Vegan Thanksgiving Spread!

I'm very excited to share my Thanksgiving with you! I was completely psyched everything turned out so well, and that my family enjoyed it too. I was crazed cooking all day, and the pumpkin pie didn't even get put in the oven until after the meal, but hey, we had tons of great food! I think we have some new traditions on hand...

What to Make for Vegan Thanksgiving

This year, I'm pretty excited for Thanksgiving. It's my first vegan Thanksgiving, and we're hosting my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law, who are always a blast to hang out with and we don't get to see often enough. I can't wait to have them, show them our new home & neighborhood, and share some delicious food with them. There are so many good recipes out there, I don't know what to make. I'm trying to find a balance between the old traditions and new exciting recipes that would make for great holiday additions. Here are some dishes I'm thinking of making for the big spread!

Copycatin' and Adaptin'

I love finding, and being inspired by, new recipes online. I used to have a recipe "to-do" list link on this site, but more recently, I've been using Pinterest as a way to keep track of all those recipes I want to try. I've been making a lot of those recipes recently; the above is just a sampling! For recipes I've adapted a bit, I'll post more about later. But for now I wanted to share some delicious great finds!

Clockwise, from top left: SMBP's Sweet Potato Avocado Soup, Hobby & More's Aloo Gobi, a re-purposed version of CCK's deep dish cookie pie, Fork & Bean's better cheddar, and Giro Vegando in Cucina's Avocado Mint Ice cream, in my own crust.

For notes on these dishes, read on...

Vegan Valentine's (Vegan Dinner Party #3)

I'll admit I'm not much of a schmoopy, romantic comedy type-of-gal. Usually, I'm not one for pink sparkly hearts. But.... okay, I got a little caught up in things this year. I made schmoopy cookies. And a lot of them, at that. This weekend, I hosted a full-on Valentine's dinner party. What's with all the schmoopy-ness, anyway? 

It must be a vegan thing ;-) . I made so many desserts, we would have needed an extra 10 people to finish them all (although I did send everyone home with a little bag of cookies). Here's a sampler of my third (successful!) vegan dinner party:

Vegspiration: Vegan Dinners

Since vegans and vegetarians often get asked, "What do you eat?" I thought I'd share some of my favorite recipes so far to inspire meatless meals for everyone. It's more than just salads, that's for sure! ...Not that there's anything wrong with salads, of course ;-)






Yeah- so it's too bad vegans don't have anything to eat, right? ;-)

Recipes pictured above (all are vegan; those with stars are my favorites. See tabs above or info below for more on these and other dishes):

Liebster Love

As you may have noticed, I've been updating not only my food preferences but also my blog quite a bit recently. I put a fair amount of time into most of my posts, so it completely makes me happy to hear when other people enjoy them. (I love comments!)

So I was pretty psyched to hear that Genevieve from Vanilla & Spice nominated me for the Liebster Awards. What's that you- and I - ask?

Vegspiration: Salads

Tired of boring salads? I've posted before on big salads and ideas, but here's a little eye-candy and some recipe links to get you inspired:

Salads pictured above, clockwise from top left: Artichoke & chickpea salad, Fresh summer corn & avocado salad, Broccoli, mushroom & tofu salad, Kabocha squash salad, Asian spinach salad with miso dressing, Broccoli, chickpea, and tomato salad, and (middle): an easy big salad.