Hoppin' Juan Collard Rolls with Garlic Sauce

We had kind of an exciting weekend around here. It started with a potluck at the home of Rip Esselstyn, author of The Engine 2 Diet, where we got to meet some new and friendly faces, including Natala from Vegan Hope. She's such an inspiration! If you don't know her story, you really should check out her blog and get to know her. I'm glad I did!

While all the food at the potluck was healthy and delicious, I'm proud to say that the dishes I brought went fast, and not a lick was left! First was the hot artichoke dip with spinach recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook, by Joanne Stepaniak, along with some homemade whole-wheat baguettes.

The other dish was a recipe I've adapted from the database at NutritionMD.org: Hoppin' Juan Collard Rolls with Garlic Sauce. I think it's fun to call it "Juan" instead of "John," because of my Tex-Mex twist to their standard Hoppin' John mix. Roll it all up in some steamed collard leaves and drizzle some creamy garlic sauce over the top, and it's a sure crowd-pleaser!

Another bad iPhone picture... sorry.

Hoppin' Juan Collard Rolls

Ingredients -
The largest leaves from 2-3 bunches of collards
2 cups cooked black-eyed peas, or 1 15 oz. can, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice (short grain is best for this recipe, since it's stickier and won't fall as easily out of the rolls)
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1 tomato, diced
2-4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
2 teaspoons minced garlic

First, steam the collard leaves in a large pot until they are tender and bright green. Be careful not to overcook them or the color will turn more grey-ish. Combine all the other ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.

To make the rolls, lay one of the collard leaves out flat and cut out the bottom 1/4 of the thick stem - this will make it easier to make a tight roll. Place about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of bean-rice mixture on the collard leaf and roll up, burrito-style, folding in both ends tightly. Serve with the garlic sauce (below).


Garlic Sauce

Ingredients -
1 box silken tofu
Juice of 2 lemons
4 teaspoons minced garlic (or more, if desired)
salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until very smooth. Taste and adjust salt as necessary.

Vegetable Lo Mein with Tofu

This dish is easy enough for a weeknight dinner (if you have about an hour), and it's also a great way to use up any vegetables you might have languishing in your refrigerator. In the dish pictured here, I used brussel sprouts, savoy cabbage, celery, and green onions, because those were the veggies we had that needed to be eaten.

The tofu is optional, I suppose, but I like how it provides some contrasting texture and flavor. The recipe would be even easier and faster if you either omit the tofu or happen to have baked tofu already in the refrigerator, and it would be quicker yet if you use any leftover bits of pre-cooked vegetables.

It's a hit with the whole family, and the less I have to cajole my kids into eating their vegetables, the better!


Vegetable Lo Mein with Tofu

1 lb firm tofu, drained and pressed (see directions below)
2-3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp (or less) sesame oil
8 oz. dry noodles (or about 4 cups cooked)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (dried ground ginger will work in a pinch - use about 1/2 tsp, and mix in with the sauce ingredients instead)
Assorted vegetables, about 4-5 cups total: maybe shredded carrot, sliced green onions, shredded cabbage, broccoli florets, sliced bell peppers, sliced mushrooms, etc.)
3-4 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp ketchup
1 tsp sesame oil


To press the tofu: Slice tofu lengthwise into six pieces. Lay the slices on 2-3 layers of paper towel, and the place 2-3 more layers of paper towel on top. Place a cutting board on top, and then weigh down with a heavy skillet. I like to put something even a little heavier inside the skillet, like a couple of cans from the pantry, or my small water kettle filled with water. Let sit for 10-15 minutes, while the paper towels soak up the moisture that will be pressed out of the tofu.

Preheat the oven to about 425F. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. When the tofu has been pressed, place the slices on the baking sheet. Dribble about 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 1/2 tsp sesame oil over the tofu, and rub in with your fingers. Flip the tofu over, and repeat with another 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 1/2 tsp sesame oil. If the tofu still has a few bare spots, dribble a little more soy sauce where needed.

Place the tofu in the hot oven, and bake until firm and nicely browned, flipping every 15 minutes or so. This might take 45 minutes to an hour, but this gives you plenty of time to leisurely prep the veggies and sauce.

