Vegan Thanksgiving

I've always said that Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, if not my most favorite (Passover is also up there, so maybe I just like holidays centered around feasts...).  Anyways, being vegetarian and then vegan did not change this.  Luckily at my family's Thanksgiving, we have always had tons of different vegetables to go along side the standard turkey and mashed potatoes.  Each year I try to find a new veg-friendly recipe, at least one sweet and one savory, to bring into the mix.  Generally, I have been very successful in convincing my family that vegetarian and vegan food does not have to be plain or unfulfilling, and that it does have a place at the Thanksgiving table.  While I'm not sure what I will whip up this year, here are a few recipes that have caught my eye over the past few weeks:

Main Dishes:
- Farro with Leeks and Balsamic Roasted Brussels

- Walnut Encrusted Tempeh

- Smoky Butternut Squash Sauce with Pasta and Greens and Butternut Squash Mac and Cheeze
- Butternut Leek and Toasted Hazelnut Risotto
- Seitan Mushroom Roast  

Salads and Sides:

- Grilled Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette

- Quinoa Salad with Pears, Spinach, and Chickpeas

- Roasted Root Vegetable Mash

- Roasted Butternut Squash and Brussels with Nutmeg and Sage

- Apple Cider Glazed Sweet Potatoes
- Sweet Potato Biscuits

Desserts:
- Raw, Vegan Pecan Pie
- Vegan Sweet Potato Pie
- You Won't Believe It's Vegan Pumpkin Pie

- Raw, Deep Dish Chocolate PB Ice Cream Cake 

- Vegan Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Drinks:

- Perfect Fall Sangria

- Butterscotch Maca Mug

In addition to being a favorite time of year, Thanksgiving is also pretty significant to me as it was 3 years ago on Thanksgiving that I ate meat for the last time.  This year, in addition to passing on the turkey, I am turning this day into one of giving: giving a turkey a life that is!  One of my favorite teachers at my yoga studio in DC is holding a donation based class Thanksgiving morning.  All donations go to Farm Sanctuary's Adopt a Turkey program.  Which means my one time donation of $30 will sponsor and support a turkey living at one of Farm Sanctuary's shelters, for the rest of his or her life!  I encourage you to check out the program, or better yet, if you will be in the DC area this Thanksgiving, join me in taking Courtney's class at The Studio DC.

Pumpkin Breakfast Bars with Maple Almond Glaze

Another pumpkin recipe coming at you today: pumpkin bars with maple almond glaze.  I wasn't planning on posting this recipe, but it was SUCH a hit that I couldn't not post it!  I got the inspiration for this one from my brother's girlfriend (thanks, Arielle!) who shared a chocolate-chip version of these bars with my family last weekend.  While the chocolate-chip version was delicious, I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate and pumpkin, and wanted to make these a little more breakfast-friendly (not saying you can't have chocolate for breakfast, but for me, chocolate in the morning is usually reserved for birthdays and special holidays).

Pumpkin Breakfast Bars with Maple Almond Glaze (vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free)

Dry:
2 1/2 cups oat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 scoop neutral or vanilla flavored protein powder (optional)

Wet:
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup almond butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Glaze:
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 TBSP almond butter
chopped walnuts for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease an 8 x 8 square pan with coconut oil (or nonstick method of choice).  Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  Mix wet ingredients in a separate, large bowl (or food processor).   Add the dry to the wet and stir until just combined.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 15-20 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.  While the bars are cooking, prepare the glaze by whisking together maple syrup and almond butter.  Remove bars from the oven and let cool slightly before pouring the glaze over the top of the bars.  Garnish with chopped walnuts, if desired.

Adapted from here. 


These bars are perfect for breakfast, but also great as an afternoon snack or healthy dessert.  They freeze well, so if you don't have a band of hungry co-workers, friends, or family members (or if you just want to keep them all to yourself, which is not a bad idea), slice the cooled bars then pop into a Ziploc bag.  You may want to leave off the glaze if you are planning on freezing, and simply slather the bars with almond butter, maple syrup, or topping of your choice once reheated.

Happy baking!

GO GREEN: An All Green Juice Cleanse

A few weeks ago, Organic Avenue (remember, one of my favorite juice places in NYC) sent out an email advertising a sale on their ALL GREEN juice cleanse.  Without thinking much, I hopped on this opportunity!  I was going to be traveling again for work for an extended period of time (Memphis again, four weeks) and thought a juice cleanse would be a great break from the restaurant and hotel food.  I did a juice cleanse the last time I was in Memphis and it was a great experience.

