Repurposing Thanksgiving Leftovers

Every Thanksgiving it’s the same thing, I make way too much food and after the first 2-3 rounds of leftovers, I get tired of it.  I’m done with those classic Thanksgiving flavors until next year, but I still have leftovers so it’s time to give that grub a little makeover!

I made a great chili out of the vegetable dish with adding some veg stock,  1/2 a jar of  salsa, a can of kidney beans,  2 crumbled veggie burgers, and cumin and garlic. I served it with the rice/quinoa/veg dish. It became a totally different dish. I was sorry to see those leftovers end!

I admit I made an insane amount of mashed potatoes with spinach–so I made these clever little potato pancakes. They were delicious with ketchup! It occurs to me that I could’ve added cooked peas, onion powder, turmeric and cumin and I could’ve made samosa cakes, and served them with mango chutney. Next time…

I had leftover sweet potato rolls and seitan “ham”, so I made these little vegan ham sandwiches with some of my cashew cheese.  Just the right mix of sweet and salty!

Speaking of those sweet potato rolls, I held back some of the dough on purpose so I could make cinnamon rolls. ~~drool~~

As for the last of the sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce, I added it to my morning oatmeal, along with some cooked apples and pomegranate arils. This was a great combination.

And here it is all stirred up—-it was just like dessert!

What about you? What became of your Thanksgiving leftovers?

 

Thanksgiving 2017

Every November, as I ponder the Thanksgiving Feast, I think that I’m going to do something different,  and just do a nice butternut squash lasagna and salad, but no, every year I get dragged back into the traditional foods of Thanksgiving. Oh well, it’s just once a year, and nothing else tastes like Thanksgiving, so why fight it?

This is my seventh vegan Thanksgiving [where does the time go?], and I have my prep down. I can get it all done ahead of time on Wednesday and then I just sit back, relax, and feel smug. I don’t stress.

For the main dish, we just bought a couple of Gardein roasts. We’ve tried them all and it’s our favorite.

I roasted some Brussels sprouts with red peppers, onions, and mesquite pecans. Pretty!

I made a HUGE dish of mashed potatoes with chopped spinach mixed in.

I made some cornbread stuffing with mushrooms, onions, red peppers, and grated carrots.

I also made a dish of brown rice and quinoa with vegetables. Why not? Planned leftovers!

A dish of fresh corn, black-eyed peas, carrots, and onions.

You know that sweet potato casserole with the crunchy sugar-y pecan top? I made a simplified version of it. Every recipe says to add milk and eggs and butter to the sweet potatoes. Why? I just roast them till they’re caramelized, turn them out of their jackets, mash them, put them in the dish, naked and unadorned, because they’re perfect just as they are. I did gild the lily by adding a top of almond flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon, pecans and Earth Balance “butter”.

I also made a big dish of macaroni and cheese–I made a vegan cheese sauce from almonds and nootch–with rice penne and chopped steamed cauliflower. Delicious!

I made some sweet potato rolls. I even bought some white flour for the occasion, and I never do that. It’s the siren call of Thanksgiving tradition seducing me….This made a lot of dough so I refrigerated some for later. This was an easy recipe; I’ll have to share it later.

We also feasted on cranberry sauce, gravy, butter, all the accessories! The week before I even made a seitan “ham” roast–it turned out sweet and smoky and I pan-glazed it with maple syrup and a touch of soy sauce.

For dessert, we had a beautiful pumpkin pie from Brittney. She even roasted a real honest-to-Gawd pumpkin for it. How impressive is that? Cathy brought a berry pie and it was very impressive too, although she didn’t labor over it. Did you know that many of Marie Callendar’s frozen pies are accidentally vegan? I love that!!!

Me and my brother, Bruce! I’m so, so grateful that my sweet family appreciates, and dare I say, even looks forward to a vegan Thanksgiving? At this festive time of year I hear so many horror stories over families fighting over food, or the vegan in the mix has nothing to eat but a celery stick dipped in cranberry sauce. I really am grateful for the support–truly. It’s a blessing. Sure, Bruce makes lots of jokes about my food, but he’s the first hog to the trough, so to speak!