When the tofu is finished and cool enough to handle, slice each piece crosswise into strips. Set aside.

Start cooking the noodles according to package directions, and then set aside when done.

Meanwhile, prep the vegetables you are using. Also mix together the 3-4 tablespoons soy sauce, the rice vinegar, the ketchup, and the remaining 1 teaspoon sesame oil for the sauce.

When the tofu and noodles are ready, it is time to start cooking the vegetables. Using your largest skillet, heat over medium-high heat and spray lightly with cooking oil. Add the garlic and ginger and cook and stir for about one minute, then add the vegetables to the skillet and cook until crisp tender.

(If you have vegetables that require different cooking times, add them accordingly. For example, if you are using broccoli, shredded carrots, and cabbage, you will want to cook the broccoli for a few minutes before adding the faster cooking carrots and cabbage. If your carrots are sliced rather than shredded, you'll probably want to add them with the broccoli, before the cabbage.)

Now it's time to add the noodles. If they are sticky, give them a quick rinse to loosen, then add to the vegetables. Pour the sauce over the noodles and veggies, and then gently toss together. I like to use my tongs for tossing and turning the veggies and noodles together. Transfer the noodle and veggie mixture to a large serving bowl or platter, and then sprinkle the prepared tofu over the top.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Hello? Let me re-introduce ourselves...

Dear Readers,

Is anyone still out there? Curious where we've been lately? It has been a long time!

Well, life happens... I know Beth has been insanely busy with graduate school, and I was preoccupied caring for my mother-in-law through the ups and downs of the lengthy process of her cancer treatments... you know, life happens.

The other issue that has kept me, at least, from feeling free to write about food and recipes here is that my family has been transitioning to a vegan diet. The reasons are many and varied, and the path has been interesting, but I finally feel like I'm settled into this new lifestyle and ready to talk food here.

Beth has also recently decided to move to a plant-based way of eating (yay!), so we plan to take this blog in a slightly different direction, and feature healthy, plant-strong foods and recipes.

I hope you'll stay with us, even if you are someone who currently enjoys your omnivorous diet. I'm eager to share the vast potential and deliciousness of food that does not contain animal-based ingredients. Most people unfamiliar with vegan foods get hung up on what you *can't* eat, but the possibilities are endlessly exciting when you actually think about what you *can* eat! There are so many fantastic foods to explore once you release yourself from the animal-based-foods box. Stick around and see for yourself!

So, with all that being said... new posts to come soon! See you then.

Tagliatelle

I recently got a new book in the mail called The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Traditional Food One Recipe at a Time by Ken Albala and Rosanna Nafziger. Let me tell you, I have never actually read a cookbook from front to back before, but I devoured this book in just two days during a weekend camping trip. I couldn't wait to get home and try something from this collection, and so I made the first thing I could think of which I had all the ingredients for: tagliatelle, or in other words fresh pasta cut by hand. It doesn't get much simpler than flour, egg, salt, and water. I didn't even measure anything, the beauty of most of the instructions in this book is that you make things by instinct and feel, rather than precise measurements.

Basically, you just put some flour in a bowl (I used whole wheat flour), and an egg or two (depending on how eggy you want your pasta to be, or you could even omit the egg all together), a pinch of salt, and enough water to make a stiff dough that is not sticky. Start out by mixing it with a fork and adding the water a little at a time until you get the right consistency. Then turn the mixture out onto a floured wooden board or counter top and knead for five minutes. If time allows (if not, that's okay too), let the dough sit on the counter covered with the bowl for an hour.

When it's time for dinner, put a big pot of lightly salted water on the stove to boil, and in the meantime roll out the dough and cut it. You can roll it out however thick you like, and then with a sharp knife and using the rolling pin as a guide, cut out long strips of the dough. If you have a pizza cutter, it might come in handy. In my case, some of the strips stuck together, and I had to roll some of it out again. Perhaps I should have added a little more flour. I was worried that the dough would stick together when boiling, but miraculously none of them stuck together in the water.


