Travel snacks . I

I've been doing a lot of traveling lately, and I'm always looking for healthy snacks to take with me on the plane. I like to use Gate Guru to locate what my options are - they list all food locations by airport, then by terminal. Whenever I see a Cibo Express, I head straight for it. They have all kinds of vegan friendly snacks, including Divvies vegan cookies in several different flavors, Amande almond milk yogurt, Sabra hummus + pretzel chips (one of my favorites) and vegan chocolates/candies. 

My two most frequented airports, Chicago O'Hare and NY Laguardia both have Cibo locations, which I am extremely grateful for!

Dessert

As I mentioned last week, we had the same menu this year as last Thanksgiving. However, the dessert did change slightly. Instead of Coconut Cream Pie, we did Pumpkin Chiffon Pie from Cinnamon Snail + my mom made an apple tart with MimicCreme. 

The line was so long for Cinnamon Snail on Thursday to pick up pre-ordered vegan food...it was impressive!

My mom uses ground almonds as a base for the tart - it adds so much flavor. And the puff pastry was made fresh from The Bread Chef - thanks Kirsten!

Chestnut Stuffing Recipe . III

This is my 3rd year posting this recipe, it's so delicious and perfect for the holidays. It's my mother's recipe, so many thanks mom! 

Absolutely perfect for mixed crowds (vegans and non-vegans), as the meat eaters won't miss a thing and the veggies will be overwhelmed with chestnut joy. 

You can see what I'll be having for Thanksgiving here, it was so good last year that I don't want to change a thing! 

Chestnut Stuffing with Puff Pastry + Gravy

½ cup oil
1 cup vegan butter
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced celery
8-10 cups day old bread, cubed
2 T. poultry seasoning
1-2 cups peeled, roasted chestnuts
2-3 cups Better Than Bouillon No Chicken stock
1-2 sheets of vegan puff pastry

Salt & pepper to taste

Heat the oil and half of the butter in a large pan. Saute the onion and celery until translucent. Add the bread cubes and stir to evenly distribute the oil and butter mixture. Add the remaining butter and season with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer the bread mixture into an oven safe serving dish. Add the chestnuts and vegetable stock. Top with puff pastry and bake at 400˚ for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.
 

Gravy

2 T. canola oil
2 T. vegan butter
¼ cup grated carrots
¼ cup diced onion
2 T. flour
2 cups Better Than Bouillon No Chicken stock
1 cup soymilk
½ cup vegan sour cream
3-4 T. soy sauce
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat the oil and butter in a medium saucepan. Saute the carrots and onion until translucent. Add the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Slowly whisk in the stock, followed by the soymilk, sour cream and soy sauce. Let it come to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I'm so grateful to all of you for reading my blog and your lovely comments. Happy Holidays to all of you!

Adopt a Turkey 2012

This weekend, I adopted a turkey (instead of eating one) from Farm Sanctuary for Thanksgiving. It's my annual tradition.

This year I chose Thyme, a seriously ugly bird :) I usually try to pick the ugliest...this year Thyme had some tough competition. But she won out in the end! 

If you'd like to adopt a turkey, you can do so here. It's only $30 and it's so worth it. Even if you do eat meat, it's a really sweet tradition.

Ely's To Go . November 2012 II

Here are some of the other amazing eats featured at Ely's To Go this week...

Pho...I've posted many times about this, but I couldn't help posting again! It's so comforting. It's a traditional Vietnamese soup made with star anise, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.

Cauliflower, Quinoa + Almond Soup - great soup for gluten free diets.

Macaroni + Cheese with Kabocha Squash and Chinese Broccoli - so so so good.

Waldorf Salad with apples, raisins and spelt.

And a Raw Chocolate, Vanilla + Pineapple Parfait. An awesome dessert that you won't feel guilty about...at all.

Ely's To Go Vegan Muffins

So every week at Ely's To Go, they offer at least three different kinds of vegan muffins. Here is the recipe for their Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins - you can add in just about anything you'd like, swapping the pumpkin and/or chocolate chips for fruit, nuts, sweets, etc. 

Last week, they had Apple Cinnamon with Pumpkin Butter Streusel,

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pecan,

And Apple Red Raspberry (no picture of this one, I ate it too quickly!) It's not often I find vegan muffins, let alone amazing vegan muffins. If you happen to be near Ely's To Go, pick up a muffin. You will not be sorry.

Ely's To Go . November 2012

I have some new dishes to share from Ely's To Go! 

Every Friday they offer both a Black Rice Burger with guacamole on ciabatta + a Steak Sandwich with peppers and onions on a baguette. I absolutely love the Black Rice Burger!

And for specials, last week they offered a Savory Waffle with Cauliflower + Kale Curry. This was so good, I can't even describe it. My mom's curry was always one of my favorite things when I was younger.

And an Autumn Lasagna made with whole wheat tortillas, tomato sauce, cashew cream, asparagus and black lentils. A couple of weeks ago, they offered the a similar lasagna with butternut squash and bechamel sauce.

I'll have much more later in the week! If you're not near the Youngstown area, hopefully these will give you some new recipe ideas.

Ohio

I'm in Ohio this week...spending time with my family. I'll be back next week, with some great pics of the awesome vegan eats at Ely's To Go. For now, I leave you with Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Pumpkin Butter Streusel.

Obama '12

It's election day! Happy voting.

The Mermaid Inn

With my family from France in town last week (during Hurricane Sandy), we didn't venture out very far. We pretty much stayed in our neighborhood most of the week.

Within walking distance, there's a really cute restaurant called The Mermaid Inn. I don't normally have high hopes for vegetarian/vegan options at seafood restaurants, however, the kitchen was very accommodating and prepared their Spaghetti with Salad on Top without the seafood. I was left with a garlicy, spicy pasta topped with arugula that was seriously tasty.

After dinner, they give out Fortune Teller Miracle Fish. Very cute - I save them for my nieces and nephews (although they're getting quite big now and don't have much interest in non-electronics).

Their Old Bay Fries are pretty awesome too!

P.S. On a more serious note, we were so very lucky on the upper west side. We never lost power or water. Transportation was the biggest obstacle, making us very fortunate. Here are some of the pictures I took around the city.

 Here's where the darkness started/stopped on 29th Street.