What are we having for Easter dinner, everyone?

[MySeoulChild]

I need some ideas for a festive Easter meal. We're suddenly having friends over Saturday night and I'd like to serve something tasty :)

[flowermama]

I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner. I'd love to know what you came up with!! :smile

We're just going to eat at Subway tomorrow after church. :O

[julbug]

I have a raspberry cheesecake baking in the oven right now (from my Sinfully Vegan cookbook that my sister gave me for Christmas :D). I'm going to make a pecan cheddar (Better Than) cream cheese ball to serve with crackers next. Then a crock pot of potato corn chowder. It's still kind of cold here and it's supposed to rain :/ so I thought hot soup would be nice. After church I get to load up everything and take it to my Aunt's house, it's at her house this year.

[cklewis]

Chinese. Yes, we're going out for Chinese. Our favorite place for extended family get-togethers.

I guess I'm not much help, am I?

C

[flowermama]

Chinese. Yes, we're going out for Chinese. Our favorite place for extended family get-togethers.

I guess I'm not much help, am I?


:lol We have a Chinese restaurant around here that makes some yummy vegan dishes. :yum It's our favorite restaurant to eat at for our birthday dinners. :)

julbug, wow, that all sounds *really* yummy! mmmmmm :yum I love potato corn cowder! and, boy, there sure are some wonderful vegan recipes for cheese cake. :yum I bet that pecan cheddar (Better Than) cream cheese ball is yummy, too!

If you'd like to share recipes, I'm all ears. ;) :yum

I pray you all have a wonderful day! :heart

[julbug]

I can try but I so rarely measure anything, that's a toughie. The raspberry cheesecake is actually from a recipe in a book so I have to PM that one because of copyright rules, right?

For the cheese ball I get two Better Than Cream cheese tubs (I think they're 8 oz each right?) I usually use the herb and chive ones for more flavor. Mix those in a mixing bowl with diced scallions, and shredded cheddar (I use Veganrella). The amounts for those two ingredients are your call, I just add enough so it "looks right". While I'm doing that part I give DS a ziploc bag of pecans to bang away on to make into crumbs for me. Depending on how *enthusiastic* your little one is you might want to double bag it like I do. His crumbs are ready about the time I've got my stuff mixed. Pour the crumbs on a flat plate. Shape the cream cheese mixture into a ball and roll it in the pecans. Let it chill for at least an hour but 3 or more would be ideal.

Let's see, potato corn chowder. Well I bake the potatoes first, but not to the mushy consistency of a baked potato because they'll cook in the crock pot as well. I like to leave the potato skins so I'm not throwing away all those vitamins. Lightly saute mushrooms, just enough to start to release flavor, baby bellas are my favorite. Oh yeah, saute diced onions and minced garlic until the onions start to become translucent. That's all the ingredients that you cook in advance though. To make the creamy soup base I use soy milk with arrowroot to thicken or you can also take a potato or two if you have enough and blend a little bit; like slightly runny mashed potatoes and mix that with soy milk; that makes it thick and creamy and maintains the flavor. So then....start putting everything in the crock pot. Potatoes, mushrooms, onions, I use frozen organic corn, then either peas or celery whichever I have on hand, this time it's peas. Depending on how soon I need to serve it I cook on high for a couple hours or low for 4-5 hours. Stir every so often.

Gosh, I hope that helps without any amounts or anything. I really need to start writing things down. People ask me for recipes and I feel dumb saying "I don't know, just bake it until you can smell it from where you're sitting at the computer in the other room."

[ShangriLewis]

:lol We have a Chinese restaurant around here that makes some yummy vegan dishes. :yum It's our favorite restaurant to eat at for our birthday dinners. :)



Do tell more about this restaurant. Evan loves Chinese. We usually go to the teriyaka place and get vegetables and rice.

My Grandma's favorite holiday is Easter and her Birthday is the 29th, so we are celebrating her birthday, too. We all dyed eggs with her at my moms' house (she lives there now). In her honor my mother is serving her what she used to serve us, Waffles and Kielbasa. (I know it's not Veg..but my Grandma isn't). My mom found some ghastly cake recipe in a Cooking Light Magazine that take a whole bottle of red dye and that is what she is making for a cake. Yuck..isn't that just awful. A whole bottle with cream cheese frosting. Gag me! The kids are going to bug out.

I bought my Grandma the cutest picture frame at Target though. It's a tree with all the pictures hanging off of it.

Heather

[edited to fix the quote box]

[MySeoulChild]

Those are some great ideas!!

I'll keep them stashed in the back of my mind for next year, for sure!

We did the usual - side dishes - at Grandma's. :)

[flowermama]

I can try but I so rarely measure anything, that's a toughie. The raspberry cheesecake is actually from a recipe in a book so I have to PM that one because of copyright rules, right?

