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Posts Tagged Thanksgiving

Our Super Simple Thanksgiving 2011

Nov 28

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 6 Comments

Hi friends!

So this year for Thanksgiving we took the easy route.  Last year I made everything from scratch, including bread.  This year, what with all the recipe testing and cheffing I’ve had going on lately, cooking was actually the last thing I wanted to do.  And you know what?  We had a really great day!

We started our morning with the bread pudding.  Afterward we took the dogs out to get some exercise and for us to get some sunshine.  Cory woke up with a pretty gnarly head cold so we took it easy – otherwise I would have been bugging him to go do our own version of a Turkey Trot (I like to call ours the Gobble Gallop!).  I still can’t get over the awesome weather we had!

As I recap the food, it seems that BREAD sure seemed to be a recurring theme surrounding this holiday!

For ‘lunch’ we made a build-your-own crostini.  On my side of the pan I did some with Gruyere and tomato, some with goat cheese, some with a pepper goat and peppadews.

I mixed garlic powder and oil to brush on the baguette slices, then baked them at 425 for a few minutes until crispy before adding the toppings.  Then I popped them back in the oven just until the cheese melted.

Garnish with a sprinkle of minced parsley and a few olives on the side and eat up!

Dinner was a his-and-hers affair.

Here’s our little “table for two”:

We picked up a few ready-made things at Whole Foods the night before (some turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy for Cory and some soup and rolls for us both).  We just don’t eat large servings of food so it’s overkill for us to make a feast for two of us.  And since only one of us would be enjoying turkey, that too would be a waste.

A few days prior I made a buckwheat ‘stuffing’ from buckwheat groats, cooked with vegetable stock and some Sage & Savory poultry seasoning,  After cooking I added in some cranberries and pepitas.  Then on Thanksgiving Day, all I needed to do was roast my acorn squash and fill it with the stuffing.

I hollowed out single serve rolls to function as personal bread bowls and filled them with spicy vegan pumpkin soup (Whole Foods).

We had spinach salads on the side to include some leafy greens.  And Cory enjoyed his single serve ‘turkey with mash’, in addition.

We’d also planned on having some stuffed crescent rolls, like Keri made for me, but we just knew we wouldn’t have room.  So we made them the next day for lunch.

We played Trivial Pursuit (on the Wii), watched football, relaxed and even went to see “Breaking Dawn” on Friday.  We soaked up the downtime as much as we could since we knew Saturday and Sunday weren’t going to be nearly as relaxing.  (Another home project would getting underway.)

Today it felt great to get up in my usual routine, get a workout in, have a green smoothie, followed by some kombucha tea later in the morning.  Sometimes the best part of indulgent holiday food is getting back to the healthy stuff!

– Shari B. =)

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Holiday Happy Hour & Double Chocolate Bread Pudding

Nov 28

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 1 Comment

Hi blog buds!

I hope that you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!  What a beautiful day it was in Colorado for the holiday!  Our high temp was 71 glorious degrees!  That made my internal solar battery happy!  ;)

Wednesday, after the workday was done we had our usual Holiday Happy Hour where we kick off the long weekend with apps and a drink.  Whether it’s a long holiday weekend or an impending vacation, that first ‘evening off’ is always festive to me.  We were pretty beat from the day though so this one was nothing fancy.

Our snack was hummus and pita chips:

Along with a celebratory clink of glasses (red wine for her, beer for him!):

Another one of our holiday traditions, be it Thanksgiving or Christmas, is a fun breakfast.  Last Thanksgiving it was Pumpkin French Toast, sometimes it’s cinnamon rolls, other times a vegetarian ‘sausage’ gravy and biscuits, etc.  This Thanksgiving it was Double Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding.  And just for the record this is not “fitness food” or something I would eat regularly.  This is “once in a while, savor it” food for special occasions!

Oh. My. Chocolate. Heaven.  It was creamy, ooey and gooey. I used the recipe from Veganomicon as my inspiration, but changed a number of items.  (As such this is no longer a vegan recipe because it uses chocolate croissants from Panera that I am pretty sure contain plenty of butter.)

