Food Friday - What did I eat instead of Turkey?

I have had so many people ask me what did I make for Thanksgiving instead of turkey. So I am going to share what I made here, including the recipe. And no, not a tofurkey!


Ever since I became a vegetarian I have become a recipe manipulator. I come up with my own recipes, I take recipes I have had before or seen and change them around to make them vegetarian and I scour old and new vegetarian cookbooks.


Often times I will look in my pantry and try and find something that needs to be used and turn it into a recipe. That is how this recipe came about. I have made cottage loafs a few times and we like them. I have made them with oats and with Grapenuts before. I was trying to come up with something just a touch different for Thanksgiving.


Looking in my cabinets I saw a box of cereal that had been sitting there for a while that nobody really wanted to try. It had cranberries and nuts in it. My kids are not big on nuts unless I hide them in a meal. So I took that box and included it into my recipe, perfect for Thanksgiving with cranberries in it.


It turned out great! This sort of turns out a little bit like a stuffing in texture and flavor but it is packed full of protein with the cottage cheese, eggs and nuts. The cranberries gave it just a touch of sweetness.


Jane's Cranberry Nut Cottage Loaf


*1/2 cup butter or margarine


*1 packet of Onion Soup Mix


*2 Tablespoons of vegetable stock (not neccessary)


*4 Beaten Eggs


*1 large size container of Cottage Cheese


*1 13oz box of Millville Breakfast Harvest Cranberries and Nuts cereal. I get this cereal from Aldi market. You could use 5 - 6 Cups of any kind of corn/bran flake type of cereal.


*3/4 cup of ground fine almonds or Walnuts. I buy it ground already but you can just put some in a ziplock bag and smash them to pieces. Great for getting out some frustrations.


Preheat oven to 350 F
Spray two loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray
Get a large mixing bowl and simply mix everything together well. I smash the cereal in the bag a little before adding it in.
Press into your greased baking pan
Cover with foil and bake on the top rack for 1 hour.
Remove foil, turn off the heat to oven and let sit in oven for at least 20 to 30 minutes.
Leftovers freeze well and reheat well.