double layer pumpkin pie

After being surrounded by vegan (commonly pronounced vee-gun)** eats for the month of October for Vegan MoFo and then seeing many bloggers participate in “vegan for a day” challenge last week I decided that I would try my own challenge of trying to abstain from all meat, seafood, dairy, and eggs for one day. I knew not eating meat would be easy because I’ve been a pescatarian for over a year and half now, however, dairy and eggs would be a wee bit hard for me. Although, definitely not impossible!

**I know most of my readers are from the healthy living space and probably know how this word is pronounced but I also know that I have readers who aren’t familiar with the term so I thought I would throw that out there for anyone interested.

Monday I took a walk on the wild side and was vegan for the day!

I had the standard oatmeal/ oatbran combo for breakfast only I didn’t use a banana and stirred in 1 tablespoon of Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese for some added creaminess.

The “cream cheese” made for a decant bowl of cream oats. I enjoyed it very much especially when topped with a blob of homemade pumpkin butter and a better n pb.

The morning at work went well and I didn’t get hungry until lunch time. While walking home for lunch I kept trying to think of something vegan to have. The fridge was lacking healthy foods because I had been out of town all weekend so there was plenty of beer but no veggies. However, I just so happened to have a Kashi Ranchero Beans meal in the freezer. And, guess what? It’s vegan!

I heated it up and served it along side some roasted butternut squash. The ranchero beans were filling and flavorful. I really liked the whole grain pilaf- particularly the wheat berries and the serving size was large for a frozen meal, which I liked because I am a volume eater and typically frozen meals can be quite small. With 7 grams of fat, 11 grams of fiber, and 12 grams of protein, this meal is also balanced and nutritious. It’s a winner in my frozen meal book!

I ran by wal-mart after work to grab some ingredients for the Thanksgiving feast we had planned at work. I haven’t been to wal-mart in ages for reasons I won’t go into detail about but I was shocked to find they had organic spring mix, carrots, cereals, yogurt (Stonyfield) and other veggies I wanted. I was a happy wal-mart shopper. I came home and made a quick dinner. It included my favorite veggie burger- Amy’s California cut in half – one piece served with ketchup and the other tossed into a salad with tomatoes, butternut squash, yellow bell peppers and left over tahini dressing.

Overall, eating vegan for the day wasn’t too hard, but I ate all my meals at home and prepared them myself – I could see it being much more difficult if I were eating meals out. At this point, I often have days were I don’t eat dairy or eggs just because I don’t want them, however I don’t see myself ever becoming vegan because I do enjoy those foods and there really isn’t a reason for me forgo things I enjoy.

Speaking of things I enjoy, we had a food-filled Thanksgiving Feast at work today.

I brought in homemade sun-dried tomato and garlic hummus with some pita bread and carrots.

And a Double Layer Pumpkin Pie. I made this same pie last year for the office and a couple people asked for me to bring it again.

I must admit, it is quite delicious!!

I didn’t get a picture of the whole spread but here are some of the other desserts, and this isn’t even all of them!!

I tried all the homemade desserts expect my own- some apple cake, a slice of sweet potato pie, and sour cream and raisin pie. The apple cake was my favorite and I couldn’t stop grabbing bites throughout the afternoon. For lunch I had a plate with spring mix and butternut squash (I brought this from home just in case there weren’t many veggie options), a piece of nann bread, hummus, homemade falafel and greens!

Both the falafel and greens were my favorite parts- so yummy!

If you’re on twitter you’ll know that we also had wine. I didn’t have any with lunch but around 4 the CEO poured me a glass and brought it to my desk. Love her!

So Thanksgiving hasn’t even begun and I’m already full… guess today was just my training session for the main event on Thursday. Unless, we don’t end up going- Isaac is sick with flu like symptoms and if his fever doesn’t go down we won’t be going to his grandparents to celebrate as we don’t want to risk getting them sick. :/

Do you have any plans? Are you cooking anything special?

- Brittany

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We had a Thanksgiving luncheon at work today. The office decided last week on BBQ from Buzz and Neds – a local BBQ place that had it’s shining moment on Bobby Flay’s Throwdown… exciting huh? The only problemo with Buzz and Ned’s is that it doesn’t really have anything for vegetarians except the best sweet potato fries eva. Not really sure why the office didn’t order the fries, anyhow us veggie eaters (2 ladies) ordered Ginger Thai Taste. I got 2 shrimp spring rolls and some veg tom yum soup. Both BBQ and Thai are very Thanksgiving of us… I know, but to make things a bit more Thanksgivingish I offered to bring dessert. Two Double Layer Pumpkin Pies! It’s a Kraft recipe that my sister made once for Thanksgiving. I fell in love and requested for her to make it every year.

Everyone at work loved it and 2 of my lady co-workers asked for the recipe to make this weekend. There weren’t as many people as expected at the luncheon so we polished off one pie but I have a whole pie left over. I was so happy that someone didn’t cut into the second pie just for one piece. That might be mean of me but it makes things easier- I don’t have to make another pie tonight for tomorrows feast!

And, if anyone needs an easy, peasy, very pleasy pumpkin pie recipe here ya go:

Here is what you need

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. milk, divided

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

1 HONEY MAID Graham Pie Crust (6 oz.)

1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin

2 pkg. (3.4 oz. each) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Make It

BEAT cream cheese, 1 Tbsp. milk and sugar in large bowl with whisk until blended. Stir in 1/2 of whipped topping. Spread into crust.

WHISK remaining milk, pumpkin, pudding mixes and spices 2 min. (Mixture will be thick.) Spread over cream cheese layer.

REFRIGERATE 4 hours or until set. Top with remaining whipped topping just before serving.

Also to make it healthier I buy reduced fat graham cracker crust, lite or fat free whipped topping, 1/3 reduced fat Neufchatel cream cheese, and sugar free- fat free instant pudding.

For breakfast this morning I made oats… what else is new? Well actually I did try something new.. I drizzled a little agave nectar over the banana oats! It was delish.

And while we’re talking oats, here is my picture of my oats from yesterday. I didn’t get around to posting them, but I don’t want this photo to go to waste. I tried another new topping.. shredded coconut! I have been missing my ground flax lately though… definitely need to buy some more of that lovely mix in.

Also speaking of yesterday’s eats… here was my lunch. A tofu goddess wrap with hummus and left over roaster root veggies. It was yummy.

Do you see those purple beets in the mix? Well I don’t think I have ever had fresh beets before or maybe I just didn’t remember that they did this. But they have a pretty powerful coloring property and they totally change the color of your pee and poo.. it’s weird and sorry if this is gross, but I was kind of concerned at first, then I goggled it and it happens to everyone. Good to know! On one of the google results someone mentioned that eating beets is a good way to find out how long it takes your body to digest food. Gotta love google!

I’m off to peel my root veggies and then probably out on the town tonight!! I’m excited for Thanksgiving. We are headed to Isaac’s grandparents in the Virginia Beach area early tomorrow AM. I’m pumped! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!