Saturday, November 24, 2012

A wonderfully crazy Thanksgiving....

We must give thanks for all we have and without fail have send those thoughts out into the universe for others as well!

For the first time, I cooked for Thanksgiving... and therefore was able to enjoy an all Vegan meal! WOW! It was quite a feat, one I discovered that I enjoyed, so I might just do it again next year.

We made our cranberry sauce from scratch...





Organic Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup sugar (we used light brown)
1 cup water
4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
A bit of ginger, crushed  
Orange zest or orange peal

Directions

Wash and pick over cranberries. In a saucepan bring to a boil water and sugar, stirring to dissolve sugar. 

Add cranberries, return to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries burst.

Add the ginger and orange zest, simmer for and few minutes.

Remove from heat. Cool completely at room temperature and then chill in refrigerator. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.




Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients

2 medium or 1 large spaghetti squash
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling

Directions

Heat the oven to 350o F and cover a baking sheet with foil. Split the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Season the squash with salt and pepper and brown sugar and place, cut-side down, on the baking sheet. Roast the squash until very tender, 45 to 60 minutes.

Turn the roasted squash over and shred each half with a fork, turning the flesh into what looks like a yellow boat filled with spaghetti. Drizzle the hot squash with a little extra-virgin olive oil and adjust the seasoning.

Top with lots of your favorite sauce and garnish with shredded cheese. Serve each "boat" on a platter and eat the squash and sauce right from the skin of the squash.



Then comes the Stuffed Acorn squash... the recipe I used is already published here, click the preceding link to view it.




















... and ohhhhh my the Pineapple-cherry-mango smoothie




Mashed sweet potato...





Vegan apple pie

Ingredients

4-5 Granny Smith apples, cored and thinly sliced
1/3 cup vegan margarine, softened
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1 pre-made 9 inch pie crust
Store bought vegan pie crust

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Places the apples in the crust. Dot with half the vegan margarine. Stir the rest of the margarine into the brown sugar and spices and crumble this mixture on top of the apples.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until apples are very soft when pierced with a knife.

Enjoy!




Vegan Pumpkin Pie! We stole this recipe from Vegetarian Times and made one substitution... we used a store bought vegan pie crust.




... and of course Little Aiden having a pie moment...




Bean curd Stirfry

Ingredients

2 cakes bean curd, drained
¼ teaspoon salt
4 white button mushrooms
2 tablespoons vegetable broth
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons cornstarch
4 teaspoons water
3½ tablespoons coconut oil, divided
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
⅓ Cup baby corn
1 green onion, quartered
2 large carrots sliced lengthwise

Directions

Cut each block of bean curd diagonally into 4 triangles. In a bowl, sprinkle the salt over the triangles.

Cut the mushrooms into thin slices.

In a small bowl, combine the vegetable broth, dark soy sauce, Chinese rice wine, and the sugar. In a separate small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch into the water.

Heat a wok or skillet over medium-high heat until it is nearly smoking and add 2 tablespoons oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic. Stir-fry for 10 seconds, and then add the bean curd triangles. Stir-fry the bean curd, gently stirring and moving it around the pan, until it is golden brown on both sides (about 4 to 5 minutes). Remove from the pan.

Heat 1½ tablespoons oil in the wok or skillet. When the oil is hot, add the ginger. Stir-fry for 10 seconds, and then add the mushrooms. Stir-fry for 1 minute, and then add the baby corn and carrot. Stir-fry for 30 seconds to 1 minute, adding a bit of water or vegetable broth if the vegetables begin to dry out.

Add the bean curd back into the pan. Add the sauce. Stir in the green onion. Cook for another 1 to 2 minutes, then add the cornstarch and water mixture, stirring to thicken.






There were a few other delicious foods... soy ice cream... Hmmmm. I hope you all had fun with your families, and maybe just a bit more with me and mine.










No comments:

Post a Comment