We had such a nice break. The boys had two weeks off school. Paul managed to take the whole time off too. I lined up activities and pals to play with for every minute of it, and then on approximately the first second of vacation Desmond came down with a cold. And then the next day, of course, so did Felix. So I called the pals. Cancelled plans. And it was just the four of us.
Take a couple cups of leftover roasted vegetables. Ours were an amalgam of onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, delicata squash, and kale from several roasts I made in the days and weeks approaching Thanksgiving. I had 8 roasts and their surrounding vegetables in my fridge and freezer at one point. Toss your vegetables in the food processor with a few slices of your leftover untofurkey, a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of chipotle powder (or smoked paprika if you're hoping children will eat this), and a teaspoon of oregano. Process until chunky smooth. Cover a small skillet with a slick of canola oil. Wrap a dozen corn tortillas in a wet dish cloth, and heat in the microwave for a 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, until the tortillas are soft and pliant. Spoon a generous tablespoon of leftovers into each tortilla, tightly roll, and pan fry seam side down, flip, fry some more, and serve with gaucamole or if it's really all leftovers all the time, then in tapatillo-spiked cranberry sauce. (Yeah, that's the level we've sunk to in this house. Man, am I done with Thanksgiving.)
Start with Paul's Buttermilk Pancakes.
In a small bowl, stir together some almond butter and maple syrup with a fork.
Spread a big dollop of the sweet almond butter onto each pancake.
Arrange slices of fruit on one half - pears or peaches or raspberries or whatever you have are all nice.
Fold in half and devour.
Stove Top. Medium Heat. Heavy skillet. About a minute, or until it starts to smell like a pizzeria in your kitchen.
The crust will crisp and the toppings will heat as long as you're not working with too thick of a slice. In that case I would probably cover the pan. You might lose a teensy bit of crunch to the benefit of warm pizza, but I imagine it would be worth it.
You could also call this a fairly healthy seasonal smoothie if you prefer. The rich creaminess comes from the combination of toasted pecans soaked overnight in soy milk (or almond) and the frozen pumpkin. It had never occurred to me to use pumpkin in this fashion, until I read about it on this blog (Thank you Dawnie-Q!) and became totally smitten with the idea. Such a clever use for leftover frozen pumpkin! Though I'll be honest, I went ahead and dedicated two whole cans to the milk shake cause. You freeze it in ice cube trays and then pop it into the blender. So you could even call this breakfast as you start to peel potatoes (or not) and make pie crust. And I guarantee it will make a perfect accompaniment to your tofurkey and cranberry sauce sandwich on Friday. Cheers.
Pumpkin Pie Milk Shakes
Makes 3 cups of shake. This will make 2 large servings or 3 or 4 smaller ones.
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Serve.
