Christmas Day/Birthday dinner

Christmas Day we celebrated not working and Nick’s birthday with a chill traditional dinner. Vegan of course. Nick was surprised that Danielle made him a cookie cake that he’d mentioned wanting months ago.

And here it is! Cute and delicious.

We found Christmas Vacation moose mugs, so those had to be busted out.

We brought the green bean casserole, a vat of gravy and sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping.

Crescent rolls.

My starter plate. I guess I was easing into it. There’s some tofurky under that gravy.

Tofurky Vegetarian Feast

How do I keep getting so lucky? A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from a representative for Turtle Island Foods asking if I’d like a free coupon to try one of their vegetarian feasts. Um, yeah! It took three tries before I found it in stock. Sevananda ended up being the winner, but Whole Foods has since gotten some in. It was stored in a big freezer until it was time to drag it home and cook it. And even then it waiting in my fridge for a few days before it worked out that I could cook it.

Here it is taking a ride home:

Which was almost a disaster. At some point I rode over a bump that busted open the box. Luckily I noticed in time to keep from losing anything.

My Tofurky was fully defrosted so I was able to cook it in about 75 minutes. I used the olive oil, soy sauce and sage recipe for basting because I have fresh sage growing in my yard. For the veg, I used an onion, a carrot, a sweet potato and half a delicata squash. Everything went in my big Le Creuset lidded pot lined with foil. Pro-tip: spray foil with oil before you start loading it up. I didn’t and had a bit of stickage. Here’s the little buddy right out of the oven:

Sorry for the dark pics but it was, dark. An inside shot:

Plated up with gravy (included) and broccoli:

The veg turned out lovely. Some of the sweet potatoes were caramelized and everything just melted in my mouth. I’ve always liked Tofurky and, yeah, it’s still good. The gravy was a little thick, but very tasty. I could’ve thinned it but went with it as it came. Oh, and the broccoli is just a box of frozen stuff I had because I am lazy. There is a “wishbone” but I have to admit it’s still in its package. I’ll probably gnaw on it as a snack at some point.

Oh yeah, the cake. An Amy’s chocolate cake came with the feast. It was also fully defrosted. The cake was pretty moist and had nice chocolate flavor. I was wondering if it was going to be more poundcake like, but it was normal cake like. The downside is that it doesn’t have frosting. Cake needs frosting. Or ice cream. Or both. I had some extra vegan cream cheese frosting from something else, so I gave it a little topping.

Perfect!

If you aren’t really a cook or need something easy to take to some horrible meat filled holiday meal, this is a good option. We all know there are a few holiday roast options out there now. This one seems to be the most reminiscent of turkey if that’s what you’re looking for.