Turkey Day is almost here and every year I post plenty of do it yourself decorations, crafts and activities to green up your Thanksgiving. There are some tips I mention over and over because they are that important. Thanksgiving has become a holiday of gluttony and not thanks for anything in my opinion. Try really being thankful this year and try to give back to the earth.

1. Save the seeds from your dinner and plant them when you can. You can also include the dried and cleaned seeds in a holiday gift for people who attended your Thanksgiving. Give them something to remind them how thankful they should be. You should be thankful for those seeds, they gave you a great meal.  Maybe if properly cared for you can serve those very veggies at your next holiday meal.

2. STAY LOCAL! Get your produce from local farm stands or local grocers. This season for fall harvesting didn’t do that well for some fruits and veggies. I know by me apples took a hard hit locally. You want to keep your neighborhood from becoming a ghost town? You want to make sure you have places to spend your money near you than purchase from around you. Not at the chain places at the Mom and Pop places. Helping your community helps you.

3. Compost all of your leftovers. If you can’t give things away,eat them all or reuse them in other recipes compost them for your yard. No need to throw food into the trash. Depending on what we have I make yummy meals for our pets. I know I am thankful for them so I share to make sure they know it.

4. Use as little packaging and throw away utensils as possible. I personally don’t appreciate disposable items. Not because of their wastefulness but because I feel like you are telling your guests you don’t have the time for real utensils or that they aren’t worth it. I understand disposing is easy but you can put that much more effort into a meal you have slaved all day over and make it look that much nicer. Again, remember show your guests you are Thankful for them!

5. Conserve Energy where you can. Your house is going to obviously get hot with all of the cooking, eating and people in the near vicinity. Turn your heat down or off (depending on the temp. outside) and open some windows. Let’s not forget to not turn every light and electrical gadget on in the house the entire time. While people are cooking try to get people to go outside and be active. Don’t have multiple tv’s, video games and lights on in the house. Force your friends and family to spend time with each other. You will be thankful you saved on your bill the month before the real spending begins.

6. Potluck? I know some people take pride in cooking the whole meal but think of the time and energy everyone saves if they are in charge of bringing one or two things. Everyone gets to actually sit, relax and enjoy time with their friends and family. Try it, you might be thankful that you did!

7. NO TURKEY PLEASE!!! I can read off a ton of statistics about how horribly turkeys are treated and the processes but that isn’t going to make most of you listen. I don’t expect all of you to listen but I hope some do. There are plenty of delicious options to having turkey on your plate. The photo is Tofurkey which looks delish! You can go with other less traditional and or vegan dishes. Get creative. Just because it is called Thanksgiving aka Turkey Day doesn’t mean we can’t change it to Tofurkey Day. If they called it Horse day would we have to eat horse????