thanksgiving

My sister had to work on Thanksgiving so I invited her family and my mom over to celebrate on Saturday. Isaac and I had never hosted a Thanksgiving meal before, but we figured it couldn’t be too hard. I was a little nervous about the logistics of having so many dishes that needed to be baked and ready at the same time but thankfully everything worked out and dinner was a success.

All together we had seven people for dinner and nine for dessert – the food was delicious and the company was lovely.

Isaac volunteered to roast the turkey so I happily let him do all the seasoning, stuffing and basting.

He was focused on the turkey all day. It was cute.

I prepped quite a bit leading up to Saturday so that morning I had time for a quick trip to the gym and Target before heading into the kitchen to get everything prepared.

The menu came together nicely. We had a good variety of food, but didn’t go over the top. I tried to keep things semi-healthy but there were definitely some indulgent items as well. <– That’s what holidays are for!

To start:

• Baked chutney and brie fillo cups – I used my caribbean peach chutney and the organic fillo cups I received at HLS. They had been sitting in the pantry all summer so I was excited to fine a good use for them.

Dinner:

• Turkey
• Vegan Lentil Walnut Loaf (recipe from Oh She Glows. It was amazingly delicious. It might just become my go-to veggie option for Thanksgiving!)
• Brown sugar glazed sweet potatoes with marshmallows (Isaac’s favorite T-day dish)
• Broccoli cheese casserole (my sister made this using my mom’s recipe)
• Lemon broiled green beans (recipe from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. The beans were super easy to throw together and really yummy.)
• Stuffing with dried cranberries added (vegan stuffing from Whole Foods)
• Homemade cranberry sauce (my sister made this and it was sweet and crunchy. It was fun to have real cranberry sauce rather than cranberry from a can. Although I’m not going to lie, I kind of like the canned stuff too.)
• Biscuits

For dessert:

• Apple, walnut, ginger galette
• Pumpkin mousse pie (my sister made this as well. It was light, fluffy and pumpkiny – right my alley)
• Coffee

The apple galette recipe was a healthy dessert recipe I found on the Self mag website. I was surprised by how good it was! It only had a little bit of sugar but was still sweet from the apples and crystallized ginger. I loved the spiciness the ginger added and crunch from the walnuts. I was going to serve it with ice cream but forgot to pick some up. It turned out to be fine though because it paired nicely with the chilled pumpkin mousse my sister brought. )I used the last piece to make apple pie yogurt last night by crumbling up a piece and mixing it into my Greek yogurt – it was heavenly!)

In between dinner and dessert we played Taboo for a little family fun. I love that game! Isaac’s family came over for dessert and we all got to hang out for a while and enjoy each other’s company.

I had so much fun hosting the meal and the best part was that everyone chipped in to clean up so we weren’t left with a big mess at the end of the night, which is always the worst part about throwing a party. My mom even brought her own kitchen gloves because she knew she’d be helping wash the dishes (love her)!

Now it’s time to get back to the grind – both to work and healthy eating. Back to eating clean, Tone It Up style! I’m actually having a protein pancake as I type this.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and enjoyed lots of Thanksgiving leftovers. December is officially here this week! I’m pumped to start getting ready for both Chanukah and Christmas. I have a fun surprise up my sleeve for the first 12 days of December. Hint – It’s similar to last year and involves lots of baked goods. Get excited!

{ 26 comments }