Happy Chanukah

Good morning and happy Chanukah.  The festival of lights…a celebration of great miracles.  No doubt it comes WAY too early this year!  Thanks to Kyle and Nicole for a great gift–a printer for our cell phone and digital camera pictures.  Very clever.  Love you both.  Hope you had/have fun with your own Chanukah gift opening 🙂

Mitch and I also exchanged some gifts and amongst mine was a new vegan cookbook!  Yay.  Thanks, honey.  In many ways I feel closer to you than EVER and that is the greatest holiday gift of all.  Thank you for being the best life partner I could ever imagine going through this journey with.  If you are reading this, remember that Chanukah is the holiday of miracles.

Waking up to a cool south Florida morning, I look forward to running with Jane and then doing some power yoga.  It’s been a while since we have done yoga together and it’s time!   After that I will be in the kitchen preparing for Vegan Thursday Chanuka Feast.  Of course the focus of the meal will be around the piled up plate of potato pancakes.  A total pain in the tush to make, it wouldn’t be Chanukah without them.  Here’s the scoop on veganising the recipe–SIMPLE DELETE THE EGGS.   They come out equally as good, as a matter of fact, last year Mitch decided he liked the ones without the eggs, better.  Served with some applesauce on the side, I will also make a casserole of “franks” and beans topped with sauerkraut.  This is an easy dish and goes a long way.  I cut up the soy dogs and put them in a casserole dish with vegan beans (Heinz vegetarian beans work) and chopped onions.  I add a dash of ketchup and mustard, mix it all around and top with the sauerkraut.  I bake it at 400ish degrees for about 30 minutes, or until the top starts to brown just a bit.  With a salad, roasted brussel sprouts, (I clean them, cut off the end, cut them in half and toss them with olive oil and kosher salt–then bake them in the oven till they start to brown—they are SO good!) and the potato pancakes, it’s a feast. Kosher chocolate covered jells (the rings) are a favorite of the kids, vegan and very Jewish holiday like, so they will be the after dinner sweet. Trying to keep Thursday night menus healthy is NOT working as well as I would like.  Tonight, it’s heavy on the sprouts and salad, at least for me!

Thanks for the feedback and for sharing articles and links!  Have an awesome day and remember to celebrate every day,  for every day is a gift.  Thanks for being part of mine!

It is said that the letters on the dreidel translate to the phrase ” a great miracle happened here.”  It’s a nice reminder to believe in miracles.  All things are possible!