Thanksgiving Menu Planning

I know, I've been MIA!! I feel like we haven't been making anything new lately, and I hate to report the same old. Went for a run, made chili. Oh, but we used acorn squash instead of beans this time. SO different! 

I'm on an eggs and Aidell's chicken-bacon-pineapple sausage kick. You can scramble the eggs and heat the sausage in about 2 minutes, and it's warm and yummy. I tried to fry the eggs one morning to mix it up ... and they ended up scrambled. 

Our Menu for Thanksgiving


Turkey (all natural, no antibiotics, locally raised, $2 more a pound than the store brand)
Sweet potatoes on the grill
Brussels sprouts, roasted with balsamic vinegar and cranberries
Cranberry relish
Crustless Pumpkin Pie

Steve doesn't even miss the "gluten" sides of Thanksgiving, because he never liked stuffing (or mashed potatoes or corn or green beans) anyway! As long as I get some pie, I think I'll be okay! 

We've been making this flatbread. I wonder if that would make good stuffing! Here's the recipe quadrupled:

Squash Flatbread 
1 butternut squash, roasted and mashed
1/4 C coconut flour
1/4 C coconut oil, melted
3 eggs
1 tea. sea salt

Preheat the oven to 400. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine ingredients until smooth.
Spoon into rounds on the baking sheet, about 1/4 inch thick.
Bake for 12 minutes, flip with spatula, bake another 5 minutes or until they are dry and pliable,

We've had good luck keeping them in the fridge for a few days, but they get moldy quickly, so if you won't eat this many, use the original recipe! 

Here's your bonus recipe, straight from Daphne Oz. Golden Cauliflower with Pecans and Cranberries (at least, that's what we have on hand to make it!)

We are planning to do the Turkey Trot before we eat, and there's an extra class at the gym if I can get there in time after the run! We'll have to find some creative ways to get rid of all the leftover turkey, although Chico has volunteered to eat as much as we're willing to give him!

Not Your Typical Manwich

It snowed today. If it's cold, you might as well cook! I spent about 25 minutes chopping vegetables, but they turned into this:

This is not Manwich. This is Paleo sloppy joes! We served it over sweet potatoes, and it was great! I didn't know it would be as sweet as it was (not a huge sloppy joe fan). 

1 package ground turkey
1/2 onion, chopped small
1/2 green pepper, chopped small
1/2 red pepper, chopped small
1/4 C celery, chopped small
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 T chili powder (we halved it)
1 tea cumin
2 T honey
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes, with liquid
1  6 oz can of tomato paste

1. Saute the onions, garlic, celery together in a skillet until onions are tender
2. Add and brown the ground turkey in the same skillet
3. Next add the spices, or honey, and bell peppers to the skillet
4. Pour in the can of diced tomatoes with liquids and the tomato paste
5. Simmer all together on low for about 15 minutes 
6. Finish with salt and pepper to taste

And since I was already chopping vegetables, I made this Tuscan chicken stew. Look at that simmering! We just used boneless, skinless chicken breasts, so after we cooked the chicken in the broth (about 20-25 minutes), we removed the chicken and bayleaf and shredded the chicken (skipping the step where you strain the broth). It's good! And will warm up nicely for this week of Arctic chills! It would be good with gluten free cornbread!

Besides cooking, I ran on the treadmill because it started to snow as soon as I got home from church. Sunday Funday at the gym was cancelled, and while it probably would have been fine, I think everyone was relieved they didn't have to go out in the elements! 

Easy Mexican Lasagna - Ole!

It is freezing! If it's going to be this cold, I want Christmas presents to start arriving! Here is a picture from Mexico in 2012. I wish we were all salsa dancing in Mexico right now! Since flights are expensive, and we're all busy, here's a Mexican casserole for dinner tonight that will warm your heart ... and your tastebuds.

(This is one of the recipes that disappeared from its original blog online -- horrors! Thankfully, I had it saved in my email!)

Easy Mexican Lasagna

1 pound ground turkey

6 eggs, whisked

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 sweet potatoes, shredded

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 can enchilada sauce (we made our own! recipe below)

1 tea. Chili powder

1 tea. Ground cumin

1 tea. Dried oregano

2 Tbs butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

In a large oven-proof skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Toss the onions into the butter and saute until soft and golden. Add the garlic and beef to the skillet and begin to break up the meat into small pieces while browning. Season the onion and meat mixture with chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper.

When the meat is no longer pink, stir in the shredded sweet potatoes and enchilada sauce. Cover the skillet with a lid and allow the sweet potatoes to soften for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and pour the whisked eggs over the mix – carefully stirring everything together. Move the skillet from the burner to the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the eggs are set.

Remove the skillet from the oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before cutting into. Top each slice with fresh guacamole – heck add a little salsa and cilantro too and enjoy!

Enchilada Sauce

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup onion, finely diced
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• salt, to taste

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook the onion and garlic, stirring frequently, until soft and translucent.
2. Stir in the remaining ingredients except the salt and increase the heat to high. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat once again and simmer until the sauce has thickened enough to coat a spoon.

Delicious Restaurant Quality Sauce and Chicken Legs

So yesterday, I really wanted to make this recipe for Shrimp and Mushroom sauce, but we didn't have all the ingredients. So I improvised with what I had, including some sour cream that expired in August, but hadn't been opened yet and smelled ok. (I'm feeling fine, so I think I'll live, but don't try this at home!)

