Vegan Holiday Kitchen- Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Hint of Chocolate!

Good Morning friends! How is everyone? How many of you feel a little anxiety when we approach the holidays? What to make? How to prep and plan a holiday menu? Great vegan dishes to serve that the crowd will love? It can be a fun challenge and I get many emails asking me for suggestions and menu ideas. So I'm here today with a review/recipe for you that I am totally excited about! First let me just say that I really don't review things on here too often. I will however happily review things that I personally love and enjoy and actually use myself. And this book is definitely one of my new favorites. I wanted to make sure I got this review up in time for the holidays because it is a must buy in my opinion! I actually rarely cook out of cookbooks (this is the inner chef in me!) and I  am always brainstorming and testing my own new creations. But I have several staple books that I love and I think they are a must in any vegan (or not!) cookbook collection.

Vegan Holiday Kitchen

 The book is called Vegan Holiday Kitchen written by Nava Atlas. This book is a beautiful hardbound book that is organized so well. It has tons of beautiful food photos, and the recipes all look very good! The books chapters are divided by Holidays and events to help you plan from which include...

• Thanksgiving
• Christmas and The Holiday Season
• Jewish Holidays: Passover, Rosh Hashana, and Hanukkah
• Easter
• Independence Day and Summer Entertaining
• Brunches, Appetizers, and Potluck Dishes

For each of these chapters are tons of menu and meal ideas. I love this idea and I think it would be such a helpful tool for so many of you! I definitely recommend this book! Of Course, I can't leave you without a recipe from the book. They have generously let me share one of the recipes with you.  So naturally I chose something perfectly fitting for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. This looks so good, and I myself have added this pie to my menu for Thanksgiving. I am really excited to try it out! The recipe is the picture below of the pumpkin cheesecake in the picture collage. How good does that look? Enjoy everyone!!!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Hint of Chocolate

recipe from Vegan Holiday Kitchen

makes 1 9-inch pie feeds 6-8
printable recipe

What you need:

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

1/4 cup walnuts

1 9-inch good quality natural pastry crust, vegan, and preferably whole grain

1 12.3-ounce container extra-firm silken tofu

1/2 cup vegan cream cheese

2/3 cup natural granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups of well baked, coarsely mashed sugar pumpkin or butternut squash

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or more to taste

1/2 cup chocolate chips for optional chocolate drizzle

vegan whipped cream for garnish, optional

How to make:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine 1/4 cup chocolate chips and walnuts in a food processor and pulse on and off until finely chopped.

3. Scatter the chocolate chip and walnut mixture evenly over the bottom of the pie crust and then set aside.

4. Combine half the tofu, half the cream cheese, and half the sugar in a food processor and process until smoothly pureed. Pour into the pie crust and smooth down with a cake spatula.

5. Combine the pumpkin or squash pulp in the food processor with the remaining tofu, cream cheese, and sugar, along with the cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Process until smoothly pureed and pour into the pie crust over the plain tofu layer and smooth down with a cake spatula.

6. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the mixture is set and the crust is golden brown. Let the pie cool to room temperature. Cut into 6-8 slices to serve.

7. If you would like to garnish each slice of pie with chocolate drizzle, melt the chocolate chips in a double broiler on the stove top. Transfer the melted chocolate to a pastry bag, or less fancy but almost as effective, a ziploc bag.  If using the Ziploc, snip a tiny hole in one of the corners and gently squeeze the chocolate over each slice of pie in an attractive zig-zag pattern. You can also garnish with a vegan whipped cream..

Adorable childrens coloring zine for Thanksgiving!

Happy Happy Monday! How is everyone? I just wanted to check in and tell you about a new find that I am loving! If you have children, this is perfect for them for this holiday season!
This is a Thanksgiving coloring zine written by the talented children's author Nathalie Vanbalen. She is the author of the children's book Garlic-Onion-Beet-Spinach-Mango-Carrot-Grapefruit Juice which I have reviewed in the past and love. Its an adorable book that teaches children why we eat a plant based diet, and she does so in a hilarious, laugh out loud, lighthearted manner. My kids love her first book and we read it all the time. So naturally when she contacted me saying that she had made a special coloring zine to teach children about a Turkey-less Thanksgiving, I couldn't wait to read it! The book is called

Happy Thanks Living!

This is an absolutely adorable activity to get for your veggie kids to enjoy during Thanksgiving! Love love love it! I haven't seen anything else out there like this. It is a 20 page coloring zine on all recycled paper, which makes me even more excited. I love Nathalie's style of writing, witty and catchy! Here's a few of the cute pages from the book.

