Plant-based Thanksgiving Menu

What are you all doing for Thanksgiving this year?

My husband will have FOUR days off... most time since he started recruiting early October. He works 70+ hours a week (including Saturdays) right now so obviously any time off is greatly appreciated.

So on Thanksgiving we plan on just being lazy at home, I think. I plan on baking a pumpkin pie and making this pecan praline ice cream.  Friday we'll either run errands or go try to visit some of my side of the family.  Saturday we are driving 5 hours with my inlays to my BIL and SIL's for actual Thanksgiving dinner. Sunday we'll head back home.

While I love food, I love family even more. I know a big part of why I love holidays is simply because it means large family gatherings and those make me happy!

That said... let's talk about the food. I've gathered up some delicious plant based Thanksgiving recipes to help those of you still stuck on what to make!

APPETIZERS

Marinated olives

Stuffed mushrooms

Roasted chickpeas

Hummus crostini

MAIN DISH

Puff pastry wrapped lentil loaf (I'm going to make this instead of buy a faux roast this year. I hope it turns out!!)

Meatless loaf

Quinoa stuffed squash

SIDES

Butternut squash mac n cheese  (I think it's an American thing to serve mac n cheese at Thanksgiving? I'd never heard of it growing up in Canada!)

Citrus cranberry sauce (I always offer to make cranberry sauce. Maybe because it's easy? haha Fresh is SO much tastier than canned! I love it with citrus and cinnamon too)

Mashed potatoes

Sourdough stuffing

Maple roasted carrots

Caramelized brussel sprouts

Green bean casserole

Gravy

DESSERT

Pumpkin bread (I'm actually making this tonight just without the icing)

Pumpkin donuts (personally I would bake this in a donut pan. Frying ain't for me)

Pumpkin cheesecake (my sister made this for Canadian Thanksgiving and it was SO good that I knew I had to make it when the American one rolled around. Hopefully mine is as good (my sister is a better baker than me haha)).

Coconut whipped cream (a must!)

Apple crumble pie

DRINKS

Honeycrisp apple sangria

Non alcoholic sangria

Bourbon spiced apple cider

Pumpkin martini

Cranberry gimlet

Holiday mule

Bye November!

• Hanging out with my friend's bird.
• Kitty snuggles. Never gets old.
• Enjoying some green juice and walking my pup.
• Uh, cookie fail. lolz
• Yummy tea and snacks!
• hahah Not sure what he was doing.
• My morning view. He has taken to sleeping on the bed (now that my husband has been deployed for a while) and in the morning when he wants me to get up he will wiggle on his belly over to my face. If I don't open my eyes he'll gently lick my face. haha
• Friendsgiving!! 

Can you believe it's now December?! My favourite!!

Long Weekend

1.  I've started doing lots of DIY projects. I'm making pretty much everyone's Christmas gifts this year besides my husband. He rarely buys himself anything so I want to spoil him a little bit. I love crafting though! Above are chalkboard frames.
2. Finally got to wear my giant Old Navy scarf. So cozy.
3. Spent some time at the dog beach this weekend. Its about 35min away but it's so great. I wish we went more often. Our pup especially loves it, of course!
4. Lunch at BJs after some apartment hunting. Veggie pizza without cheese + Porter beer because they were out of the pumpkin. sadface.
5. Ate lots of Thanksgiving dinner leftovers
6. and even more pie leftovers!
7. Bedazzled my phone haha So far they have stayed put. I used clear polish for it all except the flower I used crazy glue.
8. Peach pancakes topped with fruit and coconut. It was an indulgent weekend.
9. Thanksgiving Day walk.

I hope you all had a great long weekeend! It was sure nice to have more time with my husband than usual. I can't wait for his almost three week long Christmas vacation! We attempted to see Skyfall but that didn't work out, watched a crazy amount of Parks & Recreation (and laughed our butts off), stuffed our faces, talked about working out but didn't do it, and watched some movies (The Switch, Prometheus & A Friend at the End of the World).

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a happy, safe and entertaining Holiday! And enjoy the long weekend. It's just my husband and I this year. I'm still making us a big spread though! Vegan roast, mashed taters, sweet potatoes, rosemary carrots, gravy, cranberry sauce, two kinds of pumpkin pie... oh my!  I am thankful for so so much but here are just a few of those things..

1. My husband and our wonderful amazing loving exciting marriage! I grew up with two very in love parents (they still are) so finding that for myself was always very important to me. I'm so grateful that I did, and at a young age. We're going on 6 years of marriage next month!
2. Roof over my head, clothes in my closet, makeup in the bathroom, tv in the livingroom etc I am thankful for those things from the most necessary to the least. I am thankful that I have "things". No, they aren't the most important but that doesn't mean I'm not thankful!
3. The important things like health. I'm thankful for my good health and that I found such a healthy way to eat that makes me feel great both mentally and physically. I'm thankful for Forks Over Knives because it really changed my life.
4. Pumpkin pie. Obviously.
5. The amazing people in my life. Seriously. They are really all I need.