Actually, lists of ingredients are not copyrighted. It's the description of how they are put together that can be copyrighted. So you can list the ingredients and then give me the directions in your own words if you want. :) Rasberry cheescake sounds so good. Oh!! hey, I just bought some frozen rasberries yesterday. :yum

Gosh, I hope that helps without any amounts or anything. I really need to start writing things down. People ask me for recipes and I feel dumb saying "I don't know, just bake it until you can smell it from where you're sitting at the computer in the other room."


oh, yes, that helps! That's the kind of cook I am, too, so I understand. :lol thank you for sharing. Those sound great! :)

[flowermama]

My mom found some ghastly cake recipe in a Cooking Light Magazine that take a whole bottle of red dye and that is what she is making for a cake. Yuck..isn't that just awful. A whole bottle with cream cheese frosting. Gag me! The kids are going to bug out.

oh dear! :eek how did it go? :) I hope you enjoyed the celebration. What a nice gift to give her! :heart I'll pm you about the restaurant. :)

MySeoulChild, side dishes are always nice. :)

[julbug]

OK, sounds good.

Swirled Raspberry Cheesecake:

Crust:
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup canola oil
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp vanilla

Raspberry Topping:
1 12oz pkg frozen raspberries (or 2 cups fresh raspberries)
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup granulated sweetener
1 tbsp arrowroot
2 tbsp water

Filling:
4 8oz. containers soy cream cheese (Tofutti has no casein)
1 box (12oz) firm silken tofu
1 cup granulated sweetener
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup unbleached white flour


First I have to say that to save time I used a premade pie crust instead of making one and pressing it into a springform pan (amazingly enough I found a vegan crust!) If you do that, I can tell you from experience now that the amounts for the filling will be too much to fit in a premade crust, so you'll either have to stick with a crust from scratch in a springform or adjust the filling amounts slightly.

Ok, preheat oven 375. Spray with cooking spray or lightly oil a springform pan.
Crust: Combine all crust ingredients in small bowl, mix well. Press into the bottom of your pan. Prick with a fork and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 350.

Topping:
Combine first three topping ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. (If using fresh berries, simmer them until soft.) Dissolve arrowroot in 2 tbsp water and add to raspberries. Heat just until thickened but don't boil. Set aside, mixture will continue to thicken as it cools.

Filling:
In a food processor, combine tofu and cream cheese. Process until smooth. Add granulated sweetener, blend until creamy. Add flour and vanilla and blend again. Pour half of filling into prepared crust. Spoon half of raspberry sauce over filling. Pour remainder of filling into pan and swirl with knife. Be careful not to mix completely. (NOTE: I did the knife trick but mine never did swirl, I had a perfect layer of raspberry sauce between two layers of filling though. It still looked nice.) Put pan on top rack of oven with a shallow pan filled with water on the bottom rack. Bake for 1 hour but turn off oven after 50 minutes.

Remove cheesecake from oven, carefully spread remaining half of raspberry sauce on top. Return to oven and allow it to cool in the oven with the door closed for an additional hour.

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight before serving.

***One additional note about the potato chowder. I realized I forgot to say cut up the potatoes before adding them to the crock pot. Seems like a given but I didn't want to confuse people who might be thinking "That's weird, she said leave the skins on, but do we put them in whole?" Sorry! Also we season the chowder with Bragg's and black pepper but I do that after it's in everyone's bowl because each person likes it a little different so I thought I should say something about that in case you try it and think "Gee, this is pretty bland."

Have fun!

[ShangriLewis]

My mom found some ghastly cake recipe in a Cooking Light Magazine that take a whole bottle of red dye and that is what she is making for a cake. Yuck..isn't that just awful. A whole bottle with cream cheese frosting. Gag me! The kids are going to bug out.

oh dear! :eek how did it go? :) I hope you enjoyed the celebration. What a nice gift to give her! :heart I'll pm you about the restaurant. :)


It went ok. But, the cake really affected Evan (dh) and Gibran (8 years old). They were horrible after that. And, Gibran only had two jelly beans, so I know it was the cake. My Grandma actually made a comment to my sister that dye is natural. Sometimes....

I love being by my family, but holidays were so much easier when we lived somewhere else. I've been missing that this past year. Just being able to focus on our family and how we want our holiday to go. Instead we've spent the last few holidays focused on how we can accomadate our families. I hate that. We've decided to work on that..but we have no idea how to start.

Heather

[flowermama]

Thank you, julbug! That cheesecake recipe sounds really rich. yum!

(((((Heather)))))) I know that can be so hard. I wish I had some good advice to offer. :hug