Another Food-fest Complete

Hello again! I hope everyone had a tasty and restful Thanksgiving yesterday. (For those of you outside the US, I hope you enjoyed your Thursday as well!). I began the day as tradition would predict: I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade with a mug of hot cider. After a bit of lounging, I got around to a bit of exercise and food preparation, of course. There's nothing like having a day to do exactly what you want to do--in my case, cook a fabulous meal and watch Jon & Kate Plus Eight. How did you all spend your Thursday?

Wednesday
Before turning in, I made a quick smoothie with another one of my favorite fruits: cherries! I combined them with soymilk, hemp protein, and PB granola.

Thursday
I kicked off the day with another round of Banana Blender Cereal. This time I used a new cereal for me, Publix's Toasted Oatmeal Flakes; I also used Brazil nuts for the nutty component. I was really bummed that this didn't turn out as well as I had hoped:(

After a morning of parade-watching, exercising, and cranberry-cooking, I made a quick stir-fry for lunch. I made a sauce out of agave nectar, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic and combined it with mango chunks, red bell pepper, mushrooms, tofu, and garlic noodles. Chopped almonds topped it all off, and I served it all alongside a salad with sweet Vidalia dressing that I found in the fridge.

Once mealtime came around, I prepared a last-minute appetizer plate for the crowd: sun-dried tomato hummus with fresh cut veggies and Triscuits with cheese cut-outs.
The big meal consisted of a Quorn Turk'y Roast with vegetarian gravy, salad, cranberry sauce, steamed broccoli, and stuffing. The salad was a random creation of mine, featuring field greens, currants, and walnuts. The cranberry sauce was another one of my contributions. Although I normally sweeten it with agave nectar, I opted for brown sugar last night to appease all the palates present; other components include vanilla and cinnamon stick.

The stuffing presented a challenge this year: my mom always prepares it from a specific mix, but I happened to notice that this particular mix contained trans fats and high fructose corn syrup. Not cool. Instead, I suggested the Whole Foods brand (see below). Mom was nice enough not only to acquiesce to my request but also to prepare it with vegetable broth (instead of chicken) so that I could enjoy some. Thanks, Mom!
A few hours later, my stomach had deflated enough to enjoy some vegan pumpkin pudding that I had prepared earlier in the day. I adapted it from CCV's Apple Pie Pudding. Yummy stuff but still second-best to Mom's (non-vegan) version!

I still made room for my smoothie last night. I combined peaches, cinnamon, soymilk, hemp protein, and PB granola.

Friday

I woke up this morning ready for some shopping. I needed plenty of fuel to help me navigate through the crowds, so I prepared a classic tofu scramble with tahini, soy sauce, ginger, turmeric, mushrooms, and red bell peppers. On the side, I had some toast and a sliced kiwi.

We returned home early enough so that I could watch the Duke-Duquesne game on TV. I enjoyed watching another Duke victory while munching on a Turk'y salad wrap, which was comprised of leftover Turk'y, celery, vegan mayo, walnuts, currants, curry powder, mustard, and agave nectar. SO GOOD. Along with it, I had a salad with Clementine segments…and another Clementine.
I don't often share snacks with you all, but I had an exceptionally tasty afternoon snack today: plain yogurt with stevia, cranberry sauce, and raw almonds. So nutritious and delicious! In the spirit of harvest-time coming to an end, I decided to roast an acorn squash for dinner. I seasoned it with herbes de provence and S+P, then stuffed it with leftover stuffing and topped it off with toasted cashews. To round it out, I had some garlic-spiked spinach and cinnamon-y cottage cheese. Doesn't the squash half look a little bit like a heart?
I am off to enjoy a holiday movie, likely Elf or Home Alone. What's your favorite holiday movie?

I will leave you with a few pictures of our oh-so-elegant table setting:

Be back soon!