Christmas Foods 2016

Hi everyone, and happy New Year's Eve! Our Christmas dinner was really good, with lots of vegan food! We started with a vegan chicken noodle soup, which was delicious as always... 

For my first plate, I had bay leaf roasted potatoes, a cheesy garlic biscuit, green beans, a slice of Field Roast's celebration roast, agave-glazed carrots, roasted vegetables, rice, and corn & mac... 

My second plate had much of the same, but I also had half a sweet potato... 

Eventually, we had dessert; there were so many goodies! I tried a piece of a gingerbread cake, a chocolate chip cookie, some of the chocolate peppermint bark I made, and crumb cake. Everything was so good! 

Here's a photoset of Leela (the kitty who usually only plays with string, if she can even be bothered to do that much) playing with her new favorite toy. 

Peace. :)

Chocolate Peppermint Bark

Hi everyone! Just a quick post this Christmas Eve to share the newest recipe I've tried. Today I made the Chocolate Peppermint Bark from Rock My Vegan Socks; it was so easy to prepare & the tiny pieces I've tested are so good! I'm bringing it to our family Christmas tomorrow, and I'm sure it'll be a hit! 

To Kimmy – many thanks for sharing your recipe; I'm sorry my comments haven't been showing up on your blog for whatever reason!

Here's a picture with all four kitties together! 

Peace. :)

Recent Fun Foods

Hi everyone! This post is a bit of a random one, just some recent fun foods. For a family holiday party last weekend, I made vegan pigs in blankets using Tofurky hot dogs. They were really good! 

On the way back from the party, we stopped at Vegan Treats and I picked out one of their pretty holiday desserts -- the butter pecan "ice cream" cake. I'm guessing the ice cream was in quotes because there wasn't actually ice cream in it, but it was still good!

Last night, Zach put together a quick dinner for us and picked a new Kashi bowl to try: the sweet potato quinoa bowl. It was pretty good; he also made Gardein crispy chick'n sliders (we added 1/4 of a slice of Chao tomato cayenne cheese to each) and waffle fries to go with it.

This morning, we had waffles and I added some of the rum raisin ice cream I made during Vegan MoFo to mine. It made a super tasty ice cream waffle sandwich, with strawberry syrup on top! (Thanks to vegan.in.brighton for the suggestion to pair ice cream and waffles!)

Last week's post included an awkward encounter between Buttons and Leela. This week, I got some funny photos of Daisy being very "not sure if want" when Cringer flumped down on her for cuddles.

Daisy: "No, I'm quite sure. Do not want."

Bonus photo of Daisy with a very dramatic expression after hearing a noise outside...

...and Cringer a few days later looking like someone tried to put a cat together but didn't quite know where all the pieces should go...

Peace. :)

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate with Peppermint Dandies

Hi everyone! I know I posted about House Vegan's peanut butter hot chocolate mix at the end of Vegan MoFo, but the MiniMoFo prompt for December is hot cocoa, so here are two more times I've made hot chocolate with the mix... and added Dandies peppermint marshmallows!

For this one I used unsweetened almond milk; it was perfect for warming up after the Firebird Festival...

Last night I had it with vanilla almond milk, and it was even better...

Here's a funny photo sequence: Buttons plopped down next to Leela in order to groom, and her tail kept getting closer to Leela until they were finally touching. It didn't last too long, though...

Leela: OK, enough of that; I'm leaving!

Peace. :)

Post-MoFo Post

Hi everyone! Well, Vegan MoFo has come and gone, but I am still in the blogging everyday mode. Not sure how long it will last, of course, but let's roll with it!

Tonight I made a simple dinner to use up the last of the Morningstar steak strips that I'd gotten for my Philly cheesesteak and the small red potatoes that came with the yellow and purple potatoes I used in the multicolor meal. It was quite yummy!

Also, here are two fun things that I bought as holiday treats to try out...

And finally, here are some cute pictures from today; first Cringer and Leela were hanging out on the bed, and later Daisy and Buttons were sharing the sunshine on the floor...

Peace. :)

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate Mix

Hi everyone! The last day of Vegan MoFo is here; how did it go so fast? Today's prompt is: Food Gifts – Do you like to give food as a gift? Or receive? Show/tell us! I don't usually give food as a gift, but I decided to test out a recipe that sounded perfect for a holiday food gift: the peanut butter hot chocolate mix from House Vegan: Fall FoMo No More. It's super simple to make, and Zach and I gave it a try tonight. I used almond milk and Zach used coconut milk; we both thought it was delicious!

Thanks to everyone who read and commented; I hope you all had a wonderful Vegan Month of Food!

Here's Daisy doing her part to donate cat hair to Zach's hoodie...

Peace. :)

Kapusta i Lazanki

Hi everyone! Today's Vegan MoFo prompt is: Holiday Test Run – It’s always good to practice – show off your hits and misses. I've been thinking about making some dishes for a mini-Wigilia, so I decided to test a recipe -- kapusta i lazanki (cabbage and noodles) -- for my dinner tonight. I followed this recipe and halved it, using vegan substitutions (vegan butter & sour cream, fusilli instead of egg noodles). Since I used red cabbage, everything turned a purple-pink color, hehe! Taste-wise, it was good but not great. I kinda wish there had been more mushrooms; the mushrooms were really good in this! If I do make it again, I think I'll decrease the cabbage and increase the mushrooms so there's a better balance.

Here's Cringer being a sleepy cutie...

Peace. :)

Holiday Sugar Cookies

Hi everyone! Today begins Vegan MoFo's Holidays theme with the prompt: Holiday Bake Day! – What are you planning on baking over the winter holidays? Do you make cake, or cookies? Or something savory? I decided to make holiday sugar cookies tonight and test out eight different shapes to see which ones work best. 

1st tray, unbaked

1st tray, baked

2nd tray, unbaked

2nd tray, baked

My favorite shape is the Christmas tree, followed by the star and the gingerbread person, so if I do make cookies again, those will be the shapes I'll use.

(The snowflake shape looked like an asterisk to me, and the snow person was OK, but I feel like it's one that would need icing on it to emphasize what it's supposed to be? Same for the wreath shape; it doesn't really work since it's not hollowed out in the middle. The candy cane shape turned out a bit too thick, and the "biscuit" shape wasn't all too holiday-y.)

Here's Buttons and Leela in the sunshine...

Peace. :)