We celebrated our sweet granddaughter’s first birthday with a special gathering and enjoyed creating a colourful setting and menu!
It was so much fun to plan a vegan spread that everyone would love! We also needed some things that could be made ahead so that we could enjoy the day! Here’s what we settled on:
To start:
A colourful array of fresh veggies and chips with a variety of colourful, tasty dips, including a Roasty Beet Hummus, an orange vegan queso cheezy dip, (from Costco) a regular golden hummus, a red salsa, and a green guacamole. Dips were all made ahead!
A selection of sparkling water in a colourful collection of many fruit flavours. (all sugar and additive free) The cans meant we added colour and didn’t need so many glasses!
Main course:
An easy green salad decorated with colourful edible flowers and Bill’s sprouts!
Our Rainbow Lasagna was a combination of layered veggies, using my original recipe for a Saucy Veggie Lasagna, as a guide. I made two, one with gluten-free lasagna noodles. Both types of noodles were the “oven-ready” ones, so lots of the cheezy white sauce was needed to soften them properly.
I spread some tomato sauce on the bottom of a large casserole pan. Then, I made a backward rainbow with a layer of pasta between each colour:
Purple: Sliced beets and some tomato sauce
Blue: Didn’t think of this in time, but next time I might do a blue layer of Almond Ricotta coloured with Blue Pea Flower Powder.
Green: Spinach, chopped and fried up with onion and garlic and a layer of thinly sliced green zucchini.
Yellow: Grated yellow zucchini or scaloppini (I had frozen some from the fall) mixed with some Almond Ricotta
Orange: A layer of roasted butternut squash, enhanced with some roasted garlic and mixed with a little Almond Ricotta.
Red: A red tomato based sauce. Save time by using a jar of good pasta sauce or try this Super Simple Sauce.
I made sure there was lots of the cheezy sauce between all the layers and some vegan parm, Cashew Crumbles on top.
I also made the Almond Ricotta a few days before to speed things up.
These two lasagnas were made, wrapped with foil and frozen unbaked the week before. I took them out the night before the party to thaw. They baked at 350 degrees F. for about one hour with foil on and then I removed the foil and let brown for another 20 minutes. I sprinkled some extra parm on to serve.
I made three kinds of garlic bread, using vegan butter, fresh chopped chives, and Cashew Crumbles, a vegan parmesan. Also made ahead and frozen in foil for easy prep. Anything I could do ahead, I did! They were easy to thaw and bake on the day!
Dessert
A tall rainbow cake for the crowd! (We had 21 attend but there were leftovers to share!) A lemony, sparkled Celebration Cake with a bright rainbow of vegan butter icing. I used Earth Balance in stick form for a stiffer product. Thanks to The Veganist in Chilliwack for providing this great product! We decorated with whipped coconut cream, also from The Veganist, and edible flowers were picked and applied with joy on the day of the celebration. Thanks and love to Laura for all her help decorating! She and Ian drove across the mountains for many hours to be here!!
We made a slightly smaller layered rainbow cake for a possible cake smash. Theo was too well-behaved and only carefully and gently tasted the cream! The rainbow sparkles melted into the coconut cream but it was a cool effect!
Of course we had to have Florentines! We like to have these gluten-free treats for all special occasions! Find the recipe under Salted Pecan Crackles, as these are a vegan version of a family favourite!
I made a rainbow plate of freshly cut fruit. So many options here! A vegan cream cheeze dip would have been great, too.
Decorations
Some bright, colour-changing LED lighting strips added a festive touch! The only challenge was attaching them to the walls!
Lots of colourful, reusable decorations, handcrafted by Erin! (avoiding the one-use plastic of balloons) Erin found inexpensive material at thrift stores and cut it into strips!
Lots of time went into the preparation, but it was a joy to celebrate our special little one-year old with friends and family!
