My first vegan holiday spread...help?

My first holiday season as a vegan, and I'm on a mission: to at least pique my family's interest in vegan fare via delicious fare that everyone drools over and laps up. ;)

But I am woefully uninspired as to the specifics. I've looked through a handful of threads, most recently the vegan breakfast thread, and it's all a bit overwhelming and lacking at the same time. I mean, there are loads upon loads of vegan recipes out there, but I kind of want to 'upgrade' from everyday fare for special-occasion holiday meals--oatmeal is sublime, but I don't want to serve it on Thanksgiving morning. :p

So far all I'm sure about is a quinoa-cucumber salad...probably as part of the Thanksgiving potluck. And I really haven't got any ideas for a nice holiday breakfast. :confused:

Any suggestions or favourite holiday dishes? The other catch that might make this a bit more challenging is that I would like to avoid processed or 'substitute' items as much as possible. I'm not a fan of fake 'meats', vegan cheeses, or the soy substitutes that abound for just about everything under the sun. I would love to be able to make a holiday breakfast and dinner out of mostly whole foods: grains, produce, herbs/spices, etc.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can give suggestions, point me toward a particularly helpful link or two, or otherwise help me with this fairly daunting task! :)

Hello. Being from the UK I'm not sure what counts as a "holiday breakfast" where you are, but there are a lot of vegan pancake recipes around so perhaps you could try something like that? And/or fruit or chocolate muffins?

Even oatmeal/porridge can be quite festive if you interesting nice things to it, like fruit, nuts and maple syrup. Some people even add whisky, I hear.

If you want what we would call "a cooked breakfast" you could have grilled mushrooms and tomatoes on toast, or with potatoes.

Personally I haven't looked back since visiting Spain and having salad for breakfast, but I know that's not everyone's idea of festive :D

This website has everything you should need.
http://vegkitchen.com/recipes/vegeta...anksgiving.htm
If you are still looking for breakfast recipees try a google search for vegan breakfast.

When I'm after a hearty/cooked breakfast, I like to toast ciabattas or paninis and top them with garlic mushrooms fried up with cherry tomatoes & onions (plus veggie sausages if I'm feeling particularly delicate but I know you want to avoid substitutes :))

When I had my first vegan Christmas, I took along something I love to make - apple crumble pie (apple pie with lots of cinnamon & spice with a crumble topping). It's reasonably festive and always a big hit!

I am actually cooking my first Vegan holiday dinners this year too. But only for my husband and I. We travel to a relatives house for Thanksgiving and X-Mas, and I dont expect there to be any food we can eat. I decided to make a Tofurky, my own mashed potatoes, a veggie dish, and Im buying a Vegan Pumpkin Pie from Whole Foods. I may make an additional stuffing or rolls if I have the time.

X-Mas breakfast is going to be hard for us this year. My mother in law normally has us over for this. And she makes this wonderful baked french toast dish. Basically the bread goes into a baking dish, pour the eggs over, with lots of cinnamon and nutmeg, and it gets baked. With maple syrup, its the best! I may have to ask her if she can make this with an egg replacer, and I think it might have cream in it. I hope she can make it Vegan for us. Other than that she always has at least two types of quiche, fresh fruit, bacon, and scrapple. Which, pre Vegan I was all over. But now, it looks like I'll have to bring some Vegan sausage and maybe I can get her to make me a Tofu scramble or something.

I have no idea if any of that helped you! But you can look at the Whole Foods website for some really great recipes.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/reci...alDietTypeId=3

Oooh, and my fave restaurant makes a mean breakfast burrito, that you could totally use a scrambeled tofu in, instead of scrambled eggs. It's basically a scramble with peppers, onions, black beans, salsa, chives, cilantro, all wrapped in a tortilla and heated in the oven with melted cheese ontop. Just skip the cheese part and use tofo! Thats a winner in my book!

For thanksgiving (could be used for other occasions to) there is some REALLY delicious cornbread and a really amazing recipe for wild rice and stuffing, on Alicia Silverstones website "the kind life". You should really look in to that, because it's very good and doesn't have fake cheese or meat substitutes. I believe she has some other delicious looking recipes on there, on pies and desserts as well, all made with really good ingredients.

Also, look in to a blog called "diet, desserts and dogs". It has tons of creative recipes made with whole foods ingredients.