Week of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the best holiday ever for a foodie. I mean, all the fresh produce: the apples, squashes, pears, cranberries, sweet potatoes. Everything is in season and amazing. So today begins my week of Thanksgiving recipes. Vegetarian, healthful, amazingly delicious, flavorful, so-good-you-will-drool-at-the-screen recipes. I made...

Orange-Anise Fruit Bread Muffins- They were dense because I believe the yeast I used was dead, but they were still delicious.

Carrot Soup- With a green apple, red chili powder, ginger, scallions, and cilantro, this truly had every flavor I could add while still making a delicious soup that did not taste random.

Butternut Squash Gratin- My sister made this signature dish. And it was divine. Absolutely divine. Cheesy and gooey and amazing, without any guilt.

Sweet Potatoes with a Spicy-Sweet Marinade- The secrets to elevating this often mundane side? Marinating the potatoes in a mixture including cinnamon, nutmeg, chili powder, and orange juice.

Balsamic Roasted Asparagus- Tender with a bite, flavorful and elegant, this simple dish is one of the best sides ever. With only 5 ingredients (including salt/ pepper), this dish is stress-free and healthful.

Deconstructed Pear-Cranberry Pie (Or "unpie", if you will)- Pie is too difficult to make. Pie crust twists with pear-cranberry compote is easy to make and interesting. It is unique, and you can say that it is quirky, not lazy. While the cranberries made the compote unbelievably sour, the vanilla ice cream, FAT FREE vanilla ice cream, on the side sweetened the dish and made it thoroughly divine (I was going to say decadent, but that actually means "fallen from grace", not "delicious beyond imagination.") By the way, I did not make the ice cream. Just saying. I am not that awesome. Yet.

Giveaway Extension

Hi. I have been cooking for the last 2 days, and I know you guys have been super busy, so I will extend my giveaway until next Friday. Enter here to win a bracelet like the one below in the color of you choice. Happy belated Thanksgiving!

TENTATIVE Healthful Thanksgiving Menu

We are doing our feast on Friday because my sister will be home, so here is my HEALTHFUL menu plan for the day of giving thanks and feasting. Note, some of the links I am providing are to recipes inspiring my menu. Most of these links are provided in he text to cite the images I am using. Everything I make will be made healthful and posted. Breakfast

This bread from Delish sounds just that, delish. To make this (even more) healthful, I will skip the glaze, replace some of the oil with pumpkin puree (makes it more fall-esque as well), and make the soaking syrup with fresh orange juice only. I might replace some of the dried sweetened cranberries with dried dates and add some walnuts for texture. This is the perfect grab-and-go breakfast with some coffee-flavored milk before Black Friday shopping.

This picture of carrot ginger soup is drool worthy. I mean, look at it. Yum. My version will be light carrot soup with fresh ginger and coriander and possibly apple, if I do not make apple pie. I am planning to make it with the immersion blender I got for my birthday. Doesn't every teenager want a blender for her birthday?

The Butternut Squash Gratin and the Roasted Butternut Squash with Balsamic and Garlic both look divine. My sister made gratin last year, and I like roasting sweet potatoes, so I am more likely to go with gratin. I think, to make it special, I will brown the squash and then bake it. Or maybe I will make a butternut squash pear soup and make balsamic glazed carrots as a side dish... Like below. This is a TENTATIVE menu.

Well, anyway, the one dish I am sure about is dessert. I want to make mini pear pies (or apple, but most likely pear). But how can pie be healthful? This crust, perhaps. The secret is frozen olive oil to create a flaky crust instead of butter, or worse, lard. Also, I am going to skip the double crust. This pear compote seems like a good filling inspiration for the pie.

So the verdict? Probably Carrot-Apple-Ginger-Coriander Soup, then Butternut Squash Gratin, Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Balsamic and Garlic, and Mini Spiced Pear Pies. And will the meal be above 500 calories? Hopefully not. While that is a lot for a meal, the average Thanksgiving meal can have up to 3000 calories (MADNESS!!!), that is pretty good. I am thankful that I am vegetarian, that I can enjoy good food without having the typical turkey at the table. I am thankful that I have the food and people who support my cooking and let me experiment.

