Just a quick wish to all Canadian membeers for a happy and cruelty-free Thanksgiving weekend. We are having our Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon. It has been a special challenge since it was an opportunity for us to decide whether or not we should do it as vegan rawfood* (which we are both still enjoying) or cooked vegan food. Doing the latter would have probably meant a seitan roast (stuffed or not) which I like to make myself, plus all the veggie trimmings and mushroom gravy.  I was set to start this yesterday. How-ev-errrrr my dh suggested that we stick to our rawfood* preference - meaning a first-time rawfood* Thanksgiving for us. What fun! Many Canadians choose which day of the weekend to have their Thanksgiving dinner - not necessarily sticking to the Monday Thanksgiving Day date - and we are having ours today.

Perking along on the counter top or in the dehydrator, I have: marinated mushrooms (to go in hollowed tomatoes) and a cheesy sauce to go on top; sprouted quinoa and mint tabouleh (to stuff in red bell peppers); and carrot-sundried tomato-olive-stuffed portabella mushrooms. That'll more or less be the main dish - three stuffed veggies. Before that we're having romaine roll-ups (I call 'em seegars) filled with julienned veggies of various sorts, plus a spicy dipping sauce (not made yet!). And while we have a prelim glass of wine, I'm just off to make a quick avocado dip/spread (slight change of plan, actually) to go with some raw dulse crackers and faw flax crackers I made in the dehydrator a couple of days ago. Dessert is light: marinated (ahem!) strawberries with fresh mint and shaved vegan chocolate.

About those asterisks *** I use against the word rawfood*: we're not 100 per cent raw and are happy with the level we've reached - about 80 per cent of calories raw over a week. We do occasionally have a non-raw dish when we eat out and sometimes have a vegan tortilla wrap around some raw veggies when we eat at home. Our condiments are becoming more and more raw. We don't know as yet whether we will ever aim for 100 per cent raw. Neither of us like to set ourselves up for failure, so allowing for compromise works well for us. (I should add that in no way is this a criticism of those who are indeed completely raw in their food choices.)

Long explanation!

Anyway, I'll report on the success or otherwise of the meal as described later!

Best to you all!

River

Happy thanksgiving!


Ooh, that all sounds delicious, River! Can we come too? If anyone else is looking for raw thanksgiving ideas, Raw Food News Magazine has some nice sounding ones, and Frederick Patenaude has a downloadable (click on this link) PDF of recipes, including some low-fat ones.