Make Thanksgiving Healthy

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I absolutely adore Thanksgiving dinner- there's something about all those winter vegetables being made into beautiful and delicious meals that you share with loved ones that makes it really special. This Thanksgiving, try to make your dishes healthier- I promise they'll taste just as good, if not better.

I've chosen some good looking recipes that don't contain animal fats. I'd still tweak a couple things in some of them: use whole grain flour when it calls for white, cut the sugars and sweeteners (you never need as much as they say), use homemade instead of packaged ingredients, use oil instead of margarine, and use as many organic ingredients as possible. Otherwise, have fun planning your menu. There are some great resources out there for healthy recipe ideas. Be thankful for your health, and give that gift to your loved ones.

Tofurkey
Cornbread Stuffing
Miso Gravy
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash
Thanksgiving Casserole
Pumpkin Tart

Vegan Cornbread (southern style)

This one makes me think of home. I adapted it from the recipe my mom always made us.

2 cups yellow corn meal
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup sour soy milk (to make this, put 1 tsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice per 1 cup soy milk and let sit about 10 minutes. It is the perfect vegan buttermilk)
1/3 cup oil
egg replacer (I've found that using 1 heaping TBS soy flour plus 1 TBS corn starch plus 2 TBS water is the best for this recipe)

Mix all ingredients together. Coat the bottom of an iron skillet in olive oil, and place in oven while you preheat it to 400 degrees. Once hot, pour batter into hot skillet. Cook 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Best eaten with pinto beans and collard greens.

Herbal Body Cream (vegan, and hand-made)

It can be hard to find vegan body care products, and even if you do find them, the ingredients may be unpronounceable. We should care as much about what we put on our bodies as what we put in them.

It's so easy to make most products yourself, why not do it? With a little help from Mountain Rose, you can have the ingredients at your front door in a couple of days. This is a great place to find herbs, spices, teas, medicinal supplements, and other great body care products. Their products are mostly organic, fair trade, and kosher certified. I definitely trust them for quality ingredients.

Here's my favorite herbal body cream. I make it all the time. I'm submitting this recipe in the Mountain Rose Herbs Recipe Contest as well. I use this for face and body, and it works especially well for dry or sensitive skin. I've even had a friend use it as diaper rash ointment. You can change the consistency (i.e. more lotion-like or more body butter like) by decreasing or increasing (respectively) the amount of cocoa butter.



Equipment you will need:

a blender or mixer
a non-plastic bowl
a stainless steel saucepan
non-plastic measuring cups
glass jars
cotton cloth or unbleached coffee filers

Igredients:

Infused oils: in order to make these, place dried herbs in the bottom of a glass jar, add organic cold-pressed olive oil until the herb matter is covered. Place a cloth or coffee filter on top of the jar and secure with string. Let sit in a sunny window for 2 or 3 weeks. Strain herbs out of oil. You can put the herb matter in your compost. The oil you have is now infused oil.

In this recipe, I use lavender infused oil, calendula infused oil, and red clover infused oil. These are all great skin soothers. You can substitute other herbs as well.

1/4 cup calendula infused oil
1/4 cup red clover infused oil
1/8 cup lavender infused oil
1/8 cup grapeseed oil
1 tsp vitamin E oil
1 T candellila wax
2/3 - 1 cup cocoa butter (more if you want a thicker consistency)
2/3 cup rose hydrosol water
1/4 cup aloe vera gel
1/8 cup witch hazel
2 T vegetable glycerin
8-10 drops essential oil (I like combining orange and clove- it goes great with the chocolate smell of cocoa butter, but you can use others as well. Lavender is also nice.)

1 In a stainless steel saucepan, heat the oils, the wax, and the cocoa butter over medium low heat until melted.

2 In a non-plastic bowl, mix rose water, aloe vera, witch hazel, and glycerin together.

3 Add the contents of the bowl to the oils and stir.

4 Add essential oil.

5 Let mixture cool. You can place the pan in a sink of cold water, or in the fridge. Let cool until mixture thickens.

6 Pour mixture into a blender, and blend and blend and blend until you can't possibly blend anymore. This is key because it will make the mixture stay together longer (you know, oil vs. water). You will see that it starts to get thicker and looks less like it has a layer of liquid floating on top. Keep blending!!

note If you don't have a blender, you can use a mixer. Just mix the cream in a bowl for a really long time.

7 Spoon into glass jars and label.

This will stay good for several months as long as it is kept in a cool, dry place. You can refrigerate it for longer keeping.

Slather on skin, and be happy!!!

Spinach Tofu Paneer

3 T nutritional yeast
1 t onion powder
1 t salt
3 T water
1 t spicy brown mustard
1 block extra firm tofu, cubed
1 T curry powder
4 cups spinach, torn
vegan margarine

Mix together yeast, onion powder, salt, water, and mustard. Pour into skillet heated with margarine. Add tofu and coat. Cook on each side 3-5 minutes. Push to the side. Add more margarine, add curry and mix it up. Add spinach and cook until spinach is cooked thoroughly. Mix together with tofu and serve immediately.

*this recipe is adapted from one I found on vegweb.com.

I served this with brown basmati rice and a vegan aloo gobi dish that needs to be perfected before I post it. Yum.

Veggie Pot PIe

I made this one up last week, and it was mouth watering.

