Christmas Spoilers Ahead....

For anyone who knows me personally, you may wanna back away from this blog til after you receive your Christmas gifts from me. Here, let me distract you with a gratuitous belly shot from a week or so ago, then you can leave....

Now, for everyone else.....LOOKIT WHAT I MADE EVERYONE! ;)

Every year I try to come up with something I can make people, partly to save some cash, but mostly because I take so much joy in putting time and energy into a gift to really give them something that's all about giving and less about buying. Last year, as my first year as a full-fledged vegan, it was a home made cookbook of all my favorites that they'd each enjoyed and home made vegan chocolate chip cookies.

this year I wanted something more personal for them so I counted on using this company to make these for me...


Personalized photo calendars. Each person got their own with different pictures and captions for each month, various designs for the calendars for used. This company even allows you to insert all the birthdays, anniversaries, due dates, and other special occasions on any days of the year, including little graphics. The quality is out of this world and they are quite competitively priced. I just knows these will be a hit.

But I couldn't stop there! Almost everyone we know has dogs. I decided that home made dog treats were necessary. I packaged them in glass jars with name tags made from recycled veggie burger, pasta, etc. boxes....just cut out circles and decorated the backsides before attaching to jars with a hole punch and rubber band treatment. I'm also including the recipe on cute little xmas cards I'm printing up as I type this.While there are vegan varieties all over the net, I've never been one to think that my dietary choices are ones to be made for naturally carnivorous canines and felines. Sure, I think it would be amazing if all dog and cat food and treat companies would use more humane practices to truly make an effort to eliminate suffering, but I don't know that I can keep meat from my truly meat lovin babies. You should have seen the total fur frenzy in my kitchen when I was whipping up dozen upon dozen of these puppies! (the cats loved 'em too!) they do include powdered milk and jarred baby food. I used chicken and beef and a chicken/veggie combo for mine, but you could certainly use the same recipe and sub out soy milk powder and only veggie baby food for yours, if you so choose. I'm sure they'd still win over all the canines you know. There's also a great vegan recipe on the ppk for oatmeal peanut butter treats somewhere, but i was going for more lo fat for this one, and hope to try that one soon.

I also plan to make up some kitty treats for our felines and for my mom's but will be making those up the day after xmas when my fam visits. I'll certainly let you know how those turn out, too!

In my usual fashion...once I get started, there's no stopping me....so of course I had to make everyone a little something else.....

Vegan Oreo Truffles! Wow. These are incredible (just sub out tofutti cream cheese for the dairy version and stick to semi-sweet vegan chocolate and vegan white chocolate). So rich and sweet and decadent. Here you see some with semi-sweet coating and white chocolate ribbons and then white choc. coating with semi-sweet ribbons. I boxed up eight per person in cute little xmas tins and they are currently residing in a cooler (my 'fridge just can't take all that Christmas confection craziness!) awaiting being dispersed to family tomorrow and the following day.

Now, finally, I can finally say that I am officially done and can enjoy the rest of my Christmas eve creating some yummy food for dinner tonight and tomorrow. I think tonight I'll be toting along Dreena's Phyllo Broccoli Mushroom Walnut Pie and tomorrow my job is my totally wheat free vegan shiitake gravy.

Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season. This Christmas day marks the halfway point of my pregnancy! I've just begun to feel little Taylor moving around, you know, when I actually sit down for a moment, and it is the most surreal and amazing experience. Thanks for all of your kind words after my fall. I have recovered mostly but am still nurturing a horrible bruise to the bone in my ankle, it may even be a sprain....but overall I'm doing really well and enjoying food again, even if I'm too busy scarfing it down to take pictures of it and share them here. hehe.

so much love to you all!
Happiest Holidays!