Happy Plantsgiving!

This is my third Thanksgiving being powered by plants and so far, the most fun I have had and dinner hasn’t even been served. I have been planning a menu for the past few week, knowing that if I left it to my mother-in-law and wife, it would be a traditional type dinner, one in which I would pass on most of the food that was prepared. That says nothing about how good the food is, as we have spent many Thanksgiving at the in laws house and she is an amazing cook.

Since changing my way of eating, choosing to be plant powered, I hadn’t looked forward to many of the foods served during Thanksgiving. In the past I got by on stuffing (which probably wasn’t oil free) or mashed potatoes (which weren’t dairy free). Thankfully there was corn, how can you screw that up? Oh that’s right, slather it in butter. This year I wanted my meal to be different and if others who were invited to dinner wanted to sample my offerings, great!

It was great to see plant powered chefs like Chef AJ, Dreena Burton, Julie Marie Christensen and Susan Voisin offering up their suggestions of what to serve. I had a long list of foods, which I know I had to cut down if I wanted to put together a small, yet bountiful meal. I knew what I wanted to eat; lentil loaf, stuffing and either green beans or creamed corn. I nearly changed my main dish to a quinoa and red lentil cutlet, after making this dish on Monday, but felt a lentil loaf had a much deeper flavor and went better with the side dishes I wanted to serve.

I was reading about the different lentil loaf recipes, some with nuts, others with apples and raisins or sweet potatoes. I decided to use Dreena’s No-fu Love Loaf, a loaf I have prepared before and thoroughly enjoy. It goes together fairly quickly after softening up the lentils and bulgur wheat. It’s a heart loaf that is loaded with flavor and even better the next day. Cold!

I am so very happy to have found Protective Diet, run by Julie Marie Christensen. It’s described as “The Oil, Sugar & Nut Free Plant based Plan,” all of which can limit our success when we are trying to get healthy or lose weight. Her Stuff Yourself Stuffing is outstanding. Made without the butter and unnecessary sodium found in many recipes. This is the third time I have made this stuffing and the prior two times I have eaten the entire pan. It’s the combination of spices that make this dish so good.

I had also hoped to use the Green Bean Casserole recipe from Protective Diet, but I failed to register for her PD-ed and missed out on using it. That meant I was back on the Internet looking for other options, which led me back to Susan Voisin and her Vegan Green Bean Casserole. What I didn’t like about the recipe was the use of French’s Fried Onion, even at 3 oz, it’s still unnecessary fat, not to mention processed. Yet, with that one exception I still decided to use this recipe. I did omit the vegan margarine and didn’t use any added sodium. Looking forward to this!

Finally, I needed a dessert. Not a big fan of baking, but I have started to bake more. I was considering some Pumpkin Pie Squares from Cathy Stewart’s Straight Up Food, as these went over very well the first time I made them. I wanted to skip out on pies, since my MIL was going to make a few. I did however stumble across Pumpkin Pie Bites from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I read through the recipe and it looked a bit more involved than I wanted, but a look in the pantry revealed I had all the ingredients. This was the only dish I cooked last night and I thought 45 minutes was a long time in the oven. The crust seemed to be a bit too chewy, but that could have been because it was just out of the oven and was still cooling. Hopefully these had a chance to set up better overnight.

I don’t expect many of the guests we have invited to try my food. It will be out and available to everyone and I know my aunt will partake. She is bringing vegan tamales. Guess she was worried about what I was cooking. LOL! No matter what happens I am going to have a happy plant-strong Thanksgiving, as I have much to be thankful for. Happy Plantsgiving!