Diane displaying her delicious vegan Thanksgiving!
If you’ve read about my new fiancé Colin eating duck feet and pig tails in China, you may be shocked to learn that his family is vegan!
For maximal heart health, Colin’s parents, Diane and Estes, follow the Doctor Esselstyn Diet: no meats, fish, eggs, oil (even olive oil), processed grains, milk products, or avocados, and very limited sugars and salt.
You may be gasping now, especially if you are a meat-and-oil-loving American, but here’s what’s amazing: the food Diane creates with this diet is DELICIOUS!
I had the pleasure this week of flying to Cleveland to spend my first vegan Thanksgiving with Colin’s family. And it was yummy!
Feast your eyes now on these photos of the many dishes we sampled last night. There was no turkey (and in fact no meat, oil, or processed grains), but I felt oh so full and satisfied after stuffing my face with the deliciousness lining the table. Come, join us!
Grating ginger for the cranberry sauce.
Boiling fresh cranberries and ginger for sauce!
Fragrant cider with cinnamon and cloves.
Creaming potatoes, garlic, and soy milk. Yum!
We are ready to eat!
The potatoes are creamy like icing. WOW.
Tofu and stuffing casserole with veggies.
Baked yams, wild rice, steamed veggies...
Gravy: soy milk, nutritional yeast, mushrooms.
I loaded my plate, big time.
What a great hostess and chef!
Thankful for good food and good company.
I had seconds (and maybe thirds).
One of the five vegan brownies I devoured.
An amazing aspect of getting engaged and married is you gain a whole extra family group. How happy I am to be able to experience this. Thanks, Diane and Estes, for a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Readers, if you’re interested in talking healthy eating with Diane, click here for her Facebook page!
The only thing that caught my eyes were the brownies.
Did you like this more than a regular Thanksgiving?
The food look so yummy. I could never imagine a Thanksgiving dinner without the turkey. I thought that the turkey was the main entrée. But I got to admit it does look really good, not that good to not eat it.
This sounds very hard! I could not go a week without eating chicken.
WOW!!! I could never be a vegan. I can’t go two weeks without a hamburger!
WOW!!!! I don’t think I could go Vegan. That would be way too hard for me because I absolutely love to eat meat!
The brownie sure does look good though!
I can tell that Colin’s mother is a great chef based on the photo of the brownie. Is it different than a regular brownie?
It actually tasted better than a normal brownie because you don’t feel unhealthy!
Yum! The food looks so delicious, even though there’s no meat in it. I can’t imagine me going vegetarian for a day. It’s too hard to avoid meat.
It looks good and yummy. That’s so cute!!! The man in the wheelchair is adorable.
That is very suprising that you didn’t have turkey. We usually have turkey on Thanksgiving day. The food up there looks so good.
Wow! Every year I experience Thanksgiving with around four turkeys on the table. So when i read you had no meat at all my jaw dropped.I would have to say that a lot of the food Diane cooked looked delicious!
Wow, I’m surprised it was so delicious, I can’t even think of thanksgiving with my family with no meat at all. The food your future mother in law prepared looked really good to especially the brownie!
The food does look delicious but are you sure you didn’t pretend to enjoy your first vegan thanksgiving. I don’t think that I could have survived without meat or something oily in my stomach ( you know being a straight-up Bostonian). I don’t think that I couldn’t have survived off of just tofu (even though I love miso soup) and stuffing casserole or potatoes. Well, at least there was BROWNIES.
P.S. Is that your husband’s ?twin brother? they kinda look alike maybe it’s just me. LOL
Truly, it was scrumptious! And no, they’re not twins ::
That looks like a really big plate. Did you really eat everything on it and have seconds? You must have been so full!
Yes and yes! I am very good at eating
wow! Some of this stuff looks really good even though there is no meat. The dish that looks the best is the brownie.
This reminds me of Tofu… Now i’m hungry… :”(
To me the yams look like meat. Not any meat raw meat like Japanese salmon sushi. I thought it all was meaty at the first sight of the picture.
The food is similar to Chinese Cuisine and I want to try the tofu since I love tofu!! These foods are so healthy!
I like healthy, organic and free-range food and these dishes are what my dreams are like!
I could not imagine being a vegan. I like eating my meat and drinking milk. But the food you described looks good. I never thought you could make so many foods without using animal products. A lot of vegans substitute dairy milk for soy. Why don’t they use almond milk?
Some vegans do use almond milk and rice milk
That is amazing! I could not imagine eating that food before you described it. Now it makes me want to be a vegan if I can have all of the food that I have now If I could be healthier. i bet if you put one of the brownies on my plate I would not be able to tell the difference if you never told me. I do not think that I would like the potatoes though.
Your blog & photos make me immediately nostalgic for Cleveland & the Turners. I confess a love for meat (turkey, not pigs feet), but Diane is my favorite vegan cook! Wish I could have been there to share this gourmet feast.
Oh my gosh this warms my heart!
Although I’m not one for labels, I eat mostly vegan and absolutely love cooking for the bigger meals like Christmas and Thanksgiving! for my meat-based pals and family. I’m so happy that you enjoyed a veganized Thanksgiving!
Diane lives by her word…the pictures are proof ! What a wonderful tribute to Diane and her family!
The brownies WERE moist, light and very tasty!!
Things look tasty, but weren’t the potatoes horrible? You release the starch and turn them into a gummy paste in the food processor! Don’t do it!
No, they were amazing!! The consistency was phenomenal.
I’ve had the pleasure of eating Diane’s DELISH food many times and it is always SO good~! And the best part is that I always feel SO good afterwards! Thanks for posting these gorgeous photos!
Yes! I felt full and satisfied, but also healthy!