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Why not do a Mediterranean and Middle Eastern spread--grilled and marinated veggies, couscous and rice salads with more veggies and pulses, falafel, hummus and tahini spreads, vegetarian breads, and tea cakes made with almond and soy milk rather than regular milk. You can also probably find a vegan baker in your area, depending where you live.

I'm the farthest thing from a vegetarian, haha, but I do remember that there were some interesting vegetarian ideas in this thread a while back. You might have to read through most of it, but it's pretty entertaining so it won't be bad. =)

I would do the humuus with olive relish and fresh pita. A baked cheesy thing brie or gougeres, crudite platter of course. A veggie lasagne or veggie pasta dish, maybe even orzo salad which is a huge hit with veggies. Falafel with a tzatziki sauce. Pizza can be vegetarian friendly too.

Lemon for sweets with lemon curd tarts, mini tarts, some cookies. Maybe an nice linzer torte cookie with pretty colored jam.

I will tell you this my bridal shower was not planned by me, and I did not pick the menu and no one asked me. The food was not what I would have served (shockers) and I did not complain since the food is for the guests.
I must give you credit as your sister in law to be is setting terms already. Be prepared for more term setting. Damn she is good!
If it were me I would make SOME veggie things and I would make some NOT veggie things and put them on seperate platters. Unless of course the rest of the 11 people are all vegetarians.

@mama I stand corrected. You are correct in your wonderfully refreshing view of bringing someone new into your family. I have to admit that is wonderful. I am sure your event will be great!

I have to agree with Jerzee, while I would make vegeterian food I would also serve non veg., by all means keep them seperate, but variety would be a good thing, after all is your whole family going to eat nothing but vegan for the holidays she attends? I'm happy for you that you seem to have a good relationship with this young lady, but please remember while you can show respect for her dietary preferences, the reverse is also true.

I suspect that meat eaters can make do with vegetarian fare for one meal and it won't kill them, especially if it's really tasty fare! I I'm a carnivore but I like to cook vegetarian and vegan meals from time to time for the fun of it.

Annother option would be barefoot contessa's orzo salad with roasted vegetables. Someone made that for one my showers, it was so tasty. It has feta but that could be omitted or make half with feta and half without.

One of my favorite pizzas is to combine carmelized onions with slow roasted tomatoes with some herbs and a little extra virgini olive oil. I don't like olives but I'd be they would taste good on that pizza. You can omit cheese for some and add chevre or ricotta for the cheese eaters.

For dessert if you are feeling ambitious try out Vegan YumYum, she has plenty of dessert ideas but it's a good idea to do a dry run of any baking projects since vegan ingredients can take some getting used to.

Giada just had a bridal shower episode recently. The main dish was tuna, so that wouldn't work, but there was a nice white bean and roasted eggplant hummus that looked yummy.

I second @HeartofGlass's idea for Mediterranean/middle eastern fare. Tabbouleh, falafel, baba ghannoush (sp?), and hummus are all vegan and all delicious. Definitely make tzatziki sauce (non-vegan, but your SIL can just not put that on her food). You could easily have falafel and tabbouleh as your more main course, with a big veggie tray + pita chips with tzatziki, hummus, and baba ghannoush as dips, plus salad too, especially fattoush (sp?).

Baking the falafel would probably be easier for feeding a bunch of people: prepare them earlier, preheat your oven (and baking sheet), then the baking is pretty much hands off except for popping them in the oven and flipping them over once, whereas frying would probably be a pain and keep you away from the party too long.

I hosted a baby shower where the MIL was vegetarian. We did fruit kabobs, spinach pies and onion tartlets from Trader Joe's, hummus, and a mini salad bar. The big bowl had greens and then in a relish plate all the veggies, cheese, chicken were ready for topping. We kept everything separate so it stayed veg but if you wanted meat you could add it. The MIL was very impressed and really appreciated the efforts. It's vegan too!

Oooh, or you could do a taco bar deal, with rice, beans, meat, grilled veggies, salsa, avocado, etc for vegan friendly fare, and cheese/sour cream, and some meat available too, as long as the quantity of it doesn't dominate all the other toppings. Salas are easy to prepare ahead and you can do a variety of them, and keeping them vegan is pretty easy (mango, red onion, cucumber, tomatillo, tomato, & chipotle is my favorite).

If you're doing Mediterranean, I love the spankopita recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and the moussaka recipe from Veganomicon. Those books also have recipes for vegan quiche. You can probably search the book on amazon and find the recipes.

A walnut-pomegranate molasses dip would be very nice, too. Tabbouleh salad is naturally vegan. The new issue of Vegetarian times has recipes for homemade vegan cheese - the feta looks like it might be especially nice with crackers.

For dessert - mini tarts with a silken tofu filling. Or how about vegan cupcakes or cookies? There are lots of recipes that don't call for unusual ingredients (and that taste good!).

Don't be intimidated by vegan food! It's unbelievably easy to prepare delicious vegan meals using simple ingredients.

And as a strict vegetarian, I would be upset if I specifically asked for vegetarian food on one day, my special day, and ended up seeing bacon. It simply isn't necessary, especially since the event is at lunch – guests can always go home and have a steak for dinner. Eating one vegetarian meal won't kill anybody.

WOW! Everybody's ideas are just terrific - really! I absolutely am going to draw my entire menu from the suggestions that everyone has given me! I'll have to do at least one Ina/Barefoot Contessa dish so the Orzo Salad suggestion from @missjess or Tomato Goat Cheese Tarts @MadelynRodriguez look great. With everyone's fantastic suggestions, I am going to have a really tough time narrowing my menu down but I know that whatever I choose of your suggestions my SIL will simply love it!

@savecara - my sister-in-law is vegan so no animal products of any kind - so no meat, eggs, cheese, dairy, etc.

So, I will make every menu item vegan but I will likely have a few duplicate menu items that also have some cheese to allow some variety for the guests.

Thanks again and I'll keep reading if anyone posts some new ideas!