Seriously, how cute is this?! This coloring zine will only be available for the rest of this week. At $5.00 a book, its a great buy and a really fun Thanksgiving activity to do with your kids!

Order your copy here at her website!

You will love it!

Winner of the nut milk bag giveaway!

Hello friends! Just here this morning to post the lucky winner of my very favorite nut milk bag! The winner was chosen at random through Random.org and the winner is ...


Tricia, who wrote
"Congrats on the good news! I have tried nut milk in the past and it is so good. Would love to try with the AWESOME nut bag!! :"-) "


Congrats Tricia! I will be sending you some more info and getting in contact with you so we can get this mailed right out and you can start start making your own nut milks!


For any of you that are interested in purchasing this bag that didn't win, you can do so by clicking  here.... 

This is by far the highest quality nut milk bag I have owned! I have had many over the years and none of the others have compared in quality, durability, etc. I highly recommend it!!! 


Well, I am off  to throw in some of my refried beans in the crock pot for tostadas tonight, one of my all time favorite meals! If you haven't made this one before , its so delicious, easy, and awesome for leftovers! I will attatch the link to the recipe below! Definitely give this one a try! Have a great Monday!

Tostada with Morgan's Amazing Refried Beans

click on the name for the recipe!

Creamy chai spiced pumpkin seed milk (raw) and a giveaway!

Hello hello my lovely friends! I hope all of you are doing well! So I am here today as promised with an awesome giveaway, a super healthy and delicious recipe, and a little announcement!  Where should I start?!

Well, first I guess I should let all of you in on the good news! No its not food related, but I thought you would enjoy the news anyways! The husband and I are very excited to be expecting baby number 4.  I am just about done with the first trimester, and I'm hoping that means that this morning sickness I have had will ease up a little. I have to be honest in saying that I haven't been able to keep a whole lot down. Or cook anything too exciting for that matter. But, I am really excited to be getting my appetite back a little and I am especially excited to create some new Thanksgiving dishes this year! I love coming up with new cruelty free and healthier ideas and hopefully inspiring others to give them a try! So there you have it. This house of veggies is about to get a little crazier than it already is, but in the best way ever! This will probably be the last little bambino for us so I am going to try to really take in the pregnancy and enjoy it fully. I will keep everyone updated on any new news!

Ok, ok, now back to what you all really come here for, the food! This recipe is a creamy chai spiced pumpkin seed milk that is entirely raw, so good for you, no sugars added (only from a banana) and a delicious treat that can replace all of the sugar loaded not so good for us "festive holiday drinks". I promise you that you will love this! Even my little two year old drank a whole glass and kept saying "mmmmm, yummy". Make sure that you use the raw pumpkin seed kernels (also called Pepita's). They are little green pumpkin seeds, and really mid in flavor. And they are just packed with such good nutrition! They are one of the healthiest seeds out there!

It's giveaway time!!!

If you have never made your own nut milk before, do not be afraid! It could not get any easier! You will however, benefit greatly from a good nut milk bag. I have bought and used many over the years, and my favorite is the one made by The Health Seekers Kitchen. You might think I am biased because she is in fact  my Mom, but the quality of her bags can not be matched! They are the most durable and easy to clean, and I just love them! And guess what...I have one to giveaway to one of you lucky readers! If you don't have one yet, now is the time to try and win this one! All you need to do to enter to win is leave me a comment on why you want to win the nut milk bag below. And that's it! Good luck to everyone!! Winner will be chosen Monday morning of next week!

And now its recipe time! mmmmmm mmmmmm tasty tasty!

Creamy chai spiced pumpkin seed milk

(raw)

printable recipe

What you will need:

1 cup of raw pumpkin seed kernels (also called Pepita's) Soaked in a bowl with water for a few hours

5 cups fresh water

2 tsp cinnamon

Seeds from 1 vanilla bean, or 1 tsp good quality vanilla extract

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground cardamom

fresh nutmeg (about 10 grates on a microplane)

2 packets of stevia

1 large very ripe frozen banana

To Make:

After soaking the pumpkin seeds for a few hours, drain the water off and place into a Vitamix blender or any blender that you have. Add 5 cups of fresh water, and blend for several minutes, until the seeds are blended up very well. Using a large bowl, dump the milk into a nut milk bag and strain into the bowl. Squeeze the bag gently to get all the liquid out, and the pulp will stay behind in the bag. Discard the pumpkin seed pulp, you won't need it. Rinse the blender out well, and then dump the strained milk back into the blender. Add all the rest of the spices and the banana, and blend again to combine well. Will last about a week stored in the fridge. Soooooo Yum!!!!