Thanksgiving Tofu Tuesday

I always get excited this time of year because I love the holidays and spending time with family.

PLUS...there is the food.

To make sure that I was ready for Thanksgiving I had a trial run last night.

What you don't do that?  Maybe I am a little crazy, but the reason for it was to make sure that I could make this:

I have never had tofurky before last night and I have to say I was a bit timid.

The preparation is pretty much the same as a traditional turkey except you don't have the gross cleaning of the bird and nasty insides that you have to pull out (YUCK who uses that stuff).  Then of course no animal had to die for our meal.

So into a roasting dish went my pre-stuffed tofurky with a chopped onion and celery.

You do baste the "bird" with:

3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp Bragg's Amino Acids
1 1/2 tsp fresh or dried sage (I didn't have sage on hand and used basil it worked like a charm)

Follow the directions on the box and you will not fail.

To compliment the dish I made mashed potatoes and sauteed kale.

The kale was a complete fail, but that is ok that is why I tried out the meal ahead of time.

The last item, required by my husband is gravy. 

He loves it on his turkey and mashed potatoes.

I was able to accommodate him.

To keep the meal vegan I prepared a mushroom gravy (also handily listed on the box):

8 oz mushrooms sliced
1/4 C sliced onions
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 C unbleached all purpose flour
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 C stock, bouillon, or soymilk
1 Tbsp Bragg's Amino Acid
1/4 tsp black pepper

Saute your mushrooms and onions in 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil.

In a separate pan combine your flour and 2 Tbsp olive oil.  This will form a rue (thickener for your gravy), you should cook this on low heat for about 1 minute.

Whisk into the flour mixture your 4 cups of liquid (I chose bouillon), Bragg's, and black pepper.  Allow to cook until thickened.

I took the mushrooms, onions, and a bit of stock and blended them up for smooth consistency.  If you don't want to do that you can just add the mushrooms and onions straight into your gravy.

I prefer a smooth consistency and this gravy was just that smooth with the perfect thickness.

This was a huge win for me because I have never, and I mean never, been successful at making a gravy that was so fantastic (I highly recommend it).

Everything was finished and you might be wondering "What does stuffed tofurky look like?"  Well let me oblige you:

It was time to plate the dinner.

I thought since I was practicing I should go full tilt and pull out the china, crystal, and candles so that we could eat in the dining room (something my children don't do often).

I was a wonderful dinner.

Everyone enjoyed their meal (my husband even went back for seconds).

The tofurky tastes like turkey, I was actually quite surprised.

Now once the real Thanksgiving gets here I will be ready...except I just have to come up with some desserts to serve.

What are some special dishes you have with your Thanksgiving? 

Do you have a special dessert or side dish?

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Fun Frugal Friday

Friday was a fun day.

We did a variety of small tasks that when you put it all together makes it look like a fun filled frugal day.

I started the day by going to get a haircut with Andrew, he is in his uncle's wedding next week and needed to remove the shaggy hair from his head.

Now I am never one to pay full price for anything, unless absolute necessity.  So I was psyched to see this on the back of my grocery receipt

So we headed here

And in no time flat he was looking trim and handsome again...of course we had to stop for a little snack (paid for by a gift card I scored through MyPoints)

We have a small issue at my house, don't know if it is the incredible humidity of the south or just because we have a ton of plants growing around here, but there is a bug issue (mainly mosquitoes).

After a little internet research my husband and I found a recipe that we were hoping would pan out...and if it didn't we would make use of the leftover ingredients

Vodka you say??  YEP!

Start bug repelling concoction by steeping 4 ounces of water and a handful of basil leaves (they are plentiful in my backyard)

Once cool remove the basil leaves and add 4 ounces of vodka

Pour mixture into a spray bottle and it is ready to use

**Update we tried this spray out today and it works like a charm**

The fun didn't stop there

When I picked up the mail this was waiting for me

About 6 weeks ago I signed up, through Nasoya, to do their "Tofu University."

In exchange for purchasing 4 select tofu products and trying out some of their recipes I was given this v-neck t-shirt by American Apparel (sustainably produced...yeah!).

Not only did I get a free shirt but each week I got an e-mail coupon for $0.75 off of a Nasoya product...sweet right?  To make it better my local grocery store doubles coupons so I was getting $1.50 off...WOOHOO!

