Thanksgiving Menu 2012

Thanksgiving is coming up so I thought I would post my menu like I did last year.  I am so happy that, unlike last year, I actually get to eat with people! (Not that I don't love my kitty Penny, but she is not the best dinner companion) We will be attending two Thanksgivings because that is how Michael's family does it.  On Thursday we are going to his sister who lives just a few streets over from us. On Friday we are driving to Lincoln for dinner at his other sister's house. And to make it easier for our lovely hosts, I am bringing my own food. That way I know what I can eat, and no one has to worry or feel bad.

Since we aren't going very far on Thursday, I am bringing more elaborate things:

Trader Joe's Turkey-Less Stuffed Roast 

Roasted Veggies

Mashed Cauliflower 

Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

I have to work in the morning on Friday and then have about a 3 hour car ride, so I am bringing one simple combination dish:

Stuffed Pumpkin (stuffed with stuffing, veggies, and tofu)

Check out my recipes from last year, they were all really good and not that complicated. 

Seitan Roast

Green Beans with Caramelized Onions 

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I am very excited to share my lovely vegan dishes with my new family. 

**Speaking of family, the previously mentioned Penny and her sister Zoey are still part of mine. They are living with my parents in Oregon for the time being until we are more settled here. Like Lilo says, "Ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind," so my kama'aina keiki will eventually become California girls.

A picture my mom sent me of my girls, I miss them so much!

Cook! Product Reviews

I mentioned in my post about FoodBuzz Blogger Festival that I really enjoyed the products from Cook! at at the Taste Pavilion. I reached out about working with them and they sent me some samples.

Before I jump into the products, let me tell you a little more about the company. It was founded my Nona Lim in San Francisco, who was inspired to create convenient and healthy food from cooking Singaporean food with her father as a child. She began consulting with physicians and testing allergy-free recipes with the goal of producing clean and nutritious meals. This means no dairy, no gluten, no preservatives, no transfats, and no high fructose corn syrup. Only ingredients from local organic and sustainable farms.

Then in 2011 Nona started the Cook! Delicous Detox program. Cook! provided its clean and healthy pre-made meals to a few test clients for a week and the clients began to see health improvements right away.

Today Cook! offers various meal programs and retail products. The three meal plans are Detox, Maintain, and Customize. You can select the program that is best for you and your health goals. You can find their packaged retail products in stores around the Bay Area.  The meal plans can be shipped nationwide, but the retail products can only be shipped to the Bay Area at this time.

I am not now, nor have I even been on, the detox meal program, but I think it is a fantastic idea. I think delivery meal programs are a good idea for people who either do not know how cook or do not have the time. But most of them are full of chemicals and poor quality food, which seems counteractive. This program, however, actually provides healthy food.  I also like the detox aspect of it. You need to get all the bad stuff out of your body so the good stuff can get in and start healing you.

source

Now for the samples Cook! sent me. They arrived at my door step the next day, still frozen. This really impressed me, I have heard of other meal services arriving a week or more later. They come in individual packages that contain 1.5 servings each. You just pour out the contents and heat over the stove.

Thai Green Curry: I tried this one at the Taste Pavilion and it was so good I wanted to try it again. It a little creamy and very flavorful. It has a nice selection of veggies that are cooked perfectly.  I had this over rice for dinner one night after a long day and it totally hit the spot.

Tomato Soup: I have always thought that the "classic" canned tomato soup tasted nothing like tomatoes. But this soup was like biting into a sweet, vine-ripend tomato! It is perfectly seasoned too.  What I liked most is that it is not totally pureed. It still had a bit of texture, proving that it was made from fresh tomatoes. I went nicely with a piece of sourdough for lunch after a brisk bike ride.

Asian Lemongrass: I hate to say it, but I was not a fan of this soup. I love lemongrass, but I could not taste the it at all. It was actually kind of bland. However, the veggies and noodles were cooked perfectly. And I liked the big chunks of tofu. I think this has the potential to be a great veggie soup, just need some tweaking.






Thank you so much Cook!, I think this a terrific company with a mantra that the whole food industry should adopt! I hope we can work together again in the future.

