I’d like to start by wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas! I hope you have had an enjoyable holiday season and had a great day today, whatever you chose to do. Christmas is usually pretty laid back for my husband and I, since we celebrate with his kids after New Years (usually based on busy schedules). I miss seeing the grandkids open presents on Christmas day, but we have lots of presents for them to open when we will celebrate together. Since losing my parents 5 and 6 years ago, Christmas has been different. We have to create new traditions to replace those lost. This holiday season has been a little challenging due to the finishing up of the house remodel and my husband’s crazy work hours. We finally put up our tree on Christmas eve. It’s a beautiful 9 foot tall slim Carolina Pine (pre-lit of course). This year we discovered several rows of lights were out, so off my hubby went to Ace Hardware in search of that ‘gun’ that fixes bulbs. It’s amazing how well it works! One of our holiday traditions is to go to Christmas eve mass then go somewhere nice for dinner. This Christmas has also been a little challenging since I came down with flu/cold like symptoms the day before Christmas eve. I spent most of Christmas eve in bed. So we ditched the tradition for this year. I can’t say I’m feeling that much better today, but I made the most of Christmas day.
I made some buckwheat blueberry/banana pancakes for breakfast (thanks to Oh She Glows: http://ohsheglows.com/2012/03/08/vegan-gluten-free-vanilla-blueberry-buckwheat-pancakes)…they are a yummy plant based treat for any occasion. I spent most of the morning working on my hand painted Christmas ornaments for the grandkids. You would think I’d work on these EARLIER in the year so they could actually hang them on their tree…maybe I’ll get that organized this year and get them done this summer! After a long nap, I got started on my yummy veggie lasagna. Roasting the mushrooms, onions and squash takes more time than I remember!
We had a wonderful dinner of veggie lasagna, salad and bread. My hubby had the wonderful idea to add some kalamata olives on the side…it was a wonderful finish to the meal. For dessert we are having my homemade lemon squares-the plant strong version. This is a recipe my mom and I used to make every Christmas, but they have a lot of butter and eggs in them, so this year I tried to make them without eggs, and used egg replacer (EnerG egg replacer). I used smart balance in place of the butter. I think it worked well. The reason I say think, is I accidentally turned off the oven when I put them in to bake. So I heated up the oven and started them baking again. They seemed to be ok! Sometimes I worry about myself and my cooking abilities!!!!
It’s time to go relax with a glass of wine and listen to some nice Christmas music. Merry Christmas!
Ladybug in the Kitchen 