Christmas Fun for the List

Wow, Christmas came and went. But I am not complaining, it was fun with family and lots of cooking, but I am enjoying the calm now as we wrap up the year. Gifting in the office is a new thing for me not being something that was done at my last job. I had to get creative to make something fun to hand out and ended up giving out vegan chocolate bars with bows and labels. But need to upgrade my list for gifting next year!

I also got a fun vegan food puzzle that will be an interesting challenge!

It will be sad to take down all of our decorations, but at least I can enjoy them for a few more days.

We stepped out for lunch at Amy’s Drive Thru before Christmas where a simple seasonal salad with miso dressing paired nicely with vegan broccoli mac n’ cheese.

And also kept it simple with pizza Friday night before the storm of cooking. And a simple batch of spaghetti with red sauce for multiple leftover meals.

I added a bit of nutritional yeast and hot sauce to the red beans and rice Ron made one evening.

I also made a simple, lazy tempeh stir fry using a Saffron Road Sesame Ginger simmer sauce I found at Grocery Outlet that was good.

And there was a simple soy curl, butternut squash, and turmeric sauté for dinner making simple, healthier leftovers.

For Christmas Eve, we just had my parents over for dinner and had a carb fest of a plate with roasted potatoes and creamy garlic vegan pasta with vegan sausage.

For Christmas morning, it was a decadent breakfast of pancakes and Beyond Breakfast Sausage.

And Christmas Day dinner was asparagus, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole with plenty of vegan gravy.

For dessert I got to try something new and fun – Trader Joe’s Vegan Heavy Whipping Cream on vegan pumpkin pie.

It took a fair amount of mixing using an electric hand mixer, but the perfect, silky and smooth texture was unlike any vegan whip I’ve had before and delicious!

Christmas was awesome this year and I am really embracing getting the week off between Christmas and New Year’s with my current job to have the down time to prepare for the new year and recover from this year! I’m not sure what 2024 holds for me yet, I hope to get back into running at some level once the arrhythmia condition is resolved. I also hope it’s a year of more travel as we plan some big trips and a year of welcoming new furry family members. Also the year of finally bringing back VegFest to Sacramento post Covid, we’ll see! But let’s wrap up 2023 with another list of happy vegan news.

• Most loved Forks Over Knives Recipes for 2023.
• How to go vegan and stick to it.
• Stanford study reveals benefits of vegan lifestyle.
• Top gluten-free plant-based recipes for 2023.
• Vegan peanut butter blondies.
• More top vegan recipes of 2023.
• Healthy vegan lunch ideas.
• Vegan bodybuilder shares diet.
• Vegan desserts to try in LA.
• Vegan eco-friendly hotels.