The holiday season is upon us!! We bought a new house in January, and I have been SOOO excited to host all sorts of holiday dinners. However, this year I greet you as a less enthused Thanksgiving meal planner. This year I've had a couple of health issues and I am exhausted. There has been little to no space in my brain for trying new recipes or developing my own. I know I'm lacking energy because I don't even care, and have no pangs of guilt or 'I wish I would haves'. Very unlike me! (This is actually how we realized that it might be a bigger issue than we originally thought. Last year I was testing out recipes before Halloween!!)
Instead, I could not be more THRILLED to be headed to my husband's parents house for Thanksgiving dinner. I will be bringing my Vegetarian Wild Rice Dressing with Roasted Hazelnuts, a delectable Brûléed Maple Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Crust, and probably a couple of smaller vegetarian items for myself since I am the only strictly veggie eater attending. And HECK. Maybe I will bring a pan of Healthier Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Bars.
Several friends have been so kind as to ask after my favorite vegetable plates (always good for both vegetarian and not) for the season, so I thought I would put together a compilation of yummy recipes! (Okay, fine maybe I will also be bringing Spinach and Chickpea Cazuela too now that I'm seeing all of these together!)
I have a favor to ask you before we part!
If you end up using any of these recipes, please let me know what you think! I love getting feedback! Leave me a comment below! Make sure you're following me on Instagram @corrielanderson, take a photo of your beautiful creations, tag me and use #itsallofit. I'd love to see it and am happy to answer any questions you might have!!
To give some perspective and also some laughs, I've collected some headlines from The Onion.
- Man at Airport Pissed That Everyone Has The Same Idea To Go Home For Thanksgiving
- Last-Minute Travel Holiday Travel Tips
- The Onion's Guide to Hosting the Perfect Thanksgiving
- Grandson Has Long Hair: Like a girl - he has long hair.
My friends, I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy time with friends and family. May your day be filled with gratitude and loving others. May God bless you if your family is anything like mine, with a several full glasses of wine.
APPETIZERS
Last week, we started a new chapter in our lives. We moved to into our first house!! Our house seems to have been built with our family in mind, and our neighbors are fantastic! The kitchen was a MAJOR selling point for us, I finally got the gas range I have been lusting after. Now if I could just get the hang of cooking on it... Until then, we will be eating toast for most of our meals until I can figure out how to not burn everything aside from eggs and soup. This recipe is for those times when you need a healthy, delicious, somewhat creative snack or a lovely vegetarian/vegan pleasing appetizer (and for those times when your brain must still be packed somewhere).
One of the highlights of Citrus Season are Blood Oranges!!! They are so beautiful and happen to be one of the most nutrient dense citrus fruits out there! The next best thing about this salad aside from the blood oranges, are the crispy rice clusters. They are SUPER easy to make, delicious, and add a slightly spicy crunch to the salad. Who knew they would be so DARN good on a salad? They are also really good on their own. I've been eating these clusters by the handful....
In walks you, tamer of delicious Thanksgiving vegetable delights. Carrying a platter of beautifully roasted butternut and delicata squash, topped with savory barley and farro, pomegranate and toasted pepitas, topped with warm maple cinnamon drizzle. As soon as you reach the table, the compliments start flowing, even conservative Aunt Janice pipes up!
I've been roasting squash and sweet potatoes almost daily trying to perfect recipes for Thanksgiving sides, and after eating squash all day I wanted something opposite of roasted root vegetables.I turned around and looked at the groceries waiting to be put away. A head of romaine, some raw pepitas, and a bag of unsweetened cocoa. Romaine! Romaine is crunchy and crispy! So are pepitas! And then, Romaine Dream Boats with Toasted Pepitas were born.
This recipe is so easy to make, its not even funny. You don't even need utensils!! With the Holiday season quickly approaching, this is a great quick and healthy option! It is also really easy to make it look fancy...
