If you are not planning on cooking your own meal, Chicago based restaurants will be offering Vegan Thanksgiving meals either for dine in on Thanksgiving Day or ordering for pick up on Thanksgiving or the day before. All of the options are listed on our Events Page, but here are our top 5 picks:

• Karyn’s Cooked and Karyn’s Raw are offering Vegan Thanksgiving Meals for pick up on November 23. You will have to place your order on or before November 20. Thanksgiving Meals at Chicago’s Karyn’s Raw can be ordered by calling 312-255-1590, cost is $50 per meal. Karyn’s Cooked will have Thanksgiving Meals for $40 per meal. Call 312-587-1050 to reserve for Karyn’s Cooked Vegan Thanksgiving Meal in Chicago.

• The Chicago Diner has a Vegan Thanksgiving menu serving Veggie Turkey, Pumpkin Ravioli, Pumpkin Pie and more. Their vegan menu will cost $37.99/per person and $22.99 for children under 12. Carry out service is also an option if you prefer. Contact The Chicago Diner to make your reservations.

• Native Foods Cafe is offering “The Native Wellington” to Chicago customers for a Vegan Thanksgiving Meal. Native Foods Cafe will be open on Thanksgiving Day so feel free to dine in at their Wicker Park location at a per person price of $24.95. You can also order “The Native Wellington” to go (feeds 6-8 people) for your Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner at home, at a cost of $39.95 plus shipping.

• Whole Foods is offering Vegan Thanksgiving Meals at its Chicago locations for pick up. The Thanksgiving Meals cost $14.99 per person. Contact your local Chicago Whole Foods for the Vegan Thanksgiving menu.

• Soul Vegetarian East in Chicago offers Vegan Thanksgiving Meals for pick up or dine in. You can place orders all the way up until Thanksgiving day and these meals add a vegan twist to some traditional dishes.

We have tried a couple of these in the past and we can tell you that either one of these restaurant options would be a good choice.

If you’d like to prepare your own vegan meal, check out Veg Kitchen with Nava Atlas, a companion in the Meatless Monday movement. Veg Kitchen with Nava Atlas has a long list of vegan Thanksgiving recipes, and all of them look delicious.

If you know of any other resources for a Vegan Thanksgiving in Chicago, please let us know via Twitter, Facebook, or just leave us a comment below. We’d be happy to hear from you.

For a complete guide to Vegan and Vegetarian Dining in Chicago visit the Chicago Vegan and Vegetarian Restaurant directory. Easy Search by Zip Code.

Even though it is well known that fruits and veggies have pesticides, it is important that you are aware that some of them contain more pesticides than others. This infographic [via] will provide you with data about which fruits and veggies are the “dirtiest” ones and what you can do about it.

Remember the idea behind Meatless Monday is to start the week off with a focus on health and awareness of the impact our meat consumption is having on the environment. So, if you do not have time to cook the recipe, choose from our directory listing of Chicago Vegan and Vegetarian Restaurants.

Ingredients
Serves 2
2 Large yellow peppers
1 Cup of quinoa
1 and 3/4 cups of water
2 Green onions
1 Tomato
2 Cloves of garlic
2 Teaspoons of capers
4 Teaspoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat the oven at 350.
Add the quinoa and water to a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for approximately 20 minutes. Reserve. Chop finely the garlic, tomato and onion. Put 2 teaspoons of the olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the garlic, tomato and onion for about 5 minutes. Add the capers to the mix at the end. Once the vegetables are cooked, mix in with the quinoa and add salt and pepper to taste.

Cut the top of the peppers and take out the seeds. Stuff them with the quinoa and place them into a slightly oiled cooking sheet. Add one teaspoon of olive oil on top of the peppers and cook for about 20 minutes or until the peppers turn slightly golden.
Let the peppers cool and enjoy this easy vegan recipe as a side dish.
And don’t forget to spread the word in Chicago about Meatless Monday.

