Thanksgiving 2013.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you're home with friends and family, cozy and pleasantly full! I sure am. This Thanksgiving was low key as it was just me and my husband. My parents and brother went out of town so I didn't make a gargantuan amount of food as I usually do. We ate two plate of food and have been relaxing on the couch with a glass of wine and Twilight Zone marathon on the tv. I am now blogging from the comfort of my couch with a cup of holiday black tea nearby. The following is what we ate today.

First up, Tofurky Roast! I swear, every year it just tastes better and better. I roasted mine on top of carrots, turnips and onions with a delicious olive oil/soy sauce/orange juice/herb marinade.

Delicious herb stuffing from The Vegan Family cookbook. My husband complimented me on this and I was glad because he's used to boxed chicken flavored stuffing. Homemade is best!

First time for me making a sweet potato casserole. I got this recipe from Susan V. here. It's very good but so sweet. I'm not used to adding sugar and syrup to sweet potatoes, but I'm glad I tried it. I only used two sweet potatoes so I pretty much halved the recipe.

I gave these vegan Yorkshire puddings a go. I was very scared but I'm happy I tried. They didn't come out puffy and light like the traditional ones but these were quite nice. I would add less salt next time. I used Jeni's recipe here. I subbed almond milk instead of soy and all purpose instead of bread flour which could be why they didn't turn out how they should.

My plate. Everything was so delicious!

And for dessert, german chocolate cake! I used Susan V's recipe here.

4 days of "Me" time.

I love these four day weekends, don't you? Mine started on Wednesday night after work. Came home and made a "meatloaf" dinnner.

Again I used the Magical Loaf Studio and created a recipe that used black beans, pecans, oats, veggies and a bunch of other seasonings. It came out of the oven beautiful.

It's not a meatloaf dinner without mash and a vegetable. For the mash, I made a creamy miso gravy to pour over. Oh, that's kimchi on the side. I love kimchi but it didn't work flavor-wise on this plate.

Yesterday, my husband and I took the train downtown to see Ringo's exhibit at the Grammy Museum. Love this place. I've seen many a good music exhibits here. As for Beatle-y ones, I've been to John's, George's and now Ringo's. When they do one for Paul, I'll be all over that. He's my favorite.

RINGO! This was all I got a picture of. It was the entrance to the exhibit. They wouldn't let you photograph anything beyond that. The exhibit itself was amazing. Ton of artifacts, Ringo's drum kits, letters, photos, video etc. I was in Beatle heaven.

After the museum, we went to The Yard House for lunch. We usually start off with drinks. The Smithwicks on the left was my husbands. The pear cider on the right is mine.

Drink #2: Moscow Mule! Vodka, lime and ginger beer. So refreshing!

I ordered a Gardein burger with fries. Yum.

To celebrate the 4th and a successful sunshine day, I made this impressive almond-coconut mango "jello".

If you want to make a vegan jello, agar is your friend. Recipe here. Just substitute almond-coconut milk for the juice.

Magical Loaf Studio

Used the awesome Magical Loaf Studio generator today and made this luscious chickpea/walnut/sunflower seed loaf. It also has carrots, onion, celery and mushrooms. I slathered the top with bbq sauce/ketchup.

Was so delicious with mash and peas.

What are you waiting for? Go here and make your own loaf!

Mashed Potato Stuffed Mushrooms

I made mashed potatoes, added sauteed onion and stuffed them into portobello mushrooms, then I added a dollop of Wayfare smoked hickory cheddar vegan cheese spread and vegan bacon bits. Baked them in the oven for 15-20 minutes and 350 F. Really yummy.

A Vegan Mouse Thankgiving.

My Thanksgiving dinners for the past five years have been pretty much the same old comfort foods that I love. If you look at my past photos, they probably look very similar to this. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday!


Roasted brussels sprouts are amazing.


Roasted sweet potatoes are even more amazing.


Homemade herb stuffing was very tasty!


Actually, I've only had the Tofurky roast for the first time last year. Isn't it cute? I basted it with an orange juice, olive oil, soy sauce and fresh herbs mixture.