Double Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding

Ingredients

  • Coconut oil, for greasing loaf pan
  • 3 chocolate-filled croissants, purchased 2 days in advance to dry out
  • 1-1/2 to 2 cups Silk almond milk in Dark Chocolate flavor, divided
  • 3 tablespoons arrowroot powder
  • 1/4 cup agave nectar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 2 or 3 small ripe bananas, peeled

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 10 x 5 loaf pan with coconut oil.

Cut the croissants into small cubes.  Place into a medium large mixing bowl.

In a second medium mixing bowl, whisk together ½ cup dark chocolate almond milk and arrowroot powder until smooth with no clumps of powder left.  To the bowl, add another 1 cup of the almond milk along with the agave, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and just a pinch of sea salt and whisk to combine. Pour over cubed croissants, stirring lightly if needed to make sure each piece is coated.  Set aside for at least 15 minutes for liquid to soak into croissants.  After soaking, if your croissants are looking dry, add remaining 1/2 cup of almond milk.  Mash the bananas with a fork on a cutting board or in a bowl and gently fold them into the bread pudding. Pour mixture into loaf pan.

Bake uncovered for 32-35 minutes till top is puffed, slightly browned and feels firm. Allow to cool slightly (15 minutes or more so that it continues to set) before scooping and serving.

Are you a bread pudding fan?  Do you like yours more ‘silky/creamy’ or more on the drier side? 

I’ll be back shortly to recap the remainder of the holiday food!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

 

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Thanksgiving 2010 Recap – Part 1

Nov 26

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 6 Comments

Hi friends!

Ahhh Black Friday…  did you get up bright and early this morning to get some holiday shopping done?  (Or stay up all night before?)  We did not.  We’ve gone in the past, but it really seems in the last few years that there just haven’t really been any deals good enough to stand in the freezing cold for, not to mention lose sleep over.  Is it just me or do you guys think that the fun of Black Friday is being ruined by stores opening on Thanksgiving day, or at crazy hours like 2 AM?  I remember the first time I ever went Black Friday shopping – and it sure seemed like 6 AM was the first opening.  Last night Old Navy opened at 10 PM.  I feel for the employees of these stores, who end up missing out on part of their holiday.

But I digress…

How about some foodie talk?

Our Thanksgiving was quiet and relaxing.  It started on Tuesday night when I put MSP’s small chicken in the “citrus and savory” brine so it could soak for 12 hours.

Then on Wednesday night, Thanksgiving Eve, I made my dinner out of a mish-mash of veggies in the fridge.   And it was so darn delicious!!

Mushrooms, butter beans, green pepper, a tiny tomato and some shallots all sauteed up with some leftover Chipotle salsa and a little taco seasoning.  I’m finding that even with attending culinary school, my favorite dishes are the ones that are thrown together in a flash and provide tons of nutrients and flavor.

Since we were feeling festive we had to make a little toast as well (no, not an Ezekial toast… the other kind!).

The morning of Thanksgiving I woke up early to make a nice breakfast for MSP.  I was excited for this day filled with cooking.  He loves French toast, and I’d seen a recipe for a vegan version by Isa Chandra Moskowitz a while back that I’d had my eye on, for Pumpkin French Toast.  French toast and I have not been friends in the past.  And as it turns out, we still aren’t.  The change I made was using Ezekial bread, which should be fine since it’s a dense bread.  Here’s all you need to see to know I will not be making this again (nothing against the recipe):

Believe it or not, there actually was coconut oil in the bottom of my cast iron skillet.  The plus?  MSP was shocked that there was no egg in this recipe.  So for any of you out there who are vegan, give it a try.  Just don’t use Ezekial bread.  ;)

After breakfast, it was time to get a workout in.  We chose to use the Wii.  Boxing, soccer, and more.  (And we are even sore today from the boxing and the soccer squatting)!  We usually like to get a good walk in with the dogs on days we are off too, but ol’ girl Riley sustained a little injury on Tuesday at the off-leash park, so no walk for them.

