Don’t panic if you don’t have time for making dessert this year. Just do me a favour, soak a cup of raw cashews right now. C’mon, go! Come back after you do it, I’ll be waiting for you here. Done? Now keep reading this post and make the cake in 15 minutes. You only have to soak the cashews 6 hours before, so you are safe. You can read this post, you can read a couple more posts from this blog and then make a martini and enjoy your life while watching youtube videos. Your cake will be ready in 15! How wonderful is that?

I’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving for a while. Here, in Galicia, people usually looked at me as if I was a weirdo for celebrating a North American tradition. I, on the other hand, consider the fact of being thankful should be a worldwide goal.

Think about Buddhism and gratitude, I meditate everyday and most of the time I think about what I’m grateful for. Why not celebrating a night every year in order to express that gratitude with your loved ones?

Unluckily for me, it has never stuck as a family tradition. I basically celebrated it on my own by roasting a chicken. Although since the addition of Carlos to the band (hehe, a joke) we’ve been celebrating it together every year and adding other band-related people some of the years. Carlos’ appetite is always something to be grateful for 🙂

So, what is a family gathering in many homes around Canada (in October) and United States (in November). We do it as a gratitude party for the good year we’ve had, no matter what kind of family comes to eat the chicken.

What? Chicken? Not this year, as you may have heard from me I barely eat animal products right now (more about it here, and here) But how can you celebrate Thanksgiving being plant-based, gluten-free (no seitan) and soy-free (no tofu)…Well, my loves, if you are grateful, everything is possible.

The cool thing about celebrating is not the food. We tend to think it is and, coming from me, this might be a bit of a shock.

I love food, and I celebrate food three or four times every single day. But when it comes to celebrating, food is just an excuse to get together. Appart from eating mainly veggies and taking out so many “good” stuff from my diet, I’ve changed my lifestyle this year. 

After so many accidents, and sicknesses and not being able to work for a while, my mind has changed a bit too. Do you know when they say that if you start exercising, everything will fall into place. I mean, you exercise, then you want to eat healthier, so you feel more energized and become more productive. I know this is a fact, it happens to me and everybody else I know. Well, the good thing is that it also happens when you change your diet. Since I started eating more conciously I’ve started prepping ahead much more than I usually did. Now, I can’t imagine going to buy groceries without a meal plan. I can’t think about a copious meal, I’d rather have a frugal dinner and enjoy whatever is on my plate being mindful and grateful for it, instead of eating more and more. Not that I did it before, but I’ve became more frugal in other aspects of my life.

I’m reducing the amount of things I have (except for plants, I’m trying to develop a green thumb, which I find impossible 😂) and I’m also embracing zero waste whenever I can. I’ve been doing that unconciously for many years. I bought my first keepcup in 2012 I think, when they only had them in their webpage so I had to pay more for the delivery than the cup itself (not really, but Australia to Spain Shipping wasn’t cheap). I still have it, and although it leaks a little bit due to it’s many years of usage, I’m so glad I bought it (I have 3 more now and many people I know started buying them because I talked wonders about them. Another thing, I’ve been carrying my plastic grocery bags (I mean for produce) before they started selling reusable cloth bags, and many people have thought it was a great idea.

What I’m trying to say is that we all do small actions in order to be healthier or help the planet, and most of the time we don’t even have to think about it or pay any extra money. Reusing plastic bags for fruit and veggies is something as easy as telling them to place the label on top of the previous label. There you go. I have my own reusable straws, but you don’t need one. Just ask them not to use a straw for your drink. There you have it. Free #zerowaste. But that’s not the point of this post, although I’ll talk more about that soon, I fear.

This post is about being thankful, celebrating thanksgiving as a family gathering, as a work dinner, or simply sitting by yourself and meditating.

This year I’m thankful because I’m alive. I’m better than when I started. I am more myself than ever. My values and my life are more in sync than they have been in years. I am also thankful because I have a great family that loves me and because I love my job, even though I couldn’t work as much as I wished. I am incredibly thankful for having access to great medical care for and for being able to believe food can change how you feel. I am also grateful because I can run again and because I can share my music/food/love/life with you. But I am mostly grateful because I am taking care of myself (inside and outside) and I am paying attention to what I need, prioritizing what’s important for me…something I’ve been neglecting for years. What about you? What are you thankful for this year?

Have fun and keep fooding!