Being a vegetarian is something that takes a little time and dedication to adjust to. It is a lifestyle that is not for everyone. It is also something that takes time to become and integrate to be part of your life. It was easy for me. I was born to a mother who became vegetarian when I was conceived, and a father who consumes meat every day of every week. In a split house hold, there was always a choice.
When given the choice though, I tended more towards the route of being a vegetarian very young. The only meat I ever ate was chicken breast, and even coated in egg, bread crumbs and ketchup, it was a fight to get it down. After a while of fighting, my parents finally just gave up and let me go without eating it. I officially became vegetarian when I was six years old and even though I don't think I really understood what it meant, I couldn't have been happier to never eat meat again. From then on, I have expanded my pallet and tried new things as supplements to meat. A lot of this includes soy “meat”, nuts and veggies, which works and keeps me healthy.
On Thanksgiving though, a holiday focused and centered around a large piece of meat, there is a bit of difficulty found for vegetarians on Thanksgiving. Not only is the turkey meat, but many times the gravy is made from the juices, the potatoes are cooked with the turkey and the stuffing (as the name eludes to), is stuffed inside of the turkey. So what is left for the vegetarians? The answer: not much.
But if you are a new vegetarian trying to survive your first Thanksgiving…no fear! It really is not as bad as it sounds. In my family, we typically make an effort to make the potatoes outside of the turkey, so they actually never come in contact with each other. And instead of stuffing the turkey chalk full of stuffing, some is taken out before everything goes in the oven. We then cook that amount of stuffing in a dish outside of the turkey so that it is totally vegetarian. To supplement the turkey, there are plenty of soy products that imitate meat, and they come in many different forms. I was at the grocery store near my home in New Hampshire this past weekend, and even saw a soy product in the general shape of a turkey, but small enough that it could be personal sized.
The second most difficult part of being a newer vegetarian on Thanksgiving, after finding food to eat, is answering everyones questions and resisting all of their attempts to get you to “just try a little”. I personally never dealt with this because I was so young, but even now, there are some people that still question me. And everyone has their own reason for becoming vegetarian. It is important that you remember your reason and be sure to defend and deny! Thanksgiving isn't easy for vegetarians, but just remember you're not alone, and it is only one day!
