Every Day Is Special: meat

Showing posts with label meat. Show all posts

November 28 - Turkey-free Thanksgiving

Posted on November 28, 2019

A tofu "turkey" with stuffing!

There is a lot of talk, these days, about eating less meat, or no meat. Many people are vegetarians (people who eat no meat, including fish), pescatarians (people who eat no meat except for fish), and vegans (people who eat only plant-based foods - so no meat, fish, dairy, or eggs).

There are three main reasons to eat less or no meat: (1) for your own health, (2) for the sake of the environment, and (3) because the meat, dairy, and egg industries are cruel to animals.

All of those folks no doubt skip turkey at Thanksgiving - either as an entire family or as an individual vegetarian in a meat-eating family.

Many people who eat meat just don't love the traditional turkey meal. They'd rather have a leg of lamb or a prime rib or...?

For those who complain that we should stick with turkey because it's traditional, there is ample evidence that the original Thanksgiving featured lots of things alongside boiled or roasted wild turkey - IF there was turkey at all! Other waterfowl, such as ducks, geese were apparently more popular with the Pilgrims. Swans and even passenger pigeons are also likely. Venison (deer meat) was there for sure, and it's probable that lots of seafood was served - eels, mussels, lobster, and clams.

Of course there was a lot of other food as well - corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, turnips, carrots, chestnuts, walnuts, beechnuts, onions, garlic, corn-based porridge, and cornbread.

This "traditional" Thanksgiving meal
is mostly foods that were added
to historical tradition somewhere
along the way. These upstarts were
far from traditional when they were
first included!

But there definitely were no mashed potatoes, sweet potato casseroles, or cranberries. And there was no wheat-flour based bread, nor any pies at all. So making an argument based on tradition is a bit silly - because all of today's traditional foods were add-ons or instead-ofs to what WAS eaten. So all of us can still add-on or instead-of, all we like, and help grow the various traditions of Thanksgiving!

How about some of these lovely yummies:

Stuffed acorn squash with pecans

Pumpkin-sage stuffed shells

Veggie pot pie

Also on this date:

Anniversary of the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons

Author and artist William Blake's birthday

Anniversary of Magellan naming the Pacific Ocean

Anniversary of the first skywriting in U.S. skies

Independence Day in Albania

(also here)

Burundi's Republic Day

Chad's Republic Day

Panama's Independence Day

Mauritania's Independence Day

Birthday of comedian, writer, and TV host Jon Stewart

Thanksgiving:

the first Thanksgiving

the history of Thanksgiving

traditional Thanksgiving menu items such as seals and eels

why some call this day the National Day of Mourning

little known facts about Thanksgiving

anniversary of Thanksgivukkah

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

November holidays
November birthdays
Historical anniversaries in November

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

December holidays

December birthdays

Historical anniversaries in December

March 24 – Meat Free Week

Posted on March 24, 2014

Some people are vegetarians and never eat meat, ever. There are several reasons people might be meat-free: some practice a religion that demands a no-meat diet; some avoid eating meat because they hate the way in which animals are raised and slaughtered by the meat industry, or they simply will not eat a once-living animal; some believe that meat-free is healthier, at least for them; and some are thoughtful about the impact that the meat industry has on the environment.

The environment?

Yep. Eating less meat helps the environment. Because the plant foods that can be grown on an acre of land feed more people than can the meat from livestock grown on that acre of land, reducing meat consumption could result in having fewer hungry people in the world. Also, producing a pound of meat doesn't just take more land than producing a pound of plant crops—it also takes more energy and water, and produces more pollutants!

Can you believe that it takes more than six pounds of plant foods
to make just one quarter-pound burger? And check out how much
water, land, and energy it takes to make that one measly burger!

Eating meat even adds to global warming. The United Nations has shown that the world's livestock is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions!

I personally am not a vegetarian. I know that there are some nutrients that are easier to get from meat than from plants, and I don't want to become a difficult guest. But I often eat “low on the food chain” – which means that, many days or many meals, I choose to eat plants rather than meat – for many of the environmental, animal-rights, and health reasons listed above. In other words, I'm a part-time vegetarian and only a some-time carnivore.

It can be very interesting to change your diet for a while and see how you like a new way of eating—and what better time to try a vegetarian diet than Meat Free Week?