Have a Sustainable Thanksgiving

Heritage Turkeys

photo by Jason Houston from http://www.sustainabletable.org/features/articles/thanksgiving/

 Happy Thanksgiving Foodies!

A sustainable Thanksgiving feast doesn’t have to mean giving up the big bird. Organic turkeys are a much better alternative to your typical supermarket ten-dollar Butterball; you can be assured that your Thanksgiving turkey has lived a happy, cruelty-free life.  After all, there seems to be something obscenely wrong about confining and abusing an American symbol of thanks.

Once you purchase an organic turkey, why not continue the trend and make your entire feast organic? Ditch the supermarket for your local farmer’s market and buy local, organic produce whenever possible.  When the pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving, they certainly did not make canned cranberry sauce, boxed stuffing, and store-bought pumpkin pie part of their Thanksgiving feast. Why should you? Not only will purchasing fresh ingredients and making your meal from scratch create much tastier dishes, it will also give you more opportunities to spend time with your family.

A discussion of Thanksgiving dinner cannot be complete without mentioning leftovers. It is quite rare that all food is consumed at Thanksgiving dinner; at my house it is leftovers galore for at least a week after Thanksgiving. Leftovers, especially Thanksgiving leftovers, can be delicious, but you can still get sick of them after a few days. That’s when you need to get creative. Turkey and cranberry sauce sandwiches, barbecue turkey, turkey soup…You get the idea. Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate abundance, but that does not mean you should be wasteful.

With this in mind, have a happy holiday! Below are some helpful links with yummy recipes, information about organic turkeys etc.

Give Turkeys a Reason to Be Thankful on Thanksgiving: http://sustainablog.org/2008/11/22/give-turkeys-a-reason-to-be-thankful-on-thanksgiving/

Talking Turkey: http://www.sustainabletable.org/features/articles/thanksgiving/

Vegetarian holiday recipes: This website includes recipes for delicious dishes including Vegetarian Holiday Roast,
Pumpkin Ravioli, and 
Herbal Bean Sausages http://www.herbcompanion.com/Cooking/VEGETARIAN-Holiday-Fare.aspx

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (mmm…): http://www.herbcompanion.com/2002-10/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins.aspx

Junk Food In Disguise

by Jenna Kingkade

Almost everyone finds guilty pleasure in some type of junk food. I, for one, adore gummy bears despite my awareness that they contain artificial coloring, artificial flavoring, and gelatin, which ride against my proclaimed vegetarianism and advocacy for sustainable consumption.

   The plus side of my indulgence is that I am fully aware that what I am consuming is junk food. In today’s age, deceptive marketing and advertising ploys make the line between junk food and healthy food increasingly fuzzy.

   When we were kids, we ate Kellogg’s and General Mills cereals that were high in sugar and low in nutritional content, but at least we (and our parents) were not deceived into thinking that these cereals were healthy. Today, almost every cereal proclaims its vitamin or mineral content, sometimes going as far as stating that it reduces chances of heart disease or other medical conditions.  Of course, this issue extends far beyond cereal to all kinds of packaged foods.    

   Ponder this article about the controversy surrounding Kellogg’s Cocoa Krispies’ past claim to boost immunity.  What do you think?

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2009-11-02-cereal-immunity-claim_N.htm