I took 1/2 can of tomato sauce and heated it in a skillet. Then I added 1/2 tea of garlic cloves in olive oil, sea salt, a scoop of sour cream, and probably 1/3 C chicken broth. Once it was bubbling, I added the shrimp and cooked them about 4 minutes a side (they were a little frozen because I just defrosted them under running water). I made 11 shrimp, because it said a serving was 8-10 and I wanted Steve to try one! Meanwhile I cook some yellow squash "zoodles" for about 4 minutes (they cook fast. You mostly want them to heat throught and soften a bit). It was DELICIOUS, just like a restaurant. Except with squash noodles. I'd never thought of using sour cream to make a cream sauce, although I know a lot of times it calls for heavy cream or half and half. Super easy. We'll be making it again and mixing shrimp, scallops, and chicken. Yum! 

Tip: See all that water on the plate? Squeeze out the squash or zucchini first! 

Tonight for dinner we had the Sage and Cinnamon Drumsticks I've been dreaming about. They were good! Basically I coated the chicken in olive oil (not butter), and then shook cinnamon and sage and sea salt over it. Measuring, ha! I was afraid it would be too strong, but it has a mild flavor. I baked at 400 for a half hour and then 350 for another half hour - it took the whole time to reach temperature. 

To go with it, I made mashed potatoes by boiling fingersized Yukon potatoes (they are the best!) for 25 minutes. I added probably 1/4 C milk and a tablespoon of Kerrygold butter. Delish!! 

And for dessert....TA DA!!! crustless pumpkin pie!! I halved the recipe, and we're going to top it with some pecans in coconut caramel sauce.

1 egg
1 C pumpkin
1/4 C honey
1/4 tea salt
3/4 tea cinnamon
1/4 tea nutmet
1/4 tea ginger
1/8 tea allspice
(1/8 tea cardamom, but I didn't have any!)
3/8 C coconut milk

Grease pie pan with coconut oil. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes (Original says 1 hour 10 minutes) 


 I'm so excited. What's unhealthy about that?! It's like a vegetable! 

Your other tip of the day: If you find a recipe that you love on Pinterest, PRINT IT OUT. For the second time today, I went back to make something I've made a million times, and the blog for some reason is GONE!!!! I thought information stayed on the internet forever, but it's not true. So if you love it, save it somewhere!!! 

New Routine

Time for a new weight-lifting workout from Muscle and Fitness! I went to the gym today and tried it out (with lighter weights) so I'll be ready to start on Monday. I went to "tone and sculpt" on Tuesday, and I need to work on the toning ... or the sculpting ... or both! to keep up! 

Who's in?! It's good to have a challenge over the holidays, so you don't want to eat as much - or so you burn more calories and you can eat more! 

I have two new "crustless" pie recipes to try. One pumpkin and one pumpkin/pecan. That, with sweet potato casserole, and fig-stuffed turkey should get us through Thanksgiving without missing traditional stuffing! I also have four new spatulas, because the first two apparently weren't made for stovetop cooking (how do you scramble eggs then???) and a new pan, so I'm ready to go!
Here's Chico outside. Hopefully one more marathon raking session and we'll be done with the leaves this year. He isn't very helpfull beyond peeing on the piles before we pick them up. Ew.

Yesterday, I ran 5 miles, and all my miles were under 11:00 minute (while I was running. The program adjusted a little after I got back and gave me 11:02 for mile 4, but I'm ignoring it. My average was 10:50). I'm hoping to get some PRs in the holday races (Thanksgiving day and "jingle jog").

I was really happy with my times, and had a great run. Depending on what I do at the gym, my legs are tired, so I've been having a lot of meh runs lately, but this one felt great from start to finish. Well, mentally. My arms were sore from tone and sculpt, but you don't run with your arms, right?

The whole time I was just thinking that sometimes you feel like you can distill all your hard work into one moment. Usually it's a race, since your progress is being measured, but if you can see your times improve on a run, or you just hit that runner's high just right, sometimes that works too. I know I'm still not "athletic" (unless you count mini golf!!), but I am a runner! I'm not trying to hit 100 miles this month for the first time in a while -- April is the only time this year I didn't make it, and I have notes that I was "sick" in my log. Instead I'm going to run a mile to warm up before lifting, do the cardio classes at the gym, and try to run on "off" days, hopefully three times a week--we'll see how it works out, especially in week 3! I still need to chart it so I'll have an idea what I'm supposed to be doing! 

How Many Shopping Days Til Thanksgiving?

Happy Halloween! Phew, glad that's over. Merry Christmas! 


They were putting the Christmas candy up in the grocery store today. Already! However, I was happy that all the holiday baking things were on sale. Raisins (which Steve eats more of than a household of toddlers) and pecans were on sale, as well as cinnamon and vanilla, all of which we go through really fast because it seems like every recipe we like uses them! 

I made the Chicken Spaghetti Squash "Pizza", which turned out well, and as expected tasted better the second day. We added more tomato sauce than it called for when we warmed it up, and it tasted even better after that! 

We also made these Pumpkin Banana Spice cookies, which were really good! We added cacao chips to half the batch. 

Steve made banana pancakes this morning with two bananas, 3 eggs, 1/8 tea. baking soda, and 1 tea. cinnamon. They were ok - more like banana than pancakes, but filling for breakfast. They said cook 2 minutes a side, and it took much longer than that! If we make them again, I think putting the bananas in the food processor with make them more liquid and less chunky, which might work better. As everyone says, they aren't REALLY pancakes, but they might kind of give you the IDEA of pancakes (especially if you serve them with bacon!)

Right now I am making the crock pot chicken soup again - this time with carrots, broccoli, potatoes, zucchini, and an extra can of diced tomatoes. I aso put "apple buttered sweet potatoes" in the crock pot.

2 large sweet potatoes, cut in chunks
3 apples, sliced
1 C apple butter (we just got ours at the farmers market - nothing but apple, cinnamon and cloves!)
1 C coconut milk
1 1/2 tea. pumpkin pie spice

Cook 6-8 hours on low.

It's going to be DELICIOUS. Maybe with some pecans on top!