Nothing Beats Homemade

In an effort to keep using up items on hand I decided to look for recipes that will use up some of the canned pumpkin I have.  I found this recipe I had saved for a cakelike chocolate pumpkin doughnuts.  I altered mine to make them gluten free and for some reason I only ended up with 6 instead of the 8 the recipe said it would make.  However, they were a hit.  

The original recipe is here.

https://www.dashofsanity.com/chocolate-pumpkin-cake-donuts/

Vegetable Lo Mein Recipe (with options)

At the end of this post, I’ll share exactly what I did, but this recipe has lots of options.

You can cook your beans from scratch (you’ll need about 2 cups) or you can used canned — just drain and rinse.

You can use zucchini noodle, which I did, or you can use gluten free or wheat pasta of your choice.

You can use fresh veggies or a bag of stir fry blend.

You can use soy sauce or liquid aminoes.

You can use fresh pineapple, grate ginger, etc.  I didn’t.

You get the picture — pretty versatile.

My pithy recipe:

Cook your chickpeas.

I used the Instant Pot and cooked a pound with planned leftover.

If using canned, just drain and rinse.

Set aside.

1 or so cups of sliced cabbage

1/2 of a large red bell pepper

1 cup or so broccoli florettes (I broke them up to bite sized pieces.)

Carrot pieces

1 stalk of celery, sliced

Set aside.

If you are doing a traditional posta, start your pasta cooking.

If not, spiralize a zucchini or two.

Set aside.

In small sauce pan, mix:

8 ounces of pineapple tidbits in juice with 3 tablespoons of soy sauce (I use aminoes).

Stir in 1/4 teaspoon of ginger powder.

Stir in 1 teaspoon of diced garlic.

I added a tiny bit of black pepper.

Bring to a boil, turn down and let simmer a few minutes.

Meanwhile, stir fry your veggies.

I use olive oil, but you can use an oil of your choice.

I add the zucchini noodles last.

When the desired “softness” is almost reached stir in the sauce and let cook another minute or two.

Serve with your choice of sides.

I didn’t eat one.

Convenience Foods Can Be Economical

In the past, I always believed that there was no way convenience foods could be economical.  I was cooking for a growing family on a tight budget.  However, fastforward 15 to 20 years and that is no longer the case.  Now that I am cooking for anywhere from 1 to 3 people I find that I have lost the “economy of scale” that cooking from scratch offerred me.  That isn’t too say that cooking from scratch and prepping all your own ingredients isn’t less expensive possibly, but that is only if you have enough people to consume items in a reasonable amount of time before they begin to spoil.  I no longer do.

I almost fell out from shock this week.  I threw out my first ever (that I can remember) loaf of bread because it had molded.  Yeah.  A loaf of bread sat here for two weeks despite my daughter taking sandwiches for lunch and her having the occassional snack from it.   Like I said, my world is changing.  (Yes, I know it can be frozen and toasted, but other than a grill cheese or a BLT she will not eat sandwiches made with toasted bread....and she does NOT like my gluten free bread...)

Anyway, this is how I am finding convenience foods to be economical.

Stir Fry was on my menu for tonight.  I’m the only one eating it...literally.  My daughter won’t eat it and my husband is gone.

This is my general break down:

$4.99 for the pre-packaged fresh veggies

$1.29 for the ready to go brown rice

$1.00 for the garbanzo beans (sale price)

$1.00 (overestimation) of homemade sauce

So for less than $8.50 I made enough stir fry for my supper and at least four lunches (which I packaged up individually).

How is this more economical?

The veggie mix had broccoli, onions, snow peas, carrots, red bell pepper, mushrooms, etc.

To buy all of those ingredients individually would have cost me more than the $8.50 by themselves.

Yes, I would have had more veggies, but as 1 person I would not have been able to eat them fast enough.

I would have found myself throwing out veggies.

I’ll concede I could cook the brown rice from scratch and set aside, but I needed very little.

I also had the benefit of the cost savings of cooking time.

I simply crumbled this into the hot veggies and let it simmer a bit in my sauce to heat it up.

I did use bulk items for my sauce — liquid aminos, corn starch, Chinese 5 Spice.  

All in all I think this was an economical way to get my extra veggies in and meet my dietary guidelines.

Would this have been the case 5 years ago — probably not.

