Thanksgiving Day Vegan Fest Recap

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day yesterday! J and I were supposed to go to his mom's for a family dinner, but I've been sick and so we decided it best to have our own little fest at home. J, the sweetheart that he is, insisted I relax while he prepared our T-day dinner. About a week ago we had discussed what we were going to make and created a delicious menu:

• Vegan YumYum's Seitan Roulade with Chestnut Stuffing (with pecans substituting chestnuts because we couldn't find prepared chestnuts at Whole Foods)
• Vegan YumYum's Mushroom Gravy
• Garlic mashed potatoes
• NYT Well Blog's Stir-Fried Balsamic Ginger Carrots

So I sat on the couch watching TV as J worked away in the kitchen, running back and forth to the computer and to me with questions and exciting taste tests. The dinner he put together was spectacular. I had been a meat eater for many years, and this was MUCH better than any "normal" Thanksgiving dinner I'd ever had. He even changed up the menu a bit; we'd run out of mushrooms for the gravy, so he made Vegan YumYum's Tangerine Cranberry Sauce (made with orange juice instead of tangerine). Everything was delicious and definitely worth making again! Here's some photos he took while he was putting everything together:

Pecan Stuffing

Finished Pecan Stuffing with Homemade Croutons added

Cranberries, Sugar, & Orange Juice boiling down

Finished Orange Cranberry Sauce

Roulades just out of the oven. We realized we forgot to get cotton cooking string, so J was innovative and used tin foil "twist-ties" instead

Our beautiful dinner!

I had originally planned to bake a vegan French Apple Tart to take to J's mom's house, but as I was sick, I wasn't feeling up to baking. The tart would have looked like this though: 

This was the first year I did not feel overly stuffed from Thanksgiving. I didn't feel lethargic; I felt satisfied and lively. In retrospect, we didn't even need the tart - it probably would have been overdoing it. And what's the point in that?!

I'm glad we had an animal-free meal this Thanksgiving. As I perused Facebook, so many people had the status "Happy Turkey Day!" and it made me feel so sad that people don't realize the meaning behind what they're saying. Thanksgiving should not be a day about killing thousands of turkeys, most of which lived horrible lives in cages too small for them to move. Thanksgiving should be about being thankful for what we have and, if you're going to partake in the act of eating animals, at least have the decency to be thankful for the life you took rather than making light of it and wishing everyone a happy turkey day. 

For me, I'm thankful to have such a loving, caring, devoted fiancé. I'm thankful for our companion animals, kitties Ellie and Bob, who show us unconditional love and have lifted our spirits daily. I'm thankful for the family we've made for ourselves and for the happy home that shelters us. I'm thankful for the life I have and the happiness I can bring to others. 

Vegan Laptop Lunchbox Time AND Happy World Vegan Day!

Snap peas and yellow bell pepper with plain hummus and an awesome Israeli couscous salad made with seitan, carrots, onion, zucchini, mushrooms, and veggie stock.

AND

Happy World Vegan Day, everyone!

What is this World Vegan Day, you ask? It celebrates the founding of The Vegan Society in 1944 and kicks off Vegan Awareness Month. Lots of events are planned all over the world to celebrate plant-based diets and increase positive awareness of the benefits of being vegan/vegetarian.

I encourage you, even if you're not vegan/vegetarian, to celebrate with us and to try it for a day or a week. 

Vegan Laptop Lunchtime!

Mixed lettuce & barley-quinoa salad (recipe below) with apple picked on Sunday and soynut butter

Barley-Quinoa Salad



Ingredients:

1 c. uncooked quinoa

1 c. uncooked barley

1 can garbanzo beans

3/4 chopped zucchini

2 med. chopped carrots

5-6 kalamata olives, pitted, and diced

1/4 c. dried cranberries

5-6 crimini mushrooms, diced

1/2 c. broccoli, chopped very small

1/3 c. seitan, diced

1/4 - 1/3 white wine

Prepare quinoa and barley as directed. After they're ready, mix together in a large bowl. Add garbanzos, zucchini, carrots, olives, cranberries.

In a small skillet, saute the mushrooms, broccoli, & seitan in white wine until wine is cooked off. Add to the salad. Mix everything thoroughly and allow it to chill in the fridge for an hour or two.

You can serve this salad over greens and add a vinaigrette. I had it over mixed greens with a fig dressing for lunch and it was divine :)



Vegan Laptop Lunchtime!

Golden beet salad from Whole Foods (Justin hates beets so I don't usually cook them; have to treat myself once in a while!); Slow Cooker Seitan Roast with Veggies from Robin Robertson's Vegan on the Cheap; homemade trail mix; plum

Chilly weather is on its way - it's crock pot season! If you have Vegan on the Cheap, I absolutely recommend this super easy recipe for seitan and veggies. We added a turnip the veggies and included some rosemary and it is delicious! And you can't beat the wonderful aromas coming from the crock pot as the veggies and seitan are slowly cooked for 8 hours. We went out on some errands yesterday afternoon and came home to a complete dinner all ready to go. If you don't have a slow cooker - go get one! They're not too expensive if you find one used at Goodwill or online. I inherited mine from my grandmother and it must be 5-10 years old. They last forever if they're made well and they're so worth the money when it's chilly outside and you come home from work tired and just want to relax. BAM! Dinner is ready. How sweet is that? 

Last night's dinner; not shown, small salad with fig dressing