I have a huge stack of cooking magazines and recipes I have printed out from the internet sitting on my desk as I try to widdle them down to decide what exactly I will be cooking and baking for the Christmas period. You would think after all that foodie focused research I would be settled on a menu by now. The problem is that the more I see the more I want to make but I want to be careful of not biting off more than I can (literally) chew.

One thing I do know is that Christmas cooking period is going to be one of those times where I won’t be sticking strictly to a vegetarian diet. However, I do really want to try as much as possible to be cooking and serving mostly vegetarian Christmas recipes.

The good thing though is that it really isn’t very hard to do that. When you think about it, most of the Christmas cookies and cakes we will munch over the holiday period are vegetarian by their very nature. Then, the normal Christmas dinner trimmings are also largely vegetarian. At least that is the case if you skip doing your roast potatoes in goose fat. Frankly, even when I wasn’t so focused on vegetarian cooking that never appealed to me anyway.

As I make my way through a largely vegetarian Christmas, I will check in and share my vegetarian cooking adventures. Hopefully, it will give some of you also trying to eat mostly vegetarian over the Christmas cooking period of bit of inspiration.

For now though, it is on to finally forming a solid Christmas cooking schedule. So, time to settle down with that stack of Christmas cooking magazines and make my mind up. At least until I change it again.

Of course, I can’t do that research without having a good hot beverage by my side. This month for the vegetarian swap I participate in over at Recipezaar, I picked out this Mayan Hot Chocolate recipe posted by Recipezaar member the80srule.

spiced hot chocolate recipe

It turns out this hot chocolate recipe is the perfect partner to planning my vegetarian Christmas cooking. Firstly, the big sell for me, is that it is actually made with soy chocolate milk. I am lactose intolerant so whenever I make a creamy drink like hot chocolate I have to weigh up the consequences. I could make a normal hot chocolate recipe with water, I suppose, but any lover of hot chocolate knows that is simply never the same. Amazingly though, I had never thought of using soy chocolate milk as the base of a hot chocolate recipe but it really did work.

What really makes this hot chocolate recipe special though are the spices that go into the mixture. First in the pot, is a bit of cinnamon which gives a real Christmas feel to the hot chocolate recipe. Then comes the real surprise, a pinch of cayenne pepper. You would think that would make it hot and spicy but really it just adds a back ground warmth to the hot chocolate.

So, make yourself your own mug of this spiced hot chocolate and pull up your own pile of Christmas recipes and join the foodie December ritual of planning your holiday baking and Christmas cooking. Let the games begin!

I have always loved how a good twice baked potato recipe is an easy recipe but looks really impressive. The problem is though that so many twice baked potato recipes are usually rather high in fat and calories from all the butter and cheese that usually goes into making them. Anything that high in fat is a no no for me these days.

I am always looking for something else to put refried beans into. I know they don’t look pretty but I just love them and with vegetarian and low fat versions of refried beans now readily available in British supermarkets I pretty much always have a can in the cupboard. I usually have a bit of salsa in the house and we are never without some potatoes. So, this really is the sort of recipe that comes more out of a cupboard than a cookbook.

You can control the spice levels by picking the intensity of salsa that your family enjoys. I am a total spicy heat wimp. So, I used a mild salsa and then the two of us topped our Mexican twice baked potatoes with chillies. I went for the really mild banana peppers. These are fantastic and now sold as part of the Discovery brand’s range of Mexican foods. They aren’t in every supermarket but I usually can find them in Morrisons. My husband has much more of head for spices. So, he topped his with Jalapeños.

Mexican Bean Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Mexican bean stuffed baked potatoes

Ingredients:

4 baked potatoes, freshly baked
1 (435 gram/15 ounce) can fat free refried beans
1 cup salsa

Optional Toppings:

fat free sour cream
banana peppers
jalapeños
chives

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees or gas mark 6.
2. Cut off most of the top of the baked potatoes and scoop out the majority of the insides leaving just enough not to break the skins.
3. Put the potato shells into an oven proof dish and the insides into a large bowl.
4. Gently mash the potato insides but don’t mash so much that they are fully smooth.
5. Empty the can of beans and the cup of salsa into the bowl and gently mix so that everything is combined but not over mixed or it will get really loose.
6. Spoon the mixture back into the potato shells and bake for 20 minutes.
7. Top with any or all of the optional toppings and serve with a green salad for a low fat and healthy vegetarian meal.

Serves 4

The other day, we were in between shopping and had very little in the house and I had even less desire to spend a load of time standing in the kitchen putting together a meal. So, I opened the cupboards and took at look in the vegetable drawer to see what had made it to the end of the shopping week. It was a real mixture of stuff but for some reason it screamed ‘Mexican’ to me.

I warned my husband that I was trying a new vegetarian recipe and it was either going to be really good or really horrible. Luckily, my new recipe for vegetarian tacos turned out to be very good! On top of being a super easy vegetarian recipe, it is packed full of vegetables that your kids or other veggie phobic family members won’t even notice are there when they are chowing down.

Vegetarian Bean and Lentil Tacos

Vegetarian Bean And Lentil Taco Recipe

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 cup carrot, shredded
1 cup zucchini, shredded
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup mushroom, finely sliced
1 (14 ounce) can cooked lentils, drained
2 1/2 teaspoons fajitas seasoning mix
1 (15 ounce) can fat-free refried beans
8 taco shells
1/2 cup reduced-fat cheddar cheese, shredded

Toppings:
reduced-fat sour cream (optional)
salsa (optional)
guacamole (optional)
jalapenos (optional)

Directions:
1.Heat oil in a large pan over a medium heat.
2. Add in the shredded carrots, zucchini, chopped onions and the garlic powder.
3. Stir for a minute two before reducing the heat and letting them sweat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the lentils, mushrooms and fajitas seasoning and cooking, stirring often, over medium heat for another five minutes.
5. Meanwhile, put the taco shells in the oven to cook through. The ones that I buy take about 5 minutes so this can be done while the lentils and mushrooms are cooking down.
6. Stir the refried beans into the vegetable and lentil mixture until everything is combined and the beans are just warmed through.
7. Spoon the lentil and bean mixture into the taco shells and top with shredded cheese.
8. Add any of the other toppings you may enjoy and eat as you would a ‘normal’ taco.

Makes 8 tacos

That is what I thought until I tried TxGriffLover’s recipe for Mexican Street Corn. Instead of simply boiling the corn on the cob, this is a recipe for grilling corn on the cob. So much goes into the recipe that instead of the corn being a simple vegetarian side dish, it becomes so filling that it could easily count as a quick vegetarian meal or a hearty vegetarian snack recipe.

Mexican street corn

This vegetarian recipe for Mexican street corn, starts just with the basic corn on the cob going under your grill or broiler for ten minutes. While you are grilling the corn on the cob, you move onto the next step of the vegetarian recipes which is making the tasty mixture that goes on top of the corn. You mix together mayonnaise, cheese (I went for the feta cheese option), fresh cilantro, garlic, chilli powder and seasoning. Once that mixture is made, you pile it on top of the corn on the cob.

Then the loaded up corn on the cob goes back under the grill until it is starts to go golden and bubbly. That bit really only takes another minute or so and then you are ready to bite into your vegetarian meal or snack of super tasty Mexican street corn.