I have to admit, I didn't have enough energy after the camping trip to make a trip to the store so I had to resort to using a jar of tomato sauce rather than the fresh tomato sauce they suggest in the book. After making fresh pasta, this felt sacrilege! But oh well, one thing at a time, right? The pasta itself was great, nothing like the dried noodles you buy in a box. I will definitely be adding this to my regular rotation.

Top with freshly shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, and serve with salad and a glass of wine.

Julie, I can't recommend this book enough, and it seems like something that would be right up your alley. It really has inspired me to consider trying things I never thought I would try in a million years. Like rabbit stew, roasting a whole pig on a spit fire, koji, or miso (which takes 12 months to ferment!).

Lost Time, and Time for LOST

Oh, Beth... where has the time gone lately? I've missed you. Truthfully, it has been very difficult lately to find any motivation for inspired cooking, much less the time to write about it, between caring for my mother-in-law (who is picky and difficult to please with food, especially when she's not feeling well - which is more and more often these days) and the recent discovery that Analisa is intolerant to dairy. We l-o-v-e dairy around here, especially cheese, so that's been a really challenging adjustment to make.

It's been so long since I've written anything here. Would a cute picture of one of my kids with one of her recent play-do concoctions help make up for it? Here's Analisa with what she calls "Volcano Cake":

The recipe: "Some collard greens, a little bit of chocolate, some spices (like pesto), noodles, and that's pretty much all." Uh... yum...?

I guess I have managed to cook a little over the past few months. I've certainly thought about sharing a recipe here every now and then, I just... haven't. Hmmm, let me think about what we've eaten around here lately that has turned out pretty good, and maybe you can tell me if you're interested in any of the recipes.

Let's see: Cake balls? The-most-amazing-ever red velvet cupcakes? A highly adaptable cheesy (or cheese-less) vegetable soup (courtesy of a recipe from my good friend Tamra)? Dr. Seuss's Pink Ink Yink Drink? Mexican chilaquiles? (MIL liked that one.) Sesame-almond crusted tilapia? Strawberry and radish green salad with a honey-balsamic dressing?

Let me know if anything sounds good and/or interesting; I'd be happy to share the recipe. I might even be able to dig up a crappy iPhone picture to go with it.

In the meantime: are you ready for tomorrow night's LOST series finale??? I'm just not ready to let go yet. "We have to go back!" I wish we were having a big party and that you and Daniel were here to join us; sadly, it will be just Oscar and me, while we send the kids upstairs to watch movies (I figure they don't need Smokie-fueled nightmares). Still, we plan to see the show go out in style, with great food to match the occasion. Our menu includes LOST inspired dishes, such as Locke's Smoked "Wild Boar" Tenderloin, and Sun's Garden Fresh Salad with a Mango-Coconut dressing. I don't have actual recipes yet; I'm just planning to figure it out on the fly, but if everything turns out yummy, I'll certainly share recipes. What about you? Are you hosting a LOST shindig? What are you having?

We are still alive, promise.

Oh my gosh!

School has been way to crazy, I've been sick too much, I know Julie has been very busy, and it's been way too long since a post has been made. I have some rhubarb in my kitchen waiting for me to make something out of it, after I find my way out of all this end of semester school work...

Rhubarb recipe coming soon.

Cook Once, Eat All Week: My Turn

(Please forgive the poor quality of all the photos... I'm lazy and snapping pics with my phone instead of the real camera.)

So this week I took a page from the Book of Beth and am trying out the Cook Once, Eat All Week thing. So far I like it and plan to do it again for next week! I also enlisted the help of the kids, and they are already planning what they want to cook for next week.

I used your plan and recipes from your Part II post, with a few modifications. We did our cooking Monday afternoon, since I was returning from a weekend trip on Sunday. I think next time I should double the recipes, since I have (more than) twice as many people to feed as you do, but we are making it work this week with the shortened week and Oscar being busy with work-related dinners a couple of times this week.

Monday's dinner was the Italian Sausage and Pepper Pasta, which everyone really enjoyed (except Oscar, as he had a fancy working dinner out at a restaurant that night and hasn't tried it yet). This recipe make quite a lot, so I plan to serve it again tomorrow night (Thursday). We also made the Spiced Cauliflower with Garlic recipe, but with the addition of carrots, since I had some and I needed to stretch the recipe to feed five people. You are right - it was sooooo good! It reminded me of curried vegetables, which my mother-in-law does not like, so I was surprised that she said she liked it. I did think it was sort of an odd pairing with the pasta, but it was still delicious!

