, ginger, almond butter, and vanilla. Blend until the apple is not apparent and the mixture is smooth.

Pour the wet into the dry bowl and stir until combined and a soft dough forms. Place the dough bowl in the refrigerator or freezer for 5-10 minutes to firm so the dough is less sticky (it is very sticky dough!) I made about 24 little cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes on a cookie pan lined with a silpat baking sheet. 

The cookies with 1 full can of pumpkin (in the recipe doubled) were good and I might make that variation again, but the batter was REALLY sticky--even with less pumpkin, it's still sticky! The original author said they make a good breakfast cookie.  I agree. I think she also thought they would be good for snacking on at ANY time--again, I agree!

     

Black bean soup

Basically this recipe http://www.forksoverknives.com/recipes/cuban-black-bean-soup/, but tripled.

My vegan who doesn't like vegetables loves black bean soup. She asked if I'd blend the onions so she couldn't see them.  I did.

1 small onion (blended into juice)
1 tablespoon (heaping) cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 cans black beans (drained)
4.5 cups of veggie broth
1-2 garlic cloves
salt to taste (I used 1 teaspoon as our beans were unsalted)

Put the onion and a little broth in a soup pan and cook for 5 minutes or so.

Add everything else listed above; cook for 20-30 minutes.

Put 1 container of salsa (15 ounces) <--one more ingredient not listed above, in blender with 1/2 to most of the beans.  Blend. Pour back in the soup pan.

Add 1 tablepoon lime juice <--and again one more ingredient not listed above.

 Cook for 5-10 more minutes.

Serve with  chips, rice, or quinoa and whatever toppings you like (the vegan who doesn't like vegetables loves Daiya cheese).


Very easy and very tasty.  

Three of them!

I walked outside to see the rosebush that came back in our backyard and I saw a pomegranate! There are actually three of them. So exciting!

Need to make: vegan spinach balls

http://www.veganfamilyrecipes.com/2014/12/vegan-spinach-balls.html

Fall Garden

Over the weekend, our head gardener and two lovely assistants planted broccoli, peas, fava beans, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and kale.  I am so excited!

The lettuce and carrots were seeds, the rest were little sproutlings.   (Why doesn't my spell checker like sproutlings?  That's a great word!)  Leftover from summer are pepper plants (orange and red) and there are some happy poppies that survived the tilling of the summer last spring and sprouted.

 

 

 

 
(This post is cross posted to the family blog, too.)