Thanksgiving Recap and Menu

Our Thanksgiving dinner was very traditional. Green bean casserole with cream of mushroom soup, stuffing with ALL the butter, pecan pie with ALL the sugar, and so on and so forth. It's once a year, so I currently have no interest in changing any of the recipes to be healthier. On Thanksgiving I'm okay with health waiting until tomorrow (or until the next week since our leftovers lasted a few days). I didn't stuff my face, but the pecan pie  did make me a little bit uncomfortably full : / ....Oh well.

When I was planning the meal I didn't know how many people I would be serving, but that didn't really matter because I always seem to make the same amount of food regardless of who is coming on Thanksgiving. Last year we had 9 at our table and this year we had 5. That being said, you can imagine the amount of leftovers we had!

Though I didn't take too many pictures on Thanksgiving, I did manage to get a few. Here's a tiny little glimpse into our day.


 Marshall making lunch, Olivier making dinner. I finally figured out how to sit down and delegate ; )

Theresa sitting down to dinner

The turkey...Or some of it.

This picture is really yellow, but I still had to share it so you could see Marshall's beautiful decoration for the pecan pie. There's a reason I made the pie and he made the decor. If I attempted that it probably would've looked like a deformed turkey foot.

So now that we managed to finish the leftovers (mostly) it's time to start cooking again! Which, even after Thanksgiving, I am looking forward to.

Here's what I know I'll be making:

Sunday - Penne with steak and creamy tomato sauce, green beans on the side

Monday - Turkey soup -- Basically chicken dumpling soup with turkey broth and turkey meat.

Tuesday - Quinoa and wild rice tossed with roasted sweet potatoes, toasted pecans, craisins, apples, sage, chicken, and sausage with a honey lemon sauce -- A meal made with a bunch of things I have laying around. 

Wednesday - Probably leftover turkey soup

Thursday - Dinner with our church group

Friday - Turkey quinoa meatballs with creamy tomato sauce, veggie unknown

Now it's time to get back on track before Christmas and all the cookies that come with it : )

WIAW (What I Ate Wednesday)

I'm such a newbie to this WIAW thing that I didn't even know how it worked. I always thought Wednesday was referring to the day you ate the food, not just the day you posted the food. When people would post them in the morning I thought they cheated by posting a different day's eats. I couldn't bring myself to break the "rules", so I was always scrambling to get my post done after brushing my teeth and before going to bed. Why would people do that to themselves every week? Voluntarily!! I'm such a rule follower that I was following rules that didn't exist! Turns out you can post your eats from any day you want! What a relief! So here's to my first official

WIAW with peasandcrayons.

Breakfast - Green kefir smoothie -- Spinach, milk, kefir, banana,  raspberries, cocoa powder

Lunch - Three bean turkey chili and pumpkin cornbread

Afternoon snack while working on the blog - Coffee and a gingersnap made by Caitlin : )

Dinner - A big bowl of sweet potato lentils -- They were good, but very similar to the sweet potato-apple-carrot-red lentil soup that I love, and I prefer the soup. Oops! I ate them before the picture : )

Evening snack - pumpkin bar and hibiscus licorice tea

And no, I did not already eat all of this food today. It was yesterday.

My Sweet Potato Story

I was never a fan of sweet potatoes. And why I was sure I would never like them is because I didn't like the Thanksgiving version with sugar and butter topped with marshmallows. If I didn't like them that way, how could I like them any way?

Then I was introduced to Asian sweet potatoes. Purple on the outside, white on the inside, and when thrown into a fire for an hour they become dessert. They were much sweeter than any potato I had tasted, and far better than the orange kind that claimed to be sweet. I began buying them (the Asian kind) here and there (and always when we were going camping!), and I really started to like them. Now, more than ever, I was convinced that I did not like, and probably would never like, an orange sweet potato.

After making this sweet potato-carrot-apple-red lentil soup many times for Marshall and I with the Asian sweet potatoes, I made it for my nanny family with the orange kind.....

.....And I liked it.

