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!

Thanksgiving Grocery List and Tips

This post is so not sexy, but it will help me next year.  I'm all about planning (sometimes).  This year was rough... I have been working so much and haven't had time to think about cooking / food at all.  I'll relay the events of our Thanksgiving later.  I didn't even get a single picture!  It was fun to hang with the fam!  So glad my niece could come!

Store List
5 tubs of tofu
3 baguettes for stuffing (buy a couple of days before and let get stale)
celery a BIG bunch--you'll use it in the stuffing b/c you always want more than you get
Cheesecloth

Make sure you have:
Onion Powder
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
A little thyme
Don't use sage in the turkey or dressing--we learned that Nick likes everything if there's no sage in it.

Asparagus (added 2023)

Cucumbers (think about green salad)

Brussels sprouts 3 bags

Portobello Mushrooms -- we got 8 this year (oh, Nick doesn't like these)
Carrots for carrot salad
Potatoes (8)

Gluten Free Baguette (for my niece)
Quinoa
Vegan cheese and olives -- great appetizer (Maybe Kira will do a post about vegan cheese in the future)

Planning notes
Do the turkey first (press tofu, let drip in the colander overnight (with cheesecloth), but NEW way to make the "turkey" now)
Turkey in the oven 1.5 hours?
Cut up the baguettes for dressing first thing in the morning or even the night before
onion, celery, apple, cranberries, broth (little balsamic, little maple syrup) dressing on stove 20 minutes, can prep anytime--even day before. In oven  45 minutes?
Cut up the Brussel Sprouts -- in the oven 40 - 60 minutes
Prep the potatoes and boil 20-30 minutes -- mix 10? 
Portobello prep and in oven 20-30 minutes?

Make Carrot Salad ahead of time (day before?)
Pumpkins cook a day ahead of time 2 is a good amount (should make 4 pies)--OH!  I made pumpkin pie from PUMPKINS!  Not Cans!  Super easy and Yummy!  I will post about that!

Turkey fun

 

 This was our turkey!  We dipped him in chocolate (dark, no dairy chocolate chips and soy milk melted in our fondue pot).  We all loved him!  Super fun! 

Thanksgiving eve

It's been a long time. Sorry about that. We took a trip to the East Coast (Boston and New Hampshire) and Nat came down with chicken pox. We had to stay a little longer than we planned and all of a sudden it's Thanksgiving!

Ah, Thanksgiving, the holiday of eating. We don't do traditional Thanksgiving and haven't the whole time the girls have been around. We used to make veggie fajitas for our meal, and they were really good, but somewhere along the way, we've been experimenting with other dishes. When my brother Rob comes for Thanksgiving we make eggplant and spaghetti in honor of our Dad.

This year, Natalie wanted to make eggplant even though Uncle Rob couldn't make it, so we will.

Dad used to fry the eggplant in olive oil (not breaded) and then layer sauce and cheese and bake it. We do the frying, but no cheese. It's amazing. I'll post pictures and tell you more tomorrow.

Tonight, Natalie, Kira, and I made a pumpkin pie. We used this recipe . In the past, I've just used eggs and soy milk in the recipe, but this year we decided to be fully plant-based with our pumpkin pie. I know you can do pumpkin pie with tofu, but I didn't have any to use so we tried it without. Recipe with attribution pasted below. 

Vegan Pumpkin Pie with Rustic Spelt Crust
by Angela Liddon
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 1 hour

for the filling
2 & 1/4 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup natural cane sugar or brown sugar
1/4 cup full-fat coconut cream (or almond milk), softened
1 tbsp Earth Balance, softened
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tbsp arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
Instructions

Filling: In a small bowl or mug, whisk together the maple syrup and arrowroot powder (or cornstarch). In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients, adjusting spices to taste.
To bake: Scoop the filling into crust and smooth. Add cut-outs on top. Bake for 45 mins at 350F. Remove and cover crust edges with tinfoil or crust shield. Bake for another 15 mins. Place on cooling rack for 1 hour. Transfer to fridge to set for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight. (this is very important!)

I totally want to try this crust ... I didn't have pecans though.  I'm really wanting to make one with walnuts and chocolate... Maybe I'll try to create one at some point.  I won't do it this Thanksgiving as we already have a big pumpkin pie in the oven and another dessert planned.  More tomorrow....or soon if not tomorrow.


For the crust
1 cup GF certified rolled oats, processed into a fine flour OR 1 cup GF oat flour
2 cups raw pecans
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp ground flax
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup brown rice syrup (acts as the binder, honey may work if you prefer that)
1 tbsp Earth Balance, melted

super cute Thanksgiving idea!

Isn't the little turkey cute? It's from cleanandscentsible's blog.  I doubt it's a vegan blog, but you could easily turn the turkey vegan with carrots instead of cheese (for the beak and the feet).  On the blog, Clean and Scentsible made this presentation for using in a chocolate fondue.  Dark chocolate is vegan... just saying that it's a super cute idea for a vegan holiday dessert!