I’ve got a monster post for y’all today! Three Thanksgiving recipes. A bunch of other exciting things first! I had an excellent weekend healing-wise. I woke up Saturday to a much-improved finger. Until Saturday, my poor injured finger hurt and throbbed if I spent more than about 20-30 minutes without it elevated. I can now go several hours! You have no idea how much easier this makes my life 🙂
It was perfect timing too – I had some friends over for a vegan Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, and I really needed to clean after two weeks of messy one-handed living. And cook. Done and done! This post features the recipes I made on Saturday!
A little more recap of my awesome weekend first! That was Saturday. But Sunday was exciting too. I did two things yesterday that I haven’t been able to do for two weeks since my little accident. I actually looked at my finger! That’s right, hadn’t really looked at it since the ER . . . and I passed out that time. I got a brief glimpse of it last week and I was not happy. But now it’s not too bad! An ugly but fairly thin scab. I can deal.
The second thing I hadn’t done in two weeks is: I worked out. Hoorah! Turns out you can do a significant amount of Pilates with just one hand and still have a good workout. It’s an especially good workout when you’ve been epically inactive for the past two weeks 🙂
I was pretty happy to find something that I can do moderately well one-handed. It’s really surprising how difficult some things are. I managed to fling an open full container of soy milk on my kitchen floor. Plus I already showed you my attempt to open a can in my coconut caramel post. And have you ever tried showering with one hand? Oh my gosh. Twice now I’ve knocked over my tub of conditioner and coated my shower floor with conditioner (hello, slippery!!) Thank goodness things are getting easier!
Alright, I really wanted to share my good news with you lovely readers, and now I want to share some good recipes!
Three vegan Thanksgiving recipes! I wasn’t great at photographing my food while preparing to have my friends come over, so I have a nice handful of shots of leftovers for you 🙂
Here’s what I’m making: Classic Bread Stuffing, a Pumpkin Vanilla Bean Cheesecake, and Cranberry & Candied Ginger Muffins. Hoorah!
The rest of my vegan Thanksgiving menu if you’re looking for more ideas:
– a Field Roast Wild Mushroom Roast
– Mushroom gravy (much like my mushroom gravy I posted in this baked potato recipe)
– Rosemary Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Baby Potatoes (simple bonus recipe! halve Brussels Sprouts and potatoes, coat with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and chopped fresh rosemary. Roast at 425 for about 30-40 minutes. Yum! Maybe top with some chopped nuts. Or make this recipe.)
– Candied Yams – my friend Lauren made yummy super-sweet yams. Vegetable and dessert in one. Happy.
– Bread – look at the beautiful loaf of bread I bought from Boudin! (there are a handful of California locations!)
There were only three of us. I made way too much food. It was awesome 🙂
Classic Bread Stuffing:
serves 8
1/4 C Earth Balance margarine
1 onion
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
4 cloves garlic
4 thick slices whole grain bread (about 3/4 inch thick each – but it really is a flexible recipe, don’t worry too much), torn into small pieces
1 Field Roast apple-sage sausage, chopped
5-6 leaves fresh sage
2 T chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 C chopped fresh parsley
1 T dried thyme (you can use fresh instead – about 2 T)
1 C vegetable broth1/2 C panko bread crumbs
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Melt Earth Balance in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes until very soft. Then add carrots and celery, and cook about another 5 minutes. Then add garlic and bread and toss until they are toasted. Stir in sausage and herbs and toss to combine. Transfer to a casserole dish, then pour vegetable broth evenly over the stuffing. Top with panko. I may have put some little dabs of Earth Balance on top for an extra rich and golden crust – it’s the holidays!
Bake for about 10-15 minutes until the top is golden brown. You can make it ahead and then pop it into the oven when you’re ready, but then it will take about 40-50 minutes to warm all the way through, and you may want to cover the top with tin foil for most of that time to prevent the breadcrumbs from burning.
Vanilla Bean Pumpkin Cheesecake:
serves 12
1 1/2 containers Tofutti cream cheese (12 oz)
1 can organic pumpkin (15 oz)
1/4 C pure maple syrup
2 T vanilla bean paste (you can sub for the beans from one vanilla pod or about 2 t vanilla extract)
1/4 C coconut oil
2 t pumpkin pie spice
1 prepared graham cracker crust
Blend everything (except the crust, of course!) together with a hand mixer. You really want to whip some air into it – it gets nice and light and fluffy. Pour into prepared crust. Refrigerate for at least an hour – it will take more like 3 hours if some of your ingredients were room temp when you started. I drizzled some of my coconut caramel sauce on top! Yum!
Cranberry & Candied Ginger Muffins
yields 12 muffins
2 C whole wheat pastry flour
3 t Ener-G egg replacer
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 1/2 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/4 C Earth Balance margarine, softened
1/2 C sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 C fresh cranberries
1/4 C candied ginger, chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk together dry ingredients (through cinnamon.) Then add wet ingredients and sugar, and stir until well incorporated. Finally, fold in cranberries and ginger. Spoon into muffin tins, then top with an extra sprinkle of sugar and another piece of candied ginger.
They’re amazing toasted with a little bit of melty Earth Balance.
These can be another dessert option – I made them in the morning thinking they’d be a separate blog post, but what a fun breakfast they made on my fake Thanksgiving! I highly recommend. Had to include them in this post. I sent most of them home in goodie bags for my friends.
Happy Holiday Cooking!
Nutrition facts per serving of stuffing: Calories: 163; Calories from Fat: 72; Total Fat: 8.0g; Saturated Fat: 2.0g; Sodium: 361mg; Total Carbohydrates: 16.8g; Dietary Fiber: 3.0g; Sugars: 3.3g; Protein: 6.8g
Nutrition facts per serving of cheesecake: Calories: 283; Calories from Fat: 149; Total Fat: 16.6g; Saturated Fat: 7.0g; Sodium: 266mg; Total Carbohydrates: 32.2g; Dietary Fiber: 0.9g; Sugars: 14.2g; Protein: 2.1g
Nutrition facts per muffin: Calories: 152; Calories from Fat: 40; Total Fat: 4.5g; Saturated Fat: 1.0g; Sodium: 259mg; Total Carbohydrates: 25.3g; Dietary Fiber: 2.5g; Sugars: 8.5g; Protein: 2.2g
Leave a Reply