The deep reds, oranges, and golden yellows of the leaves signal the start of the Holiday season and summon the urge to be seek coziness and warm comfort foods, while visions of Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas parties dance in our heads.The time has come, and this year I greet the Holiday season with fresh determination to present our loved ones with flavorful, vegetable based dishes. As I've said before, squash is to Fall as tomatoes are to Summer. Which means I try to fit squash into everything we are eating, from stews, soups, chilis, pastas, salads, you name it.
As soon as we got back home from our travels, I hit the kitchen. The first recipe recreation I'd like to share is the Spinach and Chickpea Cazuela we had at Barcelona Wine Bar. With fall just around the corner, this is the PERFECT side to serve as a snack, appetizer, or side dish. It is warm, filling, and the cumin adds a smokey flavor. The roasted garlic and shallot contributes a sweet flavor that definitely plays well with the savory taste of cumin. There are only about nine ingredients involved (not including, water, salt, and pepper!). Most of them are pantry staples, so you probably have them all in your house right now! Except for the cumin seeds, maybe!
VEGETARIAN THANKSGIVING MAINS
We are hosting Thanksgiving AGAIN this year, and my dreams are coming true.
One of my most favorite parts of being an adult is having control over our holiday plans. This year we will be joined by seven friends and two kiddos . Having friends, my chosen family, surround us on holidays feels like the highest honor to me. I am BEYOND excited! Feeding friends and family is one of my favorite ways to say, I love you!!!
That being said, I want to make sure everything we eat is as yummy as possible, so it was time for a pie run-through. I’ve been making Brûléed Maple Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Crust for YEARS and look forward to it every time. I made several adjustments to the original recipe, making it dairy free and even tastier than I remembered!
Last weekend, I managed to scarf down two doughnuts before we left the parking lot of the Franklin Farmer's Market. I felt like I needed some greens to balance me out. The crisp, crunchy greens paired with the sweetness of satsuma oranges would be good enough on its own, but add in creamy burrata with flakes of salt sprinkled on it and a drizzle of tangy balsamic vinaigrette?? DREAMY!
One of the highlights of Citrus Season are Blood Oranges!!! They are so beautiful and happen to be one of the most nutrient dense citrus fruits out there! The next best thing about this salad aside from the blood oranges, are the crispy rice clusters. They are SUPER easy to make, delicious, and add a slightly spicy crunch to the salad. Who knew they would be so DARN good on a salad? They are also really good on their own. I've been eating these clusters by the handful....
Obviously, breakfast on Friday is always BRÛLÉED MAPLE PUMPKIN PIE WITH GINGERSNAP CRUST and then for lunch you have leftovers, of course. Growing up, I loved leftovers on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Everyone loves the first round of leftovers.
Its day 4 of leftovers that I dread. The turkey is dry. The rolls are rather stale. Someone ate all the marshmallows off of the sweet potato casserole. And I wouldn't touch the green bean casserole with a ten foot pole, no matter how fresh they were.
In walks you, tamer of delicious Thanksgiving vegetable delights. Carrying a platter of beautifully roasted butternut and delicata squash, topped with savory barley and farro, pomegranate and toasted pepitas, topped with warm maple cinnamon drizzle. As soon as you reach the table, the compliments start flowing, even conservative Aunt Janice pipes up!
My least favorite Thanksgiving dishes seem to be the items that no one would ever dream of replacing. Every Thanksgiving, I see the sponge like, wood colored stuffing along side the worm-like green bean casserole. I usually pass up both of those options, and not just to make room for pumpkin pie. Now that I am in charge of Thanksgiving, I look forward to more than just rolls and pumpkin pie! One of the highlights of our holiday meals is definitely my Wild Rice dressing. It has been a mainstay on our table for about five years now, and was one of the first, more creative vegetable dishes I made when we started cutting meat out of our diets.
I love squash. Squash squash squash. Squash is the tomato of Fall. Don't you think??? Squash is also one of the main ingredients in a dish I recently had at Spoon and Stable. The Autumn Vegetable Salad. Which I haven't stopped thinking about since.
