Ready-made vegan foods and ingredients to help with holiday hosting

Are you having a vegan friend or relative over for dinner and have no idea what you should serve them? If you're not a vegan yourself it can be a little confusing knowing exactly what they can or can't eat. To help round out the thoughtful dishes you're making for your guests, we've rounded up some great ready made items to have to on hand. The best vegan meal is one that you can't even tell is vegan and this meal will definitely be that.

Farm Boy Mushroom Kale Soup

The first course sets the tone for the meal so why not open strong with a delicious soup that just happens to be a great option for everyone. It's vegan, and it tastes amazing. Not only is this soup delicious, it's also made with natural ingredients that you'll recognize: mushrooms, coconut milk, potatoes, kale and more goodness. You and your guests will want seconds, but save room because there is still so much more good food to come!

Farm Boy Mushroom Kale Soup, $6.99, farmboy.ca

Litehouse Red Wine & Olive Oil Vinaigrette Dressing

If most of your holiday feast is going to revolve around heavy foods like potatoes, stuffing, and turkey, it's nice to have a light salad to balance it out. If you want to make your salad vegan friendly you just have make sure there isn't any meat or cheese in it. Easy right? Just put those on the side! But, beware of salad dressings that sometimes have a ton of ingredients in them, some of which may not be vegan. Litehouse to the rescue with this versatile and vegan dressing.

Litehouse Red Wine & Olive Oil Vinaigrette Dressing, $4.99, loblaws.ca

Gardein stuffed Turk'y

Everyone's favourite part of the classic, Canadian holiday meal is the turkey, so why not include your vegan family and friends in that part of the feast? Gardein has created these delicious little "turk'ys" that are breaded and filled with stuffing. The texture is even similar to real turkey! And it comes with an amazing gravy to boot. Each package serves two so it's easy to know how many you should buy. The best part is it only takes 20 minutes (or less) to cook. You can buy it online, or at larger grocery stores. Just look around the vegan/vegetarian section in the frozen foods. Even your meat loving family and friends will want to steal a bite of these!

Gardein stuffed Turk'y, $8.50, vegansupply.ca

Tofurky Roast

For a more grand gesture, or to feed more vegans or vegetarians around the table, opt for a Tofurky roast. With 5 servings per roast, and considering that these also contain stuffing and gravy, it's like getting an entire vegan feast in one thoughtful, tasty package.

Tofurky Roast, $39.99, vegansupply.ca

Earth Balance Organic Whipped Buttery Spread

You might not realize that by adding butter into vegetable sides you're excluding your vegan guests from partaking in the dishes. Probably not your intention when making vegetables, right? So if you need to use butter in an otherwise vegan dish, just use some vegan butter instead. It tastes the same so you won't even notice the difference.

Earth Balance Organic Whipped Buttery Spread, $6.49, vegansupply.ca

Dandies Vegan Marshmallows

Another well loved holiday side dish is candied yams with marshmallows. However,  marshmallows aren't usually vegan (or vegetarian). Dandies marshmallows actually taste better than regular marshmallows (I promise), and they have the same texture as regular marshmallows.

Dandies Vegan Marshmallows, $6.99, vegansupply.ca

Ben and Jerry's Non-Dairy Ice Cream

Other than the turkey, what does everyone look forward to indulging in during the holidays? Desserts of course! Cakes, brownies, cookies - the works. Unfortunately most of these desserts aren't vegan-friendly. If you don't want to make your treats vegan, then a great thing to have on hand is some vegan ice cream. Ben and Jerry's have a few non-dairy ice cream flavors that are amazing, especially "P.B. & Cookies". It's made of non-dairy vanilla ice cream, vegan chocolate sandwich cookies and crunchy peanut butter swirls. Who wouldn't want to dig into this when dessert rolls around?

Ben and Jerry's Non-Dairy Ice Cream, $7.47, walmart.ca

So Nice Original Coffee Creamer

At the end of the night when everyone is settling a full tummy with some coffee or tea, don't forget your vegan friends who might like a creamy sip too. So Nice Original Coffee Creamer is a great non-dairy creamer to try. Unlike regular non-dairy milks which are pretty thin, these have a thicker more cream like consistency. They have a French Vanilla option as well for those who prefer a little hint of flavour.

So Nice Original Coffee Creamer, $2.79, vegansupply.ca

Kristina is a Toronto based professional makeup artist, actor, and beauty writer. She started doing makeup in 2009 while on a short film set during her time studying at York University for Film. She later completed the complete make-up artistry program at CMU College of Makeup Art and Design in 2012, which included Hair, Fashion, Bridal, Theatre, Film, TV, Prosthetics, and Creature design. After CMU College of Makeup Art and Design, she then worked as a Certified Makeup Artist for Sephora and MAC Cosmetics where she perfected her skills in beauty and  bridal makeup. Kristina currently works as a Freelance Makeup Artist and Actor focusing primarily in Film & TV in Toronto, Canada. She has also written for xojane.com and xovain.com as a Beauty Contributor.