Thanksgiving

Happy belated turkey day!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family and good food! 

It was just us for our Thanksgiving meal this year but we still went all out with turkey, roasted veggies, mashed potatoes, corn bread muffins, pumpkin coconut pie, homemade vanilla ice cream and cashew ice cream. Needless to say, we'll be eating lots of turkey in the next few days. Logically, the pie was first to disappear.

I haven't had a chance to post "after" pictures of our house yet because we're barely moved in and have little furnishings. However, here's a Thanksgiving sneak peak of our kitchen.

We're not used to have a giant dining room but recently got this large funky table off of Craigslist. So naturally we had to have fun with the fact it was just Erik, Emersyn and I sitting at it.

So grateful for our first Thanksgiving as a threesome! 

A few recipes from our Thanksgiving meal soon to follow! :)

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I’ve had tons of fun being sick (NOT!) off and on the past few weeks so have not been on top of celebrating the Thanksgiving festivities or sharing recipes, etc. I really haven’t been sick in literally years so it was a bummer!  However, I woke up to a beautiful [cold] sunshiny day feeling very refreshed. Hopefully that was all of the sickness I will be feeling for many more years to come.

So just wanted to stop by and wish everyone a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend!



Did anyone brave the Black Friday sales?? I’m always too chicken for that!

Genessee Royale & Thanksgiving

Long time no blog!

I’ve really no good reason for bugging out for the past almost month (!!!) all I know is time flies. One moment it’s summer, the next it’s Halloween and all of a sudden you’re making plans for Christmas and the year 2013.  I hope not to stay away for so long again, and I’ve still got some backlogged posts to catch up on.

But for now, just wanted to check in and say … I’m here! 

This & That

A little this & that of what we’ve been up to this week. My very good friend was in town the other day and we got to hang out just about all day. I miss her! We started the morning with some breakfast at Genessee Royale.

I got the Farmer’s Toast. It was not only beautiful but very delicious!
 
 

After breakfast, we hung out and got to take a lovely walk outside enjoying this beautiful fall weather!  The walk may or may not have even included some throwing of leaves.

 

Thanksgiving

And this past Wednesday, friends from church had an early Thanksgiving dinner together (similar to last year). Erik and I were on turkey duty. Along with turkey, we brought mashed potatoes and quick & easy mini cinnamon rolls. It was a great night with tons of food!

 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, what are you cooking this year??

Delicious Vegan Stuffing

I’m back with another delicious holiday-inspired side dish!

I couldn’t help but throw this one in before Thursday comes around. We also brought this stuffing to our Monday night Thanksgiving with friends and it was just about as delicious as the mashed herb sweet potatoes, I promise.

Once again, another creation of Erik’s. I’m thankful to have such an awesome husband who cooks amazing food!

Delicious Vegan Stuffing

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf whole wheat bread
• 3 medium sized stalks of celery
• 1 onion, diced and caramelized
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 no salt added vegetable bouillon cubes with 3 cups water (or about 3 cups low sodium vegetable stock)
• Sea salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

• Preheat oven at 450 degrees. Chop or tear bread into bite-sized chunks. Place on a cookie sheet and toast for about 30 minutes until crispy.
• In a small pan, caramelize onions in about 2 tablespoon coconut oil until they are completely tender. Stir often, should take about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, chop celery, and in a separate pan, sauté them in about 2 tablespoon coconut until tender. Add bouillon cubes and water (or vegetable stock), sea salt and pepper and cook on low to medium heat for about 15 minutes.
• Place toasted bread cubes into baking dish. Dump in the onion mixture, followed by the celery and liquid. Complete with raisins.
• Bake at 450 for about 20 minutes, and yum!

And that’s it.

Who’s ready for Thanksgiving??

Mashed herb sweet potatoes & Monday night Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, I guess I’m a few days early. We spent our Monday night at a Thanksgiving get together with friends. We, of course, never pass up a moment to cook more than we need to, ha, so our contributions were quinoa with roasted vegetables, stuffing, mashed herb sweet potatoes and carrot cake balls. Here’s some photos from all the festivities:

A great night with great friends!

And now a bonus recipe from the night. Erik whipped up these delicious herb mashed sweet potatoes and we absolutely loved them. I would highly suggest them as an easy and very delicious Thanksgiving side dish!

Mashed Herb Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 3-4 medium to large sweet potatoes
• 1-2 large onions, diced and caramelized
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• Sea salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste

Instructions:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Peel and dice sweet potatoes, add to boiling water and boil until soft
• While potatoes are boiling, dice onions and place into a sauté pan on medium to high heat with about 2 tablespoons coconut oil. Stir continuously until tender, then place on low heat and stir occasionally as to not burn until completely caramelized and very tender.
• Once potatoes are boiled, drain water and using a blender (or masher), thoroughly mix together the potatoes, onions, 2 more tablespoons coconut oil, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper.

These were awesome! Perfect blend of coconut oil and herbs that makes a perfect Thanksgiving side dish.

What’s your favorite way to eat Thanksgiving sweet potatoes?

Double layer apple upside down cake

So how was your weekend??

Today we went to church, then I went to a baby shower, got groceries, came home, made some food and here we are!

Where are we, you ask?

Right here:

I always think upside down cakes are pretty, but had never yet made one. Thanksgiving right around the corner gave me the perfect inspiration!

