Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas Eve Extravaganza!

 

Happy Holidays everyone!! I hope it was full of friends family and good times! I wasn't able to visit family this year but I was lucky to be surrounded by wonderful friends. I woke up yesterday morning totally excited to cook. I was really tempted to skip the gym but I have to say, I was really glad I ended up going. I did a 90 minute power cardio workout! I knew since there would be lots of treats and good drinks some extra minutes in the gym would do me good! I blew through about 650 calories! Wahoo!

Now on to the good stuff…

Everyone came out around 4ish and I started off by making some appetizers for everyone.

There was some tomato basil bread pudding with a basil cream and balsamic reduction.

breadPudding

Then I made some artichoke and roasted red pepper bruschetta on crostinis. (bad pic…)

artichoke

Lentil Pate on Endive with cranberries (a take on the traditional liver pate, vegan and delicious!)

lentil

Then I just had a veggie platter and some shrimp and cocktail sauce as well.

I finally got to put together my cookie tray as well!

cookieTray

Complete with plenty of raw balls. (they were all gone by the end of the night!)

raw4

More random pics..

spread02

spread01

Then finally after much wine and appetizers it was time for dinner! My friend Di made an excellent turkey!

turkey

Followed by some roasted root veggies (these always make an apperance at my holiday parties!)

rootVeggies

Sauteed green beans..

greenBeans

and mashed potatoes which I actually didnt have a picture of. Ah well=)

I also made some of the chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon (which are amazing!!)

veganomicon

Overall it was tons of fun! Im so glad I had wonderful friends to share the holiday season with!! Although I have to say my holiday was complete with this gift from my husband. I found under the tree….

A banana bunker!! hhahaha. Im totally excited. I have to say I couldnt stop laughing.

 

bunker5 

and also an amazing new camera=)

camera

Complete with tons of different lenses and all kinds of good stuff. Im going to be a picture taking machine! Im so excited!!

Sorry to be a bit MIA, the holidays have kept me quite busy but Im ready to get back to some regular posting time. I was recently graced with an award and I’ll be sharing that soon!

Anyways I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday!  I cannot wait to hear all about it!! What was your favorite dish you or someone else you know made this holiday season?

Take care!! xoxo!!

15 comments:

  1. Glad it was a good one! Those raw balls are the perfect appetizer! YUM YUM YUM! It all looks good, actually! :D

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  2. wow you went all out!! great feast, everything looks really good. LOL i saw that banana protector thing and am so glad somebody i "know" has one now! i want to try that recipe for chickpea cutlets!

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  3. HEY girl!! all of your eats look SO great! i LOVE the looks of those raw balls! my fav dish was grilled salmon.. amazing!

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  4. What a great spread for your holiday! Everything looks so yummy, you did a great job!

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  5. everything looks so great!
    the lentil pate would be awesome :)

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  6. 650 calories! You are a machine! And you deserve all the treats you can get your hands on.

    All of your food looks so delicious! The appetizers sound awesome, especially that lentil pate. And I am always up for some root veggies. I'm glad to see you had such a good time with your friends :D

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  7. A new camera, awesome!
    The tomato basil bread pudding with a basil cream and balsamic reduction looks amazing. The lentils in endives...NICE. And of cousre, the raw balls just take my heart away. As well as the cookie tray! Yay!!!

    So glad you had a nice Xmas, Chrysta! I am so happy for you, what a great post!

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  8. ow! Congrats on the new camera- hoooooray!!! Looks like you put together a WONDERFUL meal. I love the looks of the bruschetta, roasted root veggies, and your raw cookies. I bet everyone had a blasty! Merry (belated ;)) Christmas

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  9. Wow, everything looks fantastic!! My favorite food item was my cousin's buckeyes, and Nick's mom's meatballs!! Yum. I've never loved a ball of meat so much, haha. We're still eating the leftovers and I don't want them to ever be gone!

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  10. You really outdid yourself, everything looks amazing!

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  11. oooooh camera! glad you had such a wonderful time.

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  12. Your food looks incredible! My mom made some WONDERFUL spinach lasagna, it was delicious! I've also had some awesome desserts, of course!

    Happy holidays!

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  13. a new camera?! cha-ching! that is every bloggies dream :)

    Hope you had a holiday to remember, precious! xo

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  14. that bread pudding looks awesome! I wish I could try some :-D . sometimes it doesn't needs to be big cheesy dish , small ones looks really enticing!

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