Happy Halloween

Green Bread & Pumpkin Pasta

 

Almost every Halloween we start the day with Pumpkin Pancakes and then have Pumpkin and Sage Pasta with Green Slime Bread.  I have had to come up with vegan versions of these recipes and they turned out just as delicious.  The slime for the bread is a bag of organic spinach blended up with about a 1/2 cup of Earth Balance.  Spread it on a loaf of bread and bake it at 375 until it is bubbly, about 10-15 minutes.  Just make sure you check your teeth after eating it so you don’t have a green slime smile.  I hope that you all have a happy and healthy Halloween.

 

Legends Dinner

 

Last night we had dinner at the Legend’s Country Club in Ft Myers, Fl.  We had called ahead to see if the chef could make a vegan dinner for our family and they were very happy to work with us.  The Chef made us the most delicious dinner.  We had a acorn squash soup for a starter  and  vegetable purses for our main course, which were absolutly wonderful.  For the purses he filled phyllo dough with squash, tomatoes and a great sauce.  I think that should be on the menu all the time.  For dessert we had raspberry sorbet.  The whole dinner was so good and we were very grateful to the chef and the staff for the wonderful experience.

Grandma’s Sugar Cookies

Grandma's Sugar Cookies

 

 

This has been a crazy week of packing up my Mom and trying to see all my friends and family.  Today the kids and I took a break and made some sugar cookies for Halloween.  I used a recipe given to me by my husband’s Grandma, of course I had to make a few changes to make the cookies vegan.  The kids get very few treats like this, so they were very excited and had a great time helping.  I think they had more frosting on them than got on the cookies.

 

Florida

Yesterday we came down to Ft Myers, FL to visit family and help my Mom move.  I am not sure how much cooking I will get to do in the next few weeks, but I hopefully be able to do a few posts.  I also get to see my very best friend who has recently become vegetarian.  I am so proud of her. She is a mother of 4 and a full time engineering student.  Despite her super busy schedule she is trying to totally change her diet to improve her health and that of her family.  She is such an inspiration to me.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

I have been going a little crazy with pumpkin this week and have been putting it in everything.  I made this one morning for me and it tasted so good the kids were asking for it the next day.  We eat oatmeal a lot for breakfast and this was a nice change.  It is great on a chilly morning.

 

Pumpkin Pancakes

 

I make pancakes almost every Saturday morning and pumpkin pancakes are our favorite for fall.  It is almost like having pumpkin pie for breakfast.  They are great with maple syrup, but my kids love them drizzled with honey.  I do use some white flour in this recipe, but you could use all whole wheat.  The pancakes just don’t come out as fluffy with all ww flour, but they will still be good.

 

Rainy Day Art

Today is another rainy day here.  For homeschool today we decided to make patterns out of leaves.  Super messy, but so much fun!  Since we can’t go outside today, I see baking in my future.

 

 

 

Cranberry Walnut Cake

 

 

It has been raining all day today, so I decided to bake.  I had some cranberry sauce left over from dinner a few nights ago and thought it might be good in a cake.  This is really more like a quick bread rather than a cake, but if I call it cake the kids think they are getting a big treat.  There is no oil in this recipe and the only sugar was from the cranberry sauce and a little maple syrup, so nothing to feel guilty about.  This cake made a great snack today when it was still warm.

 

Lentils with Mushrooms

 

Today was a lovely fall day here in the mountains.  It is really starting to cool down and the leaves are all changing.  I love this time of year.  I also love all the fall foods like cranberries and pumpkin.  Tonight’s dinner was inspired by the fall weather.  I had to make cranberries again because they are my daughter’s favorite.  She begs for them when she sees them in the store.  The lentils and mushrooms were perfect for the chilly evening (plus full of protein) and the mushy peas are another of the kid’s favorites, whichI had been promising them to make the peas for awhile.