Here are some pictures from today. Follow me on Instagram for more! sophiexelizabeth

Simple outfit today, just a tshirt and skinny jeans. /  Light lunch aka juice of cucumber, broccoli, mint, pineapple and grape juice.

Last year I just didn't have turkey but this year I decided to try this. It was actually quite good. I didn' care much for the stuffing inside, it was super mushy, but the "meat" part tasted good.  /  Stuffing before it cooked. I love love Tofurkey Italian Sausage with Sun Dried Tomato, so tasty. I used it in stuffing last Thanksgiving too.

Cranberry sauce is wayyy better from scratch and super easy. I did 1 package cranberries, 1 tsp vanilla extract,  3/4 cup raw sugar and 1 cup water. Let it boil until the cranberries pop and get mushy then turn of the heat and let it sit. It'll thicken as it cools. You can mash the cranberries too if you prefer. / Taters and the gravy (came with the vegan roast) cooking. Looks like a cranberry died on the spoon rest.

Finished result! We had vanilla cranberry sauce, rosemary carrots, Turkeyless Vegan Roast with gravy, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes and garlic mashed potatoes followed by two kinds of pumpkin pie; original and coconut cream.  YUM. Looks like we'll be eating this all weekend haha Oh I was making this chocolate mint pie but it did not turn out, hence the second pumpkin pie since it was what I had on hand. I made the gf crust using this recipe.

My festive nails. The base colour is Julep "Vera". Green is A England "St George". Orange is China Glaze "Riveting". Copper is Bettina "Copper".   I used a Bundle Monster plate to stamp the edges. It is hard to get a picture of because its quite shimmery! They all look like the green just not as vibrant. I think it's pretty in person.  Oh and my skin is reddish because I dyed my hair that day and I always take off the gloves when I'm rinsing the dye out of my hair but I really shouldn't because even that stains them haha It's gone the next day though.

I slept with my hair in rollers last night and this was the result. I love it! Definitely going to use these more often. Much better for my hair since it doesn't require heat. I love how bouncy and wild they are!

ps. Re-dyed my hair yesterday with Manic Panic Infra Red but this time I used the Amplified one. Love! I'll do a post on it soon.

Day 21: Inspired by a Colour (Alligator Purse)

How was everyones Thanksgiving? Good, I hope! Mine was really nice. I cooked for soo long! 3 hours one day and 5 another.  I made lots of yummy food for my husband and 4 other Marines on Thursday; it was all vegan except the gravy and turkey which I didn't eat.  Then on Saturday my husband and I went to the house of a couple we are good friends with for another Thanksgiving dinner! My friend and I made all vegan items except, again, the turkey and gravy. It was yum!

I wrote out a menu so everyone knew what they were eating, hehe.

I packed up the leftovers Thursday night for the guys to bring back to some Marines who didn't get to have a Thanksgiving dinner. The stuffing was THE BEST. I wish I had a better picture of it. I used this recipe and Tofurkey sausage.

I made pumpkin pie and apple pie, both vegan. I was afraid they wouldn't turn out but they were delicious! I wouldn't use the apple recipe again, too much nutmeg but I'd definitely make the pumpkin again, just with less sugar. I thought the crust seemed dry when I made it but ended up tasting great! Both were tastier after a few days so it's best to make them ahead of time.  On top I had coconut whipped cream, it just didn't get very thick haha

I made a simple centerpiece using cranberries and a candle in a glass vase/bowl. For appetizers I made these almonds which were a HUGE hit as well as my stand by garlic hummus with pita bread. The pita bread wasn't homemade.

I also made stuffed mushrooms. I liked this recipe because it's SO healthy... no cheese whatsoever! Normally I make them with cream cheese.

The green bean casserole was pretty good. I normally avoid it because people use canned beans which I don't like but I used all fresh ingredients besides the crispy onions. My friend made the green bean casserole from Peas and Thank You cook book on Saturday and I liked that one even more!

 

I made homemade cranberry sauce for the first time and will never go back to canned! It was SO easy and delicious.

Also, not pictured is this salad. SO yummy. Definitely making it again. I used walnuts instead of pecans just to save some money.

Here I am, pre-5 hours of cooking. hehe I LOVE my apron. It's a Flirty Apron that I got on sale for only $15 a while back.  I didn't get a good outfit pic and basically wore the same thing Saturday but I tucked in the sweater and wore a collared tank under it.

31 Day Nail Challenge

I was inspired by Essie "Alligator Purse" to do a Thanksgiving manicure. I used this tutorial to do the adorable turkeys!! Looove them. It was easy to do too. Unfortunately, the Essie wore horribly! It would not stop denting and smudging. I have no idea why. Julep "Pippa" wore great.

Here you can see it all jacked up! Ugh! I even applied a fresh coat + top coat but it did the same thing.

I figured out a new way to wear my hair and really liked it! I curled it all and then did a low side bun with a side part and my bangs pinned back. Very simple, I know, but for some reason I just figured how to make it work for me. haha