(24 Weeks)
It’s odd how defensive people get about lifestyle choices. I’m about 90% vegan (100% vegetarian). Kurt is too, which is good because if he wasn’t that would make the Thanksgiving menu more of a challenge. Most people aren’t on board for a meatless Thanksgiving. We host and provide something for everyone.
Turkey was always the staple of Thanksgivings growing up – as far back as the first ones I remember when we spent the day feeding other people’s families at the Blue Bird Inn. When I was a young mom hosting Thanksgiving, I took a major shortcut and bought all the sides from Boston Market. I still cooked a Turkey so the house would smell like Thanksgiving.
I started out as a weekday vegetarian when I was working long days in New York City 10-15 years ago and only ate meat on the weekends when I was responsible for preparing meals for others. I went all in on a plant-based diet in 2016 when it was just me and my daughter for whom I was preparing meals.
I started to feel much, much better as a result. I’ve done my research and understood it to be a healthy lifestyle choice. It made me love cooking again. So many great new recipes and there is a lot of whole food plant-based meals that are easy to prepare. A few good cookbooks: Forks Over Knives, No Meat Athlete, and my favorite Bad Manners.
I share this lifestyle, like I’d recommend running or a good bottle of wine (plant-based by the way). But I have found more people to be receptive to a wine recommendation over a vegan recipe – like “vegan” represents some weird (poisonous?) ingredients! It’s plants! Literally plants. Being vegan, or vegetarian, is more about what you’re not eating than what you are.
My two rules are that I won’t be a complete pain in the butt when dinning with friends and I won’t starve. So occasionally, fish, eggs and cheese make it on to my plate. So, yeah, a little more vegetarian, than complete vegan.
For our last Thanksgiving in New Jersey, I made – for just my turkey hating daughter, and myself – a completely vegan meal. From the sweet potato enchiladas to avocado mousse dessert, she enjoyed every bite (probably because I never once used that scary word – vegan. It was simply good ingredients, prepared well.
Our Thanksgiving this week will include lots of vegan sides that everyone has been enjoying since forever – made with vegetables. We’ll even cook a damn Turkey, so the house smells like a traditional Thanksgiving, while Kurt and I eat our Celebration Roast with mushroom gravy.
Eat whatever the hell you want if it makes you feel good. Personally, I feel much, much better eating a primarily plant-based diet and actually look forward to Celebration Roast (it’s honestly delicious)! The whole point of Thanksgiving is to simply be grateful for whatever you have – and to celebrate with some kind of food that you enjoy and the right people around your table to enjoy it with.
In case you’re interested in expanding your horizons, this is a good place to start: Game Changers.
Did you really think this wasn’t going to include a fundraiser? It’s me. Of course it is! Over the course of these 60 weeks, I am hoping to raise $6000 for the children of Mercy Home for Boys & Girls (that’s just $100 a week!). To learn more about Mercy Home and my why, please visit my fundraising page. Thank you.
