Vegetarian Thanksgiving

I'm curious to know why you decided to become vegetarian. From a health point of view it is not a good path to go down as you will be depriving yourself of key nutrients.

Humans are designed to eat meat, meat is very good for you if it quality meat. Meat is packed with the nutrients your body needs.

 

I recently received a copy of a Vegetarian Times magazine that had a ton of vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes in it. One in particular that looked really good was called Flaky Harvest Vegetable Squares. Here's a link and a pic:

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If you type "Thanksgiving in the website's search box, you will get a ton of other Thanksgiving related vegetarian recipes. You could easily come up with a large vegetarian meal using these.
We have a mix of carnivores & vegetarians in our family and it is probably best to try and offer dishes that will please both. You wouldn't have to cook a whole turkey but I would suggest some type of turkey dish just to keep some peace at the table. Good luck and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School has an interesting reading about six dishes that could be your main vegetarian course in Thanksgiving day:

Full articles and suggestions can be found here,

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It is okay to be a vegetarian. I know many vegetarians that are in great health. If you chose to eat this diet, you can find many substitutes for meat products that contain the nutrients you need. For iron, eat spinach, kale, and nuts. You can eat a variety of beans and legumes and things like chick peas.

 

How do you know they are in great health? There are no substitute meat products which supply the nutrients in meat, that's a fact. You have to use supplementation if you want to cover the huge nutrient gaps left by abstaining from meat. Legumes are not a health promoting food, it is soy protein, the worst form of protein you can eat, not to mention the phytates, lectincs and other anti-nutrients.

 

This sounds really healthy and all but sadly I come from a family that won't even let this idea be discussed(haha).
I come from a family that says its thanksgiving only when there is food that is as unhealthy as possible(haha). Cooking healthy is sometimes a challenge but we always make sure to stuff out turkey with dried fruit and cranberry sauces so it's very delicious.

 

I had a friend that didn't eat meat she used some time of tofu meat tasted like the real thing. But I would suggest doing some research like googling for some recepies or subs for turkey meat.

 

I don't think eating meat is a bad thing per se, but I think we've been brainwashed into how much we should/shouldn't eat. If you look at cultures outside of North America, many of them use meat mostly as a condiment or flavoring.

I think there's a lot of good in vegetarianism, but I think it might be better to introduce your family to a new, special dish before Thanksgiving. That way, they will be ready for the special dish on Thanksgiving and there won't be any issues. Also, maybe you could start something like "Meatless Mondays" and make a meat-free meal for them once a week?

 

People who love meat are not suddenly going to stop eating meat. I would not suggest introducing a main vegetarian course to your family. Rather, I would suggest a side dish or maybe something that people could snack on pre or post dinner. Something like a veggie pizza comes to mind.