Happy Holidays from Mr. And Mrs. Vegan Thyme! (Join The 21 Day Vegan Kickstart)

Happy Holidays from the Vegan Thyme Family! *Some of our family were camera shy this morning.

Mr. Vegan Thyme loves, loves this vegan chewy molasses ginger cookie!

Mmmmm. . . home made potato dollar rolls. Mmmmm.

If I can make these, so can you!

This looks like a little, but it is a vegan plate of amazing yum: vegan onion rings and a vegan slider with a slice of avacado, tomato and vegan cheddah cheese!

What a great, fast and so-over-with holiday that was! I am happy to report that we survived another year of holiday hoo-haa and am now beginning my sugar de-tox program. I made even more cookies than I had posted here. I did a super bake off on the days leading up to Christmas Eve that included chewy molasses ginger spice cookies and a new vegan chocolate chipper that I am planning to post some time soon. After looking back at my recent posts, I thought it best to hold off on any more of the cookie-like posts--for fear the American Diabetes Association would come calling. Like many of you, I have a resolution or two to deal with. One is that I will no longer think of sugar as a vegetable.

We turned to soup for Christmas. An inside out taco soup--it was delicious and just what the doctor ordered--and light! On Christmas Eve we indulged in eating Match Meat sliders (just take Match Beef, and mix with your fave burger fixins, only make them the size of dollar rolls--so yummy!) served with a side of Emeril's buttermilk onion rings (recipe from foodnetwork.com)--to make vegan buttermilk--use the same amount of soymilk for subbing the buttermilk and add 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar per cup--allow to sit at room temp for about 30 minutes and viola, you will have vegan buttermilk. We served our Match Meats sliders on homemade potato dollar rolls--made with real potato. The home made potato dollar rolls are to die for. Again, a recipe from my most favorite of bread baking books: The Bread Bible by Beth Hensperger--the best part is that they were made in my bread machine on "dough" cycle! So yummy! I am hoping I inspire some of you to get Beth's bread book.

I am heavy into my knitting season and basket weaving. Yes, I do some of that, too. Maybe will have a post dealing with baskets at some point. I received my first subscription to Bon Apetit in lieu of my canceled Gourmet the other day. I had to sigh heavily and think about the void being left behind without my Gourmet. I am still in mourning. Bon Apetit. Which reminds me, we rented Julie and Julia--a bit of a disappointment and so far from the book that I will request Nora to please hold off writing any more screenplays for a while--but that Meryl Streep can still act even if it requires her to be a box in a corner.

I received the Baking with Julia DVD (the first one to be released) and the companion cookbook. I will enjoy this tremendously I am sure, though I do not think I am quite ready for some of the more advanced recipes, like the 900 folds for creating a puff pastry from scratch (which only requires 6 folds) but I am not a mathmatician, so I will leave that alone for now. Overall, very inspiring to look at and think about. And determine how to best make the recipes vegan--I am sure some vegan-Julia is to come!

Finally, the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart program is just around the corner! Even if you are a vegan, this program looks to be a fun and information-filled three weeks of Just Do It-ness. I cannot think of a better way to begin a new year--become vegan! And get up and move--I know I will be doing a bit more running and a lot less cookie grazing--(it got crazy around here, seriously). I am over cookies for now, thank god. But don't expect me to quit baking any time soon--vegan treats are a must!