Save-A-Turkey! Aka - Prep for Payton's Grab and Go Thanksgiving Feast

Hola, and welcome to your "It's Almost Thanksgiving" edition of Rainbows Of Vegan Love's Blog!
Let me start by pointing to your left.  See that gorgeous boy there?  That's Payton!  Payton lives at the Farm Sanctuary in California.  Do you know what Payton is thankful for?   He's thankful for this blog!!  Why?  We've adopted him this Thanksgiving, and we are making a grab and go feast in HIS name!  He will NOT be eaten... ever.  He will die of a very old age at his home in California.  Why?  Because he's one of the very lucky feather-kids that have people that love him, and know how wonderful turkeys really are!  (And I don't mean on your dinner plate!).

I really feel the need to enlighten you here - so if you're in the mood for my food, you might want to scroll, but honestly, have a heart - learn about these beautiful birds before you read on.  It just might change your view from roasted or fried, to hugs and love.

Treated with respect, domestic turkeys are friendly birds who enjoy human companionship. Like their wild relatives they are avid foragers who thrive on grass and a healthful outdoor life. They are not suited to the harsh turkey confinement systems in which 5,000 or more sensitive birds are forced to sit and stand jammed together in filthy litter breathing burning ammonia fumes and lung-destroying dust. They develop respiratory diseases, foot ulcers, breast blisters, and ammonia burned eyes. They are dosed with drugs, vaccines and antibiotics to prop them up till marketing time.
These turkeys are bred and fed to become pathologically obese. Their skeletons are so weak under their bloated muscles ("meat") that many birds collapse, unable to stand. The modern turkey muscle is undergoing degenerative changes reflecting the birds' forced rapid growth and overblown body weight (Turkey World, 1994). Oxygen deprived and grossly overburdened, many turkeys' hearts explode. Consumers could eat a diseased turkey or turkey part for dinner: "Researchers are looking at ways to keep afflicted birds alive long enough to get them to market" (Associated Press)
Turkeys are brutally debeaked. As a result, they cannot eat or preen properly. Research has shown that the hot debeaking blade cuts through the sensitive beak tissue causing lifelong pain and suffering in the mutilated, disfigured bird.
Modern turkeys are so heavy and misshapen they must be artificially inseminated to reproduce. Obscenely, the males are "milked" of their semen by phallus manipulating teams who stick it in the upside down turkey hen's vagina with a hypodermic syringe or the operator's breath pressure blown through a tube. The U.S. does not even provide humane slaughter protective legislation for turkeys.

You guys... if this does not break your heart, sicken, or disgust you - I don't know what will.  I try to keep this blog lighthearted, but I, myself ADORE all animals, and occasionally, I want to show you how brutal this world is to our friends of feather/fur and scales.   You wouldn't treat your best friends this way.. most of us wouldn't treat people we don't even know this way... why is it ok to treat our animals this way?

I know you don't come here to get preached at, which is why I suggested if you're just here for the food, to keep scrolling.  I don't normally preach but there are times, when I find that it's IMPERATIVE that we are educated about this stuff, not only for the life of our animals which will someday go extinct if we don't care for them.. but also for your health.. if you read that snippet and it doesn't make you want to throw up - well, you have a better tummy than I.

Now, onto this grab and go thing we're about to partake in.   

omg cute baby turkey!

It was called to my attention that I'll be attending a half a family get together of what we're kinda but not calling Thanksgiving, out of town.   Now, again - as being invited thru a family full of hunters and meat eaters (sigh) you know there will be little if anything sitting there that I will be digging into... so what does a trusty little vegan do in this instance?  She MAKES her food.. and makes a couple dishes to share!  It is my hope that my family does not freak out at the word "vegan".  I mean seriously?  If you can eat something that poops - why you'd be afraid to eat something that doesn't is beyond me, but I digress..  I know there's no way I can travel with a huge main dish and there's not a soul (besides, grandma, but she's not really able to eat - well because grandma's in heaven cleaning up the muck that the turkey that will be sitting at the dinner table is making at her farm..)  ASIDE from that, I was trying to think of a great main dish for myself that is totable, and incredibly yummy and something I can also throw together and hold on to for our actual Thanksgiving day dinner at the parents  house the week after - and not made of some faux meat by-product.  (Tofurkey?  Not a fan.)   I started dillying around the internet and found a super easy veganization (all I have to change is the broth used from chicken to veggie)  So let's squash it out.. my main dish is going to be:

Payton's Squash with Wild Rice & Cranberry/Apple Stuffing
Calories - 282
Fat - 5
Cholestorol - 0
Sodium - 588
Carbs - 25
Fiber - 2
Protien - 10
WW Pts - 5
(There is no change here - this is a vegan recipe)

