...we have SO enjoyed having Our Airman's little family over the Christmas holidays...
...and we've been eating a LOT of food...it's really become a source of entertainment as well as nourishment...as everyone gathers in the kitchen...
...breakfasts were sometimes just cereal...
...and sometimes just toast and tea...
...and sometimes they were a gift from a lovely neighborhood couple...as these apple dumplings...they made a warm and welcome fuss-free breakfast...
...and sometimes delicious 'mascarpone' pancakes...actually made with vegan cream cheese...
...lunches were sometimes leftovers...like this spinach lasagna...I do love leftovers...
...and sometimes they were nostalgic stories I was telling the kiddos about...and then added to my InstaCart...like this LaChoy 'Chinese' dinner...we sometimes...and I mean rarely (like maybe 5 or 6 times) when I was growing up had this ready-made dinner...
...it seems funny now with the abundance of Asian foods available...but when I was little in rural North Carolina...we had never been to a Chinese restaurant...and very few restaurants of any sort...so this was a real treat for us kids...
...I added garbanzo beans to the La Choy Veggies...I really enjoyed it...and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who did...haha...
...and one day we had Christmas Nachos...using Food Lions red and green deli chips...so festive...
...topped with black bean/TVP/corn/bulghur taco filling...
...canned corn...
...lettuce...
...tomato...
...green onion...
...avocado...
...vegan nacho sauce...this makes a great dip too...
...topped with almost the last of Mom's homemade salsa that she gave us at Thanksgiving...
...such a fun lunch...
...another day...we had veggie burgers and fries...I used my cute crinkle cutter to make the fries...and fried them twice...
...crispy and golden and delicious...
...burger fixins...
...and that made a delicious and fun lunch...
...one of Our Airman's Christmas gifts to us was to make us all dinner...I love that idea...a wonderful meal shared together...making lovely memories...and nothing tangible left at all...
...here's the spread from that delicious meal...the tofu lettuce wraps were awesome...
...Our Airman said he's made this soup about 10 times...so it's definitely a favorite...
...my bowl of noodle soup...it was a lovely experience...
...and I made
Mom's Black Walnut Pound Cake...a serious winner every time...
...and one night Our Aiman wanted to replicate the Salisbury Steak dinner that we had with Grandma at Thanksgiving...
...so we did that again...it was yummy...
...and one night Our Airman asked for Mexican rice...like they serve in the Mexican restaurant...and I'm just winging it here...so I made a pot of long grain rice and put it still hot in a big bowl...and fluffed it up with big plastic spoons so as not to break it or smush it too much...
...the Mexican rice at one of our favorite restaurants is not vegan...the server told me that it has butter in it...so I added some vegan butter...
...and I added one of my favorite cilantro cubes...I love these...and a spoonful of cumin...
...then I just microwaved some mixed veg, onion and a couple of
individually frozen tomatoes...
...and then just mixed that in with the rice...
...and I must say that we kind of nailed it...it was so perfectly like the restaurant's Mexican rice...I'll definitely be doing that again...
...and this is the Man's creation to go with that...not sure what's in it...I know there are spices in the sauce...and apple and orange both on top of some tofu...
...baked and served with cilantro lime slaw and green beans and some of the frozen summer corn...Our Airman's favorite...
...one night we had a 'steak' dinner...these are the Gardein beef tips...and we had baked potato salad and homemade frozen corn...Our Airman's request...and now we're completely out of frozen summer corn...
...we had a LOT of snacks as well...
...I made peanut butter cookies...but I only took this one photo of them before they were baked...
...and I'm seriously trying to whittle down my tea stash...it's gotten rather overgrown lately...this little pot contains some "all natural tea"...I wasn't even sure where it came from or what it would taste like...it just smelled like black tea though...so I combined it with a pinch of Dragon Well tea that I love and that the kiddos brought me back from one of their beach trips...
...a crisp apple and some nuts...Christmas stocking fare...
...a stray packet of Teecino dark roast...it made a nice warm (no caffeine) afternoon treat...
...still eating a banana and flax seed and nuts every day...Our Girl loves bananas...'nana'...
...and that's all the food on my camera from the last week or so...
...what did you eat over Christmas with your family?...
~Have a lovely day!
My goodness that's a lot of fun food!! We just did a normal Christmas meal with the crew from What If. Then had it again the next night. And then again for lunch the next day. Ready for a fresh start this new year! Love, K
ReplyDeleteYour christmas nacho looks pretty perfect! I'm having this tonight (with a little less garnitures).
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome gift your son offered you! This is priceless.
Seems like a happy christmas!
Hope you still have the kids for a few days!
Up here we had veganized traditional christmas dishes; "meat" pie, "turkey", roast, "cheeses and pâté"...
Hi Éphée,
ReplyDelete...we had a lovely Christmas and I hope you did too...and I definitely should make nachos mor often...
~Have a lovely day!