Thanksgiving 2019

Here we go again... Last year, work was super busy before Thanksgiving.  This year, it was super busy, and I mean SUPER busy until the Saturday before.  I am so burned out.  I love what I do, so I can get super excited about projects still, but my body is tired of sitting.  I need to work less.  I'm working on it.  Okay, but that's not what this post is about.

I am so thankful that I made this post last year!  I could have spent time planning for Thanksgiving earlier this week.  I only worked 8 hours this week--I took much needed vacation!  Watched bad tv with Nick, built a catio (look at the other blog for more info soon), worked out (pilates, tap, and a new format workout class), started reading a book for fun, planned part of a talk for next week, and that's about it. 


Okay... here we go heading to the store with the help of our list from last year!  We're making not the extravagant tofu turkey this year, but we are doing our new fast version.  We're making stuffing but not stuffing the turkey. Last year, there was an unfortunate accident with the turkey made the first way.  Fortunately, no cat was harmed*, and we had turkey to eat. However, I decided it's not worth the difficulty to make the turkey first way.  We will have all the good stuff with the fast version, just none of the stress. 




*I dropped our "turkey" as I was pulling it out of the oven to baste it... it almost landed on Buddy.  It was a huge mess. Sigh. I couldn't even write about it last year. I don't think we got a picture of the moment.  It wasn't really a moment I want to remember. I am sure other people have dropped turkeys and had other tragedies on Thanksgiving. I did get over it and we ate. We feasted. We were thankful.

More soon and hopefully pictures!

Fall harvest

 

And now there are apples (tons) and way more persimmons and pomegranates.   Also basil.  We still are getting a ton and I'll make another huge batch of pesto soon.  (It freezes so well.)  And lemons and limes!  (Note, the cat wasn't harvested.)

Perfect timing: Zucchini

It's been a while... remember me?  This year has been rough on the cooking and blogging front over here.  I'm working on it.

Today was a fun cooking day!  I found https://dreenaburton.com/zucchini-fritters/ and made them!  I had a HUGE zucchini and I needed inspiration.  Fritters were perfect! I played around with the spice.  I don't have dill so I stuck in garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, and chili flakes.  Yum.  I will try dill someday.  (Um, I might be a little scared of it.)

I was a little worried about the garbanzo bean flour and the need for cooking fully.  I've used garbanzo bean flour before, and I've always made sure to cook very well.

It felt like it was hard to get these fritters to cook because there was so much moisture in the zucchini. I couldn't tell if it was gooey under cooked or gooey moist.  I ended up using my sacred scanpan and then sticking the fritters in the oven on convection for a while.  Maybe I needed more flour?  Not sure.  (I have an idea for next time; I'll report back.)

Note: I must have cooked them enough because we ate a lot and everyone is okay.  (I had 10 cups of shredded zucchini and now only a few fritters left.)

I also made a roasted zucchini hummus.  Same as the raw recipe, just roast for an hour or so, (don't peel). Earlier this summer, I roasted two zucchinis and then froze them.  I hoped that they would be okay in hummus.  Today, I learned they were!  (Whew!  Good to know.)

I'm now making spaghetti sauce.  Nat wants to make a baked pasta so I made a LOT.  I might get to pictures.  Oh! Last night, we made vegan sushi. I'm trying to get back into the cooking mode. 

This summer, we spent a lot of time on the east coast, far away from my kitchen.  While we ate at some fabulous places that were vegan or vegan-friendly, I feel very out of the groove of cooking.  I'll have to make a list. I won't bee able to do much more than a list because I didn't get many pictures.

What else?  I could talk about working out.  I never slowed down on the dancing so tap still feels good.  I'll have to devote a post to that sometime soon, but don't feel like it now so I'll say, that's it for now.  More soon, if possible, or in 3 months (on Holiday break) if it gets crazy!

Green

 

Just a fun picture of two of my girls who like it green!

sweet potatoes

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes (3 to 4 medium sweet potatoes), peeled and sliced into 1-inch chunks  (I used 30 ounces or 3 packages of frozen cut ones for making this fast!)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (um, I didn't measure, just drizzled a little and mixed them up
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon - tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
•  1/8 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• a few shakes of chipotle powder -- probably 1/4 teaspoon
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix the spices and then sprinkle on the potatoes.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes to an hour (stirring them occasionally so they don't burn).

Picture soon.

Vegan eggs

 

If you notice, Just Egg has NO EGGS!  

They are so good as scrambled eggs, well, scrambled not eggs.  If you put a little black salt on them, they taste like eggs. They have a really egg-y texture. SO FREAKIN' WEIRD.