She looks sad about it, doesn’t she? ;)

Zzzzzz….zzzzzz….zzzzz.

At noon, I hit the kitchen with my timeline of when to make what, and got busy.

The first thing I served was a recipe from school for BBQ Tempeh “Meatballs” that get wrapped in basil leaves.  It’s a fun little appetizer – the hubby enjoyed it, even being that it was tempeh and not beef.

I don’t post direct recipes publicly from our school workbook, since I believe that to be the property of Bauman College.  But here is a link for you with a very similar recipe to get the “meatballs” made and then you can top them with a sauce of your choice.

Next I got to work on getting the dough made for the homemade gluten-free bread (also another school recipe, with a few changes based on the flours I had on hand).  This one includes millet flour, sorghum flour, brown rice flour and buckwheat flour.  There is something about having fresh bread straight out of the oven that just ROCKS!

Getting ready to put on the egg wash:

Egg washing (action shot courtesy of MSP, LOL!):

And the finished product:

It was delicious: dense and crusty.  Loved it.  Loved it again this morning when I made my toast for breakfast.  :)

The roast chicken for MSP came out beautifully, served with a side of the carrots and onions from the roasting pan.  Here’s a roasting tip for you:

When letting the bird rest (whether chicken or turkey) after cooking and before serving, prop it up so that the breast meat is below the tail-end.  This way the juices will redistribute to the breast meat, which can typically be dryer than the rest of the meat.

On the side we had a Wild Rice Stuffing (loosely inspired by the recipe in the link). From a budgetary standpoint, I went with walnuts (cheaper than pine nuts) and used dried basil in place of the dried mint.  Whenever possible, I use what I have on hand so that I don’t have to add to the grocery list!

I had planned to make a lightened up pumpkin souffle, but changed my mind at the last minute and used up a large leftover baked sweet potato that I mashed up with some maple syrup and topped with some ground almonds and cinnamon.  (Probably tasted better than pumpkin with whipped egg whites, and in much less time!)

In an effort to incorporate some practice for midterms into my day, I made a dairy free white sauce out of soaked cashews, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and onion/garlic powders (and WHITE it definitely is – this would make a great alternative to alfredo sauce):

So I mixed it in with some green beans and topped it with some toasted crushed walnuts, kind of like a green bean casserole:

What I haven’t learned in culinary school:  how to carve a chicken after cooking.  ;)

Here’s my meat-free Thanksgiving plate.  Let’s eat!

I’ll save the dessert for the next post!

Enjoy your holiday weekend friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Thanksgiving Wore Me Out!

Nov 25

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 2 Comments

Hi blog buds!

How was your Thanksgiving?  I hope that you all had a FABULOUS day!  I didn’t see a single down of football today, which is completely abnormal for me on a Thanksgiving day!  (Who won the games??? I don’t even know!)  I was in the kitchen pretty much ALL DAY, starting with breakfast of Pumpkin Banana (Vegan) French Toast and then back at it from noon to 6:00 for our Thanksgiving food.  (A meal for two.  Six hours.   Am I just really slow or is it just as time consuming to cook for 2 as it is for 10?)  ;)

Well, at least I feel less slow seeing how it was appetizer, meal, and dessert.  All from scratch.  Including the bread.  If I were a contestant on The Next Iron Chef, I’d have been required to do all that in like 30 minutes.  Um, in 30 minutes I’d probably still be deciding what I wanted to make!

I thought I’d share a few of the pictures, then come back for the next post with the details.  If I try to write now, I’d fall asleep on my keyboard!  I’m beat!

This picture MSP snapped today sums it all up – everything around me (including TIME) was a blur!

Happy hour bites:

The dinner:

The delicious dessert:

I’ll look forward to meeting you back here next time to talk more in depth about the recipes!   For me, it’s time to hit the hay!

Sleep tight, friends!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Thanksgiving Menu, Gift Idea and Stay-Fit Strategies

Nov 23

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 3 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!

Happy early Thanksgiving!  I can’t even believe it’s here this week!  We wrapped up school for the week so now it’s time to really get the studying and kitchen practice kicked into high gear!

