Thanksgiving tips for with vegan non-cook mom & non-vegan teens/young adults

[Guest guest]

Dear Sharon and List,

 

I am also a vegan with young adult children who are not vegan. The one year I tried the tofurkey, the kids would not eat it; it was a disaster. Based on this experience, I advise you dispense with traditional turkey and the vegan alternative altogether, and choose vegan foods you all enjoy.

 

Our most successful home-cooked year (in terms of everyone being happy with the food) was when my daughter came up with the idea of an "international" vegan meal for Thanksgiving and we went through PETA's recipes and other vegan recipe books to pick foods from different regions of the world - we were the only family we knew with stuffed grape leaves on the table at Thanksgiving, along with other exotic items. If you're not wild about cooking, your kids are old enough to do all the planning, shopping and cooking -- make creating the meal a family holiday project. Some traditional items are easily vegan, too -- cranberry sauce, yams, wild rice.

 

Another option, especially if you don't like to cook, is to splurge on Millennium -- their Thanksgiving meal is sublime -- delicious, plentiful and healthy, but it's very pricey. If you go this route, make a reservation now -- they fill Thanksgiving Day in advance quickly. If you join the San Francisco Vegetarian Society, they get a discount price of $45 per person. However, if your kids don't want to mingle with the public at large, the regular price is $65, but after tax and tips it's more. The meal is worth every penny, but still, it's a big bite out of the pocketbook. (Most other vegan restaurants are closed on Thanksgiving to my knowledge, but if any other vegan restaurants are open, I'm sure someone will volunteer the information!)

Good luck and Happy Holidays,

Bonnie Knight, San Francisco