Thanksgiving 2013

This year I have countless of things to be thankful for…..but honestly I try to make being thankful a habit that I practice all year, and not just on Thanksgiving! This allows me to focus on the more important matter at hand:food.

This year was awesome!!!! Although I didn’t get to fulfill my dream of hosting a full Thanksgiving dinner in our new home (I’m sure I will someday) I did prepare a couple of dishes for dinner at my in-laws. I bought Danielle Walker’s (author of Against All Grain) e-book Thankful on a whim the other week and decided to try out a few of her recipes. I’ve made a couple of her Paleo treats before and I was a fan. Normally I pick out a few recipes from different places to try, but I knew I wanted to make green bean casserole…and then I saw the Paleo pecan pie and made the decision to try that as well. I’ve never made pecan pie…or even eaten it for that matter. It was a hit! I am planning on making it again for Christmas, but I’ll have to increase the amount of filling and decrease the amount of crust. There seemed to be a lot of crust for the amount of filling that was made. But the flavor was amazing!!!

Rolling out the dough was kind of hard- the almond flour makes it really crumbly. But it worked out!

I also made her green bean casserole, sans the mushrooms and onions to cater to everyone’s tastes. It was also a recipe I’ll make again.

We weren’t planning on it, but I also tried the recipe for homemade cranberry sauce. I have never had the canned cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving….it never looked appetizing to me. This recipe was simple enough. Although we agreed it could have used more sweetener than it called for. I was fine with it since I am used to unsweetened desserts.

The turkey was literally the best turkey I’ve ever eaten!!!! I don’t know what my MIL did but it was so juicy. My plate: turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and cranberry sauce. I went back for seconds, obvi. And pecan pie for dessert.

 

And….it looked a lot more like Christmas than Thanksgiving over here. Winter is coming early. Wonderful….

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I feel like a bad blogger as I have been neglecting the blog world since I’ve been on vacation. I promise I’ll get back on track this week!

What was your favorite thing on your Thanksgiving plate?

So Thankful

When I was little I was slightly obsessed with Christmas. And was legitimately depressed on December 26th. Like I used to get sad when there weren’t any more Christmas commercials on TV. I’d like to pretend that presents were not one of the main reasons I loved Christmas…but let’s face it; kids love presents.

Now part of me wonders why everyone runs out and spends so much money. I already know my friends and family love me- so why do they need to get me a present to show me? And so many presents!?!? I’m so overwhelmed and shocked at the sheer amount of stuff that was exchanged not only in my family but everywhere I go. For what? I don’t know. I got most of my family and friends 1 or 2 gifts, and I’m left feeling like a horrible person since I didn’t get them the 3473204320 gifts that they got me.

Christmas is not about gifts. I actually didn’t even think about it once when I was looking forward to it this year. I was looking forward to seeing family and friends, FOOD, drinks and enjoying my time off.

Overnight French Toast Bake- SO GOOD!!!!

 

And enjoyable it was. I’ve finally grown up and realized that the gifts are secondary- the fact that I am able to enjoy Christmas with so many people I love is the only gift I need.

That being said- I can’t believe how much stuff I received! It really is unnecessary- but my family sure knows me. I received lots of cooking and fitness goodies.

New cookie sheets, rolling pin, and meat thermometer. I had a run in with undercooked chicken and ever since then have been extremely paranoid when cooking chicken. I tend to hack it up and destroy it in order to be 100% sure it is cooked. Those days are over!!

FINALLY got a food processor- Can’t wait to use…anyone have any good pesto recipes?!?! I can’t tell you how many recipes have been thrown to the wayside because I didn’t have one of these babies. And a blender is NOT the same thing.

New workout gear- so I can stop wearing the same two-three shirts and 1-2 pairs of pants at the gym. I wash them! I swear! When I first moved it wasn’t a big deal because I was new at the gym and nobody noticed me. But now that I continue to recognize people I progressively am getting more and more self conscious about the fact I own 3 workout shirts.

Can you believe how lucky I am??? Can’t wait to try out all these (and other) new goodies out! Hope your Christmas was as blessed as mine. Today will be spent lounging around trying to dig out of the 16″ of snow we received last night. Wish it would have held off until next week so I could have gotten an extended vacation.

What is your favorite fitness/food gift you received this year????