Surviving holiday meals - tips & hints

[Dave in MPLS]

The Vegetarian Times sponsored forum on Facebook is hosting a topic similar to this one. Seems like a good idea so I'm stealing the idea

How can vegetarians 'survive' being involved in traditional holiday meals? How do we help others survive us (Carol Adams refered to vegetarians as creating 'chaos' in such situations)? Ideas/tips anyone?

My tip - if hosting a meal or bringing food, be mindful of food allergies! Traditional holiday foods are bursting with many common allergens - wheat, dairy, nuts ...

My general approach to this kind of thing is show rather than tell ... This tip is not only practical but also just plain thoughtful ...

[GingerFoxx]

When you think about it, a lot of holiday fixings like those served for Thanksgiving are vegetarian friendly (mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, squash, other miscellaneous veggie sides) It might be trickier if you are vegan, but my approach to surviving an omnivorous holiday would be to find out ahead of time what all is on the menu and bring a dish or two to contribute to the gathering. Thanksgiving is all about sharing and togetherness after all.

[imahag]

Every one I know builds their meal around the turkey so that means turkey gravy, turkey body juice poured through the stuffing. Yuk yuk yuk and yuk.

[chryssiie718]

My husband and I have managed to survive several family holiday meals since our "change."
We always bring a nice vegan dish or two, usually a main course kind of thing and a dessert. My sister who hosts these gatherings tries really hard to serve other items we can eat also. Some of the other guests try our food and they seem to enjoy it. We have had no major issues and everyone has been very understanding. I think I have an awesome family!!

[jenni-anti-fur]

Every one I know builds their meal around the turkey so that means turkey gravy, turkey body juice poured through the stuffing. Yuk yuk yuk and yuk.

Mostly everyone I know is like that too....and it makes me sick....just ick!

[pajamajes]

i'd like some tips. -.-

i'm going with "try to completely avoid family".

[LadyFaile]

at my mom's house it's pretty easy actually, well as easy as making a bit thanksgiving dinner can be. but yeah we love our stuffing in that house and my mom makes amazing stuffing so we always make lots. enough to stuff the turkey plus enough to fill a medium sized casserole dish. she doesn't use juice from the turkey in her stuffing, never has, so it's not an issue for us. i can eat all the stuffing i want
mashed potatoes she uses soymilk instead of milk, which isn't a big deal cause you can't taste the difference. all the veggies are vegan of course, my mom doesn't use butter (she uses the same kind of margarine i use which does have d3 but no whey or anything like that. earth balance is too expensive around here so it's my one exception)so i don't even have to worry about that she does make turkey gravy, usually i get a can of mushroom gravy for myself, this year i found a recipe to make vegan gravy that is similar to a poultry gravy. it was actually really good.
for protein for myself i just use a meatless chicken breast (gardein is the best invention ever) that i always have in the freezer at my mom's anyway for our regular sunday family dinners. goes pretty good with cranberry sauce
so yeah there's not much extra work to make it a vegan friendly dinner

[sallyomally]

Chryssiie and LadyFaile, we are blessed to have such great families, aren't we? It's never been a problem for mine either. We have four vegans in the bunch, and very understanding omnivores, so there's always tons of delicious food. It's all about family and being together. Even before I was a veg, my dad and I would cook two versions of cornbread dressing , and well, just about everything , and actually, I found it kind of fun.
Holidays can be peaceful if the family members involved can just learn to accept each other and get along. Sadly, that's not always the case.

[Dave in MPLS]

One year my mom made me a boca burger - but used a cookie cutter to make it turkey shaped! It made her happy anyway, like I was participating in the entire meal or something.

[Treehugger267]

I offer to make Thanksgiving dinner so I know what's in everything...lol

Yes, I make a small turkey for the turkey eaters, but it stays to itself. The entire rest of the meal is veggie friendly.