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!

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.

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.

vegan umami

I'm not sure what to call this except, YUM, vegan umami!

It doesn't taste like bacon, but that's what One Ingredient Chef, who inspired the recipe, was trying to create. One Ingredient Chef made his version of "bacon" with tempeh. I tried the recipe his way and it was good, reminiscent of bacon, but a little too time consuming around here. I'm all about easy and fast!

I have a lot of these:

And decided they would be an excellent way to use his marinade, and that it would be a lot faster to not have to cut anything.

I used a pack of the soy curls. I put them in a 9x11 baking pan and spread them out. I poured a cup of boiling water on them and stirred them around. (Pour the water slowly and make sure it's not too much. You want to soften them but not soak them. If you need a little more, add it.) Sprinkle the soy curls with onion powder (about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon), and garlic powder (about the same amount).

Next pour on the following:

1/2  cup Maple Syrup
1/2 cup Tamari
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika

Stir and let soak in the yummy marinade for 10-15 minutes.

Cook, in a frying pan, for 10 - 15 minutes, while stirring well. (I cooked in two batches.) The edges of the soy curls will get crispy. Because the soy curls are pretty thick, they weren't going to get really crispy throughout.

While they were cooking I spooned on another teaspoon or two of smoked paprika. Mix the smoked paprika in well as you stir the soy curls.

The smoked paprika is really essential to make this tasty and a little more bacon-like. Make sure you get the smoked kind of paprika! I had to hunt for it in the store, but it was definitely worth the hunt.

 
Cooking!


 
And then I made a salad with a yummy umami topping (I ate mine this way).


And I made the other four people in the house a yummy sandwich--reminiscent of a BLT.

Rating: 5 out 5 of us liked this! It was a fun Sunday night dinner. I made a second batch the same way so we have leftovers for lunch!

New to us... Nofu loaf

I've been looking for new recipes as we are all a little burned out of the typical dinners around here.  I found this months ago, and lots of my online vegan friends have made and raved about it, so I thought we'd give it a try. Of course, I did a teeny change. I left the topping off (see other links for pictures and more info). 

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2012/04/dreenas-no-fu-love-loaf.html
http://familygoesvegan.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/no-fu-loaf/

No-Fu Loaf

1/2 cup brown (green) lentils
1 cup vegetable stock
1/3 cup water
1 dried bay leaf
3/4 cup steel cut oats
4 cups water
1 cup water, boiled
1/4 cup  ketchup
1 cup rolled oats
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons chia seeds or flax meal
2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tahini
2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon ground fennel (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions
Combine the lentils, vegetable stock, 1⁄3 cup of water, and bay leaf in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 25 to 30 minutes, until just about tender. Once done, remove from the pan and remove the bay leaf.  You can use the same pan to cook the steal cut oats for 20-25 minutes.  (You can do the oats and lentils concurrently if you are in a hurry.)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. 

Once the steel cut oats are cooked, add the lentils and all the remaining ingredients. Stir very well. Transfer the mixture to a pan.  I used a 8x8 glass pan with a silicone liner in it.  (Next time, I'll use my 9x9 pan.)

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 25 to 28 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 to 15 minutes or so, before cutting to slice and serve. Serves 5-6.

I did not do the topping as suggested by the other recipe. I figured we'd mostly use this as "meat" for sandwiches and we each like different spreads. Some of us like vegan mayo, some like BBQ, some like mustard. 

When the loaf came out of the oven, it was really wet still. It's firmed up a bit in the refrigerator. Next time, I'll probably try just 2/3s of a cup of boiling water to the mixture. It seemed a bit wet to me. It tastes pretty good; I feel it needs  a little more spice or kick, or something. I'll make it again and let you know what I do next time. Natalie likes it, and the other two haven't tried it yet. Though I made it this afternoon, we had to go out to dinner to celebrate their report cards. We went to one of our favorite vegan restaurants.

Some nights

I cook most of our food with fresh ingredients, but some nights we're just too tired and busy to make it happen. Here's an easy, tasty dinner that I would wager is better (nutritionally) than going out to eat.

 

 

 

 

One could replace the broccoli with rice, or keep the broccoli and add some rice.