I wish you a Happy Holiday, I wish you a Happy Holiday, I wish you a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year. This is probably my last post until after Christmas. I look forward to hanging out with my son this weekend and doing Christmasy things. Plus I have some homework to get done, yuck!

Anyway, I have finally put together my Christmas dinner menu and wanted to share it with you. If I am a good girl, you will have pictures of all this delicious food on Tuesday.

Here are my plans:

Appetizer: Pita chips topped with hummus and caramelized onions
Cut pita into triangles and toast in oven. Making them slightly crisp. In an iron skillet, saute onions in vegan butter spread until nice and brown. Top pita triangles with hummus and caramelized onions and place on a platter to serve.
Salad: Vegan Corn Arugula Salad
Dinner: Vegan Spinach Pie, Vegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Vegan Green Bean Casserole, Vegan Bread Stuffing, Vegan Spinach Biscuits, Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole.

Vegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes

8-10 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 head garlic
2 tbsp vegan butter spread
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1/4 cup rice milk
salt and pepper to taste

Boil potato chunks in hot water until fork tender. Cut the very top off of the head of garlic and place on a cookie sheet, brush with olive oil and place in the oven. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Once potatoes and garlic are done, drain water from potatoes and pop garlic gloves out of the head of garlic and mash together. Add butter spread and let melt and then add vegetable broth and rice milk. Mash until slightly lumpy. Add salt and pepper to taste and mix in.

Vegan Spinach Biscuits

3 cups Bisquick
1 cup rice milk
1/2 package frozen spinach
1 small yellow onion
2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In an iron skillet saute onion and spinach in olive oil. In a mixing bowl, mix bisquick and rice milk until slightly lumpy. Add in spinach and onion mixture and mix well. Fill greased muffin tins with biscuit mixture, each cup approximately 3/4 of the way. Cook in the oven for approximately 15 minutes or until tops become golden brown.

Dessert: Apple Crisp

Vegan Apple Crisp

5-6 crisp apples cut into chunks
1/4 cup apple juice
2 tbsp vegan butter spread
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups oats
1 cup flour
1/2 cup vegan butter spread
1 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan melt 2 tbsp vegan butter spread and saute apple chunks. Add apple juice, maple syrup and tsp cinnamon and continue cooking until apples begin to soften. In a mixing bowl mix brown sugar, cinnamon, oats and flour. Add 1/2 cup butter and mix until crumbly. Pour apples into a glass baking dish and top with oat mixture. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until top layer is nice and crispy.

My son insists every year that we make chocolate chip cookies, because one year Santa told him that they were his favorite. So now we make chocolate chip cookies for Santa. This is the first time I have ever made vegan chocolate chip cookies and I definitely got no complaints from my family. It was a pretty basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, with some slight modifications.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup vegan butter spread
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup organic vegan sugar
2 servings of Energ Egg, Egg Replacer, mixed according to package
1 tsp pure organic, fair trade vanilla extract
1 bag sunspire grain sweetened vegan chocolate chips
2 1/4 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar in a bowl. Mix in egg replacer and vanilla. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until fully mixed. Add chocolate chips and mix with hands, until chips are mixed throughout. Place dough in the refrigerator for two hours before baking for best results. When ready to bake cookies, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using a spoon and your fingers, make 1 1/2 inch diameter balls with cookie dough and place on a cookie sheet, flatten balls slightly and then bake in the oven for about 12 minutes. Until they begin to take on a light brown coloring on the bottom. Place on a cooling rack and let cool.

I made the best, most delicious, moist vegan brownies this weekend. My dh loves brownies, and this was his one request for my holiday baking. The recipe is very easy and very yummy.

Vegan Fudge Brownies

6 ounces (about 2/3 bag) vegan Sunspire Grain Sweetened Chocolate Chips
1 cup vegan butter spread
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 servings Energ Egg, Egg Replacer
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 ounces (about 1/3 bag) vegan Sunspire Grain Sweetened Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a double boiler (medium sized sauce pan with water in the bottom, with a small saucepan inside where you put the chocolate chips), melt chocolate chips and butter together until smooth and set aside to cool completely. Mix Energ Eggs according to package (1 1/2 tsp powder mix with 2 tbsp warm water per egg), with a mixer whip them up a bit and then add sugar, beat for two to three minutes, then add vanilla and chocolate mixture and mix together well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium sized bowl. Add sifted dry ingredients slowly into wet ingredients until completely mixed. Mix in remaining chocolate chips and pour into a greased full sized glass baking dish. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

This is a must try recipe.

