Bake sale and housemate thanksgiving

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I’m currently eating pancakes and drinking coffee in my pajamas. Best Wednesday ever.

Let’s start off ages ago, last Sunday, when I made orange scones for a bake sale. The dough wouldn’t come together properly, so I added in an entire extra cup of whole wheat flour, making these a little denser than I would have liked. However, they were still delicious and adorable looking, plus orange scone sounds a little bit like orange cone, which I think is kind of funny.

For dinner I made a seriously delicious stir fry with baby bok choy and broccoli. I’m such a huge fan of bok choy … and broccoli for that matter. And soy sauce.

Next I made some French lentils. My picture is bad, and my recipe is uninspiring. I am going to have to ask my dad how he makes them, because it’s very similar, and yet way more delicious, somehow. The next night, on the other hand, I made delicious sausage basil black olive pasta with Upton’s Natural brand of seitan chorizo. I didn’t love it at first, but then I stirred in some salsa, resulting in a moister, more flavorful, saucier pasta. Here is my recipe:

Seitan Chorizo, Basil, and Olive Pasta: (probably serves 2-3)

ingredients:
1 package Seitan Chorizo (or maybe some actual sausage if you eat meat)
24 olives (as usual, you don’t have to count)
about half the package of whole-wheat spaghetti
10 basil leaves, or thereabouts
1/2 a cup of salsa

1. Cook the pasta according to the package.
2. Meanwhile, fry the seitan in a pan to get it heated all the way through
3. Cut the basil into strips, and chop the olives roughly
4. Drain the pasta and place into a bowl. Add the basil, sausage, and olives, and then pour in the salsa. Stir, eat, enjoy.

I’m still not necessarily keen on things that taste like meat, but I’m down with seitan.

Next I made a quinoa salad that wasn’t necessarily that special, but for some reason I loved. All it had in it was quinoa, sliced almonds, broccoli, and some of the key lime juice I’m still working through.

Then Megan was going to throw away some brown bananas, so I made banana bread.

Thank you Moosewood for such an easily veganizable recipe! I was going to have some for breakfast the next morning, but there was no banana bread left the next morning.

Finally, before housemate thanksgiving, last night I made the sweet potato zucchini hash that I like to make, but this time I made it with tempeh crumbled in there. I was going to do some sort of tempeh bacon situation, but I think I’ll hold off on that until I can get some of that liquid smoke stuff. The tempeh added not just protein, but a chewier texture. I was a fan. Aside from all of the vegetable-grating, this recipe could not be easier.

OK, on to housemate thanksgiving! We created quite a spread, it was impressive. I made brussels sprouts just by caramelizing them in a pan. They need no embellishment. I seriously stood at my refrigerator, popping leftover sprouts like they were candies.

Photo, by the way, via my lovely housemate Rebecca. This one, too:

I had no idea how easy cranberry sauce was, because my mom always makes this complicated cranberry salad. I followed the Pioneer Woman’s recipe, minus pomegranate juice plus orange juice. I made that choice just based on my lack of ability to locate pomegranate juice at the co-op, which ended up being a personal problem because I later saw that they have every kind of juice that has ever been juiced. Still, delicious.

Then I made these sweet potato biscuits. They look like cookies… I expected them to expand a little in the oven, but then they did not.

Now the following photo I will take full credit for. I made apple crisp that was an adaptation of the Pioneer Woman’s recipe for apple pie, which is definitely not vegan. I ate it with vegan vanilla ice cream (which I noticed my housemate from Wisconsin would not touch, haha), and of course coffee.

I love that coffee maker. Hello old friend! Here is my recipe:

Apple Crisp (adapted from the Pioneer Woman):

ingredients:
3 Granny Smith apples
1C brown sugar
1C soy milk
2t vanilla
1/4 t cinnamon

for the topping:
6 T Earth Balance
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C pecans

1. Peel the apples and slice them thinly. Place them in the bottom of a baking dish.
2. Dissolve the cup of sugar into the cup of soy milk and add vanilla and cinnamon. Pour it over the apple slices.
3. Chop the pecans very very finely. A food processor would probably help you out.
4. Cream the earth balance and the sugar, then stir in the flour and nuts.
5. Pour that on top of the apple-soy milk- sugar concoction.
6. Bake at 375 for about half an hour.

This quickly became something else I wished I could have for breakfast but couldn’t, due to the immediate onset of no more crisp!

Next time I update, I will be coming to you from Mason, Ohio, where real thanksgiving is going to happen. Get stoked … I completely have!

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