Tag Archives: holiday food

Holiday Meals for the Entire Family

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The holidays are full of memorable events, but nothing brings a family together like food. Sitting down with your loved ones and sharing a meal brings a sense of togetherness and evokes feelings of thankfulness and comfort. It provides the assurance that the people who have gathered with you are full and happy.

Today, cooking a holiday meal that can be eaten by the entire family can be a difficult task. Beliefs, preferences, and allergies can make catering to everyone’s needs frustrating and nearly impossible. Luckily, there are plenty of alternatives out there that can be used to make holiday dishes available to almost everyone at your table this year.

Plant-based cooking not only ensures that vegetarians and vegans in your family can enjoy your meal, but it also eliminates dairy, making it okay for anyone who is lactose-intolerant. Plus, it eliminates any type of meat which may be avoided due to someone’s religious beliefs.

While drinks are just as important at the dinner table as the food, you can make sure everyone is catered to this year with an easy to make vegan eggnog.

Vegan Eggnog

Ingredients: 

  • 24 ounces silken tofu (crumbled) 
  • 2 cups of soy milk
  • 2/3 cup turbinado sugar 
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt 
  • 1 cup water (cold) 
  • 1 cup rum
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
  • 20 ice cubes 
  • Nutmeg for garnishing

Instructions: 

  • Place the tofu, soy milk, sugar, and salt in a blender and blend until the mixture is smooth.
  • Pour the mixture into a bowl and whisk in the water, rum, and vanilla extract.
  • You will want to keep the mixture refrigerated until it is ready to be served.
  • When you are ready to serve the eggnog, blend the mix with the ice cubes until frothed 
  • Enjoy! 

A hearty vegan Shepherd’s pie is an excellent way to ensure all your guests are able to enjoy a warm and filling entree this holiday season.

Vegan Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients: 

  • 4 Potatoes 
  • 2 tbsp vegan margarine 
  • ¼ cup unsweetened soy milk 
  • Salt and pepper (to taste) 
  • One onion 
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil 
  • 1 ½ cups vegan ground beef substitute 
  • 1 ¼ cups vegan gravy 
  • ½ cup green peas 
  • ½ cup of corn 
  • ½ tsp garlic powder 
  • Dash of cayenne pepper 

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 350 F 
  • Dice potatoes and chop onions
  • Boil or microwave potatoes until soft 
  • Drain potatoes and mash with vegan margarine and soy milk 
  • Add salt and pepper to add taste 
  • Saute the chopped onions in the vegetable oil 
  • Combine the onions, beef substitute, vegan gravy, peas, corn, garlic powder, and a dash of cayenne pepper in a large mixing bowl and pour into a pie pan 
  • Spread the mashed potatoes over your vegetable mixture 
  • Bake for 30 to 40 minutes 
  • Enjoy! 

The holidays are full of wonderful sweets, so give vegan gingerbread cookies a try this holiday season to ensure everyone satiates their sweet tooth.

Vegan Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients: 

  • 1 cup of vegan margarine 
  • 1 cup of sugar 
  • Egg Replacer for one egg 
  • 1 cup molasses 
  • Two TBSP apple cider vinegar 
  • 5 cups flour 
  • 1/2 tsp salt 
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 TBSP ginger 
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 
  • 1 tsp cloves 
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Instructions:

  • Beat the margarine and sugar together in a large bowl 
  • Add the egg replace, molasses, and apple cider vinegar to the mixture 
  • In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. 
  • Pour the dry ingredients into the large bowl of wet ingredients and combine well 
  • Let the dough refrigerate for at least two hours to become firm 
  • Preheat the oven to 375 F 
  • Either roll out your dough and cut it into holiday shapes with cookie cutters or form it into ½ inch balls 
  • Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper 
  • Place your cookies on the sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes until done 
  • Enjoy! 

The holidays bring a lot of different people from separate walks of life together. Plant-based options make sure that you are prepared to cater to anyone this holiday season. Feel free to leave a comment below with your favorite go-to holiday dish and make sure to subscribe!

Specializing in Leftovers

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DSC_0132Holidays are all about abundance – particularly with food. But often having more than enough means days of leftovers after the event is over. What can you do to distract the family from one more turkey sandwich? Here are a few suggestions to make leftovers part of the celebration rather than a burden to get through.

Freeze for later: Although your family may currently be sated on holiday fare, a few months from now an encore meal or variation of the original may be welcomed. Consider freezing some of the turkey sliced, along with a couple of scoops of dressing and a side of cranberry sauce. Later you can turn these three items into scrumptious sandwiches. Use sturdy bread such as a crusty roll or a French baguette. Lightly spread both sides with mayonnaise and layer the turkey and about a half-inch of dressing on the bottom half, topping with a light layer of cranberry sauce. This sandwich is an award-winning combination for a national sandwich shop that you can recreate for a cold-weather treat.

Reinvent a tradition: Turn that extra turkey, vegetables and mashed potatoes into a variation of shepherd’s pie. Mix chopped turkey, any leftover veggies – adding some if needed – and top with the leftover mashed potatoes in an open casserole. Bake to warm and broil the last few minutes to brown the top. Serve it with the leftover gravy.

Treat your guests: Pre-plan to share your leftovers with visitors. If you purchase a selection of different sizes of disposable plastic containers, you can mix up an additional holiday meal for your guests who don’t tend to cook at home. Walking away with another meal ready to heat and eat can be a real blessing to those with limited time, resources or inclination to cook for themselves. And for you and your immediate family, the leftovers will be gone by the end of the day.

If you think of leftovers as an opportunity to be creative and try new approaches, you can turn something that’s a challenge into a bonus that benefits everyone after the holidays are over.

 

Traditional Holiday Foods

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002Every family has its holiday favorites. Some go for traditional turkey and dressing, or choose fancy with a standing rib roast or honey baked ham. But whether you always serve that infamous green bean casserole or change side dishes every year, food is an important part of every holiday.

Even more important, the preparation and serving of holiday family dinners may contain traditions you are less aware of, but which are just as important for everyone. It pays to look at those unspoken traditions to make sure that they serve your family well.

How are you passing your traditions along to the next generation? Now everyone loves Aunt Francis’s dinner rolls and Uncle Bob’s turkey gravy, but are the kids getting a chance to help bake and make these family favorites? By including some of the younger members of the family in the preparations, you help ensure that future generations will enjoy the same tastes that delight them now long after the instigators are gone.

You may also find that the standard recipes no longer serve your family as well. Old-style heavier meals may be too much for today’s diet and nutrition goals. While the holidays are certainly a time to indulge a bit, how about adding some lighter fare so that people can balance their enjoyment with some attention to good eating habits. For example, you could replace the cheese and cracker appetizers with vegetables and a tasty yogurt dip, letting people fill up while leaving the calorie-intense foods for dessert.

Holiday food traditions are for enjoying and sharing with others. Remember to plan ways to pass those traditions along with each generation, along with making changes that suit your family’s needs and the overall shifts in how we’re eating now. And above all, enjoy the process of preparing and indulging in your family’s traditional holiday feasts.