I thought it would be fun to share what we have on the plan this year at our house:

Appetizer:

Basil-Wrapped BBQ Tempeh Meatballs
(a school recipe)

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Entree (for the meateater in the house):

Rosemary Lemon Roast Chicken with Pan Gravy
(soaked in a savory citrus brine prior to cooking)

***

On the Side:

Lightened Up Pumpkin Souffle

Wild Rice and Walnut “Stuffing”

Homemade Gluten Free MultiGrain Bread
(another school recipe)

***

Dessert:

Chocolate Mousse Tarts with Lemon “Cream”

***

I’ll be eating the sides as my meal, possibly with a green salad since the souffle, ‘stuffing’ and bread are all on the starchy side.  I threw in a couple of recipes that we’ve tasted at school so that MSP can enjoy them as well.  Hopefully it all looks pretty enough to take some pictures to share!  I’m so excited to get busy cooking!

EATS:  What’s on YOUR menu? (or if you’re headed to a kitchen/dining room other than your own, do you take a favorite dish to share?)

FEATS:  Do you participate in a Turkey Trot or other fitness activity the morning of Thanksgiving? I think the weather here will be clear but cold, so we’ll be indoors doing a full body weight training workout.  Getting a good workout in that morning is a tool I have always used to help keep me from wanting to eat everything in sight.  I find that I usually eat better throughout the day when the day starts with exercise.

Check out my “Stay Fit Strategies for Thanksgiving” post for some tips to help keep you feeling light this holiday season!

***

If you have any dog lovers on your holiday shopping list, Freedom Service Dogs are selling adorable 2011 Hero Dog calendars to raise money for their great cause.  If you aren’t familiar with them, you should check out their website.  Essentially they rescue unwanted or abandoned dogs, put them through an intensive training program, and then place them with injured veterans as service dogs.  Unlike some similar service dog organizations, they are not breeding dogs for this purpose.  Which means they are helping to not only save dogs from euthanasia but also helping with the overpopulation of pets.

(For the record, I’m not financially affiliated with FSD – I don’t receive any kind of commission for mentioning this calendar – I just think it’s a great cause and I know how hard my friend Jen works to volunteer for them!)

Have a wonderful evening and if you don’t make it back out here before Thanksgiving, have a BEAUTIFUL holiday!

– Shari B. =)

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Natural Chef Culinary School Recap: Thai Food

Nov 18

Posted by Shari B. in Natural Chef Culinary School | 5 Comments

Hi friends!  It’s FRIDAY-EVE!

I am getting so excited for Thanksgiving break even if it DOES mean a whole lot of studying and practicing of knife skills.  MSP will be off for a few days too, so it will feel like a six-day weekend!

Do you have your menu planned for Thanksgiving yet?  I do not.  I have some ideas I’m tossing around in my mind, but nothing finalized.  It’s just the two of us, so I can probably decide the night before and then zip to the store.  Nothing terribly elaborate.  Or it might be a mish-mash of my upcoming homework assignment where we need to develop 6 original recipes from each of the Ethnic Cuisine days in our current module at school.  Thai Pumpkin Pie?  Japanese Green Bean Casserole?  ;)

In today’s recap I’ll tell you about THAI food day. It was another delicious one!

One aspect of Thai food is that most of dishes are balanced using all five flavor senses:  salty, sweet, bitter, spicy (hot) and sour.  This makes for a wonderful experience on the taste buds!

Common Thai ingredients include galanagal (which is a root similar to ginger), thai chilis, lemongrass, kaffir lime (and leaves), thai basil, fish sauce, and of course coconut, among many others.

Apparently you cannot purchase kaffir lime leaves (legally anyway) in the US at this time due to a ban on importing them. It sounds like they carry a citrus bacteria that could threaten our citrus crops.  When I spent a little time Googling this, I found a lot of conflicting information.  Have you recently cooked with kaffir lime (or the leaves) and had your local store tell you they were banned?  I’ll have to ask next time I’m at the store and see what they tell me.