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Vegan and vegetarian eaters should be very careful about getting enough of the following key nutrients*:

• Protein: Vegans and vegetarians can find protein in tofu, tempeh, veggie burgers, beans, nuts and nut butters.
• Iron: Good sources of iron are eggs, fortified breakfast cereals, soy-based foods, dried prunes and apricots, nuts beans, legumes, whole-wheat bread, and baked potatoes.
• Calcium: Vegetarians can find it in cheese, yogurt and milk. Ovo-vegetarians and vegans can get it in soy products, legumes, almonds, sesame tahini, calcium-fortified orange juice, and dark, leafy vegetables like collard greens and bok choy.
• Zinc: It can be found in soybeans and soymilk, veggie “meats,” eggs, cheese and yogurt, fortified breakfast cereals, nuts, breads, mushrooms, peas, wheat germ and pumpkin seeds.
• Vitamin B12: Vegans and vegetarians can find it in soy-based beverages, fortified breakfast cereals, and fortified veggie “meats”.
• Riboflavin: Great sources are foods such as almonds, fortified cereals, cow’s milk, yogurt, mushrooms and soy milks.
• Linolenic acid: Vegans and vegetarians can find it in canola oil, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, soybeans, tofu, walnuts and walnut oil.
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids:  Good sources of omega-3s are flaxseed, walnut, soy and canola oils.

Feel free to try a vegan or vegetarian restaurant in Chicago or in your town. You should always consult your doctor when you make any change to your diet.
*Source: WebMD

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How are you celebrating? In Chicago, there are some great vegetarian restaurants that you could visit as a way to honor this great philosophy of living. Or, if you feel inspired to cook, there are plenty of amazing vegetarian recipes you could try and share with your loved ones.

But awareness is key. It is time to stop ignoring the consequences of our daily meal choices and empower ourself with every single food decision we make everyday.

As far as myself, I love the vegetarian diet because it is a kind one. It is a diet in which all living beings are respected equally. I believe a vegetarian way of living is a win-win situation: Good for you, good for the planet, and good for Chicago.

If you are not vegetarian, I encourage you to at least try to go meatless once a week. It is not as hard as you might think, and you will be a part of a well-needed change in this world.

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We are entering into Week 2 of the 8 weeks to happiness. We will be putting a little more focus on yoga, meditation and eating better. But not too much, it is only week 2, so it will be just be a small introduction to these areas.

I know you are asking yourself, how can eating better contribute to happiness? Well, from experience, eating healthy allows for me to free up my mind for other important things that require mental strength. When I have a “guilt-free” meal, I am not worried about how I am going to burn those extra calories, or how I have to remember to eat less calories on the next meal to compensate. And let’s not forget, there is a remarkable feeling one gets from biting into a nice sweet piece of fruit.

As we bring our attention to awareness, we will be preparing more for yoga and meditation, which has profound effects on our happiness. Most of our eating binges, feelings of depression and sadness, and just overall “down” days can be minimized by learning how to calm the mind and body. So keep an open mind, and I will guide you through week 2. Also, try to erase any preconceived prejudice you may have toward yoga, meditation and eating healthy. We will take a more traditional approach to these practices.

Continue to utilize the principles learned in the first week, breathing comfortably, playing your theme song, paying compliments, making plans and enjoying your surroundings. If you missed week 1, no worries, we will be here, it is not too late to join us.

Day 1: Go Meatless one day this week
Yes, go meatless one day this week. But consciously meatless. Don’t say to yourself, “Great, Chicago style stuffed crust pizza with extra cheese and mushrooms is meatless enough for me!” Try to do it with awareness. Awareness to what you are putting into your body, awareness to how your food arrived to your plate and awareness to the effects this will have on your body once digested. Some of you may think going meatless is impossible. Well, it isn’t and you can make it fun. Begin to stop using the “D word” (diet), let’s begin to refer to our eating consciously, being aware of what we are putting in our mouth. Try a new recipe with the family, invite a friend to join you at a vegan, vegetarian or healthy restaurant. Doing it together with someone can have a positive effect, but doing it alone can have just as much of an impact on your happiness.

Also, you will never be alone in this journey because in 2003, Meatless Monday was introduced as a public health awareness campaign. Since then, Meatless Monday has turned into an international movement. The idea behind Meatless Monday is to start the week off with a focus on health and awareness of the impact our meat consumption is having on the environment.

Day 2: Start a “vent journal”
This will be a different kind of journal. We are going to call this our “vent journal.” You know all of the things you call your friends to complain about, gossip about, and/or just overall vent, let’s write those things down. Put it on paper as oppose to releasing it back into the universe. Just do it and we will do a fun exercise with this later. Release, release, release. But when you are done, be sure to store this away in a safe place for no one to find it.

