What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?

I’ve been obsessed with my hot logic lunch box. It’s a mini-oven that you can bring to work, plug in, and forget about til hungry. I put oatmeal in it in the morning, after I eat it, I put my lunch in there. Set it and forget it. It brings foods to 165 deg F and holds it there for hours.

This week I gave butter chicken a try. Inspired by an instant pot book on indian cooking I decided to make my own garam Masala. But I was not the biggest fan of their butter chicken recipe. So instead I did the serious eats better butter chicken. While it was a hit in the house it didn't have the taste I was looking for. Two things that I couldn't achieve from the recipe: fenugreek leaves or seeds, fire roasted canned tomatoes.

But I don't think that's the main reason, it lacked some sweetness... I'll genuinely just try adding sugar to it next time. And ive been ordered to make a batch at least 3 times the amount I originally cooked

I recently bought a new slow cooker and have been researching my own chili recipe. At this point I'm using sirloin cubes and ground sausage. Makes for a really nice contrast of textures.

I'm still looking for ideas, if anyone has any interesting twists they want to share I'm all ears.

Today, I did Thanksgiving in Aus, as I'm from the US. The challenge was that my friends are all vegan. I made a date quinoa salad with nutritional yeast dressing, Dahl (pressure cooked, came out way too mushy), a mushroom zucchini pie, and a sweet potato pudding with whipped peanut butter cream. A fellow American friend brought over a bourbon pecan chia seed pie.
It turned into a fun night and I'm happy with most of the food. Next year I will attempt some kind of faux meat monstrosity. I'm most proud of the peanut butter whip. We have a recently available lentil based cream in stores which whipped pretty well with smooth pb.
I'd love to hear other vegan thanksgiving/ hearty winter food ideas if anyone has some!