But, of course, the actual flavor of the sweet potato was masked by carrots, apples, and a plethora of strong spices, so clearly I did not like their true colors. 

Hesitantly, I started making the previously mentioned soup with orange sweet potatoes, even at home. They were cheaper and the soup tasted basically the same, so I began buying them and using them almost exclusively for that soup. 

Then I was served sweet potato fries at a friend's house. Orange sweet potatoes that is. And I like them. I liked them so much that I made them at home.

And then I made them at home again.

And then I made these honey lime sweet potato tacos. And guess what? I loved them.

And I made them again. They're now something I really look forward to every time I make them.

Last week I found myself eating half a sweet potato for lunch! How did that happen?

And guess what I'm having for dinner tonight? slow cooker sweet potato lentils.

And now one of my favorite things to have for dinner while Marshall is gone is herbed sweet potatoes and white beans. Which is just sliced sweet potatoes with oregano, chili powder, and salt, tossed with sauteed white beans.

Now it's a rare day that you would find my pantry not holding a few sweet potatoes. Yes, I'm referring to the orange variety.

Why am I telling you this? To encourage you to try new things, of course!

But also to encourage you to not give up on things that are good for you that you haven't enjoyed in the past. Such as sweet potatoes, or exercise, or tiramisu (good for the soul, right?). You never know when your taste buds will change, or when that particular recipe will come along that changes your mind.

This is my  sausage-sweet potato-cranberry casserole (also full of sweet potatoes)

Give it time. Just because you didn't like something when you were 5, 25, or 45, doesn't mean it won't be your favorite thing later.

I'm currently working on tomatoes and avocados. Ask me how it's going in about a year.


Turning 23 might make a difference : )

Sausage Sweet Potato Cranberry Slow Cooker Casserole - AKA Fall in a Slow Cooker

I've been on a quest to find great slow cooker recipes.

I didn't envision that being a hard quest. Between my cookbooks, Pinterest, and browsing the internet I thought I'd have a plethora of recipes in no time.  

I was right about one thing - I did have a plethora of recipes. But I also learned a lesson.

Though there is a never-ending supply of recipes, there is a shortage of good recipes in my opinion. Especially if you want to keep things on the healthy side. I found many a recipe that called for cream of this and cream of that, or that were just a bunch of packaged foods dispensed into a slow cooker. Not to say that those recipes can't be good. They can even be great! But that wasn't the type of food I was looking to make. I just wanted to use whole, fresh, nutritious foods. After trying many recipes that were just okay, I finally found one, tweaked it, and came up with this delicious variation of the original. It fits all of the bills - tasty, healthy, short prep time, and budget friendly. Finally!

This dish is basically Fall in a slow cooker to me. Between the cider, cinnamon, apple, and cranberries, it's hard to get more Fall than this. Though I haven't tried it, this would probably taste great with some toasted pecans on top! You could also use some kind of squash in place of the sweet potato, but for us the potato was a better choice.

Sausage Sweet Potato Cranberry Casserole

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb. sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1 lb. sausage, cooked and sliced -- I didn't have a pound and it was still good.

1 sweet onion, sliced

1 apple, sliced -- 2 might be a good idea.

1 cup fresh cranberries

1/2 cup cider

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

salt and pepper

Directions:

Cook sausage links on medium heat until well browned. They don't have to be cooked through since they will also spend a few hours in the crock pot. Set them aside to cool, then thinly slice. Place all of the sweet potatoes in the bottom of the slow cooker, then half of the sausage, onion, apple, and spices. Repeat the layers using up all of the ingredients, ending with the cranberries, spices, then cider. Set to low and cook for about 6 hours.

Original recipe found here

No, this is not what it looks like when it's done. I just didn't to get a picture of that : )

We really enjoyed this and I hope you will, too! 

Menu - How Did We Get To November?

I can't believe it's November already! How did that happen? I'm not one to think time is flying by normally, but I feel as though I've lived the past two months in fast forward. It doesn't really both me though since I'm so excited about Christmas : )

Our weekends have been really unpredictable lately. I haven't been planning the menu for Saturday and Sunday since I don't know where we'll be or who I'll be feeding, so here's the five day menu.


