Vegan Practically

This time of year brings all sorts of festive occasions. Maybe you’re hosting or maybe you’re attending a pot luck or maybe, like me, you like giving people cookies. Regardless, whether you’re in charge of a full feast, making the hors d’oeuvres, or bringing a dessert, you don’t need to be serving or eating dead animals to enjoy the holiday season.

I’ve already made snickerdoodles and cranberry coconut chocolate chip cookies from Sarah Kramer’s La Dolce Vegan, cranberry bliss bars with cream cheese frosting and an orange zest drizzle from Nora Cooks. And also from Nora Cooks, Ginger Crinkle Cookies (pictured).

My favourite cookies are soft on the inside and harder on the outside. All of the above cookies have that quality. And the cranberry bliss bars are blondies with white chocolate and cranberries, with a very sweet cream cheese icing, an additional orange-zest infused drizzle, and chopped dried cranberries sprinkled on top. Everything has been a huge hit for the three of us who’ve been indulging daily.

The main point of this post is to offer some options that don’t involve animal products but feel festive and promise to be delicious. Here’s what my parents and I are having tomorrow:

For brunch we’re having vegan crepes, fruit salad, and vegan sausage from Gardein. Then we are hitting pause until dinner time, where we have a serious feast ahead.

Christmas Dinner Main course:

• Gardein Stuffed Turk’y (I had originally planned to make Nora’s Vegan Roast Turkey but there are only three of us, so it seemed excessive)
• Roast potatoes
• Roast sweet potatoes
• Carrots
• Green beans
• Cauliflower and white sauce
• A traditional South African bean dish called sousboonjties
• Mushroom and Wild Rice Stuffing that’s a cross between this and this and has the added advantage of being gluten free
• Cranberry sauce that I made from scratch (extremely easy)

Christmas Dessert:

• Gingerbread Cake from Nora, without the cream cheese icing or this Gingerbread Steamed pudding from the Domestic Gothess
• Vegan maple custard sort of based on this recipe from the Domestic Gothess but I neglected to buy cream, so it might not work.

We are keeping it more simple on Christmas Eve, with Isa Does It‘s Tofu Mushroom Stroganoff and Lemon Squares (again from Nora!).

Nothing tortured or dead here!

Bon Appétit!