My girls like them.  I like them.  We'll be playing around with them more.

There is NOTHING I miss from the non-plant based world.  NOTHING.  

Plants rule!

Everytime I see the packaging on this product, I imagine that someone in a hurry grabs these thinking they are pre-scrambled real eggs... 

Oh, btw, I got two new scan pans that are perfect for making scrambled NOTEggs.

My sacred pancake pan is dying... We'll have to replace it at some point, but right now, we're not in a pancake phase.  More soon.

Purple Cabbage

I've seriously always wanted to cut up a purple cabbage... Okay, maybe not *always* but for a long time.  When I saw this salad, I knew I needed to make it.  OMG, so good.

I did almost everything she did.  My carrots weren't cut in as long of strips as hers, I just grated, but overall, I was pleased with how well I followed the recipe.

Here's the recipe in case her site ever goes down. Full credits to Cookie and Kate and Frugal Vegan! 

1 cup uncooked quinoa <-- slightly more than the original recipe (You can go with 3/4 if you prefer)
2 cups water <-- cook the quinoa with the water... these amounts worked well for us, I can't remember if it matched the package. I used the time amount listed on the package.
Set the quinoa aside to cool when done.

2 cups shredded purple cabbage
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup thinly sliced snow peas or sugar snap peas
¼ cup thinly sliced green onion

Dressing  
¼ cup smooth peanut butter 
3 tablespoons reduced-sodium tamari or soy sauce 
1 tablespoon maple syrup 
1 tablespoon rice vinegar 
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil 
Garlic / ginger, or both...  <-- deviated here...I used a little dried ginger and about 1/2 teaspoon dried garlic
½ lime (or lemon), juiced (about 1 ½ tablespoons)
Pinch of red pepper flakes

Mix all the veggies, quinoa, and dressing together.  I put on a few sprinkles of salt as I did this.

Garnish with chopped roasted and salted peanuts and fresh cilantro

Future plums

 
March 6, 2019

Green moustache

 

My favorite vegans!  Eating cheesecake at The Green Moustache.  I didn't get any.... I was skiing. They said it was good. 

 

Straws

 

Love this!  The girls used them and didn't notice that they were not plastic.  

Um, Hi...

I still blog here.

Really.

Last weekend, we went to one of our favorite restaurants and they had an almond ricotta with asparagus dish... So good!

Tonight I made a veggie bake and decided I needed to make some almond ricotta to go in it.

I can't take credit for the recipe--it's really simple and DELICIOUS.

Thanks, Minimalist Baker!

What I did...

1 whole bag of blanched almonds from Whole Foods.  It says 2 and 1/2 cups, but  I measured right at 2 cups
 ~1 cup  of water
~ 1/16th teaspoon garlic powder
 ~2 tablespoons of lemon juice
~1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

Blend

YUM.

We put cooked penne, our homemade pasta sauce, some vegan sausage, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, and the ricotta... Baked @ 350 for 45-50 minutes. YUM!  (I can't decide if I want to add red pepper flakes or not.)

(I used frozen, but stuck the cauliflower in with the pasta to unfreeze it.. should have done something with the broccoli, but it turned out okay just sticking it in frozen.)

So full! 

I tried to take a picture of the pasta bake, but it came out really odd looking in the night time lighting.... Next time!

Tofu "fast turkey"

We love our Thanksgiving turkey, but it's a lot of work.  I simplified the original recipe for a "lunchmeat" or easy dinner.  See http://chefinyou.com/2009/11/18/tofu-turkey-recipe/ for the original.  The original involves "night before" preparation. The prep time is streamlined because of how we cook the "turkey" -- we shape it flat for baking so it can cook off the liquid more easily. In the original recipe, the overnight drain really gets you a very dry tofu. 

Preparation (15-30 minutes)
Press the tofu--get as much liquid out as you can.  You'll use 3 14-15 oz. tubs extra-firm tofu.

After it's pressed, put the tofu and the spices in the food processor.

For the Tofu Turkey

All the pressed tofu

1/2  - 1 teaspoon ground dried thyme

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 - 2 tsp. garlic powder

salt (1 teaspoon) and pepper to taste

For the Basting Sauce

1/4 -1/2 cups low sodium tamari or gluten free soy sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp sesame oil

Spread the "turkey" on a baking sheet pan with sides.  You can cook on parchment paper or a silicone liner.  Brush on basting sauce.

     


Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Brush on the basting sauce again.  Bake for 30-45 minutes more. The tofu will crack on top but still be moist inside when done.


Makes an awesome "meat" dish with a side of veggies, mashed potatoes, or salad.  We love it on sandwiches.



We cut off pieces for sandwiches/eating.