Fall Bucket List

Pumpkin Pie {Vegan}

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 3 Comments

Side note: I’ve added some new Sweat Pink Ambassadors’ blogs to my BLOGROLL – you should check them out 🙂

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Apparently this week is all about food’s that I’ve made over the last month…so I figured I’d continue with the theme 🙂

My first pie was the Vegan Amazing Apple Pie which was my trial run for the “Perfect Pumpkin Pie”. Now, I’m not a big lover of pumpkin pie but I thought I would give it a try.

And yes….it had to be vegan.

Perfect Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

1 cup and 1/2 cup of soy milk

egg replacer (to equal 2 eggs)

1 16oz can of pumpkin

1/2 cup sweetener

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1 pie crust

NOTE: this was the easiest pie I think I’ll ever make!

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the milk and the egg replacer.
  • Add the pumpkin, sweetener, cinnamon, and ginger and mix together well.
  • Pour into a pie crust and bake for 30-40 minutes, until centre is firm

Pie Crust – you can get from my “Amazing Apple Pie” post the other day.

Pumpkin Pie, Muffins and mini pies!

I had a little extra pie crust, so I made some mini pie’s for Lilly.

Then made Vegan Pumpkin Banana Muffins with the left over can of pumpkin.

Eat and enjoy!

What’s your favourite pumpkin pie recipe?

What’s your favourite type of pie?

Fall Bucket List: Make {vegan apple} Pie.

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 3 Comments

I’ve never made a pie before!

Crazy, eh!

Yeah, I think so too!

As the Canadian Thanksgiving was fast approaching a few weeks back on October 8th, I knew I had to make an attempt at making a pie. Let’s rephrase that – I had to attempt to make a VEGAN pie!

My husband and I sat down and looked through one of our cookbooks: “How It All Vegan!” by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. “Amazing Apple Pie” and “Perfect Pumpkin Pie” seemed like the perfect fit for our family dinner that was coming up. The only problem was that I’ve never made a pie or pie crust…and it had to be vegan or my husband couldn’t eat it.

My first thought was, okay let’s make two pies! One as a trial run and the other for our family dinner. If I screwed it up the first time, I had at least a week to pull it all together.

Amazing Apple Pie was the first pie to make.

Amazing Apple Pie

Ingredients:

6 – 8 large baking apples (Granny Smith are best) cored and sliced

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

3/4 maple syrup

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp cinnamon

2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder

1 pie crust (See end of post)

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
  • Core and slice apples into bite-sized pieces.
  • Bring a medium pot of water to boil, then reduce heat to medium and add the apples and optional raisins to simmer for 8-10 minutes.
  • Save 1/4 cup of “apple water” for use later (We actually drank the rest as our “fancy hot drink” on our Fall Bucket List.
  • Drain apples and place in a large bowl.
  • Mix carefully together the cooked apples, maple syrup, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Set aside.
  • In a small saucepan, mix the 1/4 cup “apple water” with the cornstarch over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture turns very thick.
  • Add the cornstarch mixture to the rest of the ingredients, stirring until mixed well.
  • Pour into a pie crust and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Pie Crust: (Similar to Cristco pie crust – one serving)

  • 1 cup and 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 stick of shortening (I use Earth Balance as it’s vegan)
  • 3-6 tbsp of ice-cold water

Directions:

  • Mix flour and salt together.
  • Cut up shortening and mix into flour.
  • Add water by the tbsp.
  • Put in fridge for 30 minutes to chill (or freezer for 10 minutes)
  • Roll into pie crust

 

Everyone loved it…even our toddler who never had a piece of pie before!

And it didn’t last too long in our house 🙂

What’s your favourite pie to make?

Any secret tips to pass along to newbies like me?

 

 

Fall Bucket List: Take a Nature Walk

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 3 Comments

Back in September I took on the challenge of completing …. well attempting to complete this Fall Bucket List from Loves of Life Blog. We’re slowly checking things off. This time around was “Take a Nature Walk”. For those who know me or at least have read my “About Me” page know that I’ve worked in the fields of Outdoor Recreation/Education and Environmental Education.  So, going for a “nature walk” is like going back a few years, when I used to take groups outside at night:  spring, summer, fall and winter. It’s almost as normal as putting on your shoes for me. I love to be outside.

As I  started to write this post my husband took our dog, Maclean outside for a pee and said for me to come see the sky. It was as dark as can be, a few bright starts and I believe a 1/2 moon (apparently that was yesterday – had to look it up). Anyway, it was a perfect night to be outside….so I gave us a challenge next week to rake the leaves at night once Lilly is asleep and then we’ll see how bad of a job we did the next day. It get’s us outside at night, being active and together. Blog post to come on that one 🙂

Last weekend we went to a local park in Centreville, Nova Scotia. It’s a small park, 2 soccer fields, baseball fields and a little trail system in the woods. When I went to Acadia University, I managed to help run an environmental education program out of this park and haven’t been back since. There was this amazing little path that had nothing but gorgeous RED leaves – we were a little late this year and the colours had already moved on from that luscious red.

We had a lot of fun walking on the trails, learning how to balance on roots, checking out tree stumps, collecting leaves and taking in the fall colours:

Lilly tracked down the best leaves, walked hand and hand with Daddy and even let her baby sibling join in a picture.

I just love fall colours 🙂

This might become a new fall tradition for us.

Do you have a fall bucket list?

Have you been outside to enjoy any trails/parks etc? Where?

Are the leaves changing colours where you live?

For more amazing photo’s of Fall in Nova Scotia, check out my friend Lyndsay’s blog post here –  she’s a professional photographer, has two pretty cute boys that she blogs about at The Testoster Zone.  The pictures are taken on another one of my favourite places in Nova Scotia, at the start of the Bluff Trail in Timberlea/Hubley area.

Still to come – Fall Bucket List – Making {vegan} Pies.

Fall Bucket List: Apple Picking

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 6 Comments

Thanksgiving weekend in Canada (for me) has always been about spending time with family. With my husband’s family in England, it’s a little hard to have a “whole” family dinner/time together. We are lucky to skype with Sai’s Mom almost every Sunday afternoon – it’s become a tradition for us.

This year, besides spending time with my family in Halifax, we took on a few family fun adventures from our Fall Bucket List.

Things we have done so far:

  1. Baked Vegan Pies (Apple and Pumpkin Pies)
  2. Apple Picking
  3. Went to a Pumpkin Patch – Hunting for a BIG ONE.
  4. Drink Fancy/Warm Coffee Drinks

APPLE PICKING!

We live in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia – this means apple orchard after apple orchard. It’s awesome!

Last year’s adventures: Lilly and I went to Dempsey’s Corner Farm with our friends. She was about 15-16 months old – what a difference a year makes!

This year’s adventures: Sai, Lilly and I (and of course baby #2) went to Gates Family Farm to pick apples and pears!

Looks like I’ll be baking with apples and pears soon!

Got a great apple muffin recipe in my back pocket.

Have you gone Apple Picking this fall?

What’s on your Fall Bucket List?