Potluck Panic!

One week ago the dreaded pot luck sign up sheet showed up on the refrigerator at the salon I work in.  We have two pot luck luncheons yearly at my job, one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas.    For Thanksgiving it is the traditional Thanksgiving meal, although I never understand why we do it that way when the real Thanksgiving meal is the following week.  One year in the 6 that I have worked at this salon we had an Italian food pot luck, this seems more practical being that in a week we will be cooking and eating the same things again.  Once again they opted for the traditional Thanksgiving meal.

When I saw the sign up sheet it made me nervous, aside from coming up with something to bring for my contribution, what about the temptation.  I immediately text my best friend for her opinion on food ideas since she is on the same nutritional path as me.  When her ideas weren't to my ideal I went to Mom, her first suggestion was a veggie tray, not what I wanted to hear.  I love to cook and this had to be a dish that would fill me up as well as be organic and clean.  Last Friday during our weekly dinner Mom and I spent time looking through cook books and scoured the Internet for vegetarian dishes I could make organic.  No recipes were jumping out at me, so I opted for a very less practical dish I already had the recipe for and most ingredients.

The problem with cooking a dish, the day before the pot luck I was up at 4am for my job in retail and worked through my stylist job until after 8pm.  The day of the pot luck I had to be at the salon for clients by 8:30am, time was not on my side, I even contemplating picking up a GMO filled platter and calling it good.  Like a good organic girl I went to the store after work the night before for ingredients to make Organic Ravioli Soup.  Soup is the least practical thing to bring to a pot luck, I knew that but made it any way, because I knew it was clean and filling for me.

I started the soup the night before the pot luck, and got up an hour early to finish it.  I don't even know if anyone ate it besides me, being that it wasn't practical, but that is fine, I know I ate clean for the most part.  I did sneak a few pieces of pumpkin bread in.  Although very delicious, I could tell the bread wasn't clean, it made my anxiety flare up.  Not anxiety because I ate something I shouldn't, but anxiety that I feel when I have eaten something full of chemicals.  My ears start to get really hot, and I don't quite feel right on the inside, it is very hard to explain.  I have received these feeling previously from eating a fast food hamburger, and various other unhealthy dishes.  It wasn't until recently I could pin point part of my anxiety being caused by my diet.

I swore I would never reveal this of myself, however I feel that I should in order to better explain my journey although I am slightly embarrassed.  I started this path not only to feel better all around, which I do, but to also help cure the anxiety and mild depression I have been dealing with for the past few years.   Don't get me wrong, I am a very happy positive person, just a slight feeling I have struggled with for a while.  That being said, I am out to cure myself naturally, because YES our bodies have the ability heal with the proper nutrition!

For my Ravioli Soup Recipe you can find it here http://mobile.eatingwell.com/recipes/ravioli_vegetable_soup.html!  I used all Organic ingredients of course!

An organic vegetarian Thanksgiving!

     Thanksgiving is only a little over two weeks away, time to start planning how to stay involved with Thanksgiving while remaining true to my organic lifestyle.

I'm not usually into much of the traditional Thanksgiving foods anyhow, while usually I do indulge in turkey this year I will not be partaking.  I usually just eat a few sides with my Turkey, being organic I will not be able to indulge in the typical side dishes as I have in years past.  I am a Caucasian/American Indian girl, however I was raised on a lot of Mexican food.  When I say Mexican food I don't mean a taco seasoning pack thrown into ground beef with microwaveable taco shells.  When I say Mexican food I mean authentic made from scratch gorditas, fajitas, tamale's, my personal favorite tortas etc.  I have had friends comment in the past about how much Mexican food my family eats, that being said Thanksgiving food tends to be somewhat bland to me.

My best friend who is an organic pescetarian (a vegetarian that eats fish) and I have devised a plan for Thanksgiving with our families.  I personally don't want to stand out as eating something different from everyone else for 2 reasons: 1. I don't want to answer questions about my lifestyle all evening and 2. I don't want to upstage my Mom who is a rock star in the kitchen. 

Our plan is to get together the night before Thanksgiving and cook all our favorite dishes organically, then we will divvy them up onto plates to take to our family's houses.  Our meal includes:  Stuffing, egg noodles (my favorite part), rolls, sweet potato & potato casserole, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  I will probably only be taking a few of the listed items.

I usually bring a side dish to my Moms, whatever she wants to to bring, this year my contribution will be organic because you can make ANYTHING organic.  I probably wont tell anyone it's organic, I'll just keep that to myself as my goal is about not standing out.  I may even go so far as to borrow one of my Moms plates the night before so mine doesn't look any different than anyone else's.

The hardest time of year to be an organic vegetarian is the holidays, however its not about what we can't eat, its about what we don't eat.  We don't eat GMO's, we don't eat animals for obvious reasons, and we don't eat chemically enhanced or processed foods.  It's not about being different or standing out, it's about being happy, healthy, and natural.  If you can make it through the holidays and stay true to your organic lifestyle there is no reason you can't make it through the rest of the year with ease.  Besides, at the end of it all you will feel amazing for choosing the healthy options over the GM options that alone is the biggest reward.