I am finally feeling like I am starting to get my shit together. Sort of. I’ve been actually doing pretty well with Vegan MOFO, and one prompt Alexa was going to write up something but sadly she has been having computer problems. But even still, so far we got a post up everyday, except for one. Last year we missed 3 posts, so maybe this year we will only miss 1 (maybe 2.) Last night I was starting to wonder if my water broke (despite what you see on TV, it isn’t a huge splash) but by the next morning it was very clear it didn’t. At first I was freaking out that nothing was ready. So this weekend I might focus on making phone calls and getting things in order.

Well, I didn’t go into labor, which is good. I still have three weekends to get the nursery totally settled in (so close guys!) and I will be spending family bonding time before the big day.

I think I’ve mentioned in every single Thanksgiving Day themed post, that I don’t like the holiday. Frankly I don’t like the food much. Cranberry sauce? Why are we eating plain jam? Mashed Potatoes? What is this baby food? Pies? Meh, give me cake.  I mean it is all find an dandy but I think it marks the beginning of the a marathon of holiday foods that all taste the same. Lots of thyme, rosemary, umami, and root veggies. Meh. I think that is why family does Mexican Christmas Eve. But my husband LOVES the food and holiday. So that means I feed into his love of mashed potatoes and pie even though I would rather not.

And even more luckily for him, his office has an office Thanksgiving lunch. He use to eat whatever they had before he went vegan. But this is the third celebration since he decided to go vegan. So we started a “pre-thanksgiving” tradition. Every year, before his office party we make a frozen “faux turkey” roast with one or two vegetable sides. We’ve tried tofurky, but so far my favorite has been the Gardein/Trader Joe’s holiday roast. Plus, the Trader Joe’s “brand” is cheaper, though it is really just Gardein with Trader Joe smacked on the outside. I’m cool with that.

This year we kept it pretty simple, we took some vegetables from our CSA and followed the instructions for a big roast. This gave us MUCH more veggies than we first anticipated. So we had some roasted turnips, parsnips, carrots, and celery (not from our CSA.) We then made a side of But I Could Never Go Vegan‘s sweet potato and brussel sprouts dish. The sprouts were from out CSA, which didn’t do too hot this year. Our stalk was more greens than sprouts, so we saved all of those and will probably do a little side with them another day.

This year Jon found out one of his co-workers is actually vegan (we thought he was just vegetarian.) So next year if they are both still working there, I will probably be making a bigger spread to bring in and share with his co-workers. Apparently other people at the office were commenting on how good the food looked.

Usually we get by for the rest of the week not cooking anything, which is totally okay with me. Leftovers all week leading up to the big cooking holiday? Okay! Actually I do cook, just usually things we aren’t going to eat. Like I cooked a whole pound of chickpeas (to make two chickpea tarts, one for thanksgiving, one for post baby), bake an apple pie, bake a pumpkin pie, you know, prep work.

If anyone wants to know, I’ve made a few other Thanksgiving posts- you can check them out if you so please:

Our Thanksgiving 2015 Plan
Our Thanksgiving Dinner 2014
Recipe for Vegan Green Bean Casserole
How to Serve a Vegan Guest for Your Holiday Dinner
Tofurky or Not Tofurky? That is the Question.

Anyone else with a Pre-Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving tradition?

Posted by Jennifer in Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2016 Tags: brussel sprouts, But I Could Never Go Vegan, celery, gardein, parsnips, sweet potato, thanksgiving, trader joe's, turnips, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2016