More vegan holiday meals

We went to Dan's house in Wisconsin for Christmas week, and had some awesome food -- homemade pizza, soups that his mom made, and an all-vegan Christmas dinner!

Dan's mom cooked pretty much everything but the gravy (which I made, but I didn't do that good of a job!) and I helped bake the Field Roast, which is pretty low-maintenance. Clockwise from the very left, you can see the perfectly shaped homemade rolls, Field Roast with gravy and cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes & squash, brussels sprouts, and fruit. I know the sizes seem small, but this filled me up.

This was my first time trying Field Roast, and while I really like many of their products, I have to say I prefer Tofurkey to their holiday roast. But, it did its job filling us up, for sure.

Cinnamon rolls

I also carried on my family tradition of having cinnamon rolls before opening presents in the morning. When I was little, we did the Pillsbury rolls, but I don't think those are vegan -- even if they were, these are way better. I use Vegan Yum Yum's recipe and it always works, even when I accidentally use like half the yeast needed, like this time (needed, or kneaded? ha ha...) I was happy these turned out so well and Dan's family got to try them. 

Dan's mom is also an amazing baker & made tons of vegan cookies and treats -- I didn't get a photo of those, sadly (I was busy taking photos of a kitten...) -- but believe me when I say the cookies were picture perfect & their taste more than lived up to it. 

For New Year's, we were back in DC, and didn't do much on New Year's Eve (I went to work the next day, & we didn't feel much like going out). But, on New Year's Day, we made black eyed peas for good luck.

Black eyes peas, rice, and yes, that's cabbage

The recipe for the black eyed peas is from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. We might have subbed a few of the vegetables with whatever we had on hand, but it turned out really yummy. The grocery store was out of cabbage heads -- everyone had the same plans, I guess -- so we got some shredded purple cabbage, which is totally not for this purpose, but it's such a nice shade of purple! We put some salt and apple cider vinegar on it and it all worked out.

I hope everyone else had a good holiday season and a great start to the new year. I don't really do resolutions, but I do plan to maintain a lifestyle that helps me and the people around me to feel good. Dan and I will be starting our first year as a married couple, and while I don't think marriage is what makes a partnership special, it will be great to celebrate our happiness this year with our friends and family, and then with each other for years to come. 

On that sentimental note, have an amazing 2014!

Thanksgiving food

(I know this is late for Thanksgiving, but wanted to post in advance of any Christmas or New Year's meals people might need ideas for!)

Thanksgiving has its drawbacks--it's based on a misleading story and it has turned into a tradition of killing and eating turkeys and then watching the news about people duking it out over stuff on sale (I know of more people who make fun of black Friday shoppers than who actually go shopping, which is kind of just as bad?)

I will take any excuse to cook a big meal once or twice a year, though. But our family Thanksgiving tradition, if we ever have kids, will be to explain what actually happened when Europeans came to the 'new world' here, and also how life was much better for turkeys before that time.

This year, we ordered a few vegan smoked goose packages from May Wah and cooked those along with a ton of other dishes:

Too much for one photo!

I'll try to list the dishes from top to bottom: We've got cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, store-bought rolls off to the side there, gravy, brussels sprouts, smoked non-goose, stuffing, and green bean casserole. And lots of wine, of course!