Vegan on the Cheap: Meal Ideas for the Holidays

Enjoy this guest post by vegan blogger Melissa Corenne. A 25-year old vegan with a passion for cooking, Melissa has been blogging for three years. You can find her articles about food at the Blog Content Guild.

Vegan on the Cheap: Meal Ideas for the Holidays

Most vegans will tell you that holiday meals can be tough. Holidays usually mean time with family, but there’s always the possibility that some people won’t understand your vegan lifestyle and diet. The easy solution for those situations is to bring along your own delicious alternatives. But what about the times when you’re looking for cheap meals with a holiday theme for yourself? Read on for some tips about how to make vegan meals fit for royalty on a pauper’s budget. 

Freshen Up Your Spread

Vegan food can be expensive. Most of the time, however, the cost goes up when there’s an analogue involved. You know what we’re talking about: The dishes that look like “regular” food but are made with vegan friendly substitutes like soy or some other plant-based material. There’s nothing wrong with these foods, and many of them are absolutely delicious. 

Unfortunately, they can be more expensive than other options because of the extra work that goes into creating them and making them look like something else. You can avoid paying more for your vegan diet if you stick to fresh foods, which are cheap to begin with. If you buy fruits and vegetables that are in season, you’ll save even more money. Keep fresh food in mind and your wallet will thank you.

Be Adventurous!

If the most important aspect of holidays is family, then second is probably tradition. It seems like everyone cooks the same thing, year after year, because it’s welcoming and comforting. You remember all the great times and associate them with the food, so of course you want to eat the same thing every year! This year, you can start a new tradition of branching out instead of sticking to the old standbys. This holiday, why not replace turkey with Indian food? There are tons of vegan dishes to choose from, and you can bet it will be a meal to remember. If you’re not ready for that yet, at least choose a different centerpiece dish for your holiday meals. For inspiration, see the recipe below.

Pumpkin Centerpiece

Ingredients:
- 1 pumpkin, around 10 pounds
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt (divided)
- 1/2 cup buckwheat
- 1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
- 4 stalks celery, sliced
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 slices of your favorite bread
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bell pepper (red or orange), chopped
- 1/4 cup toasted and chopped hazelnuts
- 1/3 cup hazelnut meal
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate syrup
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- Ground pepper, to taste

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cut the top off the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds and insides. Set the pumpkin in a large baking pan. Mix water and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the buckwheat, turn heat to low and cook the buckwheat, covered, for 15 minutes. Transfer the buckwheat to another container. Put the celery, mushrooms, onions, and olive oil in a skillet and cook over high heat for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the mixture to the buckwheat. Mix in the garlic, toasted bread, hazelnuts, carrot, bell pepper, raisins, hazelnut meal, cranberries, sage, pomegranate syrup, pepper, and the remaining salt. Put the mixture in the pumpkin and stick the lid back on top. Bake for an hour to an hour and a half, or until the sides of the pumpkin are soft to the touch.

Happy Holidays!

The 2nd Annual Terrific Thanksgiving Turkey Pledge!

Hello beauties - 

Well, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and with that, the hustle and bustle of finding just the right food to display on the table for everyone to munch on. Stuffing! Mashed Potatoes! Cranberry sauce out of a can! Hey, you can take the girl out of New Jersey, but you can't take the New Jersey out of the girl...



This year, I am challenging you - YES YOU! - to a

TERRIFIC THANKSGIVING

TURKEY PLEDGE!!!

 

 

We did it last year with fabulous success - nearly 100 pledges on the blog!

Here's how it goes:

First: Watch this amazing video below my friend and fellow activist Ciddy Fonteboa made last year that rocked right into our hearts: 

Second: In the comment section below, I want you to make a firm commitment NOT to eat turkeys this Thanksgiving.  You can say something as simple as "No turkey for me!" or as long as "I would never dream of consuming turkeys because their too cute to eat, pass the tofurky please!"