Orange Waffles with Blackberry Sauce

I actually made this breakfast back on Halloween, but have not had the time to post it yet. Like I mentioned before, Michael loves waffles, and also loves the Giants. So to celebrate them winning the World Series, I made orange and black waffles.  Rather than use chemical food coloring or artificial flavoring, I decided to use fresh fruit. These came out so good that I am adding them to my regular breakfast rotation.

I used Bob's Red Mill Organic Pancake and Waffle mix,  but you can use any mix you like. Or you can  make them totally from scratch. This makes four waffles.

Orange Waffles with Blackberry Sauce

Sauce:

2 cups water

1/2 cup sugar 

1 cup fresh blackberry 

Juice from half an orange 

pinch of salt

Waffles:
1 and 1/2 cup waffle mix ( I used Bob's Red Mill Organic 7 gain Pancake and Waffle Mix)
1/2 cup apple sauce
3/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp oil
Juice from half an orange
Zest from one whole orange


For the sauce, in a small pot over medium,  add all the ingredients for the sauce together.

Bring to boil, the reduce heat to a simmer.

Let it cook down until it reaches desired consistency. I like mine a little on the runny side.

For the waffles, heat up your waffle iron according to the directions.

Mix together all the ingredients just until combined.

Pour the batter into the waffle iron and cooking according to the directions.

Once the waffles are done, drizzle on the blackberry sauce and enjoy!

A lovely hot waffles, loaded with antioxidants and vitamins. Great way to start the morning and celebrate the Giants!

Copycat Wienerschnitzel Chili

In celebration of the Giants making it to the World Series, I told Michael I would make him whatever he wanted to eat during the game. He eagerly requested I make a version of Wienerschnitzel's chili cheese dog and chili cheese fries. So I did some research on the web and found a copy cat recipe. I made a few small changes, and used soy protein crumbles instead of ground beef for mine. This recipe is proof that vegans don't just eat boring salads!

This make 4 servings of chili, enough for chili cheese fries and a chili dog for two people.

Copycat Wienerschnitzel Chili
1/2 of tube of Lightlife Gimme Lean Ground Beef Style
3 cups of water
1/8 cup corn starch
1/4 cup flour
1 tbs tomato paste
4 tbs chili powder
5 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tbs white vinegar2






In a skillet over medium heat, crumble up and brown the ground beef.

In a small bowl, whisk together the water, corn starch, flour, and tomato paste.

Add to the browned ground beef crumbles.

Add the remaining ingredients and cook until the sauce is at desired thickness.

Put the chili on some fries and a hot dog---or anything else you want! And don't forget to add a little vegan cheese too.

This was soooo good. And WAY healthier than the real stuff.

Bac'n Mac and Cheese

Guess what other American classic is actually vegan? McCorkmick's Bac'n Pieces! It is made from soy. Once again, it is a processed food and needs to be eaten in moderation. But it can provide that "meaty" flavor to your favorite dish on occasion. I decided to add them to my mac and cheese, along with some veggies.

I have posted a recipe for mac and cheese awhile ago that uses Daiya Cheese and nutritional yeast. This recipe only uses nutritional yeast because I was trying to cut down on calories and processed ingredients.

Bacon Bits Mac and Cheese

8 ounces macaroni 

1 small onion, minced

2 carrots, finely chopped

3 stalks of celery, finely chopped

1/4 cup vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)

1 cup nutritional yeast

2 cups soy milk

1 tsp mustard

1 tbs soy sauce

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 tbs of Bac'n Pieces 

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Cook the macaroni according to the directions on the package. Drain and set aside.

In a large pot, sauté the chopped onions, carrots, and celery in the 1/4 cup of butter. 

Once the veggies are soft, add the nutritional yeast. Mix together until it makes a lumpy paste. 

Now add the soy milk, mustard, and garlic. Whisk to get the lumps out. 

Add the cooked macaroni and the Bacon Bits.  Mix it all together and season to taste. 

Now you have bacon mac and cheese without all that cholesterol! 

FoodBuzz Blogger Festival: Saturday Nigh Gala

This was hands down the best part of the whole festival. We could purchase guest tickets for this event, so once again I brought my sweetheart. It was exciting to get dress-up up and have "adult time" as Michael phrased it.






