Tag: Thanksgiving

Turkeys at the Table

4 Comments

turkey-on-table-5

I try to make Thanksgiving a holiday full of gratitude – for our loved ones and our blessings, and also for all animals. Raising Travis vegan, this means teaching him to celebrate turkeys, while still making sure he doesn’t feel left out of traditions! So we make these beautiful birds the stars of the table, but not the plate.

Every year since his birth I’ve adopted a turkey in his name, bringing us up to our third turkey now. Meet Kristoff!

turkey-on-table-1

To further highlight turkeys, we made cute napkin-ring centerpieces for the table this year!

turkey-on-table-2

Cut a paper towel tube into thirds, and trim each so that a triangle sticks up at the top. Let your child cut a slit on two sides of the tube, then insert two pieces of craft foam – one yellow, one orange – that you’ve cut into “feathers.” (To simplify, you could buy craft foam flowers and cut in half).

turkey-on-table-4

Fold down the triangle on each tube to be the beak, and then add eyes (either with marker or googly eyes) and a triangle beak cut from orange construction paper.

turkey-on-table-6

Your turkey friend is now ready to hold a napkin at your table!

Turkey on Table (7).JPG

Mini Pumpkin Pies

2 Comments

mini-pumpkin-pies-6

We gave this mini pie recipe, adapted from High 5 magazine, a pre-Thanksgiving trial run today. Kids can help with almost everything, from rolling and cutting the dough to mixing the batter and filling the pie shells! Look for prepared vegan pie crusts from Whole Foods or Wholly Wholesome in the freezer aisle; let the crusts thaw about 15 minutes at room temperature, then remove from the aluminum pie tins and use as directed below.

Roll 2 (9-inch) prepared pie crusts to about 1/16-inch thick on a floured surface. This was Travis’s first time standing on his stool to reach the kitchen counter, and he loved it!

mini-pumpkin-pies-1

Using a 5-inch bowl or glass, cut 3 circles from each pie crust, and place in large muffin cups coated with cooking spray.

mini-pumpkin-pies-2

To prepare the filling, mix together 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree, 14 ounces sweetened condensed coconut milk (from Let’s Do Organic), 2 Ener-G eggs, 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

mini-pumpkin-pies-3

At this point, Travis discovered what batter tastes like – cue the happy smile.

mini-pumpkin-pies-4

Spoon the batter carefully into the prepared pie shells. Preschoolers can definitely help with this step, although toddlers will likely need you to do most of the work.

mini-pumpkin-pies-5

Note: You’ll have a bit of filling leftover – might I recommend a pumpkin pie smoothie for breakfast one morning?

Bake the pies at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes, until the filling is set.