Merry Christmas!

Can't believe there's only one card left on the Advent Garland. We've enjoyed having a couple of extra days with Daddy at home. (That's Ryan, to you.)

Tonight, for supper, I made Pizza Bagel Wreaths. My sister Cary sent me this link for the idea.


For tomorrow, Ryan has requested cheeze fondue, and we'll eat up our veggie tree tradition, as well.

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I hope that everyone has a wonderful December 25th, whether you celebrate the holiday of Christmas or not! Those of you who do celebrate Christmas, may it be very merry. I hope you all feel very blessed today and every day. 

Christmas Cookies Round 1

This weekend, my 18-member immediate family (parents, siblings, etc.) got together to celebrate Christmas. My Mom worked hard making different versions of lasagna, manicotti, and ravioli, etc. that would suit the wide-range needs of her particular clan (vegetarians, vegans, vegetable-fearing, etc.). I contributed the desserts above.

Veggies and Tofu Lasagna with Squash & Spinach

part of my plate with manicotti and lasagna

 

I tried a new recipe for Chocolate Macadamia Meltaways. I call them a success!

Since this Taste of Home non-vegan recipe is posted online anyway, I can give you my veganized version:

Chocolate Macadamia Meltaways

1/2 cup Earth Balance, softened

1/4 cup organic powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups organic white flour

3 1/2 oz. macadamia nuts, finely chopped

Filling: 

1 cup vegan chocolate chips

1/2 coarsely chopped macadamia nuts

additional powdered sugar

Cream Earth Balance and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add flour and mix well. Stir in nuts. Dough will be stiff; set aside.

For filling, in a microwave, melt chocolate chips; stir. Stir in nuts; cool slightly. Drop by 1/2 teaspoonfuls onto parchment or wax paper-covered pan or plate. Put in fridge for 30 minutes or until hardened.

Shape dough around chocolate mounds; completely cover. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees. (Recipe says 12-14 minutes. I think the key to good cookies is not overcooking, so I probably set my timer to 9 minutes first to see if they're already browning.) Roll warm cookies in additional powdered sugar. 

I made my very-important-for-the-holidays Vegan Buckeyes. I always use a recipe from Kids' Christmas Cookbook, but it is similar to other buckeyes recipes online, such as this one. However, the recipe I use has a higher ratio of peanut butter to sugar and Earth Balance to others I've seen, which makes them a little healthier, I suppose. I think all you need to do is mix in enough powdered sugar to make the peanut butter roll into balls, freeze the balls, then dip them in melted chocolate chips, then let them harden again in the fridge or freezer.

I haven't figured out how to make my buckeyes prettier without the toothpick (for dipping) hole. And I actually prefer mine completely covered in chocolate (since I believe chocolate is better than peanut butter) so most of them were made that way.

Thumbprint Cookies

This recipe can be found at thekitchn. We had enjoyed the batch my sister made for us last year, and I needed a non-chocolate dessert. I used three different fruit spreads: 365 Fruits of the Forest, Organic Peach, and Organic Sicilian Orange.

Magic Cookie Bars

I veganize a recipe my mom used when we were growing up. I still use the recipe card written in my childhood handwriting. It's fairly similar to this one. I can't imagine too many desserts better than Magic Cookie Bars.

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Enjoying a relaxing day in pj's! I was feeling very slow (pregnant) and very swollen last week, but this week I've been feeling a lot better. It has been a very nice December for us, so far. I will try to post one more time before Christmas, but I hope all of you who celebrate are enjoying this time. 

Gingerbread House Pancakes

One of our Advent Activities this week was reading Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett and making gingerbread house pancakes. I've had the mold for many years, so it is a tradition to use sometime around Christmas.

This is part of the Advent Garland I made. Everyday the kids rush downstairs to unclip the next Christmas activity for the day.

Mimic Creme Healthy Top, maple syrup, and melted fruit spread

kiwi, strawberries, walnuts, chocolate chips, bananas, blueberries, organic wheat squares cereal, raisins

I can't always get my pancakes to turn out as well when I use the molds, but they taste the same. Part of my problem was that I didn't have any nonstick cooking spray, and the olive oil in my Misto wasn't working as well.

We ended up with all sorts of gingerbread houses.

The tongue sticking out means serious concentration.

We were pretty impressed with the Mimic Creme, which is made primarily from coconut oil and nuts. It definitely has a different taste than Soyatoo or Rice Whip. The package is pretty firm out of the fridge, then it whips up very thick. Ryan says he prefers it to the other canned varieties. I don't know if I have a preference. But I do like that it doesn't "melt" like the canned whips. I haven't seen this at our stores, but I picked it up on a recent trip to Missouri.

The kids also had some Creme in their hot chocolate the next day (along with crushed candy canes). Bonus for them was that it even snowed in Arkansas (but melted off by noon, of course) this week!

A Very Vegan Christmas

Excitement about seeing their cousins is one of the kids' favorite parts of Christmas.

Is it too late for a Christmas recap? I mostly covered Christmas on my other blog. Here are some of the "vegan aspects":

For Christmas with my parents and siblings (and their families), we went Italian. Mom made vegan lasagna (and non-vegan lasagna), along with Rising Moon Ravioli plus sauce.

Tracy brought bread from Boulevard Bread Company.

And for dessert, of course, it was the thumbprint cookies and pumpkin cake from my last post.

My kiddos:

Ryan requested a "traditional" breakfast with tofu scramble, tempeh bacon, and biscuits and gravy for Christmas morning brunch.

My parents bought me three vegan cookbooks, Viva Vegan!, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and Vegan Brunch. This was my first attempt at making an omelette (from Vegan Brunch). I have some more practice to do, but the kids were wolfing them down. I filled these with broccoli, spinach, and a little seitan and Daiya.

We made cut-out cookies, using Cherrybrook Kitchen "D.W." Sugar Cookie Mix. We don't use artificial food coloring in our house, but we can still have fun!

How about this angel beauty?

My 5 year old...is a little interested in body parts right now.

He said, giggling, "My snowman has boobies!"

Aren't they...fancy? :)

Merry Christmas!

This is one of those moments in time when I have so much information, so many thoughts, and so many pictures that I don't even know where to start...I just woke up from an amazing Christmas Day nap. I fell into such a deep sleep, and it was wonderful and helpful...and everyone else remains sleeping except Dash. I came downstairs to find him very quietly plinking away at his perfect-for-him dinosaur dig kit (more on that another day).

So...for now...Merry Christmas...love to you all...here is what we enjoyed for our snack earlier today...I made it last year, also (this year using almonds instead of pretzels to make it even healthier), original credit goes to a Pillsbury holiday magazine. I made this vegan ranch recipe to go with it...and I got to utilize a couple of my new white dishes from my parents.

Yesterday, I heard Dash saying this very honest and sincere prayer,

"Don't let the tigers eat me, and don't let the lions eat me, and don't let the leopards eat me. And help the people who don't have money to get money. Amen."

Amen.

Let It Be Christmas

I got my pictures out of order. Here is our midday snack on Christmas. I got the idea from veganlunchbox. I mixed Simply Organic French Onion Dip mix with Tofutti sour cream for the dip. We ate the whole thing.

We left Santa a glass of soy milk and vegan snickerdoodles and lemon wafers.

He loved them, of course.

Merry Christmas!