A new Thanksgiving tradition

Families have their traditions during the holidays, and for my mom's side of the family, our tradition is (in a word): POTLUCK.

With 48 people when everyone gathers, there is often quite a spread. But with only 3 vegetarians and vegan-me, we are out numbered, and at times "out eaten" by the meat-eaters. Such was the situation last Thanksgiving.

While we had each brought a dish last year, one of my vegetarian cousins waited until the end of the line to get food and ended up with a fairly sparse dinner plate. The vegetarian entrées had been devoured by the carnivores in our family! So much for seconds for the rest of us.

To prevent this from happening again, I thought about putting signs next to our vegetarian dishes this year. With creative juices flowing, my first round of signs included masterpieces like:
• "Do not eat. This has no meat."
• "Last year we starved, eat the dead turkey you carved."
• "No animals were killed or exploited in the preparation of this dish."

Not the best PR tactic to share the values of a plant-based diet with my family. Thus, my second round signs were more positive.
• "Life is sweet when you don't eat meat."
• "It's really good. Try it, you should."

Positive signs, however, seemed to defeat the purpose of ensuring enough food to feed those in my family who have chosen to not eat meat, and in my case, to not eat animal products. Because my third round sign - "vegetarian entrée" - simply seemed too boring, I knew a new approach was needed.

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for all God has given, yet it is also a time of sharing. Rather than hoard what we have and say, "You can't eat this", Thanksgiving should be a time to share the bounty of our blessings. There is a bounty in non-meat dishes, and there is a blessing I've discovered as a vegan. I want to share these with my family. Thus, rather than "make signs" this Thanksgiving, I decided instead to "make extra".

I made an extra-large vegan pasta primavera casserole; and I brought extra loaves of whole grain bread, and an extra salad with almonds, sunflower seeds, and soy dressing, to off set the salad my aunt was bringing, which I assumed (and assumed correctly) would be Caesar.

My vegetarian cousins were also thinking along the same lines as myself for each of them also decided to "make extra". Each brought a vegetarian dish and an extra vegan dish for me. (How thoughtful they are!) Thus, along with my dishes, our vegetarian spread included a vegetarian lasagna, vegan coconut curry, millet, scalloped potatoes, and vegan pesto pasta salad (along with miscellaneous non-meat sides my other relatives brought). It was more than enough food and all quite yummy, as more people in my family are discovering the joy in eating meatless dishes.

Rather than running out of food and being famished this Thanksgiving, we shared the blessings of non-meat entrees with our family and everyone feasted. More importantly we added a vegetarian twist to our family potluck tradition. Our new tradition: MAKE EXTRA!