I conned a co-worker into doing the cleanse with me.  We decided to do it during the week, starting on October 29th and ending the day after Halloween. Trick, or treat?


I'm not going to go into all the details of the cleanse, but will summarize my thoughts on this cleanse briefly:

1. There is such a thing as "too much of a good thing" - I love me a green juice (hey, even two green juices), but 6 green juices a day plus a green booster shot?  It is a little much.  I enjoyed most of the juices; however, drinking six 14 oz green juices a day was hard!  Most were completely savory (very little to no fruit).  Savory is great, but it would have been nice to have at least one or two sweet juices in the mix.  Disclaimer:  Two of the juices I considered semi-sweet, but not fruity enough to mask that they were still mostly veggies.

2.  Juice feast, don't juice fast - Due to the low fruit content of this cleanse, an entire day of juices only added up to around 500 calories.  From my research, your body goes into starvation mode with anything less than 1,200.  While it's totally fine to have such a reduced calorie intake for a few days, I didn't like the idea of draining my body.  I needed to work and wanted to work out during this cleanse.  Looking back, this extreme option probably wasn't the best choice based on my situation.

Finally I realized that you need to be fully committed in order to have a successful cleanse (duh, Emily).  As I mentioned, I sort of hopped on this juice cleanse on a whim, and didn't really take the time to think if this was something my body and life could handle at the time.  I don't think that I went into the cleanse fully committed, which is pretty important considering the cost and effort required to do any cleanse.

All this being said, I "supplemented" my cleanse.  Some would call this "cheating," but I knew I wasn't going to get anything out of the cleanse if I starved myself for 3 days and wasn't productive in my professional or personal life.  I listened to what my body needed.  I added some fresh fruit and veggies, and raw nuts.  And guess what?  I still saw great results - my senses sharper, my digestion improved, and, for the most part, I was able to do regular work outs. 

So while I don't recommend this "Go Green" juice cleanse to anyone except the most experienced, hard core juicers, I also do not have any regrets about trying this cleanse.  Next time though (yes there will be a next time), I'll stick with the less intense version.  Drinking all juice all day is enough intensity for me. =)

Review: Thai X-ing

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting some friends for dinner at Thai X-ing, an authentic (you guessed it) Thai food restaurant in Shaw.  I had been to Thai X-ing before with the BF - we enjoyed our meal there, but it wasn't as wonderful as others had proclaimed, so I didn't bother to write about it here.  However, this second visit did in fact live up to those high expectations and so I thought I should share some details on this experience.

Dining at Thai X-ing is in fact an experience.  The restaurant is located inside a row house on Florida Avenue; you could easily miss it except for the hostess who is usually standing outside the entrance.  We were ushered inside by said hostess and, as we were a slightly larger group, we were sat at the larger, low table by the front window.

I had called ahead to make my dietary preferences known, and our server checked in with all of us before the meal began for allergies and preferences.  Food arrived almost immediately, but not before we had a chance to open the wine we had brought (yup, Thai X-ing is a rare BYOB in DC).

First up: Papaya Salad and Tom Yam soup.  Two of the simplest, yet also my favorite, Thai dishes.  The salad was perfectly crunchy and just spicy enough to wake up your taste buds.  The soup also had a delicate balance of spice (from the lemongrass and ginger) and sweetness (from the rich coconut milk).  I could have been satisfied with just those two dishes, but there was much more to come.

The main dishes all came out at once:  Pumpkin Curry, Bean Sprouts with Tofu, and Drunken Noodles with Tofu, plus a fish and beef dish for the carnivorous folks in the group.  Plus a mountain of fluffy white rice.  My favorite by far was the Pumpkin Curry - slightly spicy, yet also so creamy.  I am determined to replicate this dish at home sometime soon.
 

 

And finally... Mango Sticky Rice.  While we all proclaimed to be too stuffed to continue, we ate every last bite of this amazing dessert.  Another dish I am determined to learn how to make and perfect. 

We all left too full, but also very satisfied.  I love to try new foods, and it is so much more fun to share this experience with friends and loved ones. 

Pumpkin Banana Bread - Vegan & GF

It's that time of year again folks... pumpkin season!  While I'm a summer girl and not as thrilled about the cooler weather coming our way, I am excited for all the fall foods: pumpkin, butternut squash, apples, cinnamon, etc.  For a while now I have been searching for a good breakfast bread: something vegan and gluten free, made with no-nonsense ingredients, and minimal added sugars.  Just sweet enough from the bananas and maple syrup, and made with ingredients that I normally stock in my kitchen, this recipe fit the bill.  The streusel is completely optional, but it does make this bread feel indulgent and special, not to mention beautiful, so I suggest including it.

