Yesterday was gross out so I had to skip my trip to the market that I had planned. We had very little left to make anything with but I think I managed to create something so great you wouldn’t realize it was made from scraps!

When I don’t know what I’m making for dinner I usually start making rice and chop up an onion, there are many possibilities that can blossom from that beginning. Last night I did just that with the addition of a chopped red pepper as well.

They sweat it out in the pan while I got to work on pressing some tofu.

When the peppers and onions were soft and browning, I added the tofu. Shortly thereafter I plopped on a couple spoonfuls of this black bean sauce.

It doesn’t really matter how much sauce you add, it won’t ruin it to put too much or too little. Just make it as saucy as you want it!

I spooned it over fluffy jasmine rice. Check out all the steam, it was super hot!

It was very warm and comforting on a cold and rainy evening.

Poor Jeff is still sick. He’s already downed one whole batch of my cold cure drink so it was time to make some more last night.

I didn’t have any apple cider so I used plain water and added a thinly sliced apple and a big spoonful of my gingery pear and apple sauce. You wouldn’t have known it wasn’t cider.

He’s been sipping on it constantly and it’s definitely helping him to be able to at least go to work.

Ok, today I need to get everything ready to make a dessert for Thanksgiving with my side of the family tomorrow. Details on that to come!

Hey ya’ll! (Yes “ya’ll”, I’m from Georgia after all.)

Here’s more of what I was up to over the weekend: Thanksgiving preparations and activities!

Jeff and I were invited to his parents’ house on Sunday for an early Thanksgiving. They live in Chickamauga which is just barely inside the Georgia border near Chattanooga, TN.

I thought I’d try to bring a vegan desert and see how it went over with everyone since I’ve still got about a week left of Vegan MoFo to contribute to. I was inspired by a 5 ingredient pumpkin pie recipe I found on Healthy Happy Life.

I purchased a pre-made crust because I am notoriously bad at making pie crusts.

He got stabbed repeatedly with a fork before I stuck him in the oven for about 12 minutes to partially bake him. (Gruesome!)

Meanwhile, I mixed up the filling…

…as Lucas inspected my kabocha squash.

I think it passed whatever test he was waging against it because he left it alone after that.

Anyway, I poured the filling into two partially baked pie crusts and stuck them in the oven for 30 minutes. (I’ll show you a finished shot later!)

Jeff and I then finished getting ourselves ready for the nearly 2 hour drive up to Chickamauga. Jeff has been sick for the last few days so he sipped on my cold cure drink the whole way up and all through dinner. Poor baby!

We made it there by about 12:15pm and were both starving by that point. Luckily Jeff’s mom, Nancy, always has something out to snack on before the real meal.

She made butterscotch oatmeal cookies and white chocolate cranberry candies…

…as well as an apple strudel cake and a plate of fresh grapes!

Isn’t she wonderful?!

And the actual Thanksgiving spread was fantastic too.

My two favorite things are always the stuffing…

…and the sweet potato souffle.  Love that sweet crunchy topping!

Everything was fantastic.  Jeff’s mother really knows how to keep the classics classy, no bright orange cheese or overly salted casseroles, just plain good comfort food. (Hey Mike and Nancy, love you!)

We were all pretty full so we let the boys watch some football before we started in on dessert. Jeff has two younger brothers; being that I grew up with just a sister I can’t imagine growing up in a house with that many boys!

Well anyway, here it is…my vegan pumpkin cheezecake pie.

Gorgeous, right? I thought so too, that is until I cut into it.

The filling seemed underbaked, nearly raw actually. We passed it out and sampled it anyway though.

Verdict: It was weird.

It tasted like straight cashews and nothing else. I had even added maple syrup and powdered sugar to the filling although the recipe didn’t call for any sweeteners, and yet it came out very savory. It wasn’t disgusting, it just wasn’t very dessert-like. I think the problem was that the recipe author used canned pumpkin pie mix for hers whereas I used plain homemade pumpkin puree. The canned stuff would’ve been much sweeter and less vegetal tasting. My fault for not following the recipe!

No matter, it wasn’t about the pie anyway. It was about spending time with our family and enjoying a meal together.

I am so lucky to truly adore my in-laws and feel loved by them in return. It was a great day with great food and great people.

I haven’t been feeling so hot lately. It’s a long story that I’ll go into another time.

In an effort to calm my literal and figurative belly-achin’, I picked up one of these little guys today…

I tried kombucha for the first time several years ago and spit it right back out.  I couldn’t understand how anyone could stomach drinking something that tasted like straight vinegar. But, I’ve been hearing about it all over the blog world again recently and figured that if so many people were truly enjoying it, that maybe it was worth another shot.

Here goes nothin’…

Huh!?! Well, wouldn’t you know, I like kombucha! There’s definitely still a vinegary edge to it, but it kind of reminds me of a sour Flemish beer or a hard apple cider. Very tasty!

In fact the only thing bad about it is this…

Those are leftover strands of the live culture. They look like loogies or jellyfish bloorping around in my beverage!

I gulped them down like a champ though.

The kombucha really did help to settle my stomach, and now I have a somewhat expensive and esoteric health beverage to add to my list of weird crap I eat! Yay!

😉