On Tuesday, we ate the Smoky and Creamy Corn Soup. I added some smoked turkey sausage to the pot (again, to stretch it out for more people), which was tasty. It was a little spicy for the girls, so next time I might halve the chipotle powder, or even leave it out altogether. I ended up stirring in some light sour cream in an attempt to temper the heat, which didn't really work, but it still tasted yummy. The girls did a good job of eating it, even though it was too spicy for their taste buds. The adults all loved it, though. There was just enough left over for Oscar to take some for his lunch today.

Originally I had planned to serve these whole wheat muffins with the corn soup. The girls pretty much made these by themselves and did a great job! You can see from the picture at the top of this post that we sprinkled some mini-chocolate chips on top of half of them, but left the other half plain so they would still be sugar-free. They were really good, and we plan to make them again. However, I had to test out a bread recipe for the cooking class I co-teach for our Thursday homeschool co-op, and I decided at the last minute yesterday to make that to go with our soup dinner instead. I needed a bread that can be made in one hour (the length of our class time), and I found this recipe. Even though it's not as good as my favorite bread, it did turn out really well, and I'd make it again if I need bread in a hurry. We are definitely using the recipe for our cooking class this week, as well. The muffins we have been enjoying for breakfast and snacks, instead.


Tonight we will try the Mexican Style Rice Casserole. I actually made several modifications to this recipe (nothing drastic), based on ingredients I already had in the house. First, I used basmati rice instead of brown. Also, I substituted black beans for the refried beans in the bean-corn layer. Since I already had some fresh kale, we chopped and steamed it in the microwave and used that instead of the frozen greens called for in the original recipe. And finally, I used more cheese; that six tablespoons of shredded cheese in the first layer looked shockingly skimpy to me. More! Cheese! The girls are a bit more skeptical about trying this dish, since neither are big fans of either rice or kale. We'll see how it goes. I'll probably throw together a simple green salad to serve with it tonight, also.

I cooked too much rice for the casserole, and decided to use the extra in a rice pudding that we had for breakfast yesterday. I used this recipe, with cranberries instead of raisins. YUM! This is the best rice pudding I've ever made; I've made rice pudding (not this particular recipe) a few times before but have never been very excited about the result. This was great! The egg and butter make all the difference, I think.


Tomorrow night we'll eat the remaining pasta, and on Friday my mother-in-law will help cook fish (for Lent). And Saturday? I haven't figured that out yet...

So far, I like the way our week is going with this dinner plan, and I think we'll do it again for next week! I'm collecting some ideas in my head for the next week, like spaghetti (the kids love it) and maybe some beans. However, there are also a lot of good ideas out there on the interwebs, like this plan from Self magazine, that we might try, too. I also noticed the Weight Watchers website has a few more plans, also.

Are you still "cooking once, eating all week?" It takes some forethought and a bit of time once a week, but I'm convinced it's worth it - certainly it's better than scrambling every single busy day to get a healthy dinner on the table. It's allowed me a little more breathing time so far this week, which is invaluable!

Cook Once, Eat All Week Part II

Welcome to another week of Cook Once, Eat All Week! This week took a bit more time in the kitchen than last week, but it was still convenient to have all the meals on hand for a week. I think it really helps to make dishes that have some similar ingredients in them because you can do all the prep work for multiple recipes, like chopping, at the same time.

The Spiced Cauliflower with Garlic was especially good. It could be turned into a hearty meal on its own just by adding some potatoes or rice and sausage.

Again, just make everything on Sunday afternoon, and you are all set until the following Sunday!

Sunday:

Smokey and Creamy Corn Soup
(Weight Watchers)

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
16 oz. frozen roasted corn kernels (or just regular frozen corn if you can't find the roasted kind)
4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder (add more to taste)
salt to taste

• Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and celery; cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned, about 8 minutes.
• Add corn, 1 cup of the broth, and the chili powder; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered until all the vegetables are softened, about 3 minutes. Let the mixture cool about 5 minutes. Pour the mixture in batches into a food processor or blender and puree.
• Return the mixture to the pan. Add the remaining 3 cups broth and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 10 minutes. If you would like the soup to be thicker, mix about 1/3 cup corn starch with a little soup and then slowly stir into the rest of the soup.