Double Layer Apple Upside Down Cake
Makes enough for two 8-inch cake pans

Ingredients:

• 4 apples (I used honeycrisp, but feel free to use whatever you may have)
• 1/3 cup + 1/3 cup coconut oil, divided
• 1/4 cup sucanat (or cane sugar)
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup agave nectar (or honey)
• 2 cups almond milk (or other milk of choice)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Instructions:

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Peel and chop apples.
• In a warm saucepan, melt together 1/3 cup coconut oil and 1/4 cup sucanat. Add chopped apples and stir until combined. Let sit on low heat while you mix together the cake batter.
• In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon). In a smaller bowl, mix together wet ingredients (vanilla, coconut oil, agave, milk). Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix. Stir in raisins.
• Lay out 1/4 of the apple mixture into each 8-inch cake pan (using in total 1/2 of the mixture; each cake pan is a double layer)
• Complete first layer in each pan by pouring in 1/4 of the flour mixture into each 8-inch cake pan (using, again, 1/2 of the total mixture). Top each cake pan with 1/4 mixture of chopped walnuts (1/2 in total).
• Repeat the last two bulleted step layers using up the rest of the apples and flour mixture. You will basically end up with two double layered 8-inch cakes.
• Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Once out of the oven, let cool for about 15 minutes, and flip cakes over, and layer on top of each other.

Notes: This recipe is the perfect denseness for an upside cake and best served warm right out of the oven. I suggest cutting out two pieces 8-inch round parchment paper and lining your pans with them. It ensures easy cake flipping. Enjoy!

Who’s cooking for Thanksgiving this year, and what are you making??

Quick & delicious roasted vegetable quinoa

Well hello there!

I got to play hooky from work today and hang out with my friend who was in town from California. We decided to play foil-head dress up and get our hair done … don’t we look good? Ha! Nothing new to my hair, just a touch up. It was fun to be able to hang out on a work day with a really good friend.

And next up … dinner. Erik hurt his back yesterday and to prevent it from continual spasm, he’s been literally not moving at all, thus I’ve been doing my best to wait on him hand over foot. I feel bad for him, I hear back spasms are incredibly painful!

So when I get home from my “fun day” I got straight to dinner. It’s incredibly easy, and even more delicious!

Easy & Delicious Roasted Vegetable Quinoa
*Works great as both a side dish and entrée

Ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked quinoa, made according to package (tastes even better if you add a low sodium or no salt added vegetable bouillon cube to the mix!)
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cubed (any other seasonal squashes will work too!)
• 2 heads broccoli, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil (or extra virgin olive oil)
• Sea salt & fresh ground pepper, to taste

Instructions:

• Preheat oven at 450 degrees.
• Coat large cookie sheet pan with oil.
• Chop vegetables, place on oiled pan, and stir around with hands so that the veggies soak up the oil.
• Bake for about 45 minutes, stirring at least every 10 minutes. Oven times could vary, so be sure to keep a close eye on these so they don’t burn.

Note: This dish would be excellent paired for some easy cashew cheese or dare I say, even a couple squirts of ketchup, yum!

Yum! This very simple dish was a definite winner in our books.
Perfect for a quick night dinner, or even delicious as a, oh, I don’t know … Thanksgiving side dish

Quick & easy mini cinnamon rolls

Hello, everyone! Let’s get down to business. It’s cinnamon roll time!

These are great, especially if you’re in a hurry, because there is no yeast required, thus no time needed for dough to rise. Just throw the ingredients together, roll your dough flat, add cinnamon, sugar and coconut oil, roll up, slice and bake. The directions may or may not look intimidating but, I promise, it’s easier than it looks!

These cinnamon rolls are absolutely delicious and with the use of whole wheat flours, sucanat as sweetener, almond milk as liquid, and coconut oil instead of butter, they are a much healthier cinnamon roll alternative.

Quick & Easy Mini Cinnamon Rolls
Adapted from Vegan Pandamonium
Makes about two dozen rolls

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup melted coconut oil, divided
• 2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk (or other milk)
• 1 cup sucanat (or other sugar)
• 2 tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions:

• Preheat oven at 450 degrees.
• Combine flour, salt and baking powder.
• Add 1/2 cup (rest is used later) coconut oil and all the milk, stir until stiff and then work dough with hands until soft.
• Form dough into a ball and place on slightly floured surface.
• Roll out into rectangle, brush on the rest of the coconut oil and then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
• From the long side, tightly roll up your dough. Cut into 1/2 to 1 inch rolls.
• Place rolls in greased baking dish. I used a 9 x 13 glass dish, and it seemed to be a good size.
• Bake for about 13 minutes. Spread on icing, and enjoy!

Notes: Makes about 24 small to medium sized cinnamon rolls. Half recipe and bake in a pie dish if you want a smaller batch.

Icing:

• Mix together about a cup of powdered sugar (I used homemade sucanat powdered sugar) and 2-6 tablespoons almond milk (or milk of choice).
• Pour in about a tablespoon almond milk at a time and stir. Keep adding a little more milk until you reach desired consistency. I like ours fairly thick so I don’t use much, but it’s completely whatever you prefer!
• If you want it to have a little more flavor, feel free to add about a half teaspoon vanilla extract.

Here they are pre and post oven:

I think this might just make a perfect Thanksgiving breakfast treat!