It Was a Happy Thanksvegan

We made it through the eating-est holiday of the year and kept on the vegan track. My mother-in-law brought turkey for the meat eaters. Everything else was vegan-ified.  We had five meat eaters in the crew and four veggie/vegans. The menu looked like this:

• Celebration Roast - a vegan nut and vegetable loaf thing. It was pretty good. (Whole Foods)
• Dried Apricot and Black Currant Stuffing - my favorite recipe with Earth's Balance "butter" substituted for the real thing, and vegan stuffing mix substituted for the regular. It was fantastic. Couldn't tell the difference.
• Mashed Potatoes - I made these with Earth's Balance faux butter and a little salt and they were great.
• Vegan Mushroom Gravy - This was pre-made and sort of meh. (Whole Foods)
• Caramelized Brussel Sprouts w/ Toasted Garlic
• Sauteed Carrots w/ Honey and Lemon
• Bread Rolls - vegan
• Cranberry Sauce - just raw cranberries with a little sugar and some orang zest
• Vegan Coconut Cake - I bought this from Real Food Daily and it was terrific
• Vegan Pumpkin Pie - I ordered this from Real Food Daily too and it was terrible. Really terrible, like no one ate more than a bite and we threw the rest away terrible.
• Water
• Sparkling Juice
• Red Wine for the drinkers
• Coffee

This whole thing was much easier to pull off than I had anticipated. 

For a list of what I ate Friday and Saturday, consult the list above.

More Things That Want To Be Other Things

I had a vegan salami and vegan cheese sandwich today. It tasted so strongly of onion that I pulled the sandwich apart to remove the onion and there was no onion. So, I guess we know what they put in the "salami."

HERE is a good link to some vegan Thanksgiving options. I also got some ideas from my vegan guru friend, Trina. I'll share them here soon. I think this weekend will be my trial run for new vegan Thanksgiving recipes. Probably.

What I ate today:

• coffee
• oatmeal w/ bananas, raisins
• vegan salami/vegan cheese sandwich (Grassroots)
• green drink - kale, spinach, cucumber, apple, lemon, orange
• green salad - mixed lettuce, sunflower seeds, avocado, tomato, olive oil, Bragg's Nutritional  Yeast
• apple
• pear

Here Are Some Carrots

Little, purple fingerling potatoes showed up in the organic delivery box today.  They were very tiny with a different texture than a regular potato - smoother and less grainy.  I should have taken a photo of them but I was in too much of a hurry to eat them, so here's a picture of some carrots that were also in the box.

I threw together some chia seeds with almond milk and raw cacao powder and let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. What happened next tasted like chocolate pudding - in a tapioca-ish boba kind of way. It's good. My 8 year-old likes it too. Bob liking a raw/vegan dessert = minor miracle.


What I ate today:

coffee
2 bananas
strawberries
blueberries
baked purple fingerling potatoes
apple
sunflower butter
lightly sauteed green beans
baby kale salad w/ olive oil, Himalayan pink salt, and sunflower seeds
raisins
2 Medjool dates
chia seed chocolate pudding

Vegan Thanksgiving Hostess Plans

We've been talking about Thanksgiving around here. Traditionally, we host our family and friends at our place. There will be a turkey breast for our non-vegan guests. (Thanks, Honeybaked.)  I have been talked out of "Tofurkey" by approximately every member of Facebook, so not going there. I've been looking into how to make some vegan versions of the usual sides.

A vegetable side, probably green beans sauteed with shallots - no problem. Maybe a green salad AKA Thanksgiving roughage - easy peasy. Sweet potatoes are simple and I think my usual stuffing recipe is vegan. Some of the things I'm going to try out before Turkey/Not Turkey Day will be vegan mashed potatoes, (If they're bad, I'll just make the real thing for our guests.) and vegan mushroom gravy, instead of turkey gravy.  I can get a vegan pie and a non-vegan pie. And some variations on rolls.

I'll let you know how the new recipes turn out. You know I will.

Today I ate:

coffee
green juice - kale, spinach, cucumber, apple, orange, lemon (Grassroots)
bananas and strawberries
mixed baby kale salad w/ avocados, sunflower seeds, olive oil and Bragg's Nutritional Yeast
Delicata squash sauteed in olive oil w/ Himalayan pink salt
felafel w/ hummus, tomatoes, and Persian cucumbers