I would love to see if we can get around 100 pledges by Thanksgiving this year. And don't worry - you can be a vegan, vegetarian, or meat-eater-slowly-transitioning-to-kiss-worthy-vegan and still post a comment below!

Here’s to a delicious, compassionate 

holiday season!

For vegan Thanksgiving recipe ideas, check out last year's holiday post.

Happy World Vegan Day!

Steve and one of the many rescued turkeys at Farm Sanctuary. 

From my little Los Angeles family to yours, a very Happy World Vegan Day to YOU! 

Celebrate this day, my friends, with delicious plant-based food and compassionate choices. Enjoy it, and allow it to remind you that the animals of this world need each and every one of you, yes YOU!, to be strong, kind, positive voices for them. More so now than ever. 

“Be passionate and follow your heart, which will encourage and empower yourself and others. And listen to your gut. It is shocking what happens on factory farms; it is not wrong to feel that people should know about it and want it to stop.” 

- Gene Baur, co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary

A Reason to Smile Today.

Last night, I saw a vegan documentary that completely blew me away, melted my heart, and pumped me back into compassionate action. It’s called Vegucated, and it is the vegan baby of activist (and former blog interviewee!) Marisa Miller Wolfson. I will have more on this film soon, since we were VIP guests at the LA premiere last night (fancy I know!), but for now, this is an excerpt from Vegucated’s website. More importantly to note, these are Marisa’s words about the film, and they my biggest reason to smile today.

To me, Vegucated is about the shift that happens when you sit at one side of the dinner table, looking at the vegan on the other side with amusement, envy, or perhaps, slight horror. Then you receive some information or inspiration and suddenly find yourself on the vegan’s side of the table, seeing the dinner in a whole new light...

What we’ve ended up with is a watchable, accessible, honest, and, I believe, universal story about the challenges and the joys that come along with consciously putting one’s actions in alignment with one’s beliefs. It’s also a timely story as we stand on the brink of an “alternative lifestyle” becoming solidly mainstream as more and more people choose plant-based living and more and more media outlets position it as a viable, common sense, and enjoyable solution to some of the greatest challenges of our time...

My hope is that this film will further the conversation about our culture and our relationship to animals, our planet, and our bodies through our food. I hope people who have started down a plant-based path will share it with friends and family and create more peace and understanding at the dinner table. And, of course, I hope that people who are curious about vegan living will embark on their own delicious and fulfilling adventures.

To learn more about Vegucated, check out www.getvegucated.com.

Three Years.

Three years ago this month, I decided to take a leap and try living vegan. And life has been a daring, beautiful adventure every single day since. In three long and short years,

Photo © Joanna Wilson Photography

I've learned how to love new foods,

I've fallen head over heels in love with animals,

I've found peace in knowing that my daily choices honor the Earth and all of its inhabitants,

I've found a deeper sense of faith,

I've learned to be more compassionate towards people,

Photo © Joanna Wilson Photography

I've felt my heart grow bigger,

I've smiled more,

I've breathed more easily,

I've celebrated the knowledge that I am doing my part in this world,

I've witnessed countless other beautiful vegan journeys,

I've given pigs belly rubs,

I've been given cow kisses,

I've snuggled with turkeys,

I've learned how gentle chickens are,

I've learned how grave the situation is for the animals and humans of this world,

I've learned that there is much to be worried about,

I've learned that there is much to be grateful for,

I've looked at the world with new eyes,

I've held my cats closer to me and loved them a little more,

I've failed more times than I can count in the kitchen,

I've succeeded even more times,

I've watched this blog grow like a beautiful flower,

Photo © Ciddy Fonteboa

I've realized what I'm on this Earth to do,

I've realized that I will continue to live vegan for the rest of my life. No matter what.

Next month will mark three years of Kiss Me, I'm Vegan!,  and I couldn't be more excited or more ready for it. I will continue to share my journey with you guys and gals, and it is my sincere hope that this blog helps you on your own vegan journeys. Here's to three more years of compassionate living!

Risk! Care! Dream! Expect!

