Biscuits & Gravy

Biscuits & Gravy – via Vegan with a Vengeance

Chris and I have been on Biscuits & Gravy mission lately. We had some at two of my favorite places to eat and niether were quite what I was expecting. Both boasted mushroom gravy rather than the classic white southern sausage gravy. So I made the one in Vegan with a Vengeance. The biscuits rocked and the sausage gravy was good, but I think I used too much fennel…maybe I’ll use half the amount the recipe calls for next time!

Pound Cake

A few weeks ago I (finally) bought Veganomicon and one of the first recipes I tried out of the book was the Pound Cake. I added Chocolate Chips (which sort of sank a bit, but it still rocked). I gave the loaf to Chris so he could feed the masses at his work. Everyone loved it, which I’m always happy to hear.

Blueberry Crumble

Filling:

4 Cups Blueberries (I used frozen, fresh work too)

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp flour

Stir the above together and put into an 8×8 square pan

Crumble Topping:

1 cup oats (you can use quick oats or old fashion)

1 cup toasted chopped walnuts

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix the above together until crumbly and spread evenly over the blueberries. Cooking at 350F for 30-45 minutes, until blueberries are bubbly and the topping is lightly browned.

Roasted Green Beans

Trim Green Beans, toss in EVOO and Sea Salt. Roast at 400F for about 15-20 minutes. Simple, Tasty, and Fast. You can add in almond slices too (I did not, since one of my Thanksgiving guests has tree nut allergy).

Candied Yams

4 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into rounds

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup Earth Balance Butter

1 1/2 cup water

Combine the brown sugar, EB, and water together over medium heat. Simmer potatoes until tender. Add water if needed, but you want to get a thicker caramel sauce. If you add too much water and need to thicken the sauce take a tablespoon of cornstarch and mix with 3 tbsp hot water until dissolved and stir into the sauce.

A Vegan Thanksgiving

This was the first year I made a Vegan Thanksgiving for more than just myself, which instantly made me nervous. I’m fairly easy to please with my own cooking…I mean, I cooked it, I typically like it! I was very hopefully that my non-vegan boyfriend (and my non-vegan roommate as well) would enjoy the dinner. I also made enough for leftovers since we’d be joining his family for Thanksgiving on Saturday.

The Dinner Menu:

Tofurky (I took the easy way out on this, next year I’ll make my own main dish!)

Gravy

Poppyseed Dinner Rolls (Based on my mom’s recipe)Roasted Green BeansGarlic Mashed Potatoes

Candied Yams (My Grandmothers Recipe) ~ Which is the one thing I did not get a solo picture of!

The Desserts:

Apple Cake (From the Joy of Vegan Baking)Blueberry Crumble

Pumpkin Pie ~ to be made for my Saturday Thanksgiving

Overall dinner was very good. The boyfriend and the roommate both really like it. I was shocked (okay, pleased) to see that only two tiny slices of tofurky were left over for me for Saturday. I cooked just enough food so I’d have my leftovers for Saturday dinner, everyone got a little take home desserts, and everyone was full. It was truly a great Thanksgiving. Although, next year, I think I might do a Thanksgiving themed breakfast buffet instead. We’ll see.

I’ll be making my pumpkin pie tonight and I cannot wait. Also, I’ll get recipes posted for everything over the next week or so. I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving too!

Soup

Homemade soup is the best. The above used up some leftovers (because, really, that’s what soup does). Includes carrots, red potatoes, green beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, thyme, and vegetable stock. Simmer together and enjoy. I know I did!

Vegan Brunch Chorizo

A while ago I made the Chorizo Sausage from Vegan Brunch. Actually, I made a crazy amount and froze it, this way any time I wanted some it was there. I love cooking in bulk and saving food for later. This time I sauteed it with some onions, garlic, and collard greens. Served on some spaghetti squash seasoned with cumin and red pepper, side of acorn squash too. Yeah. I love my squash.

Easy Lunch

Sometimes I get lazy and this week was one of those weeks. I had a box of Fantastic Foods Falafel and decided that would make an excellent item for my lunches this week. It’s super easy, tastes good (for not being homemade that is, I’m sure if I sat down and made my own it would be worth it…but I was lazy and they were on sale!)

Orange Blueberry Bundt Cake

This weekend is my mountain bike teams end of season party. So I decided to make something yummy for it. I’ve been eying up this recipe in the Joy of Vegan Baking for a while. So I finally made it.

I only had one issue, when I flipped it over to remove the cake from the bundt pan I had a bit of disaster. Roughly 3/4 of the cake was fine, but 1/4 of the cake got stuck and well, made a mess. A yummy mess but a mess nonetheless. So I decided to cut the cake and put it on a platter while reserving the broken parts for myself and my boyfriend. This worked well, because I got a nice taste test prior to serving it up at the party.