Memorial Day: Very Nearly Vegan Edition

So this past weekend was memorial day, and of course the husband and I were invited to a few BBQ's.  You may wonder, whats a very nearly vegan to do in such a situation?  Do you make food just for yourself?  Will the omni's eat it?  Am I going to be the weirdo at the barbeque?  Never fear folks, I am here to share with you some fun and easy recipes that work great for Memorial Day and all the summer events after.

First, we will start with the easiest recipe in my repetoire.  Grandma Jones' Red Slaw.  Red slaw is just a red cabbage cole slaw, but it's pretty, yummy, and has all of three ingredients.  You will need:

1 head of red cabbage
Vegenaise
Salt

Cut the cabbage up into cole slaw sized pieces, and put in a mixing bowl.  Add enough Vegenaise to make it creamy, but not "wet" (measuring is not necessary).  Dash in some salt and stir.  Taste.  If it's not salty enough, add a little more.  Don't go overboard.  The salty taste increases as it sets, so if it's just a little bit not salty enough, you're good.  Put it in the fridge for an hour before serving.

It should look like this:

It really is the simplest recipe in the world, but it's very tasty and a perfect summer salad.  Omni's won't know or care that it is vegan

Next up we have pasta salad.  I am a pasta salad FREAK.  I could eat it every night in summer, I swear!  This particular salad is my lacto-ovo hubby's fave, vegan or not, so I am sure your omni friends and family will like it too.  You will need:

One box multi-color rotini
Assorted fresh veggies of different colors
(I used grape tomatoes, sweet vidalia onion, carrot shreds, yellow pepper, cucumber and olives)
Italian dressing

Put your water on to boil, and then go and chop your veggies.
Cook the pasta till tender, then run under cold water till there is no heat left in the pasta.
Add the veggies and dressing to the pasta, and voila!  You have an awesome pasta salad that is healthy, pretty to look at, refreshing and EASY!  Yay!

Finally, I always try to bring a dessert to these things so I can be assured that I have one I can eat.  I think it's not even officially Memorial Day if you don't have Strawberry Shortcake, so that is what I always bring.

You will need:
A Bundt pan
1 box duncan hines yellow cake mix
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 box strawberries
1 box blue berries
1 container Concord Foods Strawberry Glaze
Tofutti wildberry ice cream (or your flavor of choice)
1 can Soy Whip

Grease your Bundt pan.  Add 1 cup applesauce to the cake mix and stir till there aren't many lumps.  Put the batter in the pan and cook for the recommended time. 

Wash and chop the strawberries, add the blue berries and mix with the glaze.  Now for you purists out there, the glaze is totally unnecessary.  This is totally delish without it, but if you'll be at an all day event the glaze does keep the fruit fresher (although you will be ingesting high fructose corn syrup and red #40, so if you're avoiding them, skip it).

Then you simply cut a piece of cake, top with ice cream, put the fruit mixture on next and then soywhip is the final touch.  The nice thing is if your omni's are super picky you can bring tofutti for you and the real deal for them and everyone is happy.  Unfortunately, this part was gobbled up so fast I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but you guys get the idea.  Don't you just love summer?  I know I do!  Hope your Memorial Day was as yummy as mine, happy eating!