Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Spreading Animal Friendly Cuisine, One Muffin at a Time!

I must have been out of my mind when I agreed to teach three classes in a row the morning after Christmas. Waking up this morning to drive Jim to the train at 5:40am, I felt as though I had already had quite a workout after all the cooking and entertaining of the last few days. (I even went so far as to crawl back into bed once I got home from the train station.)

Now that the three classes are behind me, I've had some time to reflect on this years holiday experience. Overall, it was a good holiday. The gifts were well matched to the recipients (I don't just mean mine, I mean everyone who gave a gift.) My sister even liked the Complete Tightwad Gazette! Everyone, even the kids, were happy getting well thought out gifts rather than mountains of stuff.

Since teenage girls are so difficult to shop for, my daughters find themselves in possesion of quite a bit of shopping money from our extended family. We're planning a trip to Plato's Closet this weekend. It sounds too good to be true but we shall see.

As always, food was a huge part of the last two days. Here's what I made with links to the recipes whenever possible. I am well aware that there is a huge amount of food on the list below but I like to think of the holidays as a huge vegan outreach program. I make yummy food. You taste yummy food. I give you some yummy food to take home. Next thing you know, you're asking me for the recipe for the yummy food and viola, you've added a vegan meal to your repertiore with no brow beating or diatribes on either of our parts. I'm spreading animal friendly cuisine one muffin at a time!

Gaia's Chickpea Roll

Baked Gluten with Stuffing and gravy- this was my own creation combining the ever popular Seitan O'Greatness recipe with pre-packaged vegan stuffing and shredded carrots, diced celeriac and leeks. I baked the whole thing together in a huge roasting pan with a lid. We served it with gravy on the side. This was amazing! (And no one asked about the missing Tofurky!)

Pasta with Tomato sauce and eggplant

Easy No-Knead Crusty Bread served with Olive & Chickpea spread

Amazingly Delicious Crustless Pumpkin Pie (I can't remember who's blog or website I got this from so if anyone knows, send me the link and I'll post it.)

Coconut Custard Pie from How it All Vegan

Banana Bread from the Compassionate Cook

Pumpkin Muffins with Currants and Walnuts from Vegan with a Vengeance

2 comments:

Ruthie said...

Merry Christmas Katie!

I had one question ~

do you use 100% whole wheat/grains in all of your holiday baking? Do people comment?

ok I guess two ?s
:)

Ruthie

Katie said...

Merry Christmas to you, Ruthie! I do use 100% whole wheat/grains in all of my holiday baking. I don't announce it but no one seems to notice it either.

I've gotten comments on using whole wheat pasta but only if they see me pouring the uncooked pasta into the pot (its a darker color than refined pasta but you knew that:) The comment runs along the lines of "is that whole wheat pasta?" I've never had a complaint about the flavor of it.

I suspect it may just be a matter of confidence in my presentation. I just dish the stuff out with an attitude that says, "doesn't everyone eat like this?" I used to be more apologetic about my food choices but those days are long gone!