I’m also looking at another factor that will play into my future — time savings.

I’ll be taking night courses, working part time, and still handling the household.

Nothing that isn’t done by thousands of people, but I am guessing “that” population is the one that made the convenience items so popular.

I literally popped a top on the veggies, opened a can of beans, tore open a bag of rice, and mixed together a quick sauce.

This meal didn’t take me 15 minutes to cook.

If it is true that time is worth money then I consider that a steal.

I would have spent longer waiting to pick up take home and spent far more for one meal.

A convenient win-win!

 

Quiet Days (Recipe and Product Review)

Yesterday was a quiet day. 

We spent it at home doing some general work, as we get ready for fall weather.

I canned 4 quarts of vegetarian lentil soup.

I worked on another doily and starched some crosses that had been ordered.

We did some light house work.

My husband called me late in the afternoon and surprised me by saying he was coming home for the night.

In fact, he was already in route.

I hadn't officially planned a meal because my daughter had half a pizza left.

I had decided I would just pull together either a bowl of cereal or a fried egg wrap for myself.

Times like that, impromptu meals, are one of the reasons I like having canned goods on hand.

I pulled out a pint of corn, a pint of cabbage, and perused the refrigerator to see what we had open.

The corn went into gluten free corn fritters.  

These were delicious.  

My pithy un-recipe is as follows:

3/4 cup of gluten free flour mix (I used Namaste brand.)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 egg

2 tablespoons of oil

Milk to make  a decent batter.

1 pint of sweet corn, drained well

Add to batter.

(Oh, I added a dash of black pepper, too.)

Fry on medium heat until done in middle.

While they were cooking I simmered the cabbage.

A quick addition of some pickles rounded off the meal.

A simple, peasant supper if you will, but delicious none the less.

After we ate, we rode out and gassed up all the vehicles.

He wanted to drive across town and treat our daughter to a doughnut...a tradition they share.

Of course, there is nothing at a doughnut shop we needed.

When we got home I used an Aldi gluten free cake mix to make a batch of cupcakes.

They weren't perfect looking, but the taste and texture were pretty good.

I think if I were making them over again I would have divided into 15 to 18 muffins instead of the 12 it called for.

I did make a mental note for future reference that these would be great with pineapple and/or strawberries and whipped cream.

They would also be good with a teaspoon of jam in the middle.

Kitchen Experiment

Long and complicated story short, we are having to make some dietary changes under doctor's orders.    We'll know in a bit how well they are or aren't working. Hopefully they'll work and be the end of constant back and forth to the doctor.  So with that in mind, we have been searching for a pizza crust alternative.  I think we have found one that we like just as good as traditional pizza crust. 

   Allow me to present a rice based pizza crust!

I followed the recipe fround here.

Of course, I made a few changes because I can't leave anything alone.

I started the crust cooking on the stove top and when the 15 minutes were up I transferred it to the oven under a low broil.

While the top firmed up a little more, I made sure I had my toppings ready.

(I just went with veggies and mozzarella cheese.)

When the top was dry and firm to my touch, I added my toppings and put back in the oven.

The results were a delicious pizza that was easy to cut in slices.

(The bottom corner shows a piece I deliberately flippedover to show how it crisped up.)

Birthday Girl (and Recipe)

I cannot believe my baby is 20 years old today.

The years are flying by so quickly.

She's swamped with school work as her summer semester nears it end.

As a result, we aren't having an official family dinner, but everyone is gathering for dessert.

This is our first attempt at a brownie swirl cheesecake.

(Full disclosure, I buy brownies mixes for somewhere around $1 each.  My boxes are about double the size called for.  I simply baked the other half of the batter in muffin tins while I baked the crust.  I let the muffins finish while the crust cooled since they took longer.)

Brownie Swirl Cheesecake

(With my notes in parentheses)

1 (8 oz) package of brownie mix -- see comment above photo (I used a mocha brownie mix)

2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, softened (I used one reduced fat and one full fat.)

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 cup of milk chocolate chips, melted (in the future, I will drop this to 3/4 cup)

Prepare brownie mix according to the package.  

Spread into a greased 9 inch spring form pan.

Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.  (Will not test done.)

Cool for 10 minutes on a wire track.

Meanwhile, mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla well.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Pour over the brownie crust.

Top with melted chocolate and swirl through the cream cheese filling.

Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set.

Run a knife around the edge to loosen.  

Let cool completely on a wire rack.

When cool, refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Serve as is, or with your choice of whipped cream and fruit.

Waste Not, Want Not

I was given a box full of sweet potatoes that were picked last fall.  Amusingly enough they came through two people who didn't want to deal with them and made their way to me.  It took me all day, but I have them all processed and added to our food storage.

This box held a lot more than I was expecting.

I ended up with a dehydrator full.

4 saved for a side dish of baked sweet potatoes.

14 quarts of canned sweet potatoes 

6 pints of canned sweet potatoes

10 cups of puree -- enough for 4 deep dish pies

Happy Days

We have gone for months without a working full sized oven and about a year without a properly working oven.  Despite attempts we couldn't repair it or find anyone who could.

We made do with a toaster oven while I was still in school.  I simply wasn't baking as much anyway.

However, I am home now and undecided whether I will go back.

Even if I do it will be next fall at the earliest.

On the frugal side -- we were able to wait until we found a pretty good sales price, buy a range I can use for canning, and can use my cast iron cookware on. 

Needless to say, I was quite happy to see it arrive today.

 

 

So I did what anyone should do when they have a new oven....I did a test cake.

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

 

Recipe is here.

 

 

It's cooling now and we are looking forward to a slice for dessert.

By the way, this is an easy make and one that is well received by everyone I've ever served it to.

Even with the Bisquick (or homemade baking mix if you prefer) it is relatively frugal dessert that presents well.  My mama used to make one using a cake mix and the cake mix costs more than a box of Bisquick costs most of the time and I get many servings of mix to use that way.

Vegan Meatballs

This recipe is from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen.  We have enjoyed each of her recipes that we have tried, but she does have a few that have nuts that I cannot vouch for.  (Carol, I believe with a few easy substitutions you could make these gluten free.)

Meatballs and Pasta

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice, cooled
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. dried basil
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional)
canola oil for frying

Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and cook onion and mushrooms until soft and lightly browned.  Add garlic and cook a few more minutes.  Transfer to a food processor.  Reserve the skillet for later use.

Add cooled brown rice, bread crumbs, flour, basil, salt, pepper, and red pepper (if using) to the food processor.  Pulse until the mixture just comes together.  If necessary, transfer to a large bowl and mix with your hands.  Season to taste and let cool slightly.  Form the mixture into 1 to 2 inch balls.

Heat canola oil in the reserved skillet over medium heat and pan fry the meatballs in batches.  They should be well done and browned on each side with a nice crust.  Drain on paper towels.

To serve:
Combine cooked pasta with your choice of sauce.  Top with meatballs and garnish with parsley and Parmesan topping.


I see no reason these couldn't just as easily be served with a gravy.  I would assume they would not "simmer" well in it though, but I haven't tried doing so either.

Up and About

We decided I was doing well enough to go out and help run some simple errands.  My husband drove me, did the cart pushing, and all the lifting.  Bless his heart!  However, I think we accomplished everything and are set up for the rest of the month.  (We do have one more errand to run on the day I have a doctor's appointment, but beyond that I think we are finished.)

1.  I had to return a school book by mail.  This will net us a full refund minus the small amount of postage.  He handled this errand for me and I sat in the car.

2.  We dropped off a donation to Goodwill and I walked down one aisle.  I'm looking for a 9x13 casserole dish that does not have the end handles like typical Pyrex does.  My small oven will not hold my dish because of the handles.  Sadly, they didn't have one.  I'll keep searching.

3.  I had a short list for Dollar Tree.  I needed Valentine's Day cards to mail to my nieces and nephews.  I bought oatmeal crème pies, 4 jars of mushrooms (thanks Carol for the head's up that they had them), 2 rubber spatulas, 2 sets of measuring cups, 6 aseptically sealed cartons of soy milk, 2 graham cracker crusts,  and 1 small baking pan, 1 cake mix, and 1 brownie mix.

4.  While I was in Dollar Tree, my husband, who had a coupon for five pads of paper for $1.00, walked to the Staples next door to pick that up.

5.  In that same complex is Michaels.  In keeping with my resolution to not shop for crafting items unless I need them for an ongoing project, I picked up two skeins of yarn to go towards the afghan I am working on.  I believe I now have enough to finish it.  (This will be my first completed Christmas present for my 2017 list.)  I also bought a ball of #10 thread.  I use this on and off and had just finished up my last ball.  I had a coupon for 30% off all yarn purchases and used this to reduce my costs.