 

 

 

 

Edible Inspiration

No recipes today, just a few pretty pictures that I hope will inspire you to eat more vegetables—but save some for me! No, I didn’t have all of this in one day–just recently.

I’ve blogged about my barbecue jackfruit, so after having jackfruit on a roll and in wraps, I made a pizza. I baked a whole grain tortilla till it was crispy. [Be careful, they burn quickly!] I spread a bit of cashew “cream cheese” over it, added the barbecued jackfruit, some cooked kale and onions, topped it with some vegan mac and cheese [I know, it’s crazy] and some of this new vegan cheese. Yes, it’s good!

Here’s the final product:

This was a big hit and hit all those satisfying savory soul food notes.

A chickpea flour omelette is always satisfying. And easy to make–I’ve done a couple of blogs about these too. This one was filled with kale, mushrooms, onions, some cashew cheese, and topped with tahini. And a big pile of roasted potatoes and yes, I hit those with ketchup!

I made a wrap with cashew cream cheese, nut butter, grated carrots, sprouts and lettuce, with a sliced apple. It looks light, but it’s really satisfying!

Normally when I make breakfast pizza, it’s on a real pizza crust or a crispy tortilla crust–this time I made a whole wheat biscuit crust. It was amazing. This is the whole thing–about 6 servings here.

I baked the biscuit crust first, then topped it with cashew cream cheese, a vegetable-tofu scramble [VERY heavy on the vegetables], chopped Tofurky “sausages” and some vegan cheese, and baked it again till the whole glorious mess was hot! This was so good! I have to make this again–soon.

We had this yesterday–simple and satisfying. Just a bowl of roasted butternut squash and onions, some fresh corn, spinach, quinoa with kale, kidney beans and zucchini, and some vegan sausage. A little hot sauce on the quinoa and it was just right!

I hope this inspires you to play in the kitchen. Let me know!

Breakfast is LIFE!

If you’ve followed my blog for long [and if you haven’t, why haven’t you?] you know that I’m all about breakfast.  I have more breakfast food blogs than any other kind of food. Remember the show “Parks and Recreation” and he-man Ron Swanson—he loved breakfast too:

I’m with you, Ron. So much so that I could be the girly vegan version of Ron Swanson. “Parks and Recreation”? More like “Carbs and Recreation” for me. See what I did there?

I love A good breakfast every morning, but don’t like rushing around, so on weekdays I like to have something prepped ahead of time as much as possible, so I made up a batch of flapjacks. Easy to make, and these are a little festive with bananas and chocolate chips!

BANANA-CHOCOLATE PANCAKES [this recipe made about 10 big fluffy pancakes]

1 1/4 cups flour [I used whole wheat pastry flour]

2 tbsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cup non-dairy milk [I used a chocolate almond milk]

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

~~~Mix dry ingredients in with dry ingredients. [You may need to add a touch more milk to make a pourable batter, not too thin though.]

~~~Pour onto hot griddle. Cook for 3 minutes, flip, and cook another 3 minutes. Of course, use your own judgement.

Look at that—beautiful fluffy flapjacks as far as the eye can see!

I had to try one–so I adorned one of them with maple butter, a little powdered peanut butter mixed with enough water to make a sauce, a drizzle of chocolate syrup, and some raspberries. Folks, this was as good as any cake I’ve ever had. LOVE!!!!

 

 

I also made a pan of baked oatmeal, because the last thing I want to do is stand at the stove stirring oatmeal while I’m getting ready for work, so baking it is a way of having it ready to go. I just have to heat it up!

Here’s the basic formula for it. You can always add berries, nuts, even protein powder.

