(862) action de grâces

Well, let's see what's out of the way: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, the busiest weekend of the year at Starbucks, my last real weeks of school...I guess that's a lot! I have been incredibly busy since last week but I only have this week and exams left in class, then I'm done! Yay! I also made a vegan Thanksgiving for the first time this year and everyone approved!

New favorite tempeh dish: sweet peppers and tempeh cooked down in a mixture of soy sauce, lime juice, and cilantro. So flavorful and delicious! //greens + seeds

 So this exists at my new job...you can all imagine how stoked I was to see this. 

 Black Friday morning shift late breakfast at 1 PM: hashbrown egg cups from Ashley smothered in ketchup with leftover homemade biscuits (below).

 Pretty much made everyone eat something green on their Thanksgiving plate that wasn't mushroom soup drenched green bean casserole (yuck!): warm carrot ribbon and kale salad with toasted almonds. //Mince + Type

 This is my first year of not eating meat during the holidays. Until I moved out, I ate meat a few times a week, but never everyday. For me personally, I find it easier and cheaper to cook from bulk grains and beans, vegetables, and fruits. This is just my personal opinion however! It's easier for me to prepare things that are vegan usually, and this goes for baking as well. It also ends up being healthier in the long run! I strangely don't really miss bacon. I do eat eggs, honey, and fish, which is why I can't claim to be 100% vegan. But I still try to branch out my "veganism" as much as possible. This vegan lentil "meat" loaf exceeded everyone's expectations. My dad even ate it, who tried to get me to eat turkey this meal haha. It is flavorful, moist, and tastes like the real thing! //Tasty Yummies at Healthful Pursuit

 Yay for doing other new culinary things: I made my first from scratch pie crust! I made the mistake, however, of not greasing my pie pan (because I'm an idiot) but it turned out great. My dad hates pumpkin pie for some reason so I made this vegan chocolate pecan. It was incredible flavorful and custardy for not having any eggs! I would love to make this into mini tarts sometime. //The First Mess

 I have made biscuits before with bacon, brown sugar, and GF all purpose flour. They were good, but these almond and chickpea flour, honey laced biscuits with coconut oil are AMAZING. They taste better than the ones I ate for years at meals. My mom and dad are hooked on them, so I guess I will have to make them from now on. They only took 5 minutes to pull together too. //Elana's Pantry [note: I used 1.5 C almond flour, 1 C chickpea flour, 1/4 C melted coconut oil and 1/4 C honey]

 Vegan thanksgiving plate! Everything was delicious, especially alongside a glass of Beaujolais Noveau

 Had a little pre-Thanksgiving get together with some friends to watch ThanksKilling, which is terribly amazing. I made this vegan bean dip, which was super easy to pull together, and they made mango salsa and guacamole. This comes from one of my new favorite vegan blog finds! //For Reals Mom

Now that all of the Thanksgiving dishes are cleaned, the leftovers are gone, and the shoppers finally told themselves to go home, things are somewhat back to "normal" before Christmas hits in a month. I am really looking forward to being over with school so that I can try new things in the kitchen. I made this amazing rosemary vegetable soup with white wine, kale and potatoes. It is very filling and delicious! I hope it gets really cold so I can eat this for a few more days! //Vegetarian 'Ventures