Thanksgiving is upon us, and I cannot wait to stuff my face with all of that delicious food.
Although I love any holiday that involves eating mass quantities of corn flake potatoes and pumpkin pie, I do find Thanksgiving a bit sad considering all of the turkeys that are being feasted on.
Contrary to popular belief, Thanksgiving does not need to include a turkey, at least not in my house.
For the past two Thanksgivings, I have gotten along just fine filling my plate with sweet potato casserole, green beans, stuffing, corn, cranberry sauce, potatoes and buttered rolls and have not felt like I missed anything. In fact, it was right before Thanksgiving two years ago I decided to become a vegetarian. I was a little skeptical at first, wondering if I should wait until after my second favorite holiday (first is Christmas) to take the vegetarian plunge. Then I figured I would be too grossed out to eat turkey that day anyway, after being enlightened on where it probably came from (but we don’t need to get into that right now).
Last year I was not alone in my decision to forgo meat products, my dad went vegetarian about three years before and together we proudly filled our plates with everything but the turkey. My mom even made us mushroom gravy to put on our vegetable stuffing (which was probably better than the regular gravy if you ask me).
This year, my sister joins the vegetarian ranks, and my dad and I are proud to have converted her. Since my family is now three-quarters vegetarian, this Thanksgiving, my mom bought us a tofurkey (that’s a turkey made of tofu); which came already stuffed and ready to bake.
It is not like we are celebrating the first Thanksgiving back in 1621. It is 2009, and we have alternate options. So although many people think that vegetarians miss out on Thanksgiving, they are quite wrong. We don’t miss anything. And this year, a turkey will have something to be thankful for, not being eaten by me.