6.  We went to the library to pick me up a couple of books.  I picked up two mysteries to read and one audio book so that I can listen while I crochet.

7.  On our way back home, I thought I was running out of energy, but by the time we got nearer I thought I could finish up by hitting Aldi.  We had a reasonably small list.  We came home with:
4 bags of corn chips (on sale for 99 cents each), 2 jars of organic salsa, 1 package of mint cookies, 1 package of fig "newtons," 3 containers of vanilla soy milk, 1 carton of lactose free milk, cabbage, zucchini, cucumbers, 2 bags of radishes, 2 bags of kitty treats, 5 lbs of red potatoes, bananas, 2 boxes of pop tarts, 4 cans of vegetable soup for my husband to take with him, and 3 cans of vegetarian chili.

Needless to say by the time we got home my daughter said I was walking like an old lady.  I was exhausted.  After all was put away, I made us a quick and simple lunch.

1 can of the vegetarian chili, 2 baked potatoes, and a bit of Daiya cheddar crumbles -- easy, less than $1.50 a person.
 

Slowly Working

I've reached the stage where I feel just good enough to be miserable. 

With a little help I can piddle in the kitchen and kitchen work always makes me happier.

 

We had 3 sweet potatoes that needed to be cooked.  I tossed them in the Instant Pot and put them on for 30 minutes.  I let the pressure drop naturally and when I could handle them I mashed them. A cup went into a dozen muffins and a tiny "tea" loaf.  I added raisins and flax seeds, and I used whole grain flour to make this pretty healthy.  To veganize them I used egg replacer and coconut sugar.

 

 

Friday night was pizza night.  My daughter likes her without sauce and she requested cheddar cheese.

 

We had our vegan pizza -- sauce, Daiya mozzarella, onions, bell pepper, and olives.

Both were made on homemade whole wheat crusts.

 

 

 

I used labor saving devices to help me stick to healthier eating and to increase my productivity.

The pressure cooker and the bread machine are both easy to operate and pretty energy efficient.

 

Free Food Preservation

 

My husband came in and his first words were, "I know the timings bad, but...."  All I could think was what now...lol

Turns out someone had given him a large bag of apples.

 

I knew I would not be able to can them alone, but with the three of us working together we managed to get them put away.

 

My daughter brought in the canner and the canning supplies.

We got the jars going and then I sat at the island and we worked on the apples.  She cut and I cored.  Everything went into the pressure cooker, along with some water, spices and coconut sugar.

8 minutes in the pressure cooker (once they came up to pressure)

 

Then my husband mostly drained the apples and I pureed them with an immersion blender.  (I saved the liquid and sealed it in a jar.  It will be used to make "apple syrup" for pancakes.)

 

We ended up with 5 pints of apple butter and the pint of "apple juice" that I will thicken with cornstarch when we use it.  We also saved out a small bowl of apple butter to use now.

 

A little family cooperation and nothing was wasted!

 

 

 

 

Pressure Cooker Love

 

 

The instant pot is hands down my favorite kitchen gadget -- it works well when I am pressed for time, or in this case, when I have low energy.  I also like that it is an energy saving device. 

Half a package of pasta, a jar of organic marinara, bell pepper and onions I froze, Gardein meatballs, and water.  Six minutes on high pressure and while it was coming up to temp I made garlic toast with my homemade wheat bread.  This made enough for supper and leftovers for next days lunch.   

"Sits and Thinks"

  My husband's favorite quote (or one of many) ---  "Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits." That seems to sum up my day yesterday.  

I'm not one for sitting for hours on end.  I'm forbidden to go up and down the stairs alone.  Forbidden to lift anything.  For someone who is a constant piddler, this is quite stifling. I'm spending an excruciating amount of time sitting and thinking.   The highlights of yesterday were limited.
I'm rewatching the Inspector Morse mysteries on Acorn TV.  

I also am working on a crocheting project.  I have three skeins of the variegated yarn and one solid gray.  When I mentioned Christmas gifts I forgot to add that my uncle gave me two skeins of yarn for Christmas.  The gray was the second skein he gave me and it seems to be going well with the variegated from my stash.  I am hoping the four skeins will produce a decent sized throw.