Penne w/Broccoli Walnut Pesto

When you are sick of steamed broccoli, make this pesto. It is delicate and flavorful. As long as you add enough salt and pepper. I always skimp on these. DON'T!!! The good part of using broccoli for pesto along with basil as opposed using only basil is that broccoli does not shrink. You need to use like 100 basil leaves to make a smear of pesto. That is not the case if you add broccoli (or any other robust green). So you do not need to uproot your little basil plant and blend it, roots and all, for the sake of pesto. Thank goodness, right?

Click below for the Recipe.

Apple Spice Cookies and Birthday Happenings

I made about 3 batches of these amazing cookies on my birthday and handed them out at school to my friends. Cake? No way. I am a cookie kind of girl. Cake is always appealing in theory, but it tends to be slathered with too much sugary frosting that completely masks the pillowy cake. These cookies were not to sweet. They are just the right size to satisfy you. And the Dulce de Leche drizzle on top just made the cookies that much better (and prettier). These would be vegan, but the drizzle I created is not vegan, so if you are vegan just skip the drizzle. The recipe included a glaze with apple cider, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon, but I did the Dulce de Leche instead to create the classic "caramel" apple flavor. I got the Dulce de Leche from a friend who had traveled to South America. If you cannot get Dulce de Leche, just make caramel (if you are ambitious) or melt some caramels with a dash of milk and drizzle away!

Click below for recipe

We also got mini red velvet cupcakes from a cute little bakery we have never been to. They were really delicious, and I almost did not miss the cream cheese frosting. Almost. My mom also made Badam Halwa, Almond Halva, ie my favorite Indian sweet ever. Birthdays are amazing, no?

My birthday outfit was a new dress with my ridiculously awesome purple rain boots and crocheted tights. And of course my pea pod necklace from Ruby Willow.

And as a food and fashion nerd, this was my present of choice. An immersion blender in my favorite "it color", chartreuse. I am making soup tonight, without having to blend in batches. Best present ever. By far.

Lace and Peplum and Pink, oh my!

I apologize for the horrible quality. It was late, and it was cold. I love this top. It is fabulously trendy without being garish. And I rarely wear pink, but this is an exception. I wore the shirt backwards. It actually has buttons (see below), but it looks better backwards, in my opinion. I paired it with corduroys and a menswear-inspired cardigan to tone down the girlishness of lace and pink. Perfect.

Top=Kohl's, Pants- JCrew, Cardigan- Ann Taylor, Locket- Macy's

GIVEAWAY Manufacta Paper

Posting as an anonymous blogger at school is very difficult. Must get power back! Anyway, while all of us East Coasters continue to recover from Hurricane Sandy, I can finally post this giveaway. Manufacta Paper is this ridiculously amazing store on Etsy that sells paper jewelry. I am a huge origami freak (really only paper crane freak; I am working on my second set of 1000 paper cranes) and the owner is so talented. And her creations are eco-friendly. Awesome jewelry, sans the guilt. You can enter to win one of the rice paper bracelets offered in the store. These bracelets are truly made for stacking. I am not much of an arm candy kind of girl, but these bracelets come in so many different colors, so I would have no trouble pairing complementary colors and jazzing up a jeans-and-a-tee outfit. Again, YOU can enter to win ONE of these bracelets in any color of your choice. Here are the colors available.

My favorite color combinations include Lime, Tangerine, and Cobalt; Mauve, Raspberry, and Magenta; and Cinnamon, Pale Gold, and Forest. To tell me what your favorite bracelet colors are and ENTER TO WIN, click below.

Note!!! Please leave your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you win. Good luck!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins w/ Molten Chocolate Centers

Cue drooling. I adapted this recipe from here. The muffins were a bit small, but they were so good. Perfect snack during the SAT (meaning a pick-me-up during The Mother of All Standardized Tests). Best part, they are pretty good for you. I mean, they are essentially fat free (I replaced all of the oil with pumpkin puree). Add walnuts (like I did) or raisins or chopped up dates to make this a hearty morning treat. And enjoy the flavors of fall.

Click Below for Recipe

Oh, and correction on the recipe card, because I am too lazy in a rush to post this for you to fix it. It should say "7. Enjoy with coffee. You willprobably forget about the delicious dark chocolate center until you reach it." Sorry about that.

Followers to Friends

First of all, I am so sorry I have not been posting. I am putting this up at school, I have no power...still!!! Curse you, Hurricane Sandy!

<a href="http://www.iampiscesw.com/"><br /> <br /> <img src="http://i1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg566/iampiscesw/FTFNEWBUTTON200-1.jpg" /></a><br /> <br />