Soooo, holidays around here where crazy! I was cooking my own meal and my grandmother and uncle were cooking for the rest of my non-vegan family. We both had pretty similar menus except I don't cook my collard greens and black eyed peas with a piece of fat-back in it. What the heck is fat-back anyways?? LOL. My dinner turned out great except I cooked waaaaay to much. The only thing I ended up throwing out was a tiny bit of left over mashed potatoes so it wasn't a total waste. 
This was my menu:
Slow Cooker Collard Green and Black Eyed Pea Soup
Creamed Corn
Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Gravy
Gardein Meatless Meatloaf 
Cornbread Dressing























Since I didn't have a lot of time to prep for my Holiday Dinner I used some premade items such as the creamed corn (canned), mushroom gravy (canned) and the Gardein Meatless Meatloaf (packaged frozen).

Recipe time!! 

Slow Cooker Collard Green and Black Eyed Pea Soup
Ingredients:
1 lb dry black eyed peas, soaked and rinsed
2 1/2 bunches of collard greens, trimmed and cut into pieces
1 15oz. can diced tomatoes
3 carrots
1 large onion
3 celery stalks
4 1/4 cups of vegetable broth
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. thyme

Directions:
1. Soak black eye peas overnight or for at least 6 hours. Drain soaking water and rinse. Put peas into the crock of slow cooker.
2. Prepare onion, celery and carrots. Dice onions, slice celery and carrots. Add to crock.
3. Add vegetable broth, salt, pepper and thyme to crock.
4. Add can of diced tomatoes to crock.
5. Wash and trim hard stems from collard greens. Lay all leaves together on a cutting board and rol up like a burrito. Hold them tightly and slice into strips about 1 inch thick.
6. Add collards to crock. Don't worry about it being over full, the collards will cook down.
7. Turn on slow cooker to low and cook for 10 hours.



Vegan Cornbread Dressing
(adapted from a recipe found on onegreenplanet.org)


Ingredients:
For the cornbread

1 Cup Yellow Corn Meal
1/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
3/4 Cup Almond Milk
1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil

For the stuffing
1 Cup Onion, Chopped
1 Cup Celery, Chopped
2 Tablespoon Light Vegan Butter
5 Slices Whole Wheat Bread, Cubed
3 Cups of Cornbread, Crumbled
2 Teaspoons Poultry Seasoning
1 Teaspoon Parsley Flakes
1 Teaspoon Onion Powder
1 Teaspoon Ground Sage
1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1 3/4 Cup Veggie Broth


Directions:
1. Cook cornbread first. You can make it a day in advance. Prepare iron skillet by spraying it with cooking spray and sprinkling it with corn meal. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix together corn meal, flour, salt, baking powder, rice milk and canola oil.Pour into skillet and cook for 20 to 25 minutes or until top is golden brown. Let set for about 5 minutes before you remove it from the pan.
3. In a saucepan place butter, celery and onions and simmer on medium-low heat until soft.
4. In a mixing bowl mix together onions and celery, bread cubes, cornbread, bread flakes, poultry seasoning, parsley, onion, sage, pepper, carrot and broth. Place into a 8 inch casserole dish, sprayed with cooking spray. Cover with tin foil. Oven is already preheated. Place into oven and cook for about 45 minutes.

Soooo it's that time of year when people indulge in all kinds of food! I personally LOVE to eat too on the holidays! This will be my second Christmas as a vegan and I am super excited to cook up some deeee-lishious comfort holiday food vegan style! What's on my menu you ask? I am more than happy to tell you! I am making black eyed peas (which are soaking right now as I type LOL) and collard greens, sage dressing, mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy and Gardein Meatless Meatloaf (which I LOVE!). I really wish I had some green beans, I may have to run to the store later and pick up some! 

I am gonna make my black eyed peas and collards in the slow cooker today. This will be my first time using my slow cooker as a vegan. I would think only people cooking meat used slow cookers....boy was I WRONG! After doing a simple search on Amazon I was happy to see lots of books dedicated to vegan slow cooking! Once I get my Purple Kitchen up and running I will be demo-ing some of my favorite slow cooker recipes.

Don't worry Purple Plant Eaters, I will the recipes for my Christmas dinner very soon along with pictures! 

Happy Holidays!