 

The second skein he gave me was a variegated yarn and I believe the color way was called Woodlands or something similar.  I crocheted a really cute bucket hat with it.  It used the entire skein except for maybe enough for the center of a granny square.

 

 

I also cooked supper with my daughter's help.  It was a simple meal, but it seemed to take twice as long as it normally would.

I cooked rice and soy curls stir fry.  I used the Instant Pot to cook the rice and made a double batch.  I also made enough stir fry to send lunch with my husband and have leftovers for myself.  

 

This was my first time trying the soy curls and I was pleasantly surprised by how good they are.  Since I wasn't sure about the yield, I cooked the whole 8 ounce bag.  It looks like a fourth of the bag will be enough for one meal for my husband and me.  I have the leftovers in the fridge to use in a different meal.  I'm leaning toward some kind of casserole or perhaps a "chicken" soup type dish.

 

 

Even with the soy curls, this was a pretty frugal meal.  I buy rice in bulk, the peppers were some I bought on sale and froze myself, the broccoli was an Aldi purchase, and I made my own sauce using corn starch for a thickener.

 

After dinner my husband took me for a short ride just so I could get out of the house.  I came home, he helped me shower, and it was back to my trusty recliner.  So I could "sits and thinks" some more.

 

Meals in Review

 

Last week kind of flew by for me. 

I've been helping paint at my sister's new (old) house.

I had guests a few days and I spent time with them.

We've kept to our vegan meals and I think we've eaten a wide variety of foods.

 

 

I was craving potato salad and I wondered how the potatoes would do roasted.

I air fried them and then made the potato salad as usual. 
It turned out really well.  I served it with cabbage, corn on the cob, and beets.

 

 

I had a lingering banana and I used it up in some quick muffins.

 

 

We had Moroccan Chicken and I made a homemade seitan "chicken" to use in it. 
I served it with chickpea bread and a garden salad.

 

I actually air fried these.  Simple "taco" rolls made using a beef substitute ans salsa for dipping.

 

Sweet potato hash, because I love the flavor blend.

 

I made up two lasagnas and baked one. 

The other went into the freezer to have on hand for my upcoming surgery.

 

 

 

Scrambled tofu and veggies because I needed a quick breakfast one day.

 

I air fried okra.  I simply thawed some frozen and tossed in seasoned cornmeal.

I sprayed them with "Pam" and cooked them.

 

I air fried some simple cherry pastries.

These were an experiment to see how they would do.

My husband really liked them.

 

I served 3 Bean Chili with crackers.

I didn't photograph it, but I turned the leftovers into a vegetable soup that I served with cornbread.

 

Easy Chocolate Pie

Regardless of the holidays you do or do not celebrate, in my area the months of November and December are prime holiday season.  All the celebrations involve food.

Let's face it -- we all need food, we all love food, and we like to share with those we love.  

Since this is our first plant based holiday we decided to have a trial run at making a vegan chocolate pie.  I've heard that there is such a thing as a person who does not like chocolate pie.  Silly rumors!

I am severely allergic to peanuts and tree nuts.  I find myself altering a lot of recipes since both seem to play a heavy roll in a lot of plant based dishes.

We started with this basic recipe from "hell yeah it's vegan!"  

I followed the recipe with these alterations.
1.  My daughter requested a cookie crust, so we used an Oreo crust.
2.  I used soy milk.
3.  For my chocolate I used Enjoy Life Chips.
4.  We opted to skip any kind of topping for calorie and sugar savings, but I am sure a good aquafaba meringue would work nicely.  

Success -- Dairy Free and Nut Free Creamy Pasta Sauce

I've finally made a vegan creamy sauce for pasta that I love!  It doesn't have any nuts at all like so many of the recipes.  It also uses ingredients I keep on hand.  It is literally made up of soft tofu, lemon juice, water, garlic, onion, salt, and pepper.  I added parsley to mine.

After Brandy of The Prudent Homemaker

talked about marinated artichoke hearts a while back, I decided to pick some up to try incoporating into my diet.  I'm pretty much the only one here who will eat artichokes, but I couldn't think of how I would serve them.  In her suggestion, she uses them in pasta salad.  I have done that and was pleased with the results.  I've also drained some and put on pizza with good results.  This time I decided to pop a few in the microwave briefly to heat them up.  They were perfect on top of this pasta, which is an Aldi find.

