Cinnamon Crazy

Where did this weekend go? Oh yeah, it was spent doing lots of fun stuff and eating. Yesterday we had a huge birthday party for my niece with tons of family and friends, it was a packed house. My sweet mom made a huge batch of seasoned olive romaine salad using the recipe from Peas and Thank You complete with cubes of vegan cheese.

Another family member made a gorgeous spicy vegan chili, so I had a lovely dinner plate to chase all the tortilla chips, guacamole, and hummus! Why do simple tortilla chips have to be so addicting and delicious? Especially when they’re the good organic ones from Costco.

They went perfectly with the chili.

I got tasked with bringing the adult dessert for those not into neon-colored processed cake. I decided to keep it simple and plentiful since it was such a large party and prepared a huge batch of this Fall Holiday Fruit Salad recipe.

Fruit salads can be a mixed bag for me. I enjoy simple, whole foods versions like watermelon, pineapple, and mint leaves tossed together for the summer. But I can’t stand ones loaded with sugary, mushy canned fruit and marshmallows. But this recipe was a fall treat that celebrated local ingredients with a warm and rich cinnamon flavor and had wonderful texture with the crunchy apple chunks and walnuts, but sweet enough with a drizzle of real maple syrup and plenty of cinnamon. And it was a hit for such a simple recipe to through together.

There was also a bounce house at the party.

And when the kids got tired of it after dark, a few wine-influenced adults may have had their turn.

Somehow after all the partying, I had energy to go for a run this morning and it was heavenly in the 45 degree crisp air.

Chilly enough to need gloves for the run and that’s okay with me!

For dinner I was still feeling inspired by the fruit salad recipe and created a simple, creamy dressing version of it to coat a massaged kale salad.

The dressing is a lovely, orange-ish fall color and nicely creamy, sweet, and rich.

And went perfectly with a baked acorn squash half seasoned simply with Earth Balance and a little salt.

The dressing has a sweet and warm flavor pairing nicely with sweeter veggies, baby kale, bell pepper, chopped apple, and cucumbers in this case. It would also make a great dip for apple slices, carrot sticks, celery, etc.

Now there’s a new episode of The Walking Dead calling me!