A Stormy Thanksgiving Eve

As we prepare for Thanksgiving tomorrow, our skies are gray and menacing - 

and I'm thankful!!!

This is great weather for baking, cooking, snuggling, and nesting.

Whenever we get rain, I want to clean, organize, and cook nutritious meals

to make the house smell delicious.

It's chilly in the mornings lately.

The cats just want to sleep and eat, as usual!

Greg took this week off work and it's nice having him around.

He's been organizing, too, and getting some tasks done around the house.

But he's also been playing the guitar - yay!

Since it's chilly, I get to LAYER!

It's great to wear something other than dresses

even though I love dresses.

blouse: Merona from Target
sweater: Xhilaration from Target
pants: SoHo Apparel from Ross
socks: Target
shoes: Moccasins from Minnetonka Moccasins

 Allistair "helped" me get the Thanksgiving lesson all ready for the 1:1 Classroom on Sunday!

This time of year

Whole Foods has earth worms, ladybugs, and praying mantises for sale!

I have been trying out some new plant-based recipes lately,

and this vegetable stew was a winner.

I sort of cobbled together a recipe from a couple of other recipes . . .

leaving out things that don't work for me/us, and adding things that were in my fridge or cupboard.

Mine ended up being a tomato-based stew with peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and spinach.

Yum!

It made lots of leftovers, which are now in my fridge!

I also made a vegetable risotto this past week, and it's my new favorite meal.

It's fluffy rice, cooked in vegetable broth, with vegetables (mine has peas, carrots, spinach).

I have lots of the leftovers from the risotto left in my fridge, too.

I will DEFINITELY being making both of these meals again!

In addition to meals, I've been experimenting with snacks.

I am in charge of desserts for Thanksgiving Day, and

I decided to try pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins (also plant-based, meaning no animal products).

Because they're also gluten-free, I will change the recipe next time to half the sugars, half the oil

to take care of the slight sink in the middle of each muffin.

But it also turns out that I can leave the batter to "rest" a little before putting in the oven, and that has a similar effect.

Juvy has taken to sitting by the front door when she needs something and 

RACING into the house as soon as we open the door.

It's very cute.

Sunday afternoon, Greg got the pleasure of sitting on the couch with four cats!

from left to right: Stephen, Allistair, Claude, Greg, Juvy

They love Daddy!

Stephen:

 Juvy:

May your Thanksgiving Eve be full of snuggles, too!