1 small yellow squash
1 small zucchini
1 red bell pepper
1 tomato
5-6 mushrooms
3 green onions
1 celery stalk
1 carrot

Chop into small pieces and sautee in olive oil on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine 1/4 cup vegennaise, 1/4 cup soy sour cream, 2 T herbes de provence, 1 t black pepper, 1/2 t thyme, 1/2 t sage, and salt to taste. Stir mixture into vegetables after removing from heat.

Pour into pie crust (I like making my own, using this recipe).

1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 t salt
1/3 c vegetable shortening
5-6 T water

Cut shortening into flour and salt mixture until it forms small balls. Add water one T at a time until dough consistency is reached. Form into a ball, and roll into a 12 inch circle.

You will need two of these. Line the bottom of a pie pan with one, pour in the vegetable mixture, place the other crust over the top, pinching edges together to close.

Bake for 50 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Vegan Applesauce Muffins

1.5 cups Oat Bran
.5 cups flax meal
.5 cups white flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
.5 t salt
1 cup applesauce
.5 cup soy milk
1/4 agave nectar
2 T cooking oil
1/2 cup raisins/ dried cranberries/ carob chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients (except fruit/chips) in a large bowl. Make a well in center. In a separate bowl combine wet ingredients. Add this to the dry mixture and stir. Fold in fruit or chips if desired. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full, and bake for 17 minutes.

Vegan Stroganoff

I adapted this from Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book's recipe for Beef Stroganoff. It tastes SUPER DELICIOUS with garlic mashed potatoes.

1/2 pkg soy crumblers or textured vegetable protein
8 oz vegan sour cream- Tofutti makes a yummy soy one
2 T flour
1/2 c water
2 t vegetable bouillon
1/4 t black pepper
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
2 c hot cooked noodles

Mix together sour cream and flour. Add water, bouillon, and pepper. Set aside.
Sautee onion, garlic, and mushrooms in olive oil. Mix sour cream mixture into veggies. Serve over hot noodles.

Cilantro Taco

I threw this together today, and it turned out wonderfully. I was able to buy almost all of the ingredients fresh from the farmer's market, too.



Tortillas
Soy/Veggie Crumblers or textured vegetable protein
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 white onion, chopped
1/2 cup whole kernel corn
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 can spicy tomato sauce
1\4 c taco seasoning
1 cup cooked rice
salt, to taste
avacado, to taste

Sautee all vegetables in a skillet until mostly cooked. Add veggie crumblers, tomato sauce and seasonings. Cook on low to medium heat until warm. Add rice, continue stirring until warm. Heat tortilla, fill with deliciousness, and devour.

Veggie Balls

1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 eggplant, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/3 green chile pepper, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 hand of broccoli, chopped
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup soy milk
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
tumeric powder
soy sauce
basil
rosemary
thyme
oregano
Shredded soy cheese


Preheat to 400. Stir fry chopped veggies with soy sauce and spices- to your taste. Make sure the veggies are done. Mix flour, sugar, oil, soy milk, salt, and baking powder to a doughy consistency. Add more milk or flour to desired consistency. Knead dough and let sit 10 minutes. On greased cookie sheet, flatten sections of dough. Place veggie mixture in center, and fold sides of dough up to meet in center. This should create a samosa-like, or even a ball like casing of dough around the veggies. Do this for each section. You can make them large or small. Bake until dough is golden brown: 20-30 minutes. Melt cheese on top.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

4-6 large, uniformly shaped (ish) bell peppers (red and yellow are the best)
2-4 cups cooked rice (any kind will do)
3/4 - 1 cup taco seasoning (or related spices)
1 package fake ground meat/ soy crumbles/ TVP
1/2 onion chopped
5-6 mushrooms chopped
shredded soy cheese (optional)
water

Start the rice a-cookin'. Wash the peppers and clean out the seeds. Cut in half and place with opening up in glass baking dish(es). Brown fake meat in skillet. Add onion and mushrooms. Add cooked rice and seasoning to meat mixture (or vice versa). Add water. Cook some of the water out. Spoon entire mixture into peppers. Bake on 350 for 45 minutes. Sprinkle cheese on top and continue cooking until melted.

Eat your heart out!

Raw Veggie Pizza

This is a dish that my cousin used to bring to family get togethers, only I modified it and became addicted.

You'll need:
1 recipe of biscuit or crescent roll dough
1 pkg Toffuti soy cream cheese
1/4 cup vegennaise
1/4 c of ranch seasoning
fresh bell peppers (I use red, green, and orange, and about 1/4 of the pepper each)
fresh onion (1/4 yellow onion)
fresh carrots (2 medium sized)
fresh broccoli (I don't know how to measure broccoli. Just use the florets, not the stems)
fresh mushrooms (1/2 cup, chopped)
fresh cauliflower (same as the broccoli)

First, roll the dough for the biscuits/ crescent rolls out flat on a cookie shit to make the crust. Bake for about 6 minutes and let cool. Chop the veggies into fine pieces. In a mixing bowl, combine the tofutti, vegennaise, and ranch mix. Stir or blend in food processor until it's creamy, well combined, and spreadable. Once the crust is cool, spread the mix onto it, then add the veggies evenly distributed on top. Press them into the cream mixture with a spatula. Refrigerate. It's best served chilled.

Enjoy!