 Pumpkin Banana Bread (vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free)

Dry:
1 + ¾ cup oat flour (you can grind rolled oats into flour using a food processor)**

1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ turmeric

Wet:
2 medium bananas 
1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup almond pulp (or any other pulp from making homemade nut milk, or almond meal)
¼ cup coconut oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon non-dairy milk

For the streusel:
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 c. rolled oats
3 tablespoons oat flour
½ tablespoon turbinado sugar
½ tablespoon maple syrup
½ tablespoon coconut oil

**If using whole oats, make sure they are certified gluten free (if gluten is an issue for you)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a loaf pan (I used 9x5). 

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl or food processor, mix the mashed bananas, pumpkin, nut pulp, oil, syrup, vanilla and milk. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Scoop batter into the loaf pan.

Combine all streusel ingredients in a small bowl and stir until everything is evenly coated. Sprinkle the mixture over the cake and press it lightly into the batter using your hand. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the bread springs back lightly under your finger instead of sinking in. 

Adapted from here.

This bread got eaten up in no time!

I apologize for the terrible photo, but I brought this loaf to work and half of it got eaten before I remembered to take a picture.  I took that as a sign that it was blog-worthy.  This is definitely a recipe I will be making again soon - maybe next time I will try it with sweet potato instead of pumpkin?  Yum...

What are your favorite fall foods?

A Veggie-ful DC Weekend

This past weekend was DC VegFest 2013!  I have been talking about this event since last year, so needless to say I was excited.  My mom and brother drove in from the burbs to check it out with me and we had a blast.  The afternoon was full of free, yummy samples and definitely some good people watching.  Some of the highlights were...
 

Vegan chipwich from Bakeshop - YUM-O!

Close up of chipwich delicious-ness

New tank for Mom "Kale yes!"

Treeline Treenut cheese

This stuff is legit

barefootbucha - kombucha on tap!

In addition to the Treeline nut cheese and delicious chipwich pictured above, I also scored three jars of Peanut Butter and Co peanut butter, Theo dark chocolate with coffee, some Dandies marshmallows, and a Gouter Pumpkin Spice Latte tonic (on top of all the free samples I collected throughout the day).

To top off my veggie-filled afternoon, I came home to my September Vegan Cuts Snack Box.  Because I know you all loved my first Snack Box video, (drum roll please) I decided to again film my unboxing...

And that's a wrap!

Inspiration: Breakfast Salad

Do you ever get in a breakfast rut?  Or simply have a craving for something totally out of the ordinary?  I know I do.  Sometimes my morning smoothie or scoop of granola just doesn't satisfy me.  I find this to be especially true on weekends when I usually have a little more time to make something for myself.  This past weekend was one of these times -  I was up early and ravenous!  I knew cereal or fruit was not going to cut it.  I looked in the fridge for inspiration and saw veggies, and remembered a post for a 'breakfast salad' I had pinned a while back on Choosing Raw.  Why not try it?  I thought... and then a beautiful thing was born.

This may be my new favorite breakfast (which is saying a lot, since I'm pretty addicted to green smoothies).   It's super simple to prepare, but also incredibly satisfying due to the chew factor.   Here's how to try one for yourself:

Step 1- Pick your greens.  I used baby arugula because that's what I had and what I love, but a milder green may be better suited for the AM (think baby spinach, butter lettuce, romaine).
Step 2 - Pick your fruit.  I sliced up a banana for my salad, but any fruit will work.  Take inspiration from what's in season or keep it simple with a personal favorite. Throw in whatever other veggies complement that fruit (I thought cool cucumber would add a nice contrast to the creamy banana).
Step 3 - Add some crunch. Top your salad with granola, cereal, nuts, and/or seeds.  Not only will this add a satisfying crunch to your salad, but it will also increase the protein content.
Step 4 - Dress it up!  I drizzled maple syrup and lemon juice over my salad, but the possibilities are endless.  A few ideas I will definitely try in the near future include some sort of almond butter based sauce and the chocolate avocado sauce featured on Choosing Raw (see link above).

I know salad for breakfast may sound strange, but in other places around the world this is totally normal.  In many Mediterranean countries, breakfast consists of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers with bread and olives.  Asian countries also love their veggies:  a common morning meal in Japan is miso soup, pickled vegetables, seaweed salad, and cured raw fish.

So why not switch things up and get your day off to a GREEN and HEALTHY start?  And let me know how it turns out - I'm always on the lookout for creative new eats, especially for the most important meal of the day!

Happy crunching!