Pictures this: spelt berries, roasted squash, sliced figs, sprinkled with pecans, all on top of a buttermilk ranch drizzle. A pleasant conglomeration of textures and tastes.
If you are making a trip to the grocery store, you should pick up some ingredients to make this rockin' Roasted Sweet Potato Farro Kale Salad with Warm Cinnamon Honey Dressing. This recipe is great for the following situations:
- Showing off at a dinner party
- Bringing the best salad to a potluck
- Providing the only healthy item at a potluck (Are potlucks generally unhealthy or is that just a Southern thing?)
- Tricking people into eating something healthy thats actually VERY delicious
- Meatless Monday!!!
- A warm meal for a snowy day
THANKSGIVING DESSERTS
We are hosting Thanksgiving AGAIN this year, and my dreams are coming true.
One of my most favorite parts of being an adult is having control over our holiday plans. This year we will be joined by seven friends and two kiddos . Having friends, my chosen family, surround us on holidays feels like the highest honor to me. I am BEYOND excited! Feeding friends and family is one of my favorite ways to say, I love you!!!
That being said, I want to make sure everything we eat is as yummy as possible, so it was time for a pie run-through. I’ve been making Brûléed Maple Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Crust for YEARS and look forward to it every time. I made several adjustments to the original recipe, making it dairy free and even tastier than I remembered!
Strawberry picking is one of our favorite summer activities! Usually we pick about three to four buckets of strawberries, but this time we we had to scale back a bit due to the size of the freezer in our new house. (I'm fairly certain our freezer was designed by someone with only ice cube and frozen pea storage in mind)
Until we can get a new fridge/freezer, I've taken to bribing people with berry desserts in exchange for freezer space. This pie is my newest bribery tool! The strawberry fruit swims in a sweet syrup right on top of a rich layer of cashew cream, all of which is complimented by a salty pistachio crumble on top.
These bars are already healthier than your average cookie or dessert bar, but I wanted to see if I could make them even healthier by using a mix of different flours, some wheat bran, flax seed eggs, and cutting down on the sugar and coconut oil by adding dates. My thought was that I could use them on my long runs, since I had run out of Picky Bars. The second version was packed with fiber….and therefore not a good choice for before or during a workout…. Know what I’m sayin?
I finally found the perfect mix! It just happens to be gluten free, and includes the option to make them vegan/egg free.
The memory of this pie tugs at me during the hottest months of the summer. It is that good.
I love pumpkin pie, and always have since I was little. Growing up in Minnesota, the weather was usually pretty cold by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, so we could just store pies in the garage. I used to sneak out to the garage with a fork and just help myself from time to time. I consider myself a pumpkin pie enthusiast. It's possible I gave myself away by leaving pits of crust behind. Friends, I believe I have solved the problem of boring crust.
I made two pies to celebrate PI day!
One was a Peanut Butter Banana pie. The recipe comes from Collards & Carbonara - Southern Cooking, Italian Roots, written by the chefs of Hog & Hominy; Michael Hudman and Andy Ticer. IT WAS SO GOOD!! (And so bad, health wise.)
The second one I made, was a Coffee S'mores Pie. DELICIOUS CITY. It should probably be named Mocha S'mores Pie because the blend of coffee and chocolate is more mocha-ey than coffee-ey (pretty sure neither of those are actual words). DELICIOUS CITY. The recipe is very approachable, no baking required. Plus, I got to use my kitchen torch. Win win.
Last weekend, I managed to scarf down two doughnuts before we left the parking lot of the Franklin Farmer's Market. I felt like I needed some greens to balance me out. The crisp, crunchy greens paired with the sweetness of satsuma oranges would be good enough on its own, but add in creamy burrata with flakes of salt sprinkled on it and a drizzle of tangy balsamic vinaigrette?? DREAMY!