No Vegans Allowed: Family Holiday Dinners

Nov 25

December is such a beautiful month when energy is high, your town is bustling and people are out and about preparing for the holidays. With the holidays comes family gatherings, parties and the most amazing food! While this is such a sacred and special time to spend with family and friends, holiday dinners can be especially difficult when you are the only one in your family or friend group who maintains a 100% plant based diet. Most of the time we feel as if we have to eat before we come to a dinner or party and unfortunately in most circumstances this is the truth of the matter. Food and family is what brings us together for the holidays but if you can’t enjoy any of the food you can feel isolated and/or disconnected because you are not able to fully participate in the ritual of sharing a meal.

From my own personal experience and stories of others who are the lone vegan in their family, most people are unable to modify dishes for lack of experience with vegan cooking and/or fear that their dish might not be enjoyed as much by those who do eat meat and dairy. Others simply couldn’t and wouldn’t dare think of changing their great great grandmothers Mac and cheese recipe or leaving the ham hocks out of the greens! All of these dishes were staples at my family's holiday dinners growing up and if anyone had walked in my mom's kitchen at a holiday dinner asking for something without meat and/or dairy my whole family would have laughed them out of the kitchen with my drunk uncle yelling “We eat meat in this family! No Vegans Allowed!!!!”

At most holiday dinners and parties as the lone vegan, you may be able to find a few side dishes to complete your holiday meal but dessert is typically an entirely different story. In most holiday desserts we traditionally there is usually an egg or cup of milk in every cake, cookie and pie on the table. But don’t worry! This is the perfect time to show off your “cooking” skills and offer to bring dessert. What better way to make sure you have dessert at the end of a holiday meal and at the same time introduce others to your incredibly tasty and healthy organic raw vegan pies!

I am so excited to share with you one of my favorite holiday raw mini pie recipes. Raw pies are tasty, sweet, all organic, and most importantly super easy to make. This Pecan Coconut Cream Pie is perfect for the holidays with hints of cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. The coconut cream makes it incredibly smooth and creamy. All you need is a high speed blender and you are well on your way to impressing your family with a dessert that will satisfy their sweet tooth while nourishing their body at the same time!

I always suggest that people make food intuitively so feel free to add any other spices or fruits to make the recipe your own.

Raw Pecan Coconut Cream Pie

Ingredients:

Almond flour crust

2 cups blanched almonds

Filling

8 Medjool Dates

1/2 can full fat coconut milk (make sure to use all of the coconut cream) (7.5 ounces)

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 lemon (juiced)

1/8 nutmeg (optional, only add if you really love nutmeg)

3/4- 1 cup pecans (crushed)

2 tsp cinnamon

Piping bag, plastic bag ( cut off tip after placing filling in bag)

Instructions:

Almond flour crust:

Blend blanched almonds** and coconut oil in blender to make almond flour pie crust
Form mini pie crust and place on baking sheet or large plate
You will want to make mini pie crust the night before and allow pie crust to set in the fridge overnight. Remove pie crust from fridge one to two hours before piping filing and serving pies.

Filling: