Yesterday we had a very happy and very successful Whole-Food, Plant-Based Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted to document all of the recipes we used so we can find them in the future and share them with anyone else who might want to add more plant based dishes into their thanksgiving day meal. They were all a success, and although probably higher in fat than a normal day for us, they were mostly made of whole plant foods!


So our dinner menu consisted of the following dishes.

When we lived in Maryland my husband would leave for work in the very early hours of the morning, before I even woke up. He did this so he could come home earlier in the afternoon and spend time with us. Still he was gone for a long time, and because of the nature of his job he couldn't have his phone at work. So I went many hours a day without communication with him. It was just me and my baby turning into a toddler from the moment I woke up until his very joyful arrival home in the late afternoon.

It was a very difficult time of my life. I felt like I needed something for myself. I happened upon a course in adobe illustrator and thought it could be fun. I would not have said I was an artist, but I enjoyed learning this new skill and having a little time for myself to develop something I was interested in.

I also loved children's books. To say the time I spent at my local library with my daughter during our time in Maryland probably saved my sanity would not be an understatement. It was just around the corner from where we lived and we spent at least 2-3 days there each week enjoying the story time put on by the librarians and scouring the shelves of books for something new and fun. We would bring home bags of books and spend hours on the couch or in my daughters room reading together. My love for sharing books with my little girl at this time also saw me through some difficult and long days.

It also instilled in me a desire to write my own book. I had it in my mind. It was called glorious and it would be a way to share the wonder of this incredible world with my child. With my newfound adobe illustrator "skills" I set to work to illustrate the words I had written.

The first draft kind of felt like complete and total failure. When I "finished" the illustrations I realized I had to start completely over. Although it felt like total failure, it was a building block. It helped me learn how to use the program and I used the general illustrations as a foundation as I set to work in illustrating a new version. I used nap times and my wonderful husband gave me a few hours each night to go to work on this creative endeavor. In time I had something that I felt really good about.

Part of my desire was to not only sell books, but to give books to local organizations that could place them in homes where children might not have many books. I looked at our bookshelf filled with children's books we had collected over the years, and my heart felt heavy knowing that not every child had a full shelf or even one book to call their own.
So we started the Twin Kid Book Project. Each book purchased would have a twin that we would give to a local organization to distribute to a child in need. In my mind I thought of how lovely it would be, each time a person picked up Glorious to read to their child, to know that somewhere in the world a child had the opportunity to also pick up that same book and read it, because of their purchase. In an idealistic way I thought those two books just might always be connected.

So we created a website and and instagram account and sold to many lovely family and friends and friends of friends. Each purchase brought a surge of joy to my heart. I never really understood what it means to someone to purchase their offering or work until I put myself out their with my own creation. I still think about those purchases of people who put a little faith in me at that time and can't help but be filled, in a very real way, with gratitude. 

It's officially Fall. It is getting cold outside and when it comes to the end of the day what I really want is something warm. Some sort of soup is on the menu almost every other night in our house. I thought today I would share one of my favorite soups from our WFPB family cookbook - Earth Fed Family. This tortilla soup is one of my favorites because it is simple to make and the whole family loves it. Our five year old daughter often asks for seconds. So that's a big win in my book.

When I make this soup for my family I like to use fresh salsa - the kind you might find in the produce section. We used a brand called Chiz for a while, but I haven't been able to find it in our local stores anymore. I also like to use Pace's Restaurant Style salsa, it works well and tastes good in this soup. Remember to check the labels for the salt content, it might be a little high if you are strictly minimizing salt, and double check for oil. Many salsas tend to be oil free but it's always good to double check.

We try to get low sodium vegetable broth and low sodium beans for this recipe.

I get my canned jackfruit from Trader Joe's. I have found it is the best price by far. We don't have one locally so I always stock up when I am visiting somewhere with a Trader Joe's.

I also love Trader Joe's Fire Roasted Frozen Corn. But regular frozen corn works just as well.

This is a great recipe if you have leftover brown rice, or if you are making brown rice for another meal earlier in the week, add an extra two cups to store in the fridge for this meal. If you have cooked brown rice already on hand this meal is so simple to throw together.

I tend towards adding 2 t. of the spices, but it is kind of up to your own spice level.

I love soup. But I find it is a little tricky to know what to have on the side. Do you ever feel like that is a dilemma? What would you serve on the side of Tortilla Soup?

Okay now for the recipe below. Hope you enjoy it!

Our family eats a Whole-Food, Plant-Based diet. We have been doing this for almost two years. In the beginning, I loved looking up recipes all over the internet and trying new things. It was fun for me to prepare delicious and new dinners for my family, but often they were time intensive, had a long list of ingredients, or didn't feel very whole-food focused. I wanted to eat simpler.

During this year I have spent a lot of time creating our own family cookbook. I have filled it with recipes we have enjoyed as a family. These meals were created using simple ingredients and focus on eating whole foods that are not too processed. Creating this cookbook has been fun and had moments of great success and moments of great failure. The failures got set aside and the successes made the cut for the cookbook.


Now I am excited to share it with anyone that desires to eat more plant based meals.

The cookbook includes 44 recipes.


The breakfast section includes 15 recipes, including our favorite smoothies and acai bowls, three ways we love to eat oatmeal, 100% whole wheat pancakes and french toast, and a tofu scramble burrito.




The Lunch and Dinner section has 18 recipes including salads, sandwiches, soups, quinoa bowls, pizza, pasta, rice and bean bowls, and sushi.


The Side Dishes section has 8 recipes including ways to make potatoes, veggies, breadsticks, spring rolls and bruschetta.


Finally, the Desserts section has 3 recipes that are naturally sweetened and simple.