The whole lot. Also pictured: dijon glazed carrots, green bean casserole and lots of mashed potatoes and orange-herb gravy.


Pumpkin pie with maple cashew "cream".

Potato Kibbe (Potato & Bulgur Pie)

Got this delicious recipe from a fantastic cookbook, "Classic Vegetarian Cooking From The Middle East and North Africa". It's a mashed potato and bulgur dish with a layer of sauteed onions and almonds in the middle layer. I think mine could have been crisper and browner on the top but I was so impatient to eat that I have burnt roof of mouth as result!


Served with a lemon garlic sauce (vegan mayo, lemon juice, garlic, salt, parsley).

Potato & Kale Enchiladas

My friend Cynthia and her mom are wonderful cooks and today I got a recipe to make mole for enchiladas. The mole sauce is very simple to make with dried new mexico and pasilla chiles. Instead of baking the enchiladas in the oven, the tortillas are coated in the sauce, filled with cooked potatoes and kale and then pan fried in a little bit of oil to give a slightly crisp exterior. These are delicious!

Mole recipe from Cynthia's mom:

Ingredients:

Dried New Mexico chiles - about 5 or 6, remove seeds
Dried Pasilla - 1 or 2, remove seeds
1 garlic clove
small handful of cilantro
pinch of dried oregano
salt to taste

-Soak chiles in hot water until soft. (While these are soaking you can make your filling. I just boiled 2 large potatoes and mashed them with sauteed kale and onions and seasoned with salt and pepper.)
-After chiles are softened, blend all mole sauce ingredients together in the blender. (I added most of the water that they were soaking in to help them blend better into a nice thick sauce.)
-Pass mixture through a sieve into a pan.
-Simmer sauce with a little bit of oil for about 10 minutes.

To make enchiladas:

8 corn tortillas, softened in the microwave for about 20 seconds (or you can do this in a dry pan over heat)
olive oil

-Heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan. Dip one tortilla into the mole sauce and coat both sides. Place dipped tortilla on a plate and fill with about 2 TB of potato/kale mixture. Close up tortilla and place into the pan and brown on both sides. Do this with the remaining tortillas until you've used up the filling.


You can see the nice crust it forms from pan frying. Yummy!

VeganMoFo: Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all are having a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones. Had a wonderful dinner with my husband, parents and brother today. I spent most of the day cooking up some great food. I wish I had taken more pictures but I was so busy!


This is a shot of Susan V's vegan green bean casserole. I absolutely love this. I don't miss the ones I had as a girl, you know the one with canned green beans and cream of mushroom soup! This one uses fresh green beans and a made from scratch creamy mushroom base, without the dairy!


Whoa baby that's a loaded plate of food! Let's start on the left and go clockwise: Tofurky roast slices covered in "giblet" gravy, cranberry and mandarin sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes and orange herb gravy, green bean casserole, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, dijon glazed carrots. It was all DELICIOUS. I'm happy that as a vegan, I'm not missing any comfort foods that I remember from Thanksgivings past. I've pretty much covered all the bases.


Can't have Thanksgiving dinner without dessert! This is Bryanna's pumpkin pie with a delectable maple sweetened cashew cream. FIVE STARS. I loved this spicy custardy pie. Looking forward to leftovers!

Grilled Vegetable Salad

Sometimes I get really overwhelmed by the amount of veggies I have in my fridge that I usually want to throw them into a stew pot and call it dinner. I forget that simple preparations like grilling can get the job done too. I had one japanese eggplant, a red and green pepper that was nearing it's due date. I cut them into slices, brushed them with olive oil and grilled them until they were soft with charred marks. Then I cut them into bite size pieces and tossed them with a simple dressing of olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Was really easy and delicious!


Served with mashed potatoes and Heinz british baked beans.


For dessert we had root beer floats!

Moussaka on Mashed Potatoes.

This is the best thing ever. Leftover moussaka on fluffy mashed potatoes. Tonight will be my second time eating it like this and I wouldn't mind having it again tomorrow!