Vegeterian Thanksgiving- Recipes for My Daughter

This recipe is a favorite of ours and I served it one year at Thanksgiving when a vegetarian relative was here.

Pasta with butternut squash and shallots
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action...

(If the entire link doesn't appear, just go to Cooking Light's website and type in the name above and it should come up. It should show papparadelle pasta with butternut squash pieces on top.)

Me me! I have been a vegetarian for two years now. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because of all the side dishes! I don't even need a main dish, I am perfectly happy with the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean cassarole, cranberry sauce, etc. I also don't like my family to feel like they have to go out of the way to provide something special for me to eat (not saying that is what your daughter is doing). Does she like mushrooms? Maybe you could grill up some portobella mushroom caps and stuff them with feta cheese and spinach leaves if she wants a heartier main dish feel.

you could make something with eggplant..like eggplant parmesian ...

My daughter is vegetarian and I usually make a pasta side dish for her and anyone else who would like to try it. One of her favorites is angel hair pasta, steamed broccoli and chopped red and green peppers, garlic to taste, warmed in olive oil. For Christmas I make mac and cheese because we always have ham and it seems to go together so well. Once I get my cholesterol test back this week I might be going vegeterian also. LOL!

How sweet of you to support your daughter. I have been a vegetarian for almost 20 years now, and I'll tell you it meant the world to me that my mom supported it. She loves to cook so she just said it was an excuse to buy new vegetarian cookbooks! But it really meant a lot. (as opposed to my MIL who would make a pot roast and serve us the potatoes out of the pot with meat juice- seriously.).

I'm married (he's veggie too) and our daughter is 10 and is as well. Anyway, here's what we do. For a few years, we made a 'no turkey turkey'. It's basically seitan (which is 'fake' chicken/turkey tasting item made of wheat) cooked with veggie gravy, the covered with veggie stuffing, all covered with puff pastry. It sounds like a big pile, but once done, it's a lovely presentation. It's not hard, but it is time consuming. Go to allrecipes.com and search no turkey turkey, I think it's on there.

Lately, we get a Quorn roast. Quorn is a brand of all 'fake meat' items. This one is something of a log and it SUPER easy to cook. I just bake it and slice it like turkey slices. Also I get or make vegetarian gravy. I usually cook for my whole extended family and I just don't have time to make the fancier stuff anymore. But this is so tasty. Not sure where you'd find it in Texas- we have it at Whole Foods or Vitamin Cottage here, even the grocery store carries some of it.

Otherwise, at the health stores you can sometimes find the whole meal all ready and frozen- like a 'tofurky' meal. They are pretty good, too.

Bottom line, you can go as simple or fancy on the fake meat as you want (if you want to do fake meat). If you want her to eat stuffing, best to make it yourself as most stuffing is made with chicken broth. Same with gravy.

I will tell you that people may be curious about some of the different items, but don't expect most to like anything 'fake'. But that's ok. It does take people time to get used to it, and sometimes the jokes are annoying.

I know there are recipes for things like lentil loaves, etc. I honestly haven't tried those. That's a big leap of traditional food that we weren't ready for, but if your daughter is- then there really are plenty of interesting recipes to try.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. We have done Thanksgiving many different ways over the years to see what works best, so I'm happy to share!

The NY Times is running a series where they feature one vegetarian recipe a day until Thanksgiving. Some of them look really yummy.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/08/health/2010...

im a vegetarian and i cook thanksgiving dinner every year, since my daughters are veg, and my brother and his wife are also someone else brings the turkey, in the past my husband made it, but now someone else does and only brings a few cuts. here is my menu

1.broccoli rice casserole with a lattice of cheese and almonds
2.mashed potatoes, fully loaded(no bacon of course)
3.cornbread dressing, with sage, made with vegetable stock
4. baked.yams with agave nectar and pecans
5. deviled eggs with olives
6.a veggie tray with ranch dip
7.wheat and white rolls with butter
8.pumpkin cheesecake with pecans
9. lemon merangue pie
10. homemade cranberry sauce with orange peel and grand marnier(orange liquor)
11.fruit salad

way to go on supporting your daughter, it might be a lifelong choice she is making, i went veg at 12 and never looked back