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First vegan Thanksgiving this year!

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Bill W. said #1 Nov 18, 2010 at 5:07pm

My wife and I are coming up on our 1 year anniversary of being vegan. We were ovo-lacto for years, always making sure to eat humane certified eggs, but Alicia's book as well reading about the dairy industry and its connection to the veal industry helped us to finally commit to being vegan.


Cheese was our big barrier to making the commitment in the past, but it actually was a very easy transition for us. And the funny thing is that it's gotten easier and easier to the point where cheese doesn't even sound good anymore. At the beginning, we were ecstatic about Daiya, a vegan cheese that melts and stretches and is rich. But lately, we don't even pick up Daiya anymore. We've started making our pizzas without and don't really miss it. We even bought our own soy milk machine to make our soy milk at home.


We're excited to be celebrating our first vegan Thanksgiving this year, and our choice has been eye opening for both of our families. They've been pretty good about accomodating us by trying to have vegan options for us, and they are at least thinking about how much meat they eat. We try to recruit them to take small steps like Meat Free Mondays. We've recently had a party with a bunch of our friends and provided all of the food to show them how yummy and diverse vegan food can be and were excited that several chipped in by bringing hummus and guacamole.


It's been a fun journey and rewarding! This was the first year neither of us had any allergies, for one thing, and my wife's immune system is significantly better. She literally was sick every other week before becoming vegan and that disappeared with the dairy.


We just launched a new blog this week about vegan Korean food: http://vegan8korean.wordpress.com and are glad to try and share what we can in our own small way!

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Lindsay Wolf said #2 Nov 18, 2010 at 5:47pm

Wahhoooo! That's wonderful Bill! Congratulations to you and your wife making such a kind, healthy and compassionate choice!!! I'll definitely check out your blog, and make sure to take a ton of pics of your T-Day dinner!


- Lindsay, founder, Kiss Me, I'm Vegan!

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Bill W. said #3 Nov 20, 2010 at 7:28am

Thanks, Lindsay! We'll definitely take pictures. We haven't yet decided what we'll be making this year, so we're checking blogs and cookbooks for inspiration. :)

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Lindsay Wolf said #4 Nov 22, 2010 at 11:52am

If you need help, I have recipes and holiday resources on my blog here: http://kissmyvegan.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-kind-of-turkey-day.html


Have a lovely Thanksgiving! :)

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Candice Craig said #5 Nov 24, 2010 at 2:26pm

Thanks for sharing your story, Bill! I hope your first Vegan Thanksgiving is dynamite!! :D


Will you be with non-vegan family or will you and your wife just be celebrating together. Have a wonderful time! :)


xoxo

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Beary said #6 Nov 24, 2010 at 5:23pm

Bill,


Happy "gentle" Thanksgiving to you and your wife! I am sure tomorrow will be delicious!


Beary

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Bill W. said #7 Nov 27, 2010 at 6:41am

Thanks, for the good wishes, everyone. No one else in the family is veggie at all, but they're trying to be thoughtful of us. We had a great time with family, and both my mom and sister-in-law brought vegan dishes to share with the ones we brought, so while they did bring a turkey, half of the other dishes were vegan this year!


We ended up bringing mashed sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, and chocolate mousse. Mom brought a black bean, rice, and avocado salad, and my sister-in-law prepared a veggie dish with corn, lima beans, and peppers. Everything was very yummy. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

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