Showing posts with label party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label party. Show all posts

Friday, January 20, 2012

My 1st Vegan Dinner Party

Most of my friends are not vegan, but when my friend Amie suggested a dinner party, I knew I wanted to make some vegan food for my friends. I decided to make a salad, bread, soup and a dessert. Here is what I served...this menu is great for spring shindigs:

Strawberry Almond Green Salad 

Rosemary Bread

Minestrone Soup

Grapefruit Pound Cake

We had a blast preparing the food and it was super delicious! All the vegan recipes are below the photos!



Strawberry Almond Green Salad (4 servings)

1 bag Romaine lettuce
1 bag mixed greens
16 Strawberries
1 cup sliced almonds
3 Tbsp honey
8 Tbsp poppy seed dressing (I get mine from Arcadia Farms Marketplace in Old Town Scottsdale...such a cute market/cafe)


1. Slice the strawberries and set aside.
2. Pour honey over sliced almonds in a frying pan and heat on medium heat until the almonds start to stick together...don't overcook them. The almonds will soak up most of the honey when they are ready to take off the stove.
3. Plate salad with lettuce first, then strawberries, then almonds and finish with a drizzle of poppy seed dressing.


Rosemary Bread

1 pre-made bag of Fresh and Easy whole wheat pizza dough
Fresh rosemary
olive oil to spritz

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Roll out pizza dough
3. Spritz a cookie sheet with olive oil
4. Shape pizza dough into a rectangle
5. Press rosemary into the top of the dough
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes

Perfect for dipping into soup or into flavored olive oils!



Minestrone Soup (from Spark People)

    5 cups Organic Vegetable Broth 1/2 cup Elbows Pasta (I used bow tie pasta-cooked per package instructions) 1 cup Onions, raw, chopped 3 cloves Garlic 1 cup Carrots, raw, chopped 2.5 cups Swiss Chard chopped 2 cups Tomatoes (stewed) 1 cup Green Beans (snap) 1.5 cups Zucchini, sliced 1 cup Savoy or Napa cabbage, chopped 2 tbsp Olive Oil 3 tsp Thyme, fresh 1 tsp Pepper, black
1. Dice onions, carrots and chard stems. 
15 oz can canned cannellini beans
2. Saute in olive oil for about 10 minutes until onions are translucent. 
3. Add minced garlic and thyme. Stir for another minute.
4. Add vegetable broth and pint of canned tomatoes. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. 
5. Add chard that has been torn into bite sized pieces, chopped savoy cabbage leaves, green beans and zucchini. Simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Add pasta and drained, rinsed beans.
7. Simmer until pasta is cooked through. 
8. Season with black pepper and salt if desired.
     
         Vegan Grapefruit Pound Cake (adapted from a Cooking Light magazine recipe)
Baking spray with flour  
9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)  
1 teaspoon baking powder  
5/8 teaspoon salt, divided  
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar  
6 tablespoons butter, softened  (I used Earth Balance)
6 ounces 1/3-less-fat cream cheese  (I used Tofutti cream cheese)
2 large eggs  (to veganize use 1 'egg-replacer' and 1/2 cup applesauce)
1/4 cup canola oil  
2 tablespoons grated grapefruit rind  
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract  
1/2 cup 2% reduced-fat milk  (I used vanilla almond milk)
 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar 
1/2 cup fresh grapefruit juice
 
  
1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. Coat a 10-inch tube pan with baking spray. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, stirring well. Place granulated sugar, butter, and cream cheese in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in oil, rind, and vanilla.
3. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to batter, beginning and ending with flour. Spoon batter into pan; bake at 325° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Invert cake. Cool on rack.
4. Place juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 3 tablespoons (about 4 minutes). Cool slightly. Stir in powdered sugar and remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt. Drizzle over cake.
 
Thanks to Matt, Christie, Amie, Sam, Becky and Gary!
 
 

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Seriously amazing vegan fondue recipes

The Hibbards love vegan fondue!

There is something magical about fondue. Don't you agree? My dreams usually involve cheese and chocolate...and Krispy Creme donuts (find and/or make me vegan ones and I will love you forever). Matt jokes that I try to eat my pillow at night. ha.
The Melting Pot was my only real experience with fondue, but we used to go at least a couple times a year, BV (before vegan). I am saving myself for a Cathrineholm fondue set, but until the day I find one in good condition, I'll just have to use big enamel pots and some old 70s fondue sticks that I found in our junk drawer (probably came from a fondue set my parents gave me).

Trying to find a vegan cheese fondue recipe online was pretty hard, so I took the basic idea from this recipe to create my own. My modified recipe is DIVINE!!! Like, so good that I had it as leftovers for 3 nights! Not the healthiest thing you can eat...but your mouth will love you.

VEGAN CHEESE FONDUE

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup mimiccreme
  • 3 tbsp earth balance
  • 1 bag vegan shredded Diaya cheese
  • 1 tsp tahini
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • dash salt and pepper (to taste)

Preparation:

In a fondue pot (or enamel pot) over medium-low heat, melt the earth balance and diaya cheese. Add tahini and stir until combined. Add remaining ingredients. You may need to add a bit more cheese or mimiccreme to get the consistency that you want.

  You only need 1 bag of Diaya...not 2, as pictured
 Looks just like cheese
 Starts looking like cheese fondue!

Here's where it get's fun! We decided to dip gardein crispy 7 grain tenders, apple slices and 2 varieties of fresh vegan bread.
 Gardein and apple slices
Fresh bread cubes
 After sitting on low heat, the cheese fondue turns a nice shade of 'cheddar'.

 Yum!
 I yuppified Matt's Coleman camping grill, so we could keep the cheese hot! This is where a good fondue set would come in handy.
 Yep, camping in the kitchen.
 Dippin'
 It was sooooo tasty. I honestly think I could taste-test fool some non-vegans into thinking it is real cheese fondue.


The chocolate course. This is somewhat easier to find recipes for, and I used this recipe, but made some modifications. Super duper tasty. And, you can re-heat it, if you have leftovers.

Vegan Chocolate Fondue

Ingredients: 
  • 1/4 cup earth balance
  • 8 ounces vegan chocolate chips or dark chocolate
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1/2 cup agave nectar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 tbsp vanilla soy milk
Preparation:

Melt earth balance, vegan chocolate and soy milk together in saucepan over very low heat, or, use a double-boiler to ensure chocolate doesn't burn. Once melted, remove from heat, add the rest of the ingredients, combine well and transfer to fondue pot to keep warm.

Ingredients
 Everything goes into the pot
 Finished vegan chocolate fondue
 Fun! Let's dip bananas, massive strawberries, vegan bread, vegan chocolate chip cookies and vegan brownies.
 Going in!
 Strawberries and chocolate. Dreamy.

So, looking for something fun to try this weekend?! Try vegan fondue!