Beyond Willpower

I spent all week long preparing for this party, cleaning, baking, cooking, buying goodies and snacks and it went off without a hitch! I'd like to thank my husband Joey and my friend Bri who helped so much! I made vegan samoas, buckeyes, mint chip cookies, wedding cookies, and peanut butter blondies. I also made ham for sammiches, vegan chili and vegan buffalo chicken dip, the last two were especially well received, the buffalo dip was pretty much gone by the end of the night, and I had made a GIANT pot of vegan chili, which people were taking home at the end of the night. I'm really happy with how everything turned out. Oh, and I almost forgot, as a last minute thing right before people started showing up, I made roasted brussel sprouts (and added cauliflower), and did them up maple glazed style. Soooo good! Unfortunately I got distracted by entertaining (I haven't had a blog for awhile) and TOTALLY FORGOT to take pictures! :( Either way, it was fun, we drank, and p...

So, I'm having a holiday party this coming Saturday. I have a bunch of friends who all have different dietary restrictions/choices. I'm trying to cater to my vegan and dairy free friends as well as my high protein diet friends who are trying to cut out carbs! I have decided to make two different types of cookies, Lazy Samoas and mint chip and I'm making peanut butter blondies and also buckeyes. I'm super excited. All of these recipes will be coming from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar Food wise, I'll be making vegan chili, and roasted ham to be sliced for sammiches. I have a cocktail style dip and vegan buffalo chicken dip. I've made the vegan buffalo chicken dip twice, once with seitain (this did not turn out well, sorry T.J) and once with smart strips 'chicken'. That came out FANTASTIC! We did buy some groceries for the house today as well, and we are making veg choices when eating out, and then eating the left over meat that's in t...

Well, I ended up being able to come down home for Easter dinner. My mom doesn't really know what to cook for me, I don't make it easy that's for sure. So I brought some materials to make my own food. I'm making pasta in a veggie/"meat" sauce, and I also made a banana toffee pudding pie with a graham cracker style crust made from gluten free chex cereal, butter and almond milk.... and of course, the staple, peanut butter blondies. (Who doesn't love peanut butter?! Come on now....) I'll post a picture of the pie later, right now blog booster is not cooperating. It came out good though. :) I also made a gf bob's red mill wholesome something or other bread. It's way better than other ones I've tried. Very soft and fluffy. I also made it with some garlic salt and basil. It's really good! Anyhow, happy to be home, glad I brought some food. :) It was a pain but I like baking. Back on track monday!

What kind of holiday traditions do you have?   Every year Joey and I put up the tree the weekend after my bday, while he sets everything up to be decorated and puts out the stuffed animals, I get the holiday plates out and make us a goodie tray of cookies and hot chocolate. Every year we also watch bad santa while decorating. :) This year it was sugar cookies, chocolate chips and thumbprints : Also, be sure to check out www.gluuteny.com Thumprints are my all time favorite cookie! Also, yes, all vegan and gluten free! So in order to save myself from sabotage I gave cookies away at work and to my landlord. What's on the plate was all that was left for us. It was probably still too much. We put up the tree, out little charlie brown xmas: Here are some of my fave ornaments: This is what we have under the tree: Then, we torture Fuzzy The Cat: I had a good time, I love putting up the tree and of course eating homemade goodies, but I feel sugared out! I'm having a bd...