Our last bit of fun came when we went to Faucette Farms and picked up our weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).

This week we hit the mother load.

Included in our bag:

8 peaches
1 bunch of green onions
2 huge bags of shiitake mushrooms
2 large shiitake mushrooms (different variety sort of resembles a portabello)
1 quart of blackberries
1 canteloupe
2 pints of blueberries
1 cabbage
1 bunch of carrots
5 zucchini
1 large red onion
6 ears of corn
2 yellow onions
6 tomatoes
2 green bell peppers
12 potatoes

Recipes from this plentiful supply coming tomorrow

Remember if you get a chance vote for my blog, My Naturally Frugal Family, on Circle of Moms so that I can be in their Top 25 Family Blogs. :)  The bottom to link to their voting is on the right hand side.

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What I Ate/Baked

Yesterday was a day that I wanted to bake. 

Why? 

Because my kids demanded donuts for breakfast. 

Now don't be judgemental yet. 

I didn't run over to Krispy Kreme and buy them a dozen of their fried concoctions. 

Instead I made my own, in the mini version because lets face it everything is cuter in mini version.

These little cuties are super easy to make and elicit comments such as "Your are the best mom in the world!"  Really?  Wow maybe I should working on a speech or something, surely there is an Academy Award like event that rewards moms for being the best.

First to bake donuts you need a pan or this handy dandy small kitchen appliance

For about $20 this little gem can be yours (I purchased this one at Target).

The ingredients and directions are simple:

1 C unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 egg
1/2 C almond milk (vanilla)
4 tbsp vegetable oil

for those wanting to veganize sub out the egg for a flax egg or silken tofu
for the flax egg mix 1 tbsp flax meal and 3 tbsp water mix and allow to thicken
for silken tofu use t tbsp and whip smooth

You will need to grease both sides of the donut maker and plug it in to warm it up.

Combine all ingredients into a large bowl and whip together until smooth (I prefer to do this by hand, but you could use a hand mixer).

Pour a scant less then a tablespoon into each of the donut forms and follow the cooking instructions of your donut maker (for me it is to close the top and wait for the light to go off...signaling donuts should be cooked to perfection).

As if a light fluffy donut isn't enough to whet your whistle how about adding a little topping. 

On hand at my house was:

Which in turn made my cute minis look like this:

These aren't as pretty as they could have been, but I was fighting with my 2 year old because she was scarfing them down and didn't want to take time for pictures of food.

Yes I firmly believe shoveling them in by the handful is required when you have something chocolate.

What I Ate Wednesday

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Hidden Inspiration

Yesterday my children we craving something sweet, and I am ashamed to say I only had chocolate chips on hand (yeah I know they are delicious, but not quite what the kiddos wanted).

So mulling things over in my head and trying to figure out what I wanted to make my husband says "Hey peanut butter banana cookies."  I thought maybe he was having a stroke, but no he was just reading the side of the banana bag.

Sidebar:  For purposes of saving money when I can I LOVE to purchase the big bags of "ripe" bananas from the produce section.  As luck would have it Lowes had organic bananas for $0.39 a lb (for $2.00 I got two of these large bags, one of which is currently in my freezer).

This is the side of the bag:

In case you can't read it here are the ingredients:

1 1/2 C all purpose unbleached flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 small banana (1/2 C)
1/3 C firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 C Earth Balance (softened)
1/4 C Organic smooth peanut butter (you can use crunchy...but I didn't have any handy)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

* for egg substitutes you can use a flax egg (directions here) or you can also take a tablespoon of silken tofu, whipped by hand.

Add all of the ingredients to a bowl

Mix these together, you can use a hand mixer if you like, I prefer a potato masher.

Once combined form into 1 inch balls by hand and place on baking sheet (covered in parchment paper or greased with cooking spray)

Take a fork and dips the tines in granulated sugar and make a lattice pattern on top of each cookie to flatten them out

Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees

These are not overly peanut buttery cookies.  I may have to play with the ratio of peanut butter in the future and possibly throw in some of those chocolate chips that I always have around.
For now though this is tasty and healthy little snack for anyone ages 1-100 (can't give peanut butter to children under 1).

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