I'm going to take my own advice and forgive myself for not getting one last update in before the celebrations began. I hope others will do the same. I'm always a little sad when Christmas is over but there is a sense of relief that washes over me when the last guest leaves. This year, Christmas was like a 3 day festival (I've made the Woodstock comparison several times this weekend.)
Saturday, my in-laws came for coffee and cake in the afternoon. We had banana nut bread, chocolate chip cookies, rice pudding and sesame sticks as well as clementines which our guests brought. Despite teaching two classes Saturday morning (or maybe it was because I was teaching two classes), I was able to get the Baked Butternut Pasta totally prepped and in the pan before our company arrived. Once this task was done, I felt I could relax. I knew it wasn't likely that our guests would stay for dinner but it felt good knowing I could offer it to them.
Jim, the kids and I enjoyed the Baked Butternut Pasta immensely. I served it with homemade foccacia bread. The recipe was defintely improved by replacing 1/2 of the silken tofu with firm tofu.
Brunch Sunday morning was a big success. My 2 year old niece couldn't get enough of our chickpea scramble and pumpkin muffins with dried cranberries. That was a big thrill. We also served cinnamon raisin toast, roasted potatoes, rice pudding and fruit - once again brought by our guests.
As promised, for dinner we had Tofurky with roasted vegetables and gravy. I like the new basting mixture recommended on the Tofurky package. The new Tofurky gravy is delicious but way too salty for my taste.
For brunch Christmas morning I made pumpkin pancakes and served the last of the chickpea scramble with it. There were bananas and clementines as well.
Dinner on Christmas day was a vegetarian feast to behold. I warmed up a pan of the baked butternut squash pasta and the foccacia. I also put together a vegetarian baked ziti with baked tvp. We served this with a mix of ground walnuts, nutritional yeast and garlic powder and a green olive bruschetta. There was a salad and a veggie plate as well. Desserts ranged from the healthier pumpkin muffins with walnuts and dired cranberries to homemade chocolate bark made with crushed candy canes. I also made Dr. Furhman's Almond Carob Fudge which is always a hit.
After three days of entertaining, I'm fairly certain that no one missed the meat. Today we'll be eating leftover baked ziti for dinner while I tend to the laundry I neglected during this entertaining frenzy.
4 comments:
Wow, sounds like quite a tasty few days! :)
I made some whole wheat rolls from a recipe at recipezaar (which I really like). It was a huge hit with my partner.
Barbara
Thanks!
Have you shared your chickpea scramble recipe before? It sounds good, but I couldn't find it with a search.
The chickpea scramble is basically my Potato Scramble recipe with about 4 cups of cooked chickpeas instead of potatoes. Here it is:
4 cups cooked chickpeas
2 onions, chopped
any or none of the following: chopped carrot, chopped broccoli, chopped kale or any other chooped vegetable
1/2 cup tamari
1 Tbs. nutritional yeast
1 Tbs. maple syrup
In a heavy pot, I'm partial to cast iron, brown the onions in a little olive or canola oil. Add the chickpeas and the optional items. Whisk together last three ingredients and pour over chickpea and onion mixture. Add water to just cover, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook covered about 25 minutes. To make it thicker mash 1/2 of the chickpeas before serving. Serve as is or as a crepe filling.
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