Kiddipedia
The holidays are a cherished time. Traditions are warmly embraced and new ones created as our lives shift and expand. We grow and evolve as humans, and so do our celebrations!
The festive season is a well deserved opportunity to relax, enjoy good food with our kids and loved ones and take some time out to celebrate.
The ways that people celebrate the holiday seasons are just as varied and diverse as we are!
Passion for Protecting our Planet
A growing number of people are very passionate about the endless benefits for the planet, all its creatures and humanity, of living a sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle.
The easiest but most powerful way of becoming more eco-friendly and helping to sustain our environment is to limit purchasing animal products. Even without any drastic lifestyle changes you can significantly gift your kids, yourself and your loved ones with health benefits that effortlessly flow through from opening your mind to more possibilities.
Veggie Positivity
It’s not difficult to see straight through Hollywood’s false narrative that vegetarians are a minority to be humiliated and ridiculed.
Many mainstream movies are sponsored with the BIG bucks allocated to clever and strategic product placement by the multi billion dollar meat industries fast food chain corporations.
The ridiculous and quite hateful depiction of vegans as ‘crazy’ people, 1970’s hippies, or pale sickly goths who eat nothing but tofu is ludicrous.
Tofu is commonly used across the world especially in Asian countries as a staple food. Just like rice, tofu is used as a base to a dish – not eaten plain and on its own! Tofu and other plant proteins are flavoured and cooked with fresh food, spices and sauces as an affordable, ethical and very healthy form of sustainable, cruelty free protein.
“Well what do you eat?” They cruelly joke, as the insults are written into carefully constructed storylines.
Sadly, it’s not uncommon to hear these jokes ignorantly parroted by those who have unconsciously fallen right into the trap of the planet’s most toxic corporate agendas.
The plain truth is that vegans actually eat everything else other than meat and animal products! It doesn’t take being a genius to work out that there is a lot of other food to choose from!
Sustainable food movements are the result of intelligent thought leadership, guiding our world’s population into a sustainable, healthy and more loving heart centred future.
Millions of healthy happy individuals, families, friend circles and eco conscious communities across the world celebrate the holidays in a delightfully decadent style, without a roasted bird or smoked pig as the main centrepiece dish. There are many options and alternatives, traditional and contemporary. The sky’s the limit, we will never run out of options, ideas and exciting creations.
Nothing ‘crazy’ about that Mr Hollywood.
Here’s why
Love of animals:
It feels great to be eating in a way that is completely cruelty free especially for those who are very passionate animal lovers.
We can encourage even more positive language around kids by describing our sustainable food as ‘animal friendly’ to support the beautiful diversity of all our family and guests without making meat eaters feel bad, and catering for the vegans, vego’s and those simply wanting to live a little more consciously.
Better still, say nothing to guests about the types of food you are serving at all! Simply lay out a beautiful colourful, flavour rich delicious spread for all to enjoy! It’s your party, you get to decide on the food!
We grow our Inclusivity:
By learning how to incorporate vegetarian dishes into our gatherings, not only are we respecting others’ animal friendly or eco choices but we automatically upskill ourselves on how to cater to guests of diverse backgrounds and cultures who may not eat certain animals due to cultural, religious or spiritual reasons.
When kids are nurtured by parents who appreciate diversity, they become fascinated by differences rather than phobic of them. . This allows growth into more emotionally intelligent adults.
Kids love learning:
Kids can learn about the benefits of eating fresh vegetarian food or eco/ organic meals as being the most sustainable option for our planet.
Let them choose the fruit for the pavlova or the fruit salad dessert when shopping.
See them light up as they take pride in showing off to the guests, their culinary skills and knowledge on all the benefits of using fresh home-made ingredients.
Kids love learning at home about all the reasons to eat sustainably. The water and legume consumption costs of animal farming and the heavy footprint left behind by food transport, fuel costs and omissions are all impacts that are well documented.
Involving kids in eco conscious festive meal prep can be great Inspiration for further research together as a project.
For now though, let’s stick to the fun stuff!
Eat more! Eat real, vibrant, fresh delicious food!
Which Way To Go?
Thankfully there are many ways of doing this!
Simply decreasing the meat dishes on the table is an easy solution.
Decorative vegetarian dishes, vegan pies and pastries, wholefood sweet christmas cookies, clean food juices and sweet smoothies all have easy to find recipes. When shopping, ethical products, organic options and buying local are all great ways of further contributing to sustainability.
Many of these products crossover to add extra health benefits and can even help save money that would usually be spent on plastic packaged foods that have a shocking impact on our environment.
Think about it … .many of the dishes, snacks, treats and deserts you already serve up are probably vegetarian, can be ethically sourced or adjusted to be more eco friendly! Some can be mostly wholefood based or only have one meat/animal ingredient making it super easy to swap it out for a replacement of your choice.
Flavoured and textured meat replacement products have greatly improved in taste and price over recent years as popularity has skyrocketed and these can be purchased in all supermarkets. Once flavoured with the usual sauces in dishes, some people don’t even notice a difference.
A holiday feast family favourite main course is a big hearty roast dinner.
A popular Aussie brand makes a veggie loaf that bakes into a delicious roast. It can be further seasoned and spiced to perfection with caramelised onion gravy and surrounded by an array of colourful crispy roast vegetables and whole garlic cloves. Topped with fresh rosemary, it’s a delicious way to enjoy a hot main course for your festive feast.
Another option if you want to stick to your usual centre piece meal is to simply add three eco-friendly side dishes and some organic or homemade wholesome desserts. This way, you are still miles ahead.
Positive Frequency Fresh Food
A lovely way of embracing our freedom of choice is to recognise the way we feel after eating fresh food. Selecting recipes we feel good about further raises our energetic vibration bringing higher levels of happiness and general wellness. This strongly supports us and our families to eat much more fresh produce as a regular effortless habit.
Whichever approach you take – as a full time lifestyle choice, a Monday night ritual or just for your festive holiday feast table – don’t worry. It’s all good!
Race Redomra is a wholistic health expert and author of “Fit and Chilled- the alternative fitness culture”.
Race’s parenting choice was to raise kids from permanent foster care.
She was deeply saddened by agencies moving kids from home to home to maximise their funding dollars. She wanted to provide stability by becoming a ‘’Forever Mumma’’ allowing a real second chance at a normal life.
Race’s daughters were able to experience a home filled with love and respect for family and Planet Earth – a healthy lifestyle, fun adventures and emotional healing at the very core of their lives.
Race provides consultations by appointment.
E:author1111@protonmail.com
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