Vegetarians enjoy a turkeyless Thanksgiving

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    By Kenneth Blaisdell

    ?Pass the turkey right on by,? Hillary Boeing said. Thanksgiving is a time for food and family, not just a bird ? especially for vegetarians. Boeing is used to eating casseroles, pie, almost everything ? except the meat.

    ?I have been a vegetarian since I was in the 7th grade,? said Boeing, 20, a sophomore from Milwaukee studying dance. ?It was harder being a strict vegan.?

    Being a vegan, according to Boeing, is abstaining from milk, eggs, any animal product. Some vegans, Boeing said, take it to extremes, they will not eat honey because bees make it; they will not wear leather shoes, because it is a product from animals.

    ?This year I am going to a friend?s house. She has told me not to be a ?psycho? vegetarian.?

    Boeing?s friend has a vegetarian aunt. Boeing said the aunt would flip out if the turkey was on the table.

    ?I wouldn?t consider myself a ?psycho vegetarian,? I am nice about it.? Boeing said.

    For Elizabeth Ellsworth and her family, Thanksgiving was always about food, not turkey. Her whole family is vegetarian.

    ?I have always been a vegetarian,? said Ellsworth, 21, a junior that is a pre-composite dance major from Minneapolis.

    ?We eat a lot of food; we use to do the whole Thanksgiving thing. It is harder here.?

    Ellsworth said at BYU, there just isn?t a place on campus to get vegetarian food.

    The Ellsworth?s have a better, colorful meal, Elizabeth said.

    ?I don?t understand why so many people think they have to gorge themselves on meat.?

    For Thanksgiving, Ellsworth said there are options other than meat. Her family has a meal with a rice-nut loaf, cashew gravy, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry-orange relish, wilted spinach salad with hazelnuts, stuffing, and pies.

    ?We never had people come over, no one would ever come over and eat it.? Ellsworth said.

    According to tofurkey.com, there are other options ? tofu turkeys. There are lines of tofu products that can replace the meat at any meal, but especially Thanksgiving.

    Where Boeing said she does not think tofu meat products look very appealing, Ellsworth said she had tried them.

    ?I have eaten meat substitutes, but for Thanksgiving we just make something different.?

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