Countdown to T-Day: 10

2009 will be the first year in 11 years (or more) that I will be cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving. So, it's been a while. This past year was the first in 10 since I started eating meat again. Prior to that I was an "ovo-lacto-pesco vegetarian". Try saying that three times fast. Basically I ate dairy, eggs, fish and vegetables. No birds or hooved mammals. I had read the book, "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins, the heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire. I believe he was a vegan (no animal foods at all). The stories he told about the atrocities of factory farming made my skin crawl and my stomach churn. Then soon after, I began a career in animal training which even furthered my reverence for animals and distaste in eating them.

Eating meat was a hard decision to make. For me, the only way I could truly bring myself back to health was to eat meat, but I can still do it with a conscience. So, I eat only organic, cage free, hormone and pesticide free animals--the happy animals. I told a friend that I only ate happy animals and she said, "Why would you want to do that? Shouldn't you be eating the animals who are suffering? Eat them and put them out of their misery." She was joking of course but she was on to something in a backwards sort of way. If we only eat plants and animals that have been well cared for and treated with respect, just think of how that would effect our bodies. It all comes down to energy. Negative energy makes us feel like crap. Positive energy makes us feel good. You know that feeling you get when you walk into a room and you can "feel the tension in the air"? That's negative energy. Or the feeling you get meeting with a dear friend whom you haven't seen in a while? That's positive energy. What we eat has the same effect.

And I digress, but isn't that what blogging is all about?

With 10 days left until Thanksgiving I wanted to focus on foods that are almost always on everybody's plate on T-Day. The main character of the evening being the turkey. But since I haven't cooked a turkey in so long I thought I'd go with my whole chicken recipe instead. I've cooked plenty of those (almost every week it seems) and I always make my favorite sides to go with it. So, stay tuned for my next post on Rosemary Garlic Chicken with Stuffing. Until then...here's to eating healthy!