Holiday Dilemas

As a family the transition to becoming mostly vegetarian has been fairly smooth.  I've always cooked my meals from scratch an having some lentils,  cooked beans or tofu on hand makes it easy to always have a solid amount of protein in our meals.  We aren't religious about it and have meat about once every 2 weeks, especially when I'm cooking a meal for another family in need or when we just need a pizza night. It's just we want to do our part to help the earth with a sustainable diet.   Holidays thought so present a different dilemma.

Thanksgiving is all about the turkey.   It's rather in-your-face if you will.  I've never really liked turkey but even before moving toward vegetarianism I felt like I HAD to make a turkey.  Thankfully we resorted to just getting one turkey breast from Costco the last few years relieved I wouldn't have an entire carcass to worry about using so I didn't have the guilt of waste.  It was now time for new traditions though and  since tofurkey does not appeal (yes this is a real thing) I spent some time researching up ideas for our special meal.

We started the day off with a slightly sweet and tart cranberry cake and hot cocoa.  The kids were in seventh heaven because when does mom EVER give cake for breakfast!!!!



Dinner is served!!



Isaac loved the spinach feta puffed pastry below



Pioneer woman's roasted Brussel sprouts with pecans and cranberries drizzled with a balsamic vinegar, the adults loved it but apparently anything green cannot taste good to our children.



Leora couldn't wait to eat but Eli could care less so long as there was his fruit in between bites



Sadly over baked this sweet potato casserole, also another Pioneer Woman recipe.  They like it so much that it's a given it's on the menu for Christmas.


All of it was topped off with some nice cheeses and the kids favorite mashed potatoes.  I suspect this will be a work in progress as we find our favorite recipes and create some new traditions.  In the meantime I'm glad to have ditched that giant bird and all the work it entails for this holiday.