VEGAN BAKED BANANA OATMEAL

1 banana, mashed

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup non-dairy milk

1 tbsp. chia seeds

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup raisins or chopped dates

dash of salt

~~~Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil 9″ pan or use a silicone pan and you don’t need oil!

~~~Combine all ingredients in bowl, them pour into pan.

~~~Bake for 25 minutes, until lightly browned.

~~~Cut into 9 pieces and store in refrigerator.

You can top it with anything—nut butter, jam, fruit. Or you can have it plain.

I had a piece with maple butter, walnut butter, and cooked apples.

One more hit of breakfast wisdom from Ron:

 

Veggie-Rich Lasagna and Chili

It all started last week when a co-worker [Hi, Debbie!] brought in some lasagna for lunch and that made me realize I haven’t had lasagna in a long time, and why not, it’s easy to make and who doesn’t love it?

This time I wanted to do something a little different–I usually make a tofu ricotta, but I’d heard about a cauliflower/cashew “ricotta” so I tried that and it was a revelation! That’s the only “ricotta” I want from now on! I’m not sure it’d be good in a vegan cannoli but in savory dishes, it’s superb.

Lasagna goes together effortlessly when you have all the ingredients together. I had a clear-out-the-fridge situation, so I started with roasting yellow squash, mushrooms, onions, and peppers, a little cauliflower and kale, and then I added lentils. I also added salt and pepper.

So about that amazing “ricotta”. Start with steaming 4 cups of cauliflower for a big pan of lasagna. I mean steam it to a fare-thee-well, it should be soft! Now take 2 cups of raw cashews and buzz them in the food processor till they look like flour, now add the steamed cauliflower and blend until smooth. Add some salt  and Italian herbs–not too much, since ricotta is traditionally pretty bland. Besides, your other ingredients are going to be salty and herby. Anyway, here’s what it looks like:

For my sauce, I just popped open 2 jars [no-oil, no-sugar—–thanks Aldi!] marinara sauce and I added one can of diced tomatoes, and I added a small handful of dried Italian herbs.

Here’s the pasta I used:

I loved these lasagna noodles—one ingredient: green lentils! Hey, you guys know that you don’t have to cook the noodles, right? And that goes for any lasagna noodles—you’re going to cover it with foil and let it bake for at least 45 minutes, so believe me, those noodles are going to cook. So save yourself some broken soggy noodle heartache and lay them in uncooked.

Ready to start lasagna assembly!

Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Get out your big 9″x13″ pan, and spread some sauce in the bottom, then add the first layer of lasagna noodles. They look skimpy, but they’ll expand perfectly as they cook.

Next, a layer of that luscious cashew/cauliflower “ricotta”:

Next the veggies and lentils:

Then another layer of that business, and ending with a last layer of noodles and a generous topping of marinara.

Next lightly cover it with foil and let it bake for at least 45 minutes. Then remove the foil and let it bake about 15 minutes longer to firm up.

I usually top lasagna with vegan mozzarella, but I wanted to keep this dish as unprocessed as possible, so I made a quick “parmesan”—simply nutritional yeast and hemp seeds seasoned with a bit of garlic powder and some salt. Sorry, I don’t have exact proportions–but roughly equal parts nootch and hemp seeds, and enough salt to make it taste like parmesan. It’s good stuff–amazing on avocado toast!!!

Of course I had to try some right out of the oven, when it has zero structural integrity and it’s delicious, but not very pretty. The next day, it’s even better and it sets beautifully. Check it out.

I still had some of the vegetable/lentil mix left and some of the sauce left, so I decided to make chili. I just mixed everything together and add a decent amount of cumin, garlic, chili powder, 2 cans of black beans, and I had chili, just like that!

It’s great on it’s own or over rice, millet, or quinoa. I made myself a bowl with a sweet potato, some air-fried tofu cubes, chili, some Daiya shreds, and a squiggle of “sour cream”.

Not too bad for someone just clearing out the fridge, eh? Get creative folks! And thanks for the inspiration, Debbie!