Last Day of the Spice Advent Calendar!

Today was aromatic toasted spices. I chose to make some chickpea crackers.

I was tempted to make gingerbread cookies with this spice blend, but I really didn’t have the time or energy.

I went with Gingerbread oatmeal instead.

I considered doing Tofu Satay with this Thai mix, but decided that I didn’t like my side veggie options and I didn’t want a trip to the store.

Instead, I made a red curry coconut soup. It was warming and delicious!

Fine herbs apparently means parsley, chives, and tarragon.

I have to admit I was impressed by the freshness. The herbs were green, not brown, and decently sized.

One thing I realized on Day 21 is that the time and effort that goes into following cookbooks and recipes exactly pays off in the everyday.

BBQ Seasoning called for Jackfruit tacos!

It was a decent enough blend. The recipes require spices as well as BBQ sauce. I had a Honey BBQ that I added. Not sure if I prefer the sweet or more vinegar flavoring, but it ended up spicy sweet, which is always good.

This was an easy, delicious meal that I could whip together rather quickly after work.

White Pepper & Lemon seasoning as a rub for portobello mushrooms.

I’ve never heard of Crazy Salt before today.

It apparently originated in France and is sometimes called “Devil’s Salt,” which I honestly love better.

Speculoos Spice Cookies come in many names based on the country, but it’s basically a delicious gingerbread without the molasses or a Biscoff that you get on Delta Airlines.

I’ve never seen a mix of “potato seasoning” anywhere else. I will say it was a pretty good mix for potatoes.

For a change of pace, I went with mashed potatoes.

Day 14 is apparently the day of creativity. From what I can find, Drakkar Salt is not an actual thing.

Drakkar is either a “powerful, explosive” scent or a Viking ship. I’m assuming because of the smokey flavoring that they were going for the cologne. Interesting choice.

Not really sure what “old fashioned” curry is supposed to mean. Probably the run of the mill, generic curry powder you buy pre-mixed at the grocery store.

Regardless, I used Day 13 as an opportunity to use up the last of some frozen okra I kept pushing around my freezer.

Day 12 (half way to Christmas!) was a Paella seasoning.

I’ve made vegan paella before, so I knew I had a few recipes in my cookbooks. The trick this time was adjusting to work with the ingredients I had on hand.

I love curry, but it’s sometimes hard to find different blends or vegan versions. If you choose to make it yourself, you need at least 10 ingredients and lots of time. That’s why I loved Day 11.

Raspberry & Timut Berry

I’d never heard of timut berry, which is a peppercorn, apparently. They recommend scallops, but that requires trumpet mushrooms to make it vegan. I wanted a store-free day.

Sea Salt with a sprinkling of Saffron. It’s fancy salt.

The packet said to add after cooking, so I decided to go with an Indian theme and leave out the salt when cooking.

We are a third of the way towards Christmas!

And Day 8 definitely made a comeback after Day 7’s interesting melding of flavors. They suggested “white fish” for this salt and pepper combo, so I went for faux lobster. White sea creature….close enough.

Day 7 was….interesting, to say the least.

Can’t tell if I was already biased against this because Christmas salt is not a common mix. When you search recipes, it’s salt with baking spices. This actually sounds interesting.

In searching for recipes to use with the Za’atar mix, there are lots of options for wraps and salads. In the spirit of December and easy-cooking, I went with a vegan Lebanese Green Split Pea soup.

Give me faux chick’n and I’ll give you the controversial, yet delicious, BBQ Chick’n Pizza. Is chicken a respectable pizza topping? Good news is, when you’re vegan, all bets are off!