Being Different

Sometimes it's just not popular to be different, or so I've discovered. I was talking with my mother and brother today about our plans for Thanksgiving coming up in a few weeks. Every year we get together as a family along with some family friends. It's a tradition we've had for at least two decades and have done this for Christmas and Easter as well. It was decided during our conversation that since our family friends had hosted Christmas and my mother had hosted Easter, it was our turn (my husband and I) to host Thanksgiving. I told my mother and brother that it was a fantastic idea and that I couldn't wait. I then proceeded to tell them that Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet, had some great looking vegan recipes and that I thought the Thanksgiving Tofu recipe would be the perfect alternative to cooking a turkey.

My mother's jaw dropped.

My brother said "But you'll be off your vegan thing by then - you said it was only a 30 day challenge".  To which I replied, "Well, not necessarily. The vegan challenge is going really well for me and I think I might stay on it as is or make a few adjustments if need be." My mother then proceeded to tell me that perhaps she should host Thanksgiving instead.

Disappointment. That's all I felt in that moment.

I wondered to myself "why can't they try something different?" I understand that tradition can be a wonderful thing, but sometimes I think it's nice to stir things up a bit. What's wrong with having a "traditional" meal without the turkey? Is Thanksgiving about the turkey or is really about celebrating the blessings in our lives and being with the people we love? Here I go again, it's the start of my "Save the Turkey" campaign. At least the conversation has been started. Now I just have to see if I can get everyone on board!

To my mother and brother, if you're reading this, I love you both very much!

Today I had soup for breakfast - more of the butternut squash soup out of Rebar. I finally decided to freeze the remainder of the soup. As good as it is, I just can't eat it more than five days in a row (I've been having some each day for a snack).

Lunch was also more leftovers - leftover naan bread, Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts from The Kind Diet, tandoori hummus with snap peas and some more pasta salad from the other night.

Dinner was leftovers as well - partially because we had them in the fridge and partially because I was very strapped for time between spending an hour and a half at the playground after school and then going to a parent-teacher interview at 5:30 pm. We had the last of the burgers from yesterday and some lentil soup. The burgers were even better today as the flavour was stronger and the texture was better - the burgers were cooked for much longer at a very low heat on the stove in a frying pan.

I didn't photograph anything from earlier today so we've just made some of our favourite popcorn to show you - Chimayo Chile Popcorn with garlic-sage "butter", from Rebar. We haven't found Chimayo chile powder, so we use the standard chili powder in it's place. I highly recommend you give this one a try!