Christmas Eve with Raw Nutloaf

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone is having a wonderful time with family and friends today. I’m recovering from a fabulous Christmas Eve gathering at my sister’s house last night and preparing for another one at my dad’s today, wee! She had plenty of cute decorations out including this wine bottle stuffed with Christmas lights, so California!

And homemade gingerbread creations by my nieces on display with the hummus appetizers.

Her husband did a fabulous job of making fresh pasta.

Too bad it had egg in it, but sure cool to watch. :-)

My mom brought a gorgeous salad.

And I brought Gena’s Raw Nutloaf to enjoy as a vegan main for myself and a fun side for everyone else to try.

Not a shabby dinner plate at all, perfect amount of food which is sometimes nice about being a vegan at a huge non-vegan party – less temptations to overload my plate with.

The nutloaf was very good and for the most part a hit with everyone who tried it. It had a meaty and hearty texture much like a traditional meatloaf, only lighter and fluffier thanks to the processed mushrooms in the mixture. I was a little nervous to try this recipe because it’s so heavy in mushrooms, but the flavor and texture worked out very well. The only thing was the sun-dried tomatoes I used were pre-salted making the dish a little saltier than I would have liked, next time I need to make sure I grab just the plain sun-dried tomatoes.

After dinner, it was time to dive into a mountain of gifts and watch my nieces and nephew dance and squeal with glee as they ripped into new toys.

With Christmas movies playing in the background.

I scored some wonderful gifts – gift cards, wines, kitchen tools, and a box of vegan dark chocolate that won’t last long!

Nacho looked a little confused at where his gifts were, but I’m sure Santa will be good to him.