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!
It's a girl!Beautiful little Taylor Louise will arrive some time in May. Our 18(ish) week u/s was surreal and amazing and we couldn't be happier. Thanks for all of your concern about my fall (i'm bruised but fine and learned my lesson!) and all of your well wishes about the baby. You are all truly the best bunch of people I've never met! ;)Be back soon with some foooooood, promise!
A quick and easy meal of canned seitan patties, crusted with panko (i freaking love these things), herbed roasted potatoes and collard greens can only be made better by the addition of this
on your greens. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, love it.
Side note: I took a nasty spill two days ago and aside from a scraped up and swollen shin, a bruised ulna, and nasty knot on one knee, and both my triceps aching like i've been training for some kind of weight lifting championship, both me and the baby are just fine. they did an ultrasound to be sure and I may have a pretty good idea of the baby's gender....but I'm not gonna tell you 'til I get those pretty lil' pictures in my hot lil' hands tomorrow. ;) don'tcha just love a good suspenseful post? hehe
oh...and....Susan had asked about my Superior Caesar Salad Recipe that I'd love to share with anyone who wants it. It's truly a crowd pleaser and those I've made it for happily request it again and again. You can find the recipe for the dressing here, and those sprinkles of kelp powder are three good, long dashes, if ya know what i mean. I love that it's not tofu based and that it tastes remarkably like the real deal. You can thin it out a bit with some water to extend how much you have (you're so gonna wanna have it a couple more times after you try it!)
For the salad itself (and i never measure) it's just the following:
romaine lettuce
chopped sundried tomatoes (the type packed in oil)
roasted brussel sprouts (a la VWaV)
hemp seeds
nutritional yeast
and topped with some sliced roasted portabellos
quantities are just to taste. I tend to go a bit light on the tomatoes so that they don't overpower, i load up on the brussel sprouts (you will not believe the perfection they lend to a caesar salad!), and go heavy on the hempseeds and generously dust with the NY, then toss it all up with the dressing. I promise you, it's superior to any vegan caesar creation you've had before....if i do say so myself!
Until tomorrow!!!
I love Dreena's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vive! so I knew that I had to try her version using amaranth flour in ED&BV for Thanksgiving so my sister would have something sweet when we were all indulging in pies.
The texture of the flour makes these the teensiest bit grainier, but I found that, once they sit in tupperwear over night? Matters not! They're entirely too tasty to notice!
I know I promised that I'd be back with all I feasted on for Thanksgiving, but it turns out I simply made things I've done before which, while still made for a looong day of cooking in the kitchen, provided me with tried and true recipes that everyone enjoyed. Not only that, but I seem to have lost the pics!!!I dazzled the otherwise turkey-eating bunch with Native Food's Tempeh Pate
and La Dolce Vegan's Easy French Bread
with Millennium's Tofu Spread as appetizers, then Vegan'con's Chickpea Patties smothered in my own quick brown gravy
and my beloved Superior Ceasar Salad
as part of the meal. They made me my own pot of vegan green beans and there potatoes galore. Entirely too much food was enjoyed by all.
I've been cooking pretty easy things lately. While the pregnancy goes swimmingly (literally, it feels as though there's a little fish swimmin around in my belly!), I have suffered from frequent headaches and a ton of ligament pain which keeps me off my feet a lot of days I'd rather be in the kitchen. So, no new stuff to share so much...but I'll see if I can't whip up something blog worthy soon.I'm in my 18th week now and have my second ultrasound this Tuesday. You know even if the new food is lacking I won't be able to help myself in posting pics of that amazing event! I hope to get some time to visit and comment on everyone else's blogs soon! Seems the holidays and this little one have kept me away from the computer.
Til then!!!!
First one side....
then the other...
then a decadent smidge of Toffutti Better Than Sour Cream and some fresh black pepper and YUM! So good!
