Seasonal Foods

Hi everyone!
Happy Belated Halloween to all! Fall is in full swing and I hope y'all are taking full advantage of it. I know I am! A lot of wonderful things are in season so I am here today to tell you guys about some of the seasonal foods I have been making and eating, as well as other foods I am intent on trying at some point during what's left of fall. It flies! Make use of it!

1. Red pears. Before this year, I always thought pears were pears and pears were light green. When I saw that my grocery store was carrying red ones, I decided to try them and I found I like them even better! They have an apple cinnamon flavor, but the cinnamon part is much stronger. The apple is more in the aftertaste. This makes pears a just-as-practical twist on apples. Granted, apples are also in season in the fall but they're a common thing to snack on year round, so the red pears scream "fall" to me. Even better, if you try to eat plenty of raw food, the pears are an easy way to get some more raw food into your diet and enjoy the current season.

2. Apple butter. I saw a recipe for it and wanted to give it a try but because it takes forever, I opted to buy it first to try it. Apple butter and I are star crossed lovers so I intend to try my hand at making it myself. Apparently, pumpkin butter follows a similar procedure so I intend to do that too because the one at Trader Joe's has honey in it.

3. Butternut squash. I was too young to remember my first exposure to butternut squash but here's a funny story my parents told me from when I was a baby:

One of my first solid foods as a baby was butternut squash. Every time my mom gave me a bite of it, I spat it out and made quite the mess, like most babies do when they're eating solid food. However, so little got into me. My mom then dumped the rest on my head and both of us were covered in it! She says I liked most vegetables when I was little but I guess I did NOT like butternut squash. I laugh about it today because I have no clue how it's possible that I didn't like it.

Needless to say, I've grown out of disliking butternut squash. I tried it again in the form of a homemade pasta sauce and I've made it several times since. I intend to use it to replace gravy this Thanksgiving.

4. Pumpkin pie. If you're wondering "Seriously, you've never had pumpkin pie before this year?", yes I have. However, my family has always had store bought pie on Thanksgiving so I had no idea how to make it myself. I don't even know if my parents or grandparents ever have made it from scratch. They might and I just don't remember. This will be the year that we don't just buy pie from the store because the problem with store bought pies is that they are neither vegan not gluten free and they most definitely have unhealthy fats and sugars in them. I recently learned how to make pastry dough and used it to make healthy pop tarts, and I think it can be used to make healthy versions of the classics this year. How hard can it be to make pie filling too? Generally, we just have apple and pumpkin pie but depending on how things go with this being my first vegan Thanksgiving, I might make more than that.

5. Acorn squash. I had never heard of acorn squash until this point but I saw some pictures online of stuffed acorn squash so I bought one so I could give that idea a try. Maybe if I can find a vegan gluten free bread to make stuffing, I could stuff the acorn squash with that for a Thanksgiving main dish! I've seen several ideas for vegan Thanksgiving main dishes so I'm testing out some of them to decide which one I will actually use this year. If you haven't already figured it out, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I take it very seriously, even if I'm that person who firmly believes that you don't need a turkey to have a good holiday.

6. Veggie pot pie. Another cool idea for a Thanksgiving main dish, my parents, brother, and I all love the Netflix show called "The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell". In one of her episodes, she makes a chicken pot pie that actually looks like a chicken! That inspired an idea! I could make a veggie pot pie and make it look like a turkey. I do need to rewatch that episode to see the procedure she used again but because I've made some casseroles and I can make a pastry dough/pie crust, I'm probably ready to try my hand at making a pot pie.

7. And of course, the fun Trader Joe's fall finds! I'm not going to get all the Trader Joe's fall items but it would be fun to try a few of them. The Gruvey Family vlog channel showed the Pumpkin O's in their most recent grocery haul and Summer was kind enough to share the ingredients with me. They are a processed food but I think they're alright for a seasonal treat to be consumed in moderation. I can tell the Gruvey Family likes them, especially Peyton! I'd also like to try the pumpkin spice rooibus tea with the pumpkin spice almond milk for a variation of the PSL at Starbucks that is out of the question for us vegans.

I hope you enjoyed my post about seasonal foods and I've got some fun plans for future posts this month. Because November is World Vegan Month, I will be writing a blog post about why my vegan lifestyle is important to me. Later this month, when Thanksgiving actually happens, I will be live streaming and posting on my Instagram story about my first vegan Thanksgiving, then blogging about it. So make sure you're following me on Instagram @foodfromthegarden and sign up to recieve automated email notifications when those and other surprise posts are published.