Thanksgiving Vegan Meet-up
Our DallasVegan 101 Meet-up group gathered on Saturday night to celebrate Thanksgiving. What a potluck it was!! I was very camera happy…so you get to see all the wonderful dishes everyone brought.
I’ll start with my contribution…Mashed Potatoes (I used a recipe I got from a Spiral Diner cooking class last year)…
and Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from VwaV. I am making these same mashed potatoes and gravy for my family on Thanksgiving, so it was great to test out the recipe. The gravy is soooooo good.
I also put out the remaining slices of our Celebration Roastfrom Whole Foods. It disappeared quick! Eric and I bought another celebration roast last night for Thanksgiving. We love it sooo much. It’s excellent on a sandwich with cranberry sauce!!
Now for everyone else’s dishes… Sweet Potato Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Tofurkey
More Mashed Potatoes
I really didn’t understand what this was exactly, but I know it’s from an Indian restaurant. They are basically fried hot peppers and hot potatoes. There were two sauces to dip them in. VERY spicy!!
Southwestern Corn Pudding from VwaV. This was awesome!!! I’ve actually got the recipe out right now and am debating adding it to my Thanksgiving menu. My mom always makes this corn casserole, so this definitely reminded me of it, except this one is almost better with all of the southwestern spices, not to mention that it’s vegan. 
Macrobiotic Rice and Veggie Casserole
Shepard’s Pie
Here’s a picture of my plate before digging in.
And of course, what meal would be complete without desserts?!! Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake from Fat-Free Vegan.
Gingerbread Iced Cookies
To prove it more….heehee….
Last night I came home from work wanting to be in the kitchen. I started out by making this…
Pumpkin Crumb Cake with Pecan Streusel from VwaV. Vegan Dad has blogged about it before too here.
I then packaged some pieces up for our lovely coworkers.
The rest for us!!
I then made Blakened Tofu from ED&BV. We had it with roasted sweet potatoes that I roasted in the oven for an hour….sooo tasty and couscous.
I’m alive!!!
I apologize for being MIA for about a week now. I’ve been pretty busy…you know how it goes…life. Of course, I’ve still been doing plenty of vegan eating and cooking. That can only mean one thing….lots of pictures to follow.
I’ll start with this one….
Eric’s office building at work held a pumpkin carving contest. He had to have the pumpkin there by Monday, and they are announcing the winner Thursday afternoon (so I’ll let you know). The winner gets an Xbox 360. He stayed up nearly all night on Sunday to have it done in time. I think it’s pretty great!! I can’t wait to see how he fairs. This gave me an idea to hold a carving contest with my fourth graders. I announced it today. They are soooo excited!! They will bring in their pumpkins Monday. I made a big deal about it being their own work. I told them an adult can help them with a knife though. I’m going to have goody bags for all of the kids that participate, and I’l let the kids vote. I’ll be sure to take pictures and post them up next week. Carving is so much fun!! Don’t let this Halloween pass you up….get to carving.
I LOVE vegan baking!!!
This was a big week for baking for me. It all started last Sunday when a coworker and dear friend, Clorinda, had a birthday. We’ve worked together for over a year now. I’ve been vegan since I met her, but it wasn’t until about a month ago that Clorinda, upon her own accord, went and bought and read Skinny Bitch. She’s been vegan for over 30 days now and doesn’t have a plan to stop. I love it because now there’s someone else on my team who’s weird like me! 
She also gives me great restaurant and grocery item advice. I have a vegan buddy!
On Sunday, I wanted to make sure Clorinda could have a proper birthday, and being vegan and all, she needed a vegan cake…..so in the kitchen I went. I made her a Chocolate Cake (from The Joy of Vegan Baking, p. 72) with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting (from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, p.142). Her review was superb! And I know for a fact the cake was delicious because she brought me a piece to work on Monday (how thoughtful)! This made the perfect birthday cake. The cake itself was so easy and requires ingredients you are likely to have on hand (same for the icing). I topped it off with vegan chocolate chips. Eric put the candles on top. He tried to place them to make the digits of her age. Can you guess how old she is?
Wednesday night I was up to more baking. This time I was baking for Eric and my whole team. Eric was flying out of town on Thursday for a few days, so I got the idea to make him a treat before he left. He LOVES pumpkin…..pumpkin anything really. You name it, if it has pumpkin in it, he’ll like it. (Which makes me think…I need to make pumpkin tofu. heehee) Since he made me such lovely cupcakes on my birthday, I decided to return the favor (with pumpkin). I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing (from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, p. 126). I made them a little extra healthy (for good measure and because I have to put a little bit of a Tara spin on it). I subbed a little over half of the all-purpose flour it calls for with whole wheat pastry flour. I also only used between a 1/2 and 2/3 cup of sugar, instead of a whole cup. They were just perfectly sweet, and with the rich icing, they were divine! Eric and I indulged on them Wednesday night. I also packaged them up to give each one of my teammates one on Thursday morning. Everyone seemed to love. I’ve been spreading vegan recipes around. Another lovely teacher on my team, Kristen, is also starting to follow the vegan diet. It’s so hilarious really! We’re known as the healthy team! I wonder how many teachers will turn vegan while I’m there. heehee
