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Canadian Thanksgiving is next weekend and we love the tradition of getting together with family, playing outside with a cozy sweater, enjoying a delicious meal and filling up on dessert that you have no belly space for.
When you imagine a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, you might think turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, squash, green bean casserole, gravy, buttery rolls, corn, stuffing with bacon and apple, cheesecake or pumpkin pie and maybe some wine.
Now, we both grew up on the traditional meal but this year we are celebrating Thanksgiving plant-based because there is no better time to eat less meat for our bodies, the animals and especially the planet.
Cierra has been vegetarian for almost 7 years and last year went veganish reducing her dairy consumption by 97%. Mike gradually cut out meat and decided it just wasn't for him reducing his meat consumption100% a few months ago.
There are three reasons why we suggest you try eating plant-based this thanksgiving: for the planet, for your health and for the turkeys.
There is no planet b and with the urgent need to make global citizen changes, "cutting meat and dairy out of your diet can reduce your carbon footprint from food by 73%", according to researchers at the University of Oxford. It's a simple switch to reduce our carbon footprint and do our part for the planet.
We don't know about you, but anytime eating thanksgiving dinner we both agreed we would feel super bloated, have a food coma, and experience the dreaded turkey sweats after eating a traditional Thanksgiving meal.
Well, we love to break it to you, when you go plant-based you end up eating more veggies which means you don't feel icky.
Trust us, it's a win-win.
We love animals and when we see research from the Turkey Farmers of Canada that says, "At Thanksgiving in 2018, 2.2 million whole turkeys were purchased by Canadians, equal to 35% of all whole turkeys that were sold over the year. 28% of all Canadian households (4.0 million) purchased a turkey and turkey products for Thanksgiving 2018" we can't help but avoid supporting an industry that just doesn't love animals as much as we do.
We love eating plant-based and the best part is that it doesn't cost more, it makes you feel great and you get to be creative in the kitchen.
We are so grateful to be able to enjoy a plant-based meal this thanksgiving and show how you don't have to sacrifice your favourite dishes.
Check out our plant based dinner recipe here.
Check out our plant based cheese cake recipe here.