I spent the majority of the afternoon out and about trying to do some more Christmas shopping. It was fun, don’t get me wrong, but I am having so much better luck on amazon here at home! I should have jumped on amazon weeks ago!
Dinner was thrown together in minutes! While they’re not even close to the real deal, I pulled out this package of Whole Foods Instant Mashed Potatoes tonight. The only ingredient is dehydrated potato flakes! Instead of milk and butter I used Earth Balance (although you could also use EVOO) and soymilk. I also flavored it with a little extra salt and garlic powder, because there was something flavoring wise that just was not coming together with the dish. Well, brilliant me – turns out I grabbed the container of vanilla light soymilk instead of plain at the grocery store the other day, hence the subtle “off” flavoring off the mashed potatoes. They were still edible, just had a slightly strange undercurrent flavor of vanilla. mmm, mmm, good?
I also served it with BBQ tofu – 1/4 block of firm tofu pressed and cooked on a flat nonstick skillet, occasionally flipping and brushing each side with a BBQ sauce.
To round out the meal we threw on some peas for some green. 
Since dinner we’ve just been watching movies on the USA channel and browsing/ shopping on amazon. Ross’ "don’t look at my screen!!!” face. 
It’s been a little while since we decorated, so I thought I’d show you some of our Christmas details! There are more decorations (other pictures later when there’s better light in here) but here are some details of our glimmering Christmas tree.
I love everything miniature! Check out these mini snowmen and santas (each santa has a different pose/ expression, I love them!):
I also have realized that I have a huge thing for swirls. And I’m ok with that, it’s who I am. Exhibit A, B & C: Branches of glittery gold swirls stuck in the tree, swirls of white and gold ribbon cascading down the tree, and the little glass red ornament that has red velvet swirls all over it:
Exhibit D: More swirly ornaments, this time in a trifle dish as our dining room table centerpiece:
I also have this as a centerpiece on our coffee table. We have a bunch of these branches with gold baubles in our tree, but I had a good handful left. I simple placed them in a vase and set them on the table with a white peppermint vanilla soy-based candle, for a delicious smelling, simply beautiful holiday touch.
There are many more details! More will come tomorrow, as well as a picture of the full-length tree! I just realized that I never took a picture of the whole tree. Just goes to show that I’m definitely more of an up-close, detail shot person.
See you tomorrow, I hope everyone starts their work week/ school week out with a bang!
Your tofu looks so good!
That tofu looks fantastic, I definitely need to start cooking with it more. What recipe would you recommend for a tofu beginner like myself?
hahaha…i’ve done that before!