I will be using a carnival squash for the first recipe, and an acorn squash for my home recipe.
So, of course I had to come up with some side dishes, right?   It's been brought to my attention that the sister will be bringing a salad, which I'll consume.. but I need a starch!  Since I'm not having meat, I don't need gravy, (even though I am going to make it an smother some stuffing in it) therefore I don't really consider myself to eat mashed potatoes (even tho I love em) so for this one I'm going all out with my second favorite carb... Baked Macaroni and Cheese (Or Teese) :)  I'm single serving this baby because I can hear it now..  "eew, it's not real cheese."  To that I might say - well, um, do you know what's IN real cheese?  Furthermore, lovely cheez whiz eater - do you know what THAT IS?! :)   But I'll try and refrain.. you can look it up.  I'll say - "Google It" and move on, enjoying every creamy bite of this healthier version of mac and cheese!

Mac and Teese                                        Mac and Cheese
Calories - 242                                                 350                                                
Fat - 7g                                                           18                                        
Cholesterol -0mg                                            650                                                    
Sodium  -181mg                                             145                                         
Carbs   - 36g                                                   12                                      
Fiber - 3g                                                         4
Protien - 6g                                                      7                                                      
WW Pts - 6                                                     6     

Now, I gotta share right?   This sends me to my veggie side.   Mom and I froze up some green beans this summer and I think they'd be the perfect addition to my vegan GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE, which I'm making enough to share.. cuz you know it's going to be magnifique.. much better than the one it'll probably be sitting next to. ;)  Y'know - whatever, if there's another one everyone is drawn to, that just means more for ME!!   

Vegan Green Bean Casserole                               Reg GB Casserole
Calories - 200                                                                250
Fat - 8.5                                                                           10
Cholestorol - 0                                                                280
Sodium - 387                                                                   460
Carbs - 15                                                                          8
Fiber - 23                                                                          20
Protien - 3                                                                         2
WW Pts - 2                                                                       2

And another share -  you have to have a dessert!   I chose vegan pumpkin brownies.   Easy to tote, yummy to eat.  And look at the difference a few changes in the ingredients make!   I have heard that it is going to rival an old friend's banana cream pie - and there will probably be a pumpkin pie too.. but hey - I can eat mine and be guilt free.. (and continue eating them later on the ride home, not  sharing them with my sister).  :)

Vegan Pumpkin Brownies                               NV Pumpkin Brownies
Calories - 118                                                              189
Fat - 0.7                                                                         8
Cholestorol - 0                                                              15
Sodium - 227                                                               227
Carbs - 26                                                                      28
Fiber - 2                                                                          2
Protien - 2.5                                                                   2.5
WW Pts  3                                                                    5

And that's that.  I think it's a well rounded lil feast, since it's only me eating it.  And what's more, is that whatever doesn't get eaten, can go to the parents house with me on Thanksgiving day for me to finish up - not only that, I don't have to guilt mom into making me vegan mashed potatoes.. She'll do it.  :)  So I think I'm going good.   BUT you ask - what will I be making for the big day if I've already got it all down pat?

                           Oh - if you've been keeping up you know I have a royal plan, don'tcha now?   :)

So, with that being said, the time is right to set up and get ready for Payton's grab and go.  I'll be gearing up to be the perfect home-maker on Saturday, logging my miles, doing my kundalini, cooking, cleaning - you name it!  If you expect to see me on Saturday - um, don't. :) I'll be holed up for the day in the house that Funke built.. cooking and baking my little heart out.   Don't worry - you'll read all about it later.. and you'll get to find out which one of my animal hater (JUST KIDDING, SERIOUSLY DON'T TAKE THAT PERSONALLY)  family members decided to give some vegan goodies a try. ;)

Til then - keep loving your fur/feather/scaly kids and remember that my girlfriend Ellen wants you to sponsor a turkey this year.  :)

----And----
For those of you keeping track - Reverend A. Augustus Kroll (Or Kroell as some paperwork has it) has moved on.  His 17 day sabbatical with me has been completed.  It was a very uncomfortable, scary event for me, and no one will ever tell me that hauntings of a person do not happen (let alone hauntings of a car - it's going to cost me at least $1000.00 to fix what he messed up on my beetle!)    But in his honor - I want to bestow you with what I know is the last picture of him (at least) in existence.

A.Augustus Kroll - 187?

Rest In Peace, Rev. Kroll - Maybe I'll see you on the flip side.   :)


Music enjoyed while writing this blog:
ABSOLUTE SILENCE!

Current Motivation:  
Saving birds, one feather at a time.



Current Craving:
Darnit all to heck - mashed freakin' potatoes!