Okay, I have some very, very belated posts for you all today. First, I am finally posting the pics and the recipe for my vegan sugar cookies and might I add they are delicious. I made another batch for Christmas and they are in the refrigerator right now. It is so hard to resist them, but I am saving them.

This first picture is of my very adorable son, helping mix the cookie dough. He was having so much fun. We just hung out in our pj’s on Saturday, baked cookies and watched Christmas movies. It was so much fun.

This next picture is of the finished product. The cookies were great, and I am fighting to keep my dh away from them.

The recipe is a pretty basic sugar cookie recipe, just veganized.

Vegan Sugar Cookies

1 cup vegan butter spread
1 cup vegan sugar
2 servings Energ Egg, egg replacer
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar together, then add Energ Egg and vanilla and mix. In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder and salt and then slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until dough is smooth. Roll in a ball, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Once chilled, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough out and use whatever cookie cutters you have handy. Make sure you flour the surface you are rolling dough onto well, and flour your rolling pin to prevent sticking. Place cut out cookie dough on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

Vegan Sugar Cookie Frosting

1 package of powdered sugar
1/2 cup vegan butter spread
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp rice milk

Let vegan butter spread soften. Use a mixer to mix all ingredients together and refrigerate frosting until ready to use.

To make peppermint frosting, crush up a couple of candy canes, until it becomes mostly powdery and add to frosting. Mix and frost cookies.

Like I said, this is a very basic recipe, but it is totally delicious and makes traditional tasting sugar cookies.

My trip to LA certainly wasn’t what I thought it would be. I was a bit disappointed. Vegan restaurants were even hard to come by in the San Fernando Valley. Though I did find out about one or two after it was too late, but am better prepared for my next trip. I went to Whole Foods Market in Woodland Hills and was very disappointed. They had a very small amount of vegan food and nothing special (except agave syrup) that I can’t get at home. I actually found my at our local New Frontiers when I got back into town then I did in LA. The positive that came out of everything, is I have a much greater appreciation for my local resources. There is one pure vegan restaurant in our area and several vegan-friendly restaurants. In addition, I have found that some of the smaller local restaurants are very willing to work with customers and customize meals. Last night I made vegan sugar cookies. They turned out super delicious. I am making a vegan stew in white sauce for dinner tonight. I will post the recipes and pictures of both tomorrow. I am super excited about how the cookies turned out.

One thing I noticed when going through my local grocery store, is that when I am craving something sweet it is impossible to buy sweets, unless you want candy. I was craving pastries or pies the other day and was walking through the grocery store, reading the ingredients on every pastry like item in the store and everyone of them had eggs and/or milk. Someone should come out with frozen vegan desserts. It’s not like I want them all the time, but every now and then you get the craving and don’t have time to make something from scratch. Anyway, look for pics and recipes tomorrow, until then I hope everyone is having a great day.

I made a more traditional-style Cream of Potato Soup this week, of course, as most of you know how bad I am, I forgot to take pictures. It was so creamy and delish on these cold winter days. We have been getting into the 20’s at night. It makes it hard to get motivated to go for a jog in the morning, but we manage to persevere. I have been waiting until 9am when it is a little warmer.

I have been thinking a lot about my Christmas dinner, but have yet to finalize the menu. But I am thinking of some Middle Eastern dishes, hummus, spinach pie, etc. I should have it posted for next week. I can’t wait to read what everyone else is having for their holiday dinners.

I am excited because we are going to LA this weekend, which means a trip to Whole Foods (woohoo!). I plan on picking up some Vitasoy Eggnog and Peppermint Chocolate Milk, some vegan holiday chocolates, and some more agave syrup. I am hoping to take my son to CityWalk to see the decorations and hear music, we’ll see, it’s supposed to rain Saturday night:( I am hoping the rain doesn’t come early so we have the whole day.

I hope everyone has a super great weekend and look forward to reading your blogs on Monday.

My husband has been finding me some great videos.
This first one brought tears to my eyes:

This next one was way hilarious:

This final one sums up vegan very simply:

Hope you enjoy the videos:)

My husband just sent me a link to this newsclip about the Bayer company. You absolutely, positively must watch it.

If you have any Bayer products in your home, please throw them away and do not buy any more Bayer products. Do not support this company whatsoever. I would even suggest that you write you congressional representatives to ask for a thorough criminal investigation of the Bayer company and the FDA. Please send a link of this video to as many people as you know.