What a high-fruit, high-greens raw-foodist has for Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
A ton of my friends lately have been asking me what I'll make for Thanksgiving.  Well, I was going to make a big fall-themed feast for myself, but I was really in the mood for lighter dishes last night, and a nice hot soup. 
Sometimes I'll have cooked soup--usually not more than once every two weeks.  My favorite is a Chickpea Wild Rice Veggie Soup by Kahakai Kitchen.  Here's a link to her recipe: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/2011/06/chickpea-wild-rice-soup-simple-but.html
I usually make a couple modifications, such as soaking and sprouting my wild rice instead of cooking it, skipping the potatoes and paprika, cooking my own chickpeas (don't want any BPA :) ) and cutting down the cooking time.  This is a delicious soup, though, and I highly recommend it as a hearty, warm, satisfying vegan soup! Here's the Kahakai Kitchen's picture of the soup.

Speaking of wild rice and chickpeas, though, some of you might not know how to prepare them.  So, for sprouted wild rice (chewy and tastes the same as cooked wild rice!), soak about 1 cup of dry wild rice (make sure it's high-quality) in 4 cups of water for a 2-5 days, changing the soaking water once a day.  I've had wild rice be ready as early as two days; as soon as most of the rice is split open to reveal the whitish inside and it has increased by about x3, it's done.  Make sure you rinse it every day so it doesn't go bad! Sprouted wild rice is delicious in a variety of raw food dishes, and I like it more than cooked wild rice. 

Next--chickpeas! Chickpeas aren't raw, but I enjoy having chickpeas in the fall and winter.  I cook my own, since I don't want any of those BPA chemicals and more that come from can linings! Also, when you soak your own dried chickpeas, you can get rid of the majority of the inhibitors that are on chickpea skins to protect it.  (Look into why soaking nuts before you eat them is good--nuts have the same type of phytic acide on them that makes it harder to absorb nutrients.  It's an ingenious method, really! Plants are amazing!)
Soak however many chickpeas you want in a bowl with x3 as much water overnight, or for at least 8 hours.  Rinse and drain the chickpeas, and boil them in water, then simmer them until they have reached your desired consistency.  Enjoy!

So, for my lighter supper, I made a turkey out of fruit.  Cute, right?!? Everyone loved it!

It's just sliced bananas on the bottom, topped with an orange half.  Then, you make 8 skewers, with grapes on each end and a variety of berries (blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry are nice, though I only had raspberry on hand) in between.  Lay those out and cut half of a pear as the turkey body.  You can add raisins for the eyes, and cut dried fruit (I used mango) for the mouth.  Lastly, I used a goji berry for the wattle. 

I also had a green smoothie for my supper in addition to the turkey.  It was a great Thanksgiving! Everyone enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend! :)

Megan