After the Taste Pavilion, it was such a lovely day so we walked through the city for awhile. Then we changed and head to to the Sir Francis Drake a bit early to grab a drink. I had a very yummy cocktail called "Nothing Rhymes with Orange" and Michael of course had an Anchor Steam.










Then shuttles took us over to the California Academy of Sciences for the gala. We started in the lobby where they servred melon agua fresca and this ahi appetizers that Michael loved, and once again I will just take his word for it. Then we wandered through the museum, passed the sharks and rays, and down stairs to the aquarium.

Sorry it's so dark, best I could do!

There was an open bar and hors d'oeuvres. They had a special apricot martini that I could not get passed the first sip. I quickly switched to wine, Cupcake Vineyards to be exact. I started with a glass of Pinot Grigio.

Most of the passsed hors d'oeuvres were actually vegan! They had eggplant veggie crepes and veggie sushi rolls. Plus little tables with spreads, crackers, and nuts.

We mingled and stared at the fish. Michael even ran into an old friend and I ran into Kristianne (My San Francisco Kitchen) whom I had cocktails with the night before. She joined us for the rest of the night.










They ushered us back upstairs for a buffet dinner. We sat at a table with Danica from Danica's Daily and her husband, Blair from Slovenian Roots Quest and her husband, and Petra from Strawberry Pesto.

I was kinda disappoint that the only vegan options were salads. Michael laughed and said, "I thought all you eat is vegetables?" I am not going to complain too much since they were actually really good.

The first table had an avocado and grapefruit salad in a wine vinaigrette, and a yellow beat salad.

The second table had an fennel and escarole salad in a champagne dressing, and an arugula and endive salad in a sherry vinaigrette.

For dessert I switched to the Sparkling Presecco. Their vegan options were an apple pate and almond raspberry cake bites. Kristianne literally grabbed one of everything, it was pretty funny.

Afterwards we just took the shuttle back and drove home. We were exhausted, but had a lot of fun. I am looking forward to next year already!

Thank you again to Foodbuzz and all the sponsors!

FoodBuzz Blogger Festival: Taste Pavilion

The second day of the FoodBuzz Blogger Festival started with a scavenger hunt at the Farmers Market at the Ferry Building...at 8:30 in the morning....I was still sleeping at 8:30 in the morning. I showed up around 10:30 and did not feel like doing the scavenger by myself. I did explore the vendor booths and use the $6 worth of tokens FoodBuzz gave me for a yummy spicy raw lettuce wrap from Alive!'s booth. I sat and ate with a lovely view of the foggy Bay Bridge.

Messy but the gulls were happy to help.

Afterwards I slowly walked through the city to the Metreon for the Taste Pavilion. We could bring a guest to this event for free, so of course I invited my sweetheart. Michael was happy to help me sample local food and drinks. His favorite was the steak from grass-fed beef, which I will just take his word for it since beef might be the farthest thing from vegan. 

I am going to discuss my three  favorite vendors:

Just Pure Foods

Locally grown organic vegan snacks! And they are made from dehydrated veggies! The founder Justin was excited when he saw the name of my blog and told me all about the awesome organic produce they use. I love kale chips, and their Chessy Kale Chips really wowed me. The "cheese" is actually sunflower seeds and soy-free miso. The Seasoned Zucchini Sticks would be great to munch on and wash down with a beer during a game. 

LickPops

Aloha, my braddah! Liko was inspired to start an organic handmade ice pop company from his memories of making ice pops with his Tutu (Hawaiian for Grandma). Michael and I were not only happy to talk story with him, but more than happy to sample all of his delicious frozen treats. Michael liked the Yellow Watermelon Mint. I loved the Passionfruit Coconut, it reminded me of this shave ice I got almost everyday when I met my parents in Maui last summer. 

Cook! Real Simple Delicious

Oh my, the Thai Green Curry might be the best I have ever had---and if you have read this blog before you know my love for Thai curry. Cook! is a gluten-free and dairy-free meal service for California, but they also have packaged retail products for sale. Michael loved the Zucchini Soup. I hope their products make their way to San Jose soon!

See my other blog, Drink Vegan Beer, for my review of Bison Brewing Company.