Green Chili Corn Bread Muffins
(Weight Watchers)

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup fat free buttermilk
2 large eggs
4.5 oz diced green chilies, drained
3 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese

• Preheat oven to 425F. Spray 12 muffin cups with nonstick spray
• Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, cumin and baking soda in medium bowl. Combine the buttermilk, eggs, chilies and melted butter in another medium bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Gently stir in cheese. With a spoon, evenly distribute the mixture into the 12 muffin tins.
• Bake until the edges are golden brown and have pulled away from the sides, 20-22 minutes.

Monday:

Italian Sausage and Pepper Pasta













and Spiced Cauliflower with Garlic (soo good!)
(Weight Watchers)

Ingredients:
1 Tbs canola oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
2/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp cayenne
1 head cauliflower, cut into 1 inch florets
1 1/2 cups water
2 tsp sherry vinegar

• Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, salt, turmeric, and cayenne; cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the cauliflower until coated with the spice mixture. Stir in the water and vinegar and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the cauliflower is tender and most of the liquid has evaporated

Tuesday:

Mexican Style Brown Rice Casserole













Wednesday:

Finish Creamy and Smokey Corn Soup and Green Chili Corn Bread Muffins

Thursday:

Finish Italian Sausage and Pepper Pasta and Spiced Cauliflower with Garlic

Friday:

Finish Mexican Style Brown Rice Casserole

Saturday:

Whatever is left over

Cook Once, Eat All Week

I started an experiment on myself. See, I am on this "self-care" kick- something that is strongly encouraged in the grad program I am in right now. The program requires a lot of self introspection and contemplation of human nature and how all the pieces fit together that make up the whole of this crazy, complicated, ugly and beautiful world. I am finding it takes a lot of emotional stamina, leaving little energy left over for other things.

Last semester I ate poorly, slept too little, stressed too much, and didn't exercise. Don't get me wrong, I love what I am doing right now and I am learning so much. Among many things, it is teaching me about balance. I must have gotten a little too self-assured, because I had really thought that by this time in my life I would have already figured out how to take care of myself. I had thought that I wouldn't really need to work on it as much as my professors kept repeating, especially given that I am slightly older than most of the other students in the program (and of course, light years more mature, ha ha).When I had a few weeks off during winter break and actually took the time to take better care of myself, I really noticed a difference.

Last week was my first week back at school and I decided to try something different since I knew that one of my problems was that I often get home too late or too tired to make anything even remotely resembling a healthy and well balanced dinner. I had heard about this thing that some people do, called Cook Once, Eat All Week. Okay, maybe I am late on the bandwagon on this one, but I really thought this was a brilliant idea. No longer would I have to spend precious time cooking every evening, no longer would I have a kitchen constantly full of dirty dishes, and no longer would I be as tempted to make poor food choices based on the lack of time and convenience. I can just pop whatever is on the menu that night in the microwave or oven.

For my first try, I used a Weight Watchers planned menu because it told me exactly what to make and exactly how to use the left overs to make something new out of it and on which night to eat what. Here is what the menu looked like:

Sunday:
Vegetable Peanut Stir Fry













Monday:
Layered Mexican Chicken and Green Beans with Caramelized Onions on the side



























Tuesday:
Finish Stir Fry

Wednesday:
Green Bean, Pearl Onion and Dill Frittata (made with the left over beans)













Thursday:
Tri Colored Pesto Rotini with some baby carrots on the side













Friday:
Left over Layered Mexican Chicken, with some simple steamed veggies (like broccoli) on the side

Saturday:
Whatever you have left over (we had a ton of the pasta left)

All of the recipes turned out quite good, and they are all really healthy. If you want to add a little more protein, you could always add some shrimp, chicken or tofu to the pasta and stir fry, and maybe some Canadian bacon to the frittata. Or, you could just as easily modify these recipes to be vegetarian or vegan (some already are). All this food was just for Daniel and I so we had plenty left over to take for lunch, but I would say that this menu would easily feed four people dinner for a week.

