Welcome to the first official weekend of fall. The summer temperatures are finally giving way and the leaves are blowing around like crazy today. I’m heading to a farm shop this weekend to pick up chrysanthemums, gourds, and apples for an apple fritter cake today.

I’m also photographing a squash and chickpea remix of everyone’s fave ginger sweet potato coconut milk stew. You’ll be able to find the recipe in my pal Liz’s newsletter in early October. She’s sharing a recipe for vegan dirty chai custard-filled doughnuts (!!) with my subscribers the same week! I love a good recipe swap. You can sign up for my emails via this link and for Liz’s via her website.

I hope that you’re taking care out there. Feel free to drop questions for next week in the comments of this post or in an email.

5 Things I’m Reading:

1. A ‘Life Review’ Can Be Powerful, at Any Age [New York Times gift link]
2. How Snacks Took Over American Life [The Atlantic]
3. Why I changed my mind about volunteering [Vox]
4. You Can Use The “Novelty Effect” To Slow Down Time [The Good Trade]
5. Being Empathetic Is Easier when Everyone’s Doing It [Scientific American]

5 Things I’m Enjoying:

1. Mark had dental surgery recently, so lots of soft foods on the menu: Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Vegan Butternut Squash Soup with Apples & Pecans, Creamy Vegan Truffle Mac, Lemony Red Lentil Soup, and more.
2. Signed up for this free video series from Lion’s Roar: Jon Kabat-Zinn Brings Mindfulness to Life.
3. New food, bev and snack faves: Purely Elizabeth’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Granola, Chosen Foods’ Garlic Avocado Oil Squeeze, Kettle Brand’s Air Fried Sea Salt & Vinegar chips, and Liquid Death’s Squeezed To Death flavored sparkling water (I love that they call them “ruthless tallboys” lol).
4. “Thank you for letting me go on walks again” 🥹
5.  Dying to make a vegan version of these butternut squash fries.

5 Questions:

1. Did you end up getting a slow cooker? If so, which one?
   I did! After a lot of flip flopping and research, I settled on this one from Green Pan. I use and love their cookware, and was sold on the built in sauté/sear feature. I’m hoping it arrives in time to test out over the weekend. The first thing I’m making is apple butter–my fave topping for porridge by far!
2. What do you like about living in Ontario? Considering a move.
   Where we live in the Niagara region of southern Ontario, there’s an abundance of excellent local produce from late spring to Fall. Lots of good farmer’s markets and just a nice local dining scene that is growing all the time. I appreciate that our region is connected to the GO line for trips into the GTA. There’s no shortage of nice trails and places to hike around here. We also enjoy pretty temperate 4-season weather–not a lot of extremes although the winter does feel long after a while (the East coast Canadian folks may laugh at me for saying that). 
3. What is the thing that you most look forward to in the fall?
   Baking my first apple treat, pulling out an extra blanket from the cupboard on the first cool night, watching the dogs jump through leaf piles on hikes, the first woodstove fire of the season, baths, grating fresh nutmeg over my coffee in the morning, the return of closed toe footwear and just generally not feeling so overheated all the time lol.
4. Tips for freezer meals for a busy season of life?
   I really recommend following the Souper Cubes Instagram account! (and using Souper Cubes in general). I’ve learned so many brilliant freezer meal tricks from them. They often tag other accounts doing unique stuff as well. My cooking brain isn’t as clever when it comes to prepping/conceiving of freezer meals, but one thing I’ve learned as I’ve tried to do it more: pretty much every freezer meal that you reheat will benefit from a touch of acid (lemon, lime, vinegar) and something with umami (soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, miso thinned out with hot water) to “wake up” the overall flavour.
5. How to meal prep for different members of the family–vegan and meat eaters?
   I’m a big fan of what I think is called component cooking, and it works really well for one house with multiple dietary needs. As an example: on Sunday, I’ll make a batch of cooked quinoa/farro, trim and dice a bunch of vegetables (broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, squash), make a dip, vinaigrette or sauce that I can put on/with almost anything, make one soup or hearty bean salad, marinate some tofu/tempeh cubes, a batch of pickled red onions etc. Then I’m just utilizing all of these components all week in lunches and dinners. If you have meat eaters in the family, you can factor in a few applicable components for them as well! I find that this approach gives you a bit of freedom and flexibility as opposed to meal prepping which involves making complete meals from start to finish that have to be enjoyed a certain way.

5 Seasonal Recipes:

1. Roasted Vegan Butternut Squash Soup with Apples & Pecans
2. Baked Pearl Couscous with Butternut Squash & Basil Tahini
3. Creamy Olive & Arugula Pesto Pasta
4. Almond Butter Tempeh Stir Fry
5. Chopped Kale Cabbage Salad with Sweet Mustard Dressing & Avocado