A Very Vegan Thanksgiving

One of the suggestions that is presented to you when being diagnosed with endometriosis is to no longer eat red meat and dairy because they are known to cause inflammation in the body. We had given up red meat years ago, so now we just needed to take away the dairy. We had been discussing going vegan for a while then, when the Food and Nutrition for Endo blog I follow (www.khushsra.com) stated to taking dairy out of your diet the choice became very clear. After becoming vegan, I have had minimal flare ups and also feel a lot less swelling my my body overall. I will say, changing your diet will cause some funky side effects...yes gas, I am talking about gas. My husband who, NEVER has gas has had the most in the last 3 months than he has over the 7 years we have been together (sorry honey, I did say I was going to keep it real). Everyone we talk to says that this passes and for the most part it has.

Now onto A Very Vegan Thanksgiving....

I am not one to follow recipes, but this Thanksgiving I decided it would be best to follow them as much as possible. I wanted to make sure everything was as delicious as they look on the vegan blogs I follow. I thought it would be hard to find vegan main dishes for this feast, but it was very easy thanks to the Google search, 'vegan Thanksgiving main dishes' and I came upon an article that gave me 15! I was excited to see what was in store.

Our Thanksgiving day menu included:
Appetizers:
Apple Butter Crostinis
Cranberry 'cream cheese' Crostinis

Main Dishes:
Tofurky Roast
Veggie Pot Pies

Side Dishes:
Salad
Green Bean Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Corn
Gravy
Rosemary Bread

Desserts:
Molasses Cookies
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie

I do not know how bloggers do it, I could not remember to take pictures of the processes I took while cooking and baking! I got so consumed with the activity that I lost all picture taking ability. I did get some, so hopefully at Christmas I can have the Mr. get more of the process.

SIDE NOTE: I am so very grateful for my parents and their flexibility with our ever changing dietary needs. From pescatarian ↣ pescatarian keto ↣ vegan. It means so much that they do this for us for the holidays and we can't thank them enough!

Recipes:
Apple Butter:
I have not used a recipe for this dish in awhile so this is the low down of what I do...the measurements can be up to you depending on taste. Once I can actually focus long enough to get my measurements down and on paper I will do a special post on that.
Ingredients:
Apples
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon
Cardamon
Nutmeg
Cloves
Ginger
Lemon Juice
Salt

Instructions:
Peel and core apples, place in crock pot. Add your spices and brown sugar. Simmer on low for 10 hours or high for 5 hours. Once you reach that last hour add some lemon juice and salt. Use and immersion blender to your preferred consistency and VOILA...done.

Veggie Pot Pies:
I put them in really cute ramekins but did not get a final picture of them...oops. Here is the recipe that I used:
https://cadryskitchen.com/2016/12/08/mini-vegetable-pot-pie/

Most of the ingredients for the pot pies

Making a cashew cream

        

Green Bean Casserole:
The Minimalist Baker, is a blog I have been following a great deal since becoming vegan, so when I found a vegan green bean casserole recipe and saw that it was hers, I was not surprised.
https://minimalistbaker.com/vegan-green-bean-casserole/

Molasses Cookies:
I unfortunately lost my grandmother's original molasses cookie recipe, however this link below is the closest I could find. I do make modifications. I subtract some flour and add more molasses.
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/soft-molasses-cookies/

Molasses Cookies (with the cute ramekins for the veggie pot pies)

Pumpkin Pie:
This was seriously the best pumpkin pie I have ever had and if we ever decide to not be vegan anymore I will still bake this pumpkin pie ALL the time!
https://foodwithfeeling.com/vegan-pumpkin-pie/

Apple Pie:
With this recipe, my Grammie and I spent a day baking together about 3 years ago and she gave me her tips and tricks for apple pies. Since this is a special recipe I am going to keep it in the family, but Williams Sonoma has a GREAT one! I have used this one before and it is really good and very similar to what my Grammie taught me.
https://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/apple-pie.html

This is Grammie. Isn't she beautiful?

Before going in the oven.
In the background, my pie rolling pin that Grammie gave me.

We substituted all eggs with Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer, milk with Cashew nut milk and butter with Earth Balance. 

Be on the lookout for new vegan recipes we try and ones that we create on our own as we continue on this journey on becoming pain-free!

And remember, when life gives you Endo...you go Vegan!