Day 3: Eat a piece of fruit
With awareness, eat a piece of fruit. Take a second to actually enjoy the piece of fruit but think about where it came from and how it arrived to you. There are some people that practice meditation with food, and the concepts here are similar. We will not go that far just yet; but as you breathe smoothly, chew slowly and enjoy your fruit write down quickly five people involved with the process of that fruit arriving to your hands. We are all connected and dependent on each other, the more you begin to realize this the more aware you will become of the community around you.

Day 4: 6 easy basic yoga movements
I have designed a quick morning pick me up that will bring awareness to your breath and wake up your body. Starting your day on with a focus on your breath and noticing how your body operates with your breath is an easy way to put attention and focus on how the mind and body work together through the breath. It will also show you how you are in control of your movements, which can translate into being in control of your actions. An ancient text tells us that “you have control over your actions, never over the fruit of your actions. You should never act for the sake of reward, nor should succumb to inaction”. Keep this in mind as you move in and out of these 6 easy yoga poses, focusing on the breath.

Day 5: Read your “vent journal”
Read your vent journal from Day 2 of this week. Take a look at what you wrote and notice how much things have changed since you wrote down those thoughts. Notice how you misjudged someone’s actions, notice how the problem you wrote about worked itself out, notice how you avoided the petty argument you could have started from verbalizing those thoughts. Use this as a lesson to think about what you say before you say it. Sometimes we create our own misery, pain and/or sadness by what comes out of our mouths, or in this day in age, what we text or post on facebook. Let’s not even begin to think about the effects our words have on other people’s happiness (the list could be endless). Taking control of your actions, starting with the words we speak or don’t speak, can have positive effects on your mood and give you the boost you need to continue the day with a smile.

Days 6 & 7: “Weekend”
These two days we will consider our weekend. Like all weekends, we either rest from our week or catch up on what we missed out on during the week. Take the same approach here. Either revisit a concept from Days 1-5 of this week or from week 1 that you enjoyed or didn’t quite grasp totally. Whether it be going meatless, practicing the 6 easy yoga poses or trying another vegan, vegetarian or healthy restaurant. Think about the week and continue to practice the principles learned. Begin to try to make them a habit in your life.

Remember the idea behind Meatless Monday is to start the week off with a focus on health and awareness of the impact our meat consumption is having on the environment. So, if you do not have time to cook the recipe, choose from our directory listing of Chicago Vegan and Vegetarian Restaurants.

Ingredients:
Serves 2
2 cups of broccoli
1/2 cup of red onion
1 handful of parsley (chop finely)
2-3 cloves of garlic (chop finely)
4 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Chop the onion into small pieces. Chop the broccoli into big pieces. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a sauce pan and sauté the onions and broccoli for about 4-5 minutes or until tender.
Place the onions and broccoli into a bowl and add the garlic and parsley. Mix together the ingredients. Incorporate 2 tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and stir.
Let it sit for at least 30 minutes before eating to allow the flavors to blend. It can be served warm or cold.

Ingredients:
1 Pumpkin (around 3 pounds)
1/2 Onion
1 Shallot
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 cup of water
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Chop pumpkin into small pieces and set aside. Wash seeds and reserve.

For the seeds: Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Place the seeds in a baking pan, add a little salt and pepper to taste. Cook until golden.

For the soup: Put the olive oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion and the shallot. Once transparent, add the pumpkin pieces and let it cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally (should be approximately 90% cooked). Add water and cook for another 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Let it cool a little and then use a mixer or blender to process the soup, in order to give a creamy texture.

Serve the soup in bowls and sprinkle with the roasted seeds. Enjoy this seasonal easy vegan recipe.

Ingredients:
Serves 2

3-4 cups of fresh spinach
6 fresh figs
2 tablespoons of parsley
6 leaves of fresh basil
1 tablespoon of orange zest
16 almonds (approximately)
1 tablespoon of juice from orange
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of balsalmic vinegar
60 grams of goat cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

For roasted peppers:
2 red peppers
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preset oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Clean and cut the peppers in halves. Place them in a pan and sprinkle with salt, pepper, sugar and olive oil. Roast them for 30 – 40 minutes or until soft. Let the peppers cool before mixing with the salad.

Place the spinach in a large mixing bowl. Add the basil and parsley finely chopped. Chop off the top of the figs, cut them in quarters and mix in the bowl. Mix in the remaining ingredients including the peppers and toss.

Enjoy this vegetarian recipe with the natural sweetness of fresh figs while they are still in season.