I'M BACK! And so is December.

Hi Hello! I hope you had a lovely week. Did you miss me?

Here's what happened in our house...

First, look at this face. I woke him up on Tuesday. He was pretty ambivalent to my start of the holiday excitement.

Sleepy Doodle

Day 1: Flights and travel all worked out fine despite the horrible, horrible weather we had here all week. It was the coldest Atlanta Thanksgiving in over 100 years. I told the fam to leave the cold weather back home next time.

Bethany was hungry and I'm always on board for food so our first stop fresh from the airport was to Ormsby's. 

Sister, sister!

Mike and his mom got their shuffleboard on. Bethy and I cheered and heckled.

Day 2: was all about being tourists...and hiding from the cold and rain.

World of Coke! I love the 4D movie sooo much.

Day 3: THANKSGIVING!!!

Surprisingly our little place did a great job accomodating more than just Mike and myself. Apartment win!

Oooo yeah, fancy table time.

If you were wondering, the tiramisu was divine...and has been completely gone for a few days now.

Om nom nom.

After dinner we all cozied into our food comas and enjoyed a couple Peanuts' Thanksgiving specials. Lovely.

Cue Peanuts theme song. Doo do dodo doo doo...

Day 4: We dropped the fam off at the airport :(   Mike and I hit up some Black Friday sales.

Retail Therapy: real person, adult style

New suit ordered! Positive interview ju-ju acquired!

And of course we did some decorating.

Looking good, Marv!

Let me know how your holiday week went in the comment's below!

Let the Pumpkin-ing Begin!

Source

I don't care if the highs are still in 90's. September means fall. Bring on the pumpkin!

Luckily the hubster had no issues with this so Saturday night became night one of Pumpkin Fest 2013.

Pumpkin Mac n Cheeze

 sauce recipe adapted from The Veganomicon

What You'll Need:
1 c. penne noodles
5 strips of Lightlife Smart Bacon, crumbled
1 Tbs. olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 c. pumpkin puree
1 c. almond pulp
1 c. water
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. turmeric
3/4 c. nutritional yeast
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. yellow mustard
1/4 c. fried onion pieces
Vegan Parmezano sprinkles (optional)
Sprinkle of nutmeg.

Ready to become delicious.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Begin boiling your noodles to al dente. While noodles are cooking, crisp up your bacon. Crumble the bacon into bite size pieces once cooked. Drain the pasta and layer with the bacon crumbles in an oven ready casserole dish.

Now it's time to make the sauce. In a small sauce pan heat the oil over medium heat then add the garlic and cook for a few minutes. Instead of spending the time mincing my garlic with a knife, I've found that grating it with our zester works great. Just make sure you clean it really well after :)

Grate, grate, grate...grate, grate, grate...grate your garlic! (in the tune of shake your booty)

Add the pumpkin, water, and 1/2 c. of almond pulp to your saucepan and mix to combine. I tossed the pulp in a frying pan to help dry it out a bit, but you could skip that step. The almond pulp I'm using comes from my Homemade Almond Milk recipe.  If you don't have almond pulp on hand, you can substitute 2 Tbs. of cornstarch in the sauce and 1/2 c. of bread crumbs in the topping. Or you could just omit it all together. The pumpkin alone should make your sauce pretty thick, and the fried onion will make a great topping on its own.

After 2-3 minutes add the salt, turmeric, and nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast (nooch) is a vegan go-to for a cheese substitute. You can find it in the bulk section of your local health food store. It's kind of mustard yellow color with the texture of fish food flakes. Nooch is high in B vitamins among other things and is a great pantry additions for non-vegans too! Try it sprinkled over popcorn :)

Over the next 2-3 minutes your sauce should cook down and thicken a bit. Next you add the lemon juice and mustard and stir to combine. And you're done. Your sauce is complete!

Pour and spread

Pour the sauce over the noodles and bacon. Spread it with a spoon to distribute evenly. Top with the remaining almond pulp, fried onions, and a sprinkle of parmezano and nutmeg.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Scoop into bowls. I topped my *cough* second bowl *cough cough* with some sriracha for an extra kick. Enjoy!

And don't forget dessert! Homemade pumpkin bread. Delish!

Happy Wednesday and welcome to Fall!