Holiday Meals: Dinner and Dessert
In search of the perfect centerpiece for a holiday meal? In years past we’ve done both Vegetable Pot Pie and Lentil Shepherd’s Pie for Thanksgiving at our house, each with great success. Other staples of our holiday tables each year include David’s outrageous cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, garlic brussel sprouts, greens, mashed potatoes with rich brown gravy and stuffing. 
For a complete gourmet holiday menu all in one place and with plenty of options, look no further than the VegNews Holiday eCookbook with everything from pumpkin soup to crispy latkes and my own special Roasted Vegetable Pastries. You’ll find delicious and festive recipes here to feed the whole family in scrumptious style. Planning holiday meals for the people you love can be stressful, but with so many decadent and delicious compassionate choices, it doesn’t have to be.
Finish off a big family meal with your favorite decadent dessert whether it’s a tray of organic brownies, a platter of gourmet cookies, or something more involved like a coconut ice cream and double chocolate chunk brownie Sundae topped with caramel sauce and vegan toffee. 
Complement your dessert with a perfect cup of organic fair-trade tea or fair-trade organic coffee. For holiday-inspired sipping, we like Peppermint Drinking Chocolate or Coconut Nog.
Now, for the other nights of the holiday week, or if you have kids who won’t eat anything green, these “VeganizeIt!” versions of classic pasta favorites (like amazing Mac ‘n’ Cheese) 
are cholesterol-free and even include some hidden veggies, but still have the rich and creamy flavors that everybody loves. For Italian-style family meals try Baked Ziti or Lasagna (available in the current issue of VegNews). Or, for an easy meal for kids or kids at heart, whip up some Alfredo sauce, pour over your favorite pasta and serve with a side of steamed veggies.
For those loved one too far distant to share a holiday meal, consider our many elegant and delectable holiday gifts for the season. Happy Compassionate Thanksgiving!
Holiday Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Having family over for the holidays can be one of those wonderful and also challenging experiences. A house full of loved ones should be a fun and happy time, but it can be crowded and stressful, especially feeding all of those people. We don’t have a plan to make your house bigger, but if you’re wondering what to feed your omnivorous loved ones, we’ve got some answers.
Photo by Snarky Vegan Julia Moran Martz
Take some of the stress off by planning delicious vegan meals in advance. Knowing what you’re making, shopping before hand and doing preparation steps ahead of time can all make your holiday meals go over smoothly and calmly. For great time-saving tips even for more complicated recipes check out Snarky Vegan’s Vegan MoFo series EZ Comfort Food for Tired Wenches. Here are some suggestions from Allison’s award-winning “VeganizeIt!” column from VegNews Magazine:
Photo by Heather Blackmon of Better with Veggies
If you’re having family staying with you for the holidays chances are you’ll want to plan more than just dinners. But a meal planned doesn’t have to be a big, sit-down affair. For a sweet and simple breakfast treat try warm and buttery scones. Our bloggers have created several versions for you to try: Pumpkin Cranberry, Orange Chocolate Chip, and the latest Better with Veggies version Currant-Raisin Orange, which are all spin-offs of Allison’s original Orange Currant recipe. Scones make great casual breakfast fare as they can be kept warm or re-heated for everyone to eat in their own time.
Photo by Snarky Vegan Julia Moran Martz
For a fancy sit-down breakfast or brunch nothing beats a golden-brown Frittata complete with seasonal veggies and topped with your favorite shredded vegan cheese. For extra decadence and tastebud delight, serve slices of Frittata with a fruit salad and strips of Smoky Fried Tofu Bacon on the side (or crumbled and baked in). YUM!
Amidst all the holiday eating, lunch can be a satisfyingly simple and healthy affair. Turn a plain-jane soup and salad combo into light lunch extraordinaire with French Onion Soup (available in the September/October edition of VegNews), Clam-Free Chowder, or Cream of Broccoli Soup and a very green kale salad.
Of course, we’ve got you covered in the sweets department. Let us do the baking, and make dessert one less thing for you to worry about.
Gourmet cookies in seasonal flavors and trays of decadent vegan fudge make perfect holiday snacks and desserts. They’re also great as gifts for friends near or far. Check out the Holiday Gifts and Gifts By Price sections of our website for seasonal gift ideas to fit any budget.
Come back next week for a super exciting chocolate announcement on Monday, and then holiday dinner suggestions and even a new recipe or two later in the week…
Nourishing the Body & Soul
I love to eat. Amidst the American food culture of fad diets and weight obsession, that can be a hard thing to admit. But the truth is that, for most people, eating is not just a process to nourish the body. 
Good food nourishes us in many ways, giving us pleasure, security, and a sense of well-being as well as the carbohydrates, fats and protein that we need physically. The best and healthiest foods in my mind are those that fulfill all of our needs, from great taste and good nutritional value to a positive and fulfilled feeling in the body.
At Allison’s we focus on all aspects of making great food, from feeding the physical body to nourishing the soul. Our desserts feed the body with good fats like coconut oil in our vegan fudge and confections and sunflower in our vegan bakery items. 
