My Therapist Cooks

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Gift Ideas

Vegan Marinated Mushrooms

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One of our favorite vegan mushrooms, these vegan marinated mushrooms are SO YUMMY and the perfect vegan appetizer to add to a party spread! They have just a few pantry ingredients and are done in 30 minutes, but last for weeks in the fridge!

hand holding a marinated mushroom on a toothpick over open jar of mushrooms.

I. Love. Mushrooms. Like, a lot a lot.

These mushrooms in particular will always and forever remind me of Christmas, even though my family never had them. I think this is a total throwback recipe, 80's or 90's or something - did you eat these as a kid? My next door neighbors in Japan made these for almost every holiday, and I LOVED them. I think they used Italian dressing and canned mushrooms, no shame in that game, and the chewy mushroom in the tangy vinaigrette was just my favorite thing ever. 

I'm all about anything tangy or pickled, and I think these are such a great addition to a holiday party. They're so light and bright and a perfect complement to the heavier dishes that we have this time of year. I like having them as part of an appetizer spread with some pimento cheese or buffalo chicken dip; they're vegan and gluten free so everyone can enjoy them.

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Dill Roasted Salmon Salad Kit

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Today we have a gift idea! 

A gift idea that was gifted to us once, in fact. Once, long ago, while I was pregnant with Beck, Jay broke his leg in three places on the first day of vacation. It was horrendous, and he still is dealing with pain from the injury and planning to have a third surgery to do some more correcting of what can only be described as a crappy first attempt at fixing him. 

In those early weeks of healing, one of my yoga students at the Y brought this meal to me one day at the gym. It was SO good and one of the most thoughtful things she could have done. The end result was a salmon salad with orzo, but she packaged everything separately and cooked the components perfectly so that the salad was great cold and we could mix and match to make plates exactly the way we wanted. I created a version and love this idea for a gift for someone who needs it, but it's also great to prep on the weekend and have for lunches and dinners all week. The salmon DOES get slightly fishy when eaten cold, so you could definitely cook the salmon right at the last minute or even sub chicken, but I don't mind the cold salmon flavor at all. 

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Holiday Gift Guide - Home and Kitchen

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Emphasis on KITCHEN, guys. 

One of my favorite types of gifts to give is house-type stuff - slightly fancier items that people may not buy themselves, but that are so enjoyable to have around. These aren't in any particular order or theme, but they are things that we use in the kitchen and around the house day-in and day-out, with a few items that we (me) are hoping for in the coming months! Basically this is me planning my birthday. Almost all of it comes from Amazon, so it can still be here WAY in time for Christmas with no need to battle the crowds on your part. ...

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Holiday Gift Guide - Baby and Toddler Edition

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I included the above picture not necessarily to talk about the toy (its a teeny cheap-o train set from TJ Maxx), but to demonstrate that mainly kids don't need much AND will enjoy playing with toys in an....unconventional way...before they get into what they are actually supposed to do. For example, Beck prefers to have an adult assemble the train track in this set, then lifts it up and yells NOOOOOOO while letting it crash all over the floor. Then she proclaims "do 'gain!" and the adult has to start over. The adult never gets to play with the actual trains. 

But! Tis the season, and we definitely love this season around here because Beck's birthday AND Christmas are within 3 weeks of her. We still have a few methods for spreading out the love that I imagine we will keep for years to come (asking grandparents to do one present per event, or one thing one time and contribute to college the next, holding toys from her party to distribute throughout the year, etc) to keep this time of year from getting more out of control than it already is, but it definitely still is fun to shop for little people. 

Here are my ideas for this year! Some of it we have, some of it we want, some of it we have loved and passed on. I tried to stay away from necessities, gear, etc, and move more toward gifty things. None of this is sponsored, just things we actually love or have heard great things about from friends with kids. 

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