Happy Halloween & Samhain greetings!!!

My family and I celebrate Samhain after the last of the trick-or-treaters have filled their bags with goodies and gone home to gorge. Simple Samhain activities include things like telling stories about ancestors and looking at old family photos, playing with tarot cards & other forms of "divination" by candlelite, or reminiscing about shared experiences thru the past year and talking about hopes for the year to come.

But for the Hallowen part of it, we are pretty typical -- dressing up and going out together as a family, decorating our front porch complete with a carved "Jackie-Lantern". We give out candy to the little goblins & ghosts that dare to ring our bell...speaking of which, here's a list of vegan treats any little monster would be happy to have!

Samhain is a day long feast for us, simple as it may be. We started this morning with Ghoul Gruel -- I just made our regular oatmeal and instead of mixing the dried fruit in I used it to make a ghastly face on top. Pistachios would be a nice touch for there great color.

Here's the very un-vegan sounding (but definitely still vegan) menu for lunch:

Bloody Brains
Monster Eyeballs
Swamp Sludge
Ghostie Toasties

To make the "Bloody Brains" I use udon noodles and a jar of tomato sauce. Simply place the noodles into a serving platter in two swirled & mounded up piles side by side to look like the two lobes of a brain, and then cover lightly with the sauce, making sure to suround it in a gory puddle.

I then stud the perimeter of the "Brains" with pairs of extra large pimento stuffed green olives to become the "Monster Eyeballs". Make sure there are enough olives so that each person can have a pair sitting atop their serving of noodles staring straight up at them from the plate.

The "Swamp Sludge" is my effort to get in some green veggies and is simply a plop of sauted greens: collard, kale & baby spinach with a bit of garlic (to keep you-know-who away)

And for the "Ghostie Toasties" cut out ghostly shapes from sliced bread and cover them with soy mozzarella style cheese. For each ghost's eery face take a pitted Kalamata olive, slice off the two ends for the eyes and for a wailing, moaning mouth use the middle slice with the hole in it. Simply broil till the cheese melts.

I have to say this was a BIG hit with my 6yo DD...and I especially liked it because it took hardly any effort at all!

And finally, this is what's for a late dinner after trick-or-treating (and before any candy consumption):


"Jack-O-Lantern Pie"

You could probably do this with any stew, and it would be very cute done in individual serving bowls. This is adapted from a WeightWatcher's shepherd's pie recipe that originally used the sweet potato with an "unvegan" sausage, I just got a bit creative with the finishing touches to turn it Halloween-ish.

I estimate approximately 3 WeightWatchers points each @ 6 servings

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 onion(s), chopped
2 medium garlic clove(s), minced
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 lg stalk of celery, chopped
14 oz Gimme Lean sausage style
1 14oz can lentils, rinsed & drained
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
8oz tomato sauce
2 TBS tomato paste
Veggie broth, grapeseed oil, salt & pepper as needed
1 baby zucchini (for "pumpkin" stem)
black olives, some cut long ways into strips, some roughtly chopped (optional, for face)


Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Place potatoes in a covered microwave dish, nuke till fork-tender, about 10 minutes. Mash potatoes with veggie broth until smooth; season to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet brushed w/grapeseed oil over medium/low heat saute onion, carrots, celery and garlic until tender. Remove vegetables from skillet; set aside. Add more grapeseed oil to skillet; sauté sausage until browned, breaking it up as it cooks with a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes. Return vegetables to skillet; stir to combine. Add oregano, thyme and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper; cook 1 minute. Add tomato sauce & lentils; simmer till mixture is thick, about 2 minutes.

Remove skillet from heat and spoon mixture into a pie plate. Spoon the mashed sweet potatoes over sausage/lentil/vegetable mixture and spread into an even layer using the back of a wooden spoon. Using a butter knife or rubber spatula, lightly make lines in the potatoes to imitate the ridges of a pumkin.

Bake until filling is bubbly, about 25 minutes.

Take the baby zucchini and lay it at the edge of the plate sticking out of the sweet potatoes to look like a pumpkin stem. To create the the face use the black olive strips to shape triangle eyes and a toothy grin on the orangey sweet potato back ground, filling in with as many olive pieces as you need -- and voila -- you've got yourself a Jackie-Lantern!

Have a spooktacular howliday everyone!!!!!