Tuesday, December 29, 2009

100% Vegan Christmas Dinner

Although I am the only one going 100% vegan in my family I decided to "expose" the others to a deliciously vegan Christmas Dinner. So my Dad, Sister, Kids, and Boyfriend all got to enjoy it with me. Here are the high points:

The Goodies:

Vegan Peanut Butter and Chocolate Fudge: These little fudge gems were amazing. Like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups but way better. I looked up a couple vegan fudge recipes and just layered them. I used organic powdered sugar, cocoa, peanut butter and vegan butter.

Snowball Cookies:

A holiday staple from my childhood. Slightly modified with vegan butter. The recipe contains no eggs to begin with, so this wasn't hard to convert. Yum!

1 cup vegan butter
1/2 cup organic powdered sugar (plus additional for rolling cookies)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups organic white flour
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix butter, sugar, vanilla.
Add flour, salt, nuts.
Roll into 1 inch balls.
Bake until set, but not brown.
Roll in powdered sugar while warm, and once again when cooled (the second rolling is crucial!)




Cubed Sourdough with herbed olive oils:

I seasoned one olive oil with herbs de provence (a FANTASTIC herb blend that makes everything yummy), the other was seaseoned with a mediteranean herb blend, I sprinkled some vegan parmesan in each as well, the kids loved this snack (as did the adults).



The Tofurkey!

The tofurkey was incredibly easy to bake and was delicious! The texture was nice and the stuffing was very tasty. It was even better reheated the next day. I served mine with a little mushroom gravy that I whipped up with a flour/butter rue, mushroom broth, and garlic.



The Spread:

Vegan Apple Pie, Salad with shittake mushroom vinagarette, Vegan Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes (I roasted the garlic the day before to prevent the whole house smelling like garlic)

(Note the lovely candles given to me by my 6 year old!)



My Christmas Angels:

Monday, December 28, 2009

First Post!

Hi! This is my first post on my first blog. My blog will be a narrative of all things vegan in my life. Shopping, cooking, traveling, living... I work in medical sales and spend about three days a week traveling through Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. So I will be posting about the veg and veg friendly eateries that I find. This is fairly new to me and I will be learning as I go. I appreciate any comments and suggestions!



I am a single mom with two great girls (Ashleigh - 9, and Taralynn - 6), so much of what I cook will be kid-friendly. My girls are part-time vegans b/c their dad has refused to allow it when they are at his house (so he stocks them up on McDonald's and Taco Bell two days a week).

I was very excited this weekend to discover an organic, cruelty-free, eco-friendly make-up line at my local Target. Physician's Formula makes this line of reasonable priced make-up. As I am gradually replacing all my beauty and household products with earth-friendly alternatives, this was a great find!



I will post soon the pics and recipes from my 100% vegan Christmas Dinner!