It's not Thanksgiving but...

So, the universe is an amazing thing. When you are open to what it has to give, you receive the most incredible opportunities and meet the most amazing people. That's what has kept me away from blogging since the end of classes. It's actually been scary how perfectly different pieces of my life has been fitting together recently. Things that made no sense have all of sudden coincided perfectly, people I never thought existed have suddenly manifested themselves in my life. Today's shout out goes to the Universe: Thank you for remembering me!

Anyway, I figured it was time I went back to good ol' me and posted a recipe. This creation was actually inspired by a talk on the All You Can Eat podcast hosted by Don Genova. Ever since I decided to catch up with the 21st Century and figure out what Podcasts actually are, I've been addicted! And as a result I now have over 500 food podcasts on my Ipod. All You Can Eat is really audio foodie heaven! One of Don Genova's older episodes featured what to do with Thanksgiving left-overs (sorry I can't remember which one, I've been backlogging this entry for a while now) made me jones for cranberries and cornbread and well, tofurky... so it inspired me to try out this recipe, bringing all the yumminess of Thanksgiving into one very Fall tasting vegan sammie.

What is it? It's a cranberry sauce, tofurky, arugula sandwich on really easy to make and totally yummy vegan cornbread. How much more Thanksgiving-y can you get then that? Here's the breakdown:

Sweet Vegan Cornbread

1 C flour (I've used whole wheat or spelt in the past and they both work great)

1 C cornmeal (I love the texture of Bob's Red Mill Cornmeal for its graininess)

1/2 C sugar

1 tsp salt (or more to taste)

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 egg replacer (I've done both apple sauce and the ground flax and water)

slightly less than 1 C soymilk

1/4 C veggie oil

Makes 1 loaf.

1. Preheat oven to 400, and oil a bread pan

2. Combine dry ingredients and blend well.

3. Mix in the wet ingredients.

4. Cook for 20-25 minutes (when knife comes out clean)

Spontaneous Cranberry Sauce

I totally made this up spur of the moment, so forgive me if the amounts are complete approximations.

6oz cranberries (I used frozen ones)

juice and zest of 1/2 orange

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 C sugar

(optional 1 tbsp honey)

1. Simmer everything in a pot over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until it breaks down and thickens into a jam-ish type sauce.

Putting it all Together:

Like I said, cut a couple slices of cornbread and spread cranberry sauce on one half.

Add arugula (for its bite) or just use a nice spring salad mix or lettuce.

Add a couple slices of tofurky (I love the peppered kind!) or a slice of leftover tofurky roast

And there's your Thanksgiving feast for any season!

Just as a warning, though I've always been very confident about my cornbread, it's really moist (ie. it kind of crumbles if you try to use it as sandwich bread) and I haven't figured out my way around that. But you can still either try to manage by cutting it into smaller pieces, or just use a knife and fork I guess... or eat messy! That's always much more fun.

It also does seem somewhat strange to be posting this considering that I've gone raw for over two weeks not, but like I said earlier there are always plenty of others to cook for and one of the primary ways I make people happy is through food :) So enjoy!