My assigned recipe for the day was Green Papaya Salad.  I had never eaten a green papaya before and wasn’t sure what to expect.  You peel the green (unripe) papaya, shred it using a vegetable julienne tool, shred some carrot, and toss it with a sauce that contains lime juice, fish sauce, garlic, brown rice syrup and Thai chili.  Add in some cherry tomatoes, chopped toasted peanuts, fresh Thai basil and cilantro.  It was actually quite tasty!  The dressing was SO tart I was a little worried, but once it was all mixed in it ‘quieted’ down a lot.

My single serve presentation:

And the full bowl (with thanks to my kitchen manager for showing me how to make these adorable little carrot flowers!):

The rest of the day’s recipes included:

  • Lemongrass and Coconut Milk Soup (Tom Kah)
  • Pad Thai
  • Red Curry Squash with Brown Jasmine Rice (Kang Hunglay)
  • Thai Lettuce Bites (Miang Kum)
  • Rooibos Thai Iced Tea with Coconut Milk

This tea was delicious!  You steep the rooibos with spices and vanilla bean, then chill it, add it to a glass with a little ice, add a drop or two of stevia if you like, and top with whisked coconut milk.  The way the coconut milk settles into the tea makes for a fun presentation.  I will definitely serve this when I have people over.

My camera has been taking really blurry photos lately in the lighting at school (yes I know, I should probably be blaming the person behind the camera rather than the camera itself) so most of the pics aren’t turning out well at all – which is why you don’t see any other photos today.  My iPhone actually does a much better job, so for the next few days I’ll try using it instead and see if it looks better for sharing with you.

Do you eat Thai food?  What is your favorite dish?

Have a THAI-rrific Thursday blog buds!  ;D

– Shari B. =)

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Early Thanksgiving Table

Oct 9

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 5 Comments

Happy Saturday!

I’m so glad for the weekend, because I feel like I met myself coming and going this past week.  This morning I’m heading out on a hike with one of my classmates, so I’m really looking forward to it!  Can you believe I haven’t been on a hike since JULY???  Boy, that Pikes Peak trail did a number on us!  Hoping to see some beautiful fall colors along the way today (different trail), and bring back some pretty Colorado pics to share with you.

Before I go I wanted to put out a quick post to show you how my “starter chicken” turned out!  Perfectly, if I do say so myself!  When we sat down at the table, I told MSP this was more than we do for a typical Thanksgiving dinner.  Last Thanksgiving he had Boston Market and I had Butternut Squash soup.

The chicken came out with beautiful color and flavor.  Inside I’d placed sprigs of thyme and big lemons with the ends cut off.  I placed lemon slices, salt and pepper between the skin and the meat.  Then brushed coconut oil all over the outside, with some more S & P.  I even had a few bites for ‘quality control’, and it was very moist.

The veggies from the pan in the drippings were beyond flavorful:

A side dish of lemon cashew green beans:

Big spuds baked just how I like (close to crispy so that I can eat the skin!):

The whole thing:

In class this week, one of our instructors said if we can roast a great chicken and make a killer broth, then we’ll be well on our way to being great cooks.  ;)   WAHOO!

***

Also, yesterday  morning before I left for class I whipped up some zucchini hummus since I had two small zukes to use up.  The recipe I used can be found here. It’s nice to have a bean-free hummus alternative sometimes.  We had it last night with some flax crackers as appetizers for our dinner.

Pretty tasty!

Well friends, I need to gather my stuff, eat my favorite pre-workout breakfast (Ezekial with AB & raw honey! mmmm…) and head out for my hike!  I’ll be back again this weekend with the Week 3 recap from school!  Enjoy your Saturday!  Hope you are having beautiful weather wherever you are!

– Shari B. =)

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Orange You In The Mood For French Toast?

Nov 20

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 9 Comments

Good morning friends!  Happy Friday! 

Can you believe that one week from today Thanksgiving will be behind us and we’ll be out fighting the Black Friday shopping crowds?  Is 2009 really almost over?  One week from today I’ll be putting up my Christmas tree and ‘inside’ decorations. Outside decorations will be done whenever we have a warm(ish) day. 

