Hi there people of the interwebs.
How the heck are ya?
Feeling fresh or feeling lethargic?
How am I doing?
Oh, so kind of you to ask. 🤪
I am still in a bit of a diary coma.
Ringing ears, sore throat and quite out of breath today.
Typical dairy coma for me.
Last night I had to take Advil before I went to bed after fighting a headache for multiple hours.
If you know me, this is CRAZY!
I haven't taken Advil since 2018. Not one single pill.
& Tylenol only once. About 4-5 months ago now; + Nyquil for a few days when I had a cold last year.
My head felt like it was the size of two basketballs.
I should have known better with the Advil.
It did nothing, as always.
I have always been a Tylenol girl.
I downed some celery juice this morning; natures bandaid
& got my ass outside in the chill.
Feeling pretty good today, but def sub par.
Anyway, I actually didn't indulge in very much dairy.
Ate just a few mashed potatoes and some butter on my biscuit.
Then I topped it off with apple pie for dinner.
But I was already feeling like crud way before the pie.
It's kind've strange how sometimes it bothers me and sometimes it doesn't.
I can eat an entire ice cream cone one day and just have a whole lot of phlegm in my throat.
Then I can eat a little bit of butter on a piece of bread and feel it for days.
I don't get it.
Regardless, it was a great day.
Let me tell ya about it. 😁
Keith and I spent it at home, alone.
As you know, I love to cook so I did it up real big.
& then shared with our neighbor.
I started the Thanksgiving preparation on Monday evening by prepping an apple pie for the freezer.
Then on Tuesday I prepped my bread crumbs for the stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.
On Wednesday I prepped my potatoes, deviled eggs and a couple things for our salad (candied pecans and a vinaigrette dressing).
Then it was Thanksgiving.
I prepped my turkey, got it in the oven and moved on to homemade biscuits.
Next was the bacon wrapped dates and hasselback butternut squash.
On to the stuffing next then topped it all off with some gravy once the turkey was done.
Very manageable.
If you are interested in prepping Thanksgiving entirely on your own for your beautiful family, I highly encourage you to check out my Instagram Highlights @replantednutrition. There are three highlights labeled Thanksgiving 2021 with over 200 story tutorial for you to view.
I get it, prepping this much food for that many people is intimidating.
But I hope these help you.
My main goal with them was to show you how easy it can be to get a wonderful meal on the table for your beautiful family without spending days in the kitchen.
You just need a couple nights prior and about 3-4 hours on Thanksgiving morning.
& if you're anxious about it, practice preparing it for the family you share your home with before next year.
You have 365 days to nail it. 😁
OUR THANKSGIVING *DAY* TIMELINE 🦃
The turkey is ready for the oven!
All I do is melt some butter on the stove and toss in some thyme, rosemary and sage. Then I put the herbs in the turkey cavity and baste it with the herbed butter. I chop some celery, carrot and onion and add it to the pan. Easy.
Next, I prepped the biscuits.
Recipe is linked HERE if you're interested.
Look how beautiful and flaky they are. 🤤
I mixed up some honey butter to spread on them.
Bacon wrapped dates are ready for the oven!
I just slice the date, remove the pit, add a little piece of goats feta and wrapt it up with a half slice of bacon. Then I topped it with a honey, water and rosemary glaze.
The appetizer is ready!
Next up was the squash.
I thorouly enjoyed this.
I topped it with a honey, evoo, dijon glaze and added some thyme & sage for flavor infusion.
I cooked this at 425°F for one hour, re-basting it every 15 minutes with the juices at the bottom of the pan.
It turned out so beautiful. I can't wait to eat some more of it tonight.
Lastly, I tossed the stuffing and mashed potatoes in the oven and before we knew it this beautiful dinner was served.
Look how beautiful it all is! 💁🏼♀️😁
We did it! (Read: I did it.) 🤪
Hubs was good moral support though.
Time to make our plates.
As you can see, Keith needed a whole plate for his stuffing. His FAVORITE part of Thanksgiving.
In fact, he was eating some earlier today and said..."Hey, you think you could make this more than once a year?"
I'd say that is pretty manageable. 🤗
& mine.
I won't lie. The salad is always one of my favorite parts of the meal.
I will share this recipe soon.
The aftermath.
More aftermath. Misery. 🤣
My dishes warrior.
All the food was just weighing him down so he needed to kneel. HA!
I will say, Keith is so good at dishes. He does them 95% of the nights. I put away the leftovers and clear the table and he stands at the sink and loads the dishwasher and washes what can't go in.
Very grateful for this.
Boxed some food up to take over to our neighbor.
As I was sticking the sprig of rosemary in there Keith looked at me like I was nuts. & said, "what the hell are you doing?"
Presentation, buddy. Presentation.
Movie time.
We watched some very Hallmarky movie on Netflix. Rather boring. Sub par acting.
I don't even remember the name.
Also, feelings of major gratitude that I can get up I the morning and not have my health dictate my days. I would have never believed this could be possible 5 years ago.
FaceTime with the fam bam.
Man I love them.
& miss them.
I was feeling some secret guilt that my Momma Bear and Dad were going to spend their first holiday without either of their kiddos.
So when I got this picture and saw that one of their kiddos did stop by to say hi, it melted my fucking heart. Why is she so amazing...I feel like we don't deserve her. 😭🥰
The perfect missing piece to our puzzle. 🤎
That is it!
That was our Thanksgiving!
No matter how you spent it, I hope you thoroughly enjoyed yourself.
I hope you took a moment to count your blessings.
This is such a great holiday.
No stressing about making sure you got the perfect gift. That you didn't forget anybody.
You just get to spend time being.
& that is beautiful.
Have a beautiful weekend everybody!
Cheers to your beautiful life.
xoxo
Kirsten ☀️