Monday - sausage penne -- A simple, yet tasty pasta.

Tuesday - slow cooker sesame chicken -- I haven't made this before, but my hopes are high!

Wednesday - beef tacos -- I'll be using up the leftover beef from the Sunday roast to make these tacos.

Thursday - cabbage soup

Friday - chicken dumpling soup and bread


Happy cooking!

Sausage Potato Kale Skillet - A 30 Minute Dinner

This is one of my very favorite go-to dishes for a weeknight. It takes about 30 minutes, it tastes great, AND it's healthy. I've served this to many a guest, and it has yet to disappoint. 

I know I've talked about this several times on my menu and briefly described it, but I thought it was time for a full recipe. I make this so often, we like it so much, and it's so easy that I thought it was about time I got it up on the blog.

It's hard for me to write a recipe for this because I make it a little different every time I make it. The particular one photographed here has onions and leeks in it because I had some to use up, but I generally just use kale, potatoes, and sausage.

The sausage is the star of the show here. Most of the flavor comes from it. That being said, be sure to choose a good quality, tasty sausage. I like to buy the Italian sausage from the Dekalb Farmer's Market. The ingredients list is pork, salt, and spices, so you know exactly what you're eating, and it's really good!

Sausage Potato Kale Skillet

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale, de-stemmed and broken into bite-sized pieces, 4-6 cups

Red Potatoes, approximately 1 1/2 pounds, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces.

Italian sausage, 1/2 - 1 pound

Salt to taste

Beef broth, optional

Directions:

In a large skillet, brown the sausage. When it is cooked through remove it from the pan to a plate with a paper towel, leaving all excess sausage fat in the pan. If you are using sausage links, cook them whole, set aside to cool while you cook the potatoes, then thinly slice. If you are using ground sausage, break it up into bite-sized pieces while it is browning, then set aside while you cook the potatoes.

Add your potatoes to the pan with the sausage fat. Sprinkle with salt, and cook until tender and beginning to brown. Depending on the sausage, you may need some additional fat (such a butter) while cooking the potatoes. Alternatively, you could add 1/4 - 1/2 cup of beef broth to prevent the potatoes from sticking and for additional flavor. Cooking the potatoes should take 15 - 20 minutes.

Put the sausage back into the pan, put all of the kale on top (don't stir at this point), sprinkle with salt again, and put the lid on. After a couple of minutes, stir around and put the lid back on. As soon as the kale is cooked to your liking, which should be approximately 5 minutes, it is ready to serve.

Like I said, I've added onions and leeks to this, I've used garlic, paprika, and chili powder, mushrooms would be good, I've steamed the potatoes and just tossed them in the sausage fat for a quick browning....Be creative! But keep in mind, none of that is necessary. It is good just the way it is. In fact, I most often make it without any of those additions. 

I often serve this alone, but it's great with bread!

This is so tasty for a three ingredient dinner that doesn't include a box or a can. It would be silly to not at least try it.

Enjoy!

A Five Day Menu

Monday - curried pumpkin pasta with chicken peas and toasted walnuts (but with sausage this time), roasted Brussels sprouts on the side

Tuesday - homemade potato gnocchi with rosa sauce, kale on the side

Wednesday - sweet potato-sausage-apple "casserole" -- This is another slow cooker experiment. I made something very similar a couple weeks ago, and it was good but needed a bit of tweaking. I'm hoping this will be just right.

Thursday - Dinner with our Church group -- I'll bring cabbage soup unless I'm not assigned to bring anything.

Friday - Sunday roast and Yorkshire pudding, kale and peas on the side -- This is something Marshall has been asking and asking for me to make ever since he came home from England. He bought me a cookbook there, which is where the recipes I will be using came from. I would describe Yorkshire pudding to you, but I have no clue what it is going to be like.


Looking forward to sharing the outcome of my experiments this week!


Happy cooking!