Good Bye 2009, Hello 2010!

Christmas is over and the New Year has thankfully begun. This Christmas was a crazy one for Tattooedgeek. We were still taking & shipping Christmas orders on the 24th! Once our last trip to the post office for the 2009 Holiday season was completed we pushed aside all of the Tattooedgeek candles, balms and ornaments.  We realized Christmas Eve was here and we had no idea what to make for dinner. I really wanted to try the recipe for Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I decided to let the cookies set the tone for our Christmas Eve dinner.  We had a Mexican Fiesta.

 

I LOVED the Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles. The recipe was super easy to follow and made the most moist, delicious, chocolaty vegan cookies I've made yet. The cayenne in the recipe gave the cookies just a little bit of a kick. Unfortunately the rest of the family didn't share my love for Mexican Chocolate cookies. Our youngest didn't want me to put any out for Santa. He was afraid Santa would burn his tongue and not leave any presents.  I baked a quick batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies using the Quaker Oats Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe. I used ground flax seeds mixed with vanilla almond milk to replace the eggs the recipe called for, and I used Earth Balance for the butter.  I replaced the raisins with vegan chocolate chips. Everybody eat the Oatmeal Cookies and left me the Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles. Everybody except Santa Claus, he eat all of cookies we left out for him even the Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles (it seems he didn't mind a tingling tongue after all.)

For Christmas Eve dinner we made Black Bean Soup, Creamy Avocado Potato salad (from Vegan Brunch), Seitan Taquitos and Jalapeño Hush Puppies with a creamy dipping sauce.

For the Jalapeño Hush Puppy Dipping sauce I blended 2 cups of Vegenaise with 1 cup salsa and a couple of dashes of hot sauce. The sauce was cool, creamy, tangy and delicious!  The kids dipped french fries in it and used it on veggie burgers the next day. 

  For the Christmas Day festivities we veganized some of our traditional Italian favorites. Stuffed Red Peppers, Sicilian Rice Balls, and Spaghetti w/Marinara sauce. I think everybody agreed, the veganized winner of the day were the Sicilian Rice Balls.

The key to good Italian rice balls is the rice itself, always use Arborio rice.  Make it ahead of time so it's completely cooled when you're ready to use it.

 With 2010 already here I'm looking forward to great year of vegan food and cruelty free crafty fun.  I'll be posting lots of new Tattooedgeek products, so please check back often.  Or check the shop:  http://www.mrstattooedgeek.etsy.com/

Vegan MoFo day7 ~ Vegan food & Etsy. Etsy Sellers specializing in made-to-order vegan delights!

If you're anything like us than you do not live in a very vegan friendly area.  I drool over twitter reading tweet after tweet from happy vegans enjoying the vegan cuisine from their local vegan friendly eateries.  Here we have a mediocre at best health food store, and all vegan friendly restaurants are a minimum of 30 miles away. 

Then I discovered that there are a plethora of Etsy shops dedicated to vegan offerings.  With a click of my mouse I could have fresh homemade vegan fare delivered to my P.O. Box.  We could fill our bellies while filling the pockets of small independent Etsy shop owners, well maybe not fill the pockets - but you know what I mean.  In the interest of full disclosure I must admit that we recently threw our hats into the Etsy Vegan food delivery ring as well.  A few months ago we opened  Medusa Fine Vegan Fare or http://www.medusafoods.etsy.com/.  Medusa Fine Vegan Fare's soul purpose is to provide high quality vegan entrees to those without access to such, or those busy vegans and vegetarians looking for a quick healthy meal.

On Medusa's menu you will find seitan based dishes like Thai Peanut, Southern Fried Cutlets, Vegan Tandoori Chicken, Maple Teriyaki and Buffalo Bites with Vegan Blue Cheese Dip to name a few.

Our shop isn't the only vegan food based Etsy shop.  We found a few others like Sweet Fritsy where you can find these wonderful looking donuts and  many other awesome looking vegan goodness.   http://www.sweetfritsy.etsy.com/

And I can't forget The Cupcake Mint  where you can order this bad boy or one of his equally mouth watering siblings. http://www.thecupcakemint.etsy.com/

When shopping on Etsy search vegan, vegan plants and edibles, or vegan food to find these and other vegan offerings available from some of the many different vegan friendly Etsy shops.