After Thanksgiving, I had a lot of leftover cranberry sauce. I usually only make a little to go with my cornbread dressing, but since the bag of frozen cranberries had been sitting in my freezer for a while I cooked the whole bag. As a result, I had a bowl full of cranberry sauce that I had no clue what to do with. I’m not someone who doesn’t like to waste food, so I try to find a use for leftovers. While I’m used to having leftover cranberries after Thanksgiving, but not leftover cranberry sauce. I searched the internet for ideas but came up empty. The recipes I came across called for whole cranberries and not cranberry sauce. After coming up empty I was worried that my cranberry sauce was going to go bad and I’d have to throw them out. So I decided to get creative and try to make a cranberry sauce coffee cake with the leftover cranberry sauce.

Well, I’m one of many who buys bananas to let them ripen so that I can make vegan banana bread. I’m not a fan of bananas, but I try to eat them every once in a while since they are packed with potassium. I put them in smoothies, make peanut butter and bananas sandwiches, or have them as a snack. But when I have a bunch and they start spotting I make vegan banana bread. I like to have it as a snack with my tea or as a quick breakfast when I’m on the go. It’s also a great way to keep them from going to waste. I usually have the ingredients to make banana bread in my pantry, so I can easily take an hour or so to make banana bread.

Biscuits and gravy are something I never had prior to going vegetarian. It’s typically made with pork, and I don’t eat pork.  So it was something my mother didn’t make for breakfast. I’d see it on the menu when we’d go out to eat, and wondered what it tasted like. Now that I’m vegetarian, I’ve learned a lot about making substitutions in recipes. And I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen and creating plant-based versions of dishes I used to eat or haven’t tried. I haven’t been out to eat in months, and one of my favorite vegan restaurants added biscuits and gravy to their menu. But they were out of it by the time I got there. So I decided to try my hand at making it.

I ordered a few packs of soy curls from amazon and they’ve have become my new favorite thing. When I ordered my soy curls I also ordered Butler’s Chik-Style Seasoning. The soy curls are dehydrated strips of soy protein and when rehydrated they have a chewy texture that’s reminiscent of chicken. Its flavor is neutral and is the perfect palate for different sauces and seasoning blends like the Chik-Style Seasoning. It reminds me of the seasoning packet in ramen. They’re easy to work with too. And since I meal prep for lunch, I’ve been thinking of ways to incorporate them into my lunches for work.

A few years ago I used to live in Georgia where peaches were everywhere. I remember driving down country roads and seeing signs for fresh peaches or peach salsa. While I lived in Georgia, I ate a lot of peaches. I’d often bake with them, put them in smoothies, or add them to my fruit salad. Since moving to Missouri, peaches aren’t something I don’t eat often. But while I was cruising through the produce section, I spotted some peaches on sale. I grabbed a few and tried to think of what I could make with them. I decided to bake a peach cobbler since it’d be easy, but to shake things up, I added some strawberries since they were also on sale. So instead of a regular peach cobbler, I made a vegan strawberry and peach cobbler instead.