Julie, if you are feeling crunched for time I would really recommend giving this a try. All it takes is a couple of hours cooking time on Sunday afternoon, and you don't have to think about what to have for dinner again for the rest of the week. I found that it also really helped focus my grocery shopping list, so that I did not spend as much time shopping or getting things that I know are not good for me because of not knowing what to get. If you want to read their specific directions for the week, click here.

Also, it cut down on the amount of meat required so that I was able to spend my money on the best organic, free range, and local meat available instead of buying a bunch of meat that you know comes from an unhealthy meat processing plant.

All around this experiment turned out successfully. This week, I am going to try and put together my own menu and see how that works out. In fact, I am going off to the kitchen after I finish writing this!

Julie- have you tried this method of cooking before? I would love to hear any advice you might have, or any recipes that you think would work well for this.

P.S.- The pictures in this post belong to Weight Watchers, I did not have the opportunity to take my own pictures this week.

How Did Your Thanksgiving Go?

I hope your Thanksgiving went well Julie- and I bet it was nice to not have to worry about the turkey this year. However, I've had your famous turkey before and it seems you have it down to a science! You will have to share what else you had at your friend's house and if you were introduced to any new recipes.

I am thankful for so many things this year, one of them being that this was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple! It was also the first Thanksgiving that we hosted ourselves, but it was a nice introduction to the whole process since there wasn't any pressure to make everything perfect. We had Chris (our nephew) and a couple of friends over to our apartment. Let me tell you, it certainly is a challenge making a complete Thanksgiving meal in the world's tiniest kitchen, but we made it happen!

It was our first time making a turkey, and Daniel volunteered to take on the lead of "makin' the bird." We decided to use Alton Brown's recipe for "The Perfect Roast Turkey" using the brining method. Check out the very funny video of Alton Brown showing how to do it, its worth a watch and a few laughs.

We had a few hiccups along the way... like not having a large enough container to submerge the turkey in the brining liquid (resulting in having to brine it one half at a time) and a smoke filled apartment for some mysterious reason (we still can't figure it out!) that left our eyes watery and red Thanksgiving morning. Thankfully we did not have any guests over yet at that point!

Daniel putting in the "aromatics"

Well, how did it turn out you ask?






I am very proud to say that it was a success!!! It was perfectly cooked , and moist and flavorful. Good job Daniel!

Here is what the rest of our menu looked like:

1. Sourdough Stuffing with Sausage, Apples and Golden Raisins

• I couldn't find any golden raisins, so I used cranberries instead. A very good recipe, but I would recommend using maybe a cup less chicken broth (it was little too soggy at the bottom)

2. Spiced Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar

3. Rose's Baked Artichoke Hearts

• Wow, was this good. A recipe from my good friend Elissa over at The Painted Peach. I think it will become a regular fixture at Thanksgiving from now on.

4. Brussels Sprouts with almonds and lemon juice

5. Garlic and Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

• Daniel insisted on having both this AND the sweet potatoes. Yikes. We made this with a few Yukons and some purple potatoes. Just saute some garlic and dried rosemary in some olive oil and blend in with the potatoes, milk/cream and butter, salt and pepper. Very tasty.

6. Cranberry Sauce

• Of course. We just made the sauce according to the directions on the back of the package but substituted spiced apple cider for water, and added in some cinnamon. I made two batches of this, I LOVE cranberry sauce and it makes great leftovers (turkey and cranberry sandwich anyone? Ice cream topping? Chocolate cake filling?) I have yet to try out making your recipe yet, but maybe next year!

7. Frozen Biscuits from Trader Joe's- these were actually the best pre-made biscuits I think I have ever had. Of course nothing beats out homemade, but these were incredibly flaky and buttery.

8. Last but not least, Pumpkin Pie of course. I decided to use a waistline friendly version from Weight Watchers, and you would never be able to tell the difference!

Here it is all together!

I know, not the most elegant of table settings, but our goal wasn't to be pretty this year. Maybe next time!

Well, we stuffed ourselves silly and then went out to a movie afterwards. I am heading off to the gym now, I think I will need to burn off about 5,000 calories!