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.” 

- Jack Kerouac

"If enough people are determined to stand up to an issue, you know what? It's gonna get solved. " 

- Chris DeRose

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” 

 - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"'When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,' said Piglet at last, 'what's the first thing you say to yourself?'

'What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?'

'I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?' said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

'It's the same thing,' he said." 

- Winnie the Pooh

During breaks at acting class, I’m often asked questions about living vegan. It usually stems from an actor friend spotting the meal I’m eating or a vegan-friendly pin on my bag. Sometimes I get a little verbal poke about living this way - usually from those most curious about my lifestyle, but most afraid to ask about it genuinely. I play along to a degree, but in the end, I tell them honestly about my choice, because I know that more significant than my pride or my feelings is speaking up for the animals most in need of our defending and protection. 

And sometimes I get that look - that uncomfortable look from someone whose heart isn’t completely open to compassionate living yet. I get the person who says, “Oh, your story’s nice, but I could never eat vegan.” To them I say, “Never say never!” with a big smile on my face, risking that they may feel even more uncomfortable by my gentle nudging. Why do I do this? Because I’ve seen too many people in my life go vegan a year or two after they declared the same thing.

And then there was that time when I was doing a film shoot a few years ago, and, upon learning that I live vegan, my scene partner said to me, “Man, vegans scare me - it’s like you’re trying to take over the world or something!” To which I playfully said, “Oh yeah - deep down, we all have this evil notion of trying to brainwash the world into living with compassion and - wait for it - caring about people and animals! We’re awful, I know...” And saying this held the huge risk of turning this guy off to vegan living forever. But I said all of it with a smile on my face, with love in my heart, and with a sense of humor. And it made him laugh, instead of shut down. 

By the way, I added the Winnie the Pooh quote into the mix up there for two reasons. One - I couldn’t agree more with Pooh about breakfast, and two - I believe if we start living our lives with more purpose, compassion, and respect to every living being, even if it means we'll be unpopular, we can eat and live lovingly and with great excitement. 

Photo © Connie Pugh.

Remember grade school? Remember having that moment when one of your friends was being made fun of, and you had the choice - stand up for your friend and possibly get made fun of too, or just stay quiet? Today, I’m asking you, my lovely readers, to choose to be the kind of friend who doesn’t care about being made fun of. I’m asking you to not stay quiet. When the opportunity to be honest about living vegan presents itself, I’m asking you to jump in with both feet, throwing away that pesky fear of being disliked. Be bold, share your story, and risk being looked at funny. Rinse and repeat. 

Of course, all of this should be done with as much positivity, kindness, and openness as possible. If Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has taught me anything (and boy, has she!),  it's that we need to care as much about the person we’re talking to as the animals we’re talking about. But I think to be effective activists, vegans, and vegans-to-be, we need to stop caring so much about what others think of us. I think we need to keep the conversation about animal cruelty going, even if it means we may be looked at as weird, extreme, or crazy. I think the combination of living this way out loud and doing so with love and empathy for every being affected by our lifestyle (from the billions of animals being slaughtered for food each year to that friend/family member/domestic partner who doesn’t like you eating vegan, because it scares them) can lead to real change in this world.

Protesting Foie Gras cruelty in LA with APRL.

At the end of the day, you live with your own personal choices - the choices you make each day can either embrace compassion, or reject it. Why not end your day knowing that you did everything you could to live with more purpose, compassion, and respect to every living being? I’m asking you to take a leap and be bold for the animals, and in the long run, for yourself as well. Stop playing it safe. Playfully challenge that friend who keeps mocking your vegan lifestyle. Joyfully risk having one more conversation with your mom about why you gave up meat. Respectfully stand up for animals whenever possible. And know that, as difficult as it may seem to be that awesome friend who speaks up, you are paving the way for a better world. You are becoming the change you wish to see. You are the answer. 

And what could be more kiss-worthy than that?

With Winnie the Goose at Animal Acres.

"Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible." 

- Cadet Maxim