Fats and oils are often maligned in modern cooking, but the truth is that fats are essential building blocks of life. Good fats, like coconut and sunflower, contain no bad cholesterol, nurture and support your body, lubricate your joints and give you long-lasting energy. Coconut oil is especially nutritious, containing essential vitamins and minerals as well as lauric, capric, and caprylic acids which help maintain heart health and metabolism as well as a host of other health benefits. Good fats make our bodies feel good, and they taste good too, which also makes us feel good.
Chocolate, in any form, whether it’s brownies, vegan peanut butter cups, or hot cocoa, is another one of those feel-good foods, and most women can tell you that it’s a great mood-elevator. 
New research is also coming out that dark chocolate, like ours, is actually physically good for you as well. It contains a treasure-trove of antioxidants (on the same scale as blueberries and green tea) which protect your cells and may help to fight cancer and keep you looking and feeling younger. Recent studies have also shown links between dark chocolate consumption and cardiovascular health.
What you put in your body certainly effects your health and how you feel, but what you don’t put in your body can be just as important. At Allison’s we are committed to using only organic ingredients because we know that petro-chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are not things we should be putting into the earth or consuming ourselves. We’re also adamant about using 100% fair-trade chocolate to insure fair wages and good working and living conditions for the farmers and their families.
Of course even good-for-you foods are only good in moderation. 
Eating too much of anything (except maybe kale) can be detrimental to your health. Luckily, we’ve found that premium quality super-delicious foods, both sweet and savory, are more satisfying and nurturing to body and soul and therefore can be eaten in moderation while still imparting nourishment and satisfaction. Enjoy savoring every bite.
Exciting New Improvements
Every spring I get this mental image of summer in my mind: the long, lazy days, swimming and tanning and backyard barbecues… Truth be told, I haven’t had one of those stereotypical summers since junior high, ah nostalgia. But, here at Allison’s, I’ve been enjoying my busier-than-planned summer none the less. The deadline for submissions to our Tee and Tote Design Contest is drawing near and it’s fascinating to watch all the wonderful designs rolling in! Meanwhile, in the kitchen, we’ve acquired some new equipment, we’re testing some new recipes, and, believe it or not, we’re already gearing up for the holidays!
In case you’re wondering where most of our vegan chocolates have disappeared to this summer, we took a break from some of our chocolate production (while it’s really too hot to ship chocolate gifts safely anyway) and we’ve been using the time to test a few new chocolate recipes. We recently acquired a new tempering machine for our chocolate production that has helped to stoke Allison’s creative fire. Last week we even did a test of something very special, which isn’t quite right yet so I can’t say much, but was pretty exhilarating anyway.
Our vegan fudge has been the “hot” seller for the last couple of weeks, especially in the form of Fudge of the Month Clubs. Our clubs keep your sweets pantry stocked, make gift-giving easy, plus they have the added bonus of giving you a discount on everything you order as long as your membership is active. With amazing flavors like Apple Pie and Peppermint Velvet, what’s not to love?
While doing some “summer cleaning” we also discovered that we had a backlog of your love letters that we’re finally getting around to publishing in the form of product reviews on our website. Have you tried our goodies recently? You, too, could be among our famous fans. Tell us what you think below, or on our Contact Us, Facebook or Twitter pages. We’d love to hear from you (and if you include a picture of yourself, we’ll be especially grateful)! 
Meet Our Celebrity Judges!
With just over a month left to enter our Tee and Tote Design Contest, the buzz is growing and designs are starting to come in. We’re beginning to look forward to the excitement of choosing our winners! First, we need you and your friends to submit your most awesome designs and slogans. Then, after you’ve submitted your artwork, online voting will commence on September 16th. This will be your chance to tell everyone what you’ve been up to and encourage them to vote for your design. This round of voting will narrow the field to 10 finalists.
After those 10 finalists have been chosen, Allison will sit down with our panel of celebrity judges to choose the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place designs. Who are these celebrity judges, you ask? I’m here to tell you… we are so grateful to the following talented and dynamic individuals for helping us with this contest! In case you’ve been wondering about them, here’s a little bit about each of our amazing all-star judges:
Colleen Holland, one of the masterminds at VegNews Magazine, is an expert in marketing and brand-building who also studied at the Natural Gourmet Institute. She loves our chocolate almond toffee and vanilla chai fudge.
Gene Baur, co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, grew up in Hollywood and worked in commercials for McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants before going vegan in 1985 and beginning his true calling campaigning for the rights of farm animals.
Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart, the goddess behind Vaute Couture, backs up her eye for design with a background in activism. She has been vegetarian since age 10, and vegan since she was 17, when she helped push a bill into law for dissection alternatives in Illinois schools.
Nathan Runkle, founder and executive director of Mercy for Animals, has been named one of the “25 Most Fascinating Vegetarians” and one of the country’s “Top 20 Activists Under 30 Years Old.” In 2009 he became the youngest person ever inducted into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame.
Glamazon Chloé Jo Davis blogs at GirlieGirlArmy.com and loves our “orgasmic fudge and brownies.” She’s the sexist eco-goddess, vegan fashion expert, animal rights activist, and green mama we know. Among many other titles, she was recently named a “Rule Changer” by Italian Elle.
The dynamic husband and wife duo Troy Farmer and Katie Frichtel at Raven + Crow Studio do truly excellent graphic design work and also run a blog, Kindness of Ravens, where they write about design, music, fashion, and (what else?) vegan food.