For the sauce, I found the recipe online here.  Of course, I made a few changes.  I used onion from the freezer and water sautéed it along with the garlic.  I did add about a teaspoon of Greek olive oil for flavor.  I used bottled lemon juice because it is what I had on hand.  I reduced the salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons and that was plenty.  I added black pepper, because I don't buy white pepper.  I used dried parsley and blended it in the sauce.  In the future, I will probably serve this as an alfredo sauce substitute with vegan chickn and broccoli.  

A New Toy

I freely admit I have a weakness for kitchen gadgets. 

My husband indulges it because he loves to eat.

For us it is a mutually beneficial arrangement.  :-)

I've been watching the air fryer craze for a while and had avoided getting one.

We finally bit the bullet and picked one up.

This is our early Christmas present and something we are hoping our daughter will warm up to using.

When we travel I worry about her not eating "warm" meals and surviving on mostly junk.

This is small, user friendly and pretty versatile.

For our test run I let my husband pick a dish to try and his choice was apple crisp.

I had four apples languishing on the counter so this was perfectly fine with me.

I used those four apples, which I didn't peel, for the base.

Some sugar, cinnamon, coconut oil, and whole wheat pastry flour finished the list of ingredients off.  Nothing too fancy about it.

In 30 minutes it was ready and the topping was wonderfully crisp.

Plodding Along

Last week is such a blur I am having a hard time distinguishing one day from the next.

I had to pull out my planner to remind me of what we did and when.

It was an unusual week in that my husband was home every night.  We cooked from supplies all week and did not go to the grocery store at all.  In fact, I stayed in all week.  I didn't do anything beyond the usual household savings things, but I also didn't do anything to the detriment of the budget either.  (I have started Christmas shopping, but that was allowed for.)

Mid week I had two guests for lunch and I kept things quite simple.  I made a huge pot of vegetable soup and I served it with crackers and sweet tea.  They were in town for doctor's appointments and it was an "eat and run" kind of visit, so this meal was perfect. I didn't know exactly what time they would make it so the crockpot kept it warm for me.  (The bonus was I had enough soup left for the next day.)

After my success with a cream of mushroom type sauce, I decided I really needed to try again with a cream of chicken white sauce.  I used a mixture of cornstarch, soy milk, vegan butter, and poultry seasonings to create the base for this casserole.  It is a simple broccoli, rice and chick'n casserole.  I topped it with a crumbled flax and wheat roll I had baked earlier in the week. 

My husband really enjoyed this one. I think I would do just a little more tweaking on the seasonings, but the texture was a success.  (I'll add more onion powder, garlic powder, and poultry seasoning next time.)

I'm still working on school work and I am down to one more unit after this week. 

Sunday we opted to take the night off.

We had an "at home" date night and watched a couple of documentaries on Netflix.

I cooked a simple meal.  Rice seasoned with salsa (because I had rice precooked in the fridge.) Leftover broccoli because I had more than I needed for the casserole. Onion rings because he loves them and I had a few in the freezer waiting to be cooked.  Bean burritos because I love them.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

Like most people we are in the midst of preparing for the holidays.  We originally thought we would be hosting a Thanksgiving meal, but plans have changed and we will be traveling instead.  Right after we get back we will be in the middle of end of semester work and I have two doctors' appointments thrown in there.  Because of this we decided to start our holiday decorating a little earlier than we normally do.

Since my husband was coming home to help us put up the tree I cooked one of his favorite suppers -- Shepherd's Pie.  I'm excited to say I finally have the gravy (cream of mushroom soup type) consistency I want for this casserole.  It has taken me a few tries to perfect it, but this was spot on.

There were even enough leftovers for his lunch and mine.

  We put it together while my daughter was at her night class....with the help of a kitty or two.

Her job when she got in was to decorate it.

Because we will be traveling for the holidays we are both hedging on projects our teachers have assigned for the next week so we are keeping meals simple tonight...slow cooker veggie soup and fresh whole wheat and flax rolls.  The back buns are for tomorrow and are filled with black beans and vegan cheese substitute that I seasoned with taco spices.

P

Since we were working in the kitchen anyway as decided to fill the cookie tin while we were at it.  These are our favorite vegan chocolate cookies.