To celebrate my first 100% vegan Thanksgiving, I adopted a Turkey from The Farm Sanctuary. Her name is Cecelia, and I am only too happy to donate to this amazing sanctuary that rescues and cares for animals that would otherwise be in a pretty dire situation. 45 million turkeys are killed each year just for Thanksgiving, and they suffer horribly during their short life.
I have been on-and-off vegan/vegetarian for almost 2 decades now. Even in my second book, I gave a bunch of meat and fish options, and talked about the health benefits of grass-fed beef etc. It was the way I was raised: in the bucolic British countryside with a farm on our doorstep. The words “organic” or “grass-fed” were never used because cows never ate anything but grass, and my mom’s garden never needed a herbicide or pesticide to produce bucket loads of beautiful produce. But fast forward a few decades, things are very different. And particularly in the U.S. where you have to almost re-mortgage your home to be able to afford clean, healthy and wholesome food. Ethical motivations aside, eating 100% USDA Certified, grass-fed, humanely-reared (bit of an oxymoron) meat is so expensive that most people can’t even think about it. Since I completely stopped purchasing meat and fish – my weekly grocery store bill has almost halved, and everyone in my family feels better. Although my husband has taken some persuading because he still has a bit of a block (as do many people I talk to), about getting enough protein. But with all the beans, nuts and legumes that I sneak into his diet everyday, he gets way over his daily requirement. So, back to Thanksgiving. My family are joining with a number of families (some who we know, and some who we don’t) to celebrate with a beautiful pot luck style dinner. There will be a turkey there for sure, but the great thing about Thanksgiving is that there are typically dozens of veggie sides, and if you don’t trust that someone isn’t going to sneak bacon into the brussels sprouts, and beef broth into the gravy – bring your own. This is exactly what I am going to do because it doesn’t seem rude to show up with meat-free sides, and dairy-free desserts. Actually, I think the host will be thrilled.
There’s such a fine line between taking care of oneself and being a nuisance, right? As I’m sure you do, I have loads of friends with food preferences, allergies and issues (they seem to be growing exponentially), and I always love it when they tell me ahead of a dinner party (which I am hosting,) that they don’t eat meat/dairy/nuts (or whatever it is), but for me NOT to make anything special for them as they are more than happy to just eat veggies. Conversely, friends that make a big song and dance out of a food issue can quickly become boring -so I try to learn from that!!!! I’m experimenting daily with all kinds of delicious sides that I want to debut on this special occasion. Right now, I’m thinking that the tasty chestnut stuffed portobello mushroom recipes that I learned at a recent Spork Foods class, might be the way to go.
Make sure you are getting my updates because I’ll be posting a bunch of vegan and sugar-free recipes between now and the big day.
