holiday | Earthgiven Kitchen

Happy new year! This also marks my 100th post. Big thanks to all of you for sticking around! I hope 2012 was as kind to you as it was to me.

Looking back on the year, here are my three most popular recipes of 2012:

1) Chocolate Banana Cookies

2) Creamy Avocado Chickpea Pasta

3) Crispy Tofu Strips

These are some of my favourite recipes too! I’m thrilled to hear the feedback when people make my recipes and enjoy them. Thank you for all your comments.

I’ve recently returned from the Mayan Riviera, Mexico, where I spent the week over Christmas swimming in the ocean, soaking up some vitamin D, and relaxing with my family. (What better place to spend December 21, 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar than with the Mayans?!) It was a fabulous holiday! And certainly my personal highlight of 2012.

Some photos of the beautiful resort, the Xcaret Grand Occidental…..

This photo was taken of my husband and I at the resort a few years ago, one of my favourite photos of all time.

There was plenty of wildlife to see: Coatis (also known as Brazillian Aardvarks), agoutis (a large rodent that my son described as a cross between a rabbit and a miniature hippo), iguanas, geckos, howler monkeys, spider monkeys and dozens of species of beautiful birds. In the ocean: sergeant majors, angel fish, needle fish and countless more.

This was my fourth trip to the resort, the second time as a vegan. When I first visited in several years ago, I was a meat-eater and was only mildly bothered that the resort kept monkeys in a cage. The last time I visited, I was a vegan and was pleased to see that the monkey cage was empty. So I was disappointed on this year’s trip to see that the caged monkeys had returned. The monkey cage is completely redundant as there are wild monkeys to see at the resort anyway. I loved getting to show my children monkeys in the wild. Watching them dash through the trees, they almost looked like they were flying, they were so fast, and you realize the vast space (including height) that monkeys need to thrive. They moved so fast I never got a great photo. (Howler monkeys’ cries sound like a lion roar, we could hardly believe that those little guys could make such a ruckus, but it’s clear how their moniker was earned!)

There were also flamingos and deer in enclosures; they appeared more humane than the monkey cage, but all confined animals sadden me. The animal captivity was the only part of the resort that was a negative for me, it was otherwise a wonderful place to stay: clean rooms, great service, lush grounds, so much to do. I doubt if I’ll return to this particular resort, but I love the Mayan Riviera, it’s a little piece of paradise. The weather is hot year-round, the ocean is spectacular, the people are friendly and it’s less than a four hour flight from Toronto.

For future travel, can anyone recommend a great family vacation spot? Perhaps a veg-friendly resort?

Coming up next post: the food!

Our family vacation this summer was a week at a cottage in beautiful Muskoka, Ontario and the ten of us had a wonderful time.

I’m grateful that even though I’m the lone vegan in the family, the rest of my family members are either nearly vegan, semi-vegetarian or veg-supportive. All family meals were predominantly vegan. We saved time and stress by preparing many of the meals ahead of time and freezing them, like my BBQ burritos and my sister’s delicious vegan shepherd’s pie. I made sure to pack with me all the foods I wouldn’t want to go a week without and wouldn’t be able to find in the nearest grocery store, like my sandwich spread (Vegenaise + mustard + fresh herbs from my garden), Tofurky slices, hemp seeds, organic fruit, almond milk, etc.

So, for What I ate Wednesday‘s submission #2, here is what I ate one day last week at the cottage:

Breakfast: Raw cherry almond granola. Recipe coming soon. We adored getting to see this view every day as we ate. So peaceful. August’s WIAW theme is “summer staples”, celebrating the foods in season right now. For me, nothing says summer like fresh berries, and I used both raw strawberries and cherries in my granola. Summer food staples in my house are also burgers and anything else barbecued, which we certainly enjoyed at the cottage.

Lunch: Mountain Veggie Burger with Daiya, relish and tomatoes and almonds and watermelon for dessert. This was my first time trying this brand and I really liked it. It’s made from vegetables and beans and only 3 grams of fat per burger, a nice break from the fatty and soy-based (though delicious) burgers out there. They were bought at Organic Garage in Oakville. Snack of tortilla chips and salsa, Barbara’s blueberry fig bars and dried apricots.

Dinner: Sweet potato black bean burritos with cilantro lime sauce! Recipe coming soon. These were a big hit. I made them a few weeks before hand, wrapped them individually in aluminum foil and froze them before the trip. They defrosted over night in the fridge then barbecued about five minutes each side so they will be hot all the way through. We served them with Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream, guacamole and salsa. Delicious! Easily my favourite meal at the cottage.

Dessert: Birthday cake! We treated ourselves to Sweets from the Earth chocolate cheesecake for my son’s birthday celebration. I adored cheesecake before I went vegan and so far have not had lucky myself creating an excellent vegan cheesecake, but that’s okay because we can always get a delicious Sweets from the Earth cake to satisfy our cheesecake cravings. Their very best cake, in my opinion, is their carrot cake. Completely addictive. All Sweets from the Earth foods are made from natural vegan ingredients; no preservatives, GMOs, hydrogenated food or refined sugars. And they are from Toronto! Sweet indeed.