have your faux turkey and eat it too

Thanksgiving is upon us–at least the planning portion of it. Settling in on all the details about who in the family is hosting this year’s dinner; what the menu will consist of. 

Well, for anyone who’s on a healthy journey and changing up their dietary regimen as a result, this can be a rather stressful time of year. What to eat, what not to eat, feeling the pressure to fall off the healthy-eating band wagon, just until January, if you know what I mean.

To that I say, if the pressure is there, then you aren’t sick and tired of being sick and tired. This will be my third Thanksgiving as a rawtarian and I haven’t once “fallen off the bandwagon.” You know why? Because I never put that type of pressure on me in the first place. My first Thanksgiving as a new convert, we went to friends’ home who were not vegetarian, vegan or raw. It was okay though. We brought several raw dishes for everyone to enjoy and that’s what I mainly ate from. I then had about two little scoops of the hostess’ sweet potatoes and a little helping of corn. I knew it wouldn’t be the end of the world in doing so, so I ate it and all was fine.

As I’ve gained and maintained a disease-free body, I’m now only 95% raw, instead of 98%. So, with that 5%, I’ll eat cooked oatmeal, or a dallop of some vegetables that are cooked and all is good. I will, however, not use the 5% to consume any meat–I just will not do that. 

Therefore, my Thankgiving holiday will remain meatless. But if you just have to have your turkey in order for it to feel like Thanksgiving, here are some healthy alternatives for you…

Vegan turkey that looks like a turkey or the famous tofurky:
http://inhabitat.com/6-vegan-vegetarian-and-raw-food-turkey-alternatives-for-thanksgiving/

Or perhaps you want to go with something like a meatloaf. This is a really cool vegan loaf maker. Just select what ingredients you want to go into your personalized loaf, hit the submit button and watch the magic:
http://www.veganlunchbox.com/loaf_studio.html

I cannot vouch at all for how tasty any of these are or how safe they are for your organs, but anything has got to be better for you to consume old Tom Turkey himself.  

I myself will stick to my fruits, veggies, berries and grains and not try to imitate a turkey. I’m emotionally detached from the whole falsehood of the Pilgrim thing anyway, so perhaps that allows me to enjoy the holiday by focusing on gratefulness rather than the bird of the hour.  

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

RAWspectfully yours, 
Terri, aka T-RAW​