Thinking about Thanksgiving yesterday had me craving breakfast for dinner.  (That and I just was NOT in the mood to zip to the store so I had to come up with something from what we had in-house already.)

I tried to be creative and made up this dish:

Mandarin Baked French Toast Fingers  

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  • 6 whole eggs (organic, free-range)
  • 1/2 cup MimicCreme (or something like FF half-and-half if you are a drinker of dairy)
  • 2 Mandarin oranges (or one regular orange)
  • 7 slices Ezekial sprouted grain bread

-Crack eggs into bowl and add MimicCreme.  Using a zester or microplane, zest the skins of both mandarin oranges into the bowl.  After zesting, cut each orange in half and squeeze the juice into the mix.

-Whisk well.

-Make two stacks of Ezekial bread, cutting through each stack twice lengthwise to create the ‘fingers’. 

-Dip each finger into the egg mixture and add to a prepared baking dish (I used my large round stoneware baking dish from Pampered Chef.)

-Pour remaining mixture into baking dish after all pieces are coated.

-Let sit in the refrigerator for one hour so that the egg mixture soaks into the bread really well (the sprouted grain bread is dense).

-Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes (my toast fingers were double-stacked.  If yours are in a single layer they may take less time.)  Cover for most of the cooking time so they don’t get really dry.

-Or make your french toast in a pan on the stovetop like ‘regular’ french toast rather than baking.

-Once plated, garnish as you like.  I sprinkled on unsweetened coconut flakes and some cinnamon, then used agave nectar as my “syrup”.

I think next time I make this I’ll try the regular french toast version on the stove top.  The baked version didn’t have a very pretty presentation, but it had really good flaver with all that orange zest.  Breakfast for dinner is always fun.

The rest of the day’s eats went like this: 

Half of a banana before my 6:15 AM training client. 

A beautiful 30 oz GREEN SMOOTHIE after my 45-minute arm-killing Iron Yoga session. 

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Lunch out with MSP at Three Margaritas.  I’ve been craving their Veggie Enchiladas for weeks now. 

IMAG0016

It’s probably the healthiest meal I’ve every discovered at a chain Mexican restaurant.  Sauteed veggies like broccoli, cauliflower and carrots tucked inside a corn tortilla and topped with CARROT PUREÉ.  So good.  I ate half the plate and brought the other half home.  And ate the cold leftover beans for a nighttime snack.  MSP thought that was the nastiest thing ever.  (He doesn’t like cold pizza either!!!  I can eat any food cold..)

Today’s discussion is on the topic of Thanksgiving:  What foods are on your menu?  Are you cooking at your house?  If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, what are some of your favorite things to serve?  Or do you have a favorite dish that you like to take when you go elsewhere for Thanksgiving? 

We don’t go anywhere for Thanksgving.  Most of our relatives are all out of state.  Sometimes we go out to eat and hit up the movie theater.  Last year (when I still ate meat) we picked up a full meal from Boston Market for our ‘turkey dinner’ and we loved it!  It was fast and fun.  This year, I’m aiming (keyword is aiming) to do some fun cooking at home, depending on the budget.  (My list of ingredients for the things I want to make may cause me to NOT make some of them – then I’d just be spending all that money I’ll be saving on the Friday xmas shopping!)   We always like to make a yummy breakfast on Thanksgiving so I’m thinking of tweaking a favorite recipe for Sausage Biscuits & Gravy into a vegetarian, non-dairy version.  Still working on the ideas for that one.  MSP would also LOVE some bread pudding so I’m thinking of making a Chocolate Croissant bread pudding recipe for him (too rich and full of dairy for my liking so that will be all him!)  I also have my eye on a recipe for vegetarian Almost Beef Wellington as the ‘main dish’ for the day.  We’ll see.  ;)   I always have grand ideas for cooking!  If we have GORGEOUS weather that day, it may all get thrown out the window so that we can get outside for a hike!

Have a FABULOUS Friday everyone! 

– Shari B.  =)

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