Thanksgiving Menu 2011

This is what I will be serving this Thanksgiving. There aren’t as many people this year so I won’t be making as many pies. BUMMER! LOL!

We also have to take my hubby and son’s gluten sensitivities into consideration too.

DINNER:

Roasted Turkey that was brined first. (I’ve never brined before so I hope it goes well!)

Herbed Stuffing in the Slow Cooker

Creamed Corn

Roasted Brussels Sprouts ( I heard that even people that don’t like brussel sprouts liked this recipe and I’m counting on it. LOL!)

Kicked Up Mashed Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes

Dessert:

Pumpkin Pie (Made by my BFF)

Chocolate Cream Pie (I might have to make two.)

Apple Crisp

 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Green Breakfast Smoothie!

This is the smoothie I make after I work out in the morning. Since I’ve been off sugar it gives me that little special treat as well.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plain or greek yogurt

1 organic apple cut into 4ths

1/2 cup of Old Fashioned Oatmeal

1 handful of baby spinach

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

4 ice cubes

Optional additions are

1 frozen banana or

1/2 cup frozen mixed berries

If you find that you need it sweeter, you can use vanilla yogurt instead of the plain. Personally I’ve come to love it just the way it is.

Directions:

Place everything in the blender in order given and blend until smooth.

ENJOY!

Chicken, Broccoli, Rice Casserole with a Chipotle Cream Sauce!

Gee I don’t know, is the title long enough for you? I wasn’t sure what to call this after I realized it was scrumptious enough to post on my cooking blog. LOL! I just threw it together last night and everyone loved it. So for now that’s what we’re going to call it. I’ll take any other suggestions though. HA!

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked rice (I used Jasmine)

4 cups cooked chicken, chopped into pieces

2 cups of broccoli, chopped (I used frozen and let it thaw out enough to chop into bite size pieces.)

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Cream Sauce:

2 TBS. Butter

1 TBS Olive Oil

1/3 cup of flour, (I used Brown Rice Flour because we are Gluten Free right now)

2 1/2 cups of milk (I used Rice Milk)

2 Chipotle Peppers, chopped fine

Salt to taste

Directions:

If your chicken and rice isn’t cooked yet, get that going. Meanwhile, let’s make that cream sauce.

In a medium sauce pan add your butter and olive oil and melt over medium heat. When melted, add your flour and whisk it together. (It should be pretty thick at this point) Slowly whisk in your milk and increase heat just a tad. At this point I don’t walk away, I whisk continuously until the sauce starts to thicken (approx. 5-10 minutes) When sauce is thickened to a creamy consistency, add your chopped chipotle peppers and stir to combine. Add salt to taste. Now set this aside.

In a bowl combine your cooked chicken, rice and broccoli. Spread this out into a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Sprinkle your mozzarella cheese on top. Now take your cream sauce and pour it all over and then take a spoon and spread it out evenly. Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Take foil off during last 5 minutes of baking.

You’ll notice that I didn’t add any other seasonings to this. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to but I was in the middle of talking to a friend who had stopped by and completely forgot. BUT with that said, it tasted delicious just the way it was and made it that much easier.

Feeds 6-8

Let me know what you think!
ENJOY!