Showing posts with label thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thanksgiving. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Flavor of the Week {Southwest Lettuce Wraps}

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is all the leftover turkey.  It all goes into meals for my post Thanksgiving week menu.  Turkey pot pies and turkey chili always make the list and this year I had enough leftovers to add southwest turkey lettuce wraps, my favorite "chicken" salsa made with turkey which I also turned into enchiladas, and Thai curry soup.  Yes, I intentionally purchased a bird that was significantly larger than what we needed for Thanksgiving alone just for the leftovers.

Over the next couple weeks I'm going to share some of these awesome recipes with you.

First up, the SW lettuce wraps.  Most of us eat the full, traditional Thanksgiving meal more than once during the week of Thanksgiving.  After all that delicious but very heavy food, this is the perfect light lunch to counteract that.  This is also very quick to prepare which is a nice break after spending days in the kitchen preparing Thanksgiving.



Southwest Lettuce Wraps {adapted from Skinny Tastes}

Ingredients:
 
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 red bell peppers diced
  • 3 scallions thinly slicked
  • 1 cup leftover turkey breast, diced small
  • 1/2 can whole cornel corn
  • 1/2 can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 tbsp diced jarred jalapeno peppers
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend
  • 8 large lettuce leaves
  • avocado cream sauce {recipe below} 
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the red bell pepper and scallions to the pan and sauté for 2 minutes until tender. Add the diced turkey, corn, black beans, jalapeno peppers, cumin, chili powder, salt, and cayenne pepper to the pan. Cook for another 3 to 4 minutes then spoon onto large lettuce leaves and top with cheese and avocado cream sauce.
 

Avocado Cream Sauce:

Ingredients
 
  • 1/3 cup low-fat milk
  • 1 small jalapeno, seeds removed (leave them in if you want it spicy
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 2 tbsp chopped scallion
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1/8 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
 
Blend all ingredients in a blender and adjust seasonings to your liking.


PS. If you're wondering what to do with the other half of the bell pepper, beans and corn, make a half portion of my chicken salsa!  You can even use some more of the Thanksgiving turkey in place of the chicken!
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Monday, December 2, 2013

On to Christmas

 
 
I fully agree with this meme that floats around every year.  I do not like that we see Christmas everything beginning in October.  I don't understand the rush.  I like to savor each holiday as they come.  That being said, the day after Thanksgiving is always dedicated to getting ready for Christmas in our house.
 
This year I woke up early enough to make my favorite breakfast, "homemade" donuts.

I dug all the tubs of Christmas décor out of storage and started decorating.  I love the kokeshi nativity I picked up at a bazaar in Japan.  I think it's my favorite decoration.

I finally made use of all the stickers the military movers stick to our packing boxes each time we move.
 
 
This year we decided to use the "big lights" that we've carried with us for years but never used and I'm in love with our tree this year.

We ended our night with a Big Bang Theory marathon and homemade turkey pot pies made with left over Thanksgiving turkey.  The perfect transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

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Friday, November 29, 2013

Thanksgiving recap

Today is my last day of linking up with Katie for her 30 Days of Thankfulness.

Day 29: I'm thankful for Thanksgiving.  It's my favorite holiday and we have so many great memories of Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving has taken on many very different faces over the past few years.

In 2007 I drove with Jason's family down to Ft. Bragg to spend the weekend with him.
 
 In 2008 I celebrated the holiday in Alaska with my BFF while both of our husbands were deployed.

In 2009, Jason and I hosted our cousins and some friends at our house in FLW.



In 2010, we hosted our new friends in Japan. (and I cannot seem to find a single photo from that day)

In 2011 I prepared the full Thanksgiving spread 3 times in one week.  My favorite meal was shared with 30 of my Japanese friends.

2012 was the first year I didn't cook a turkey since 2008.   I was a little upset about it until we were enjoying a seafood feast on the beach in Bali then all my worries disappeared.

This year it was just my cousin, Jason and me.    Much smaller crowd than we're used to but it was still a great day.


I created a new table runner this year that I hope to add to each year.  I only wish I had started this years ago so I could have the handprints of all the awesome people we've shared this holiday with.  I guess they'll all just have to come back again!
 
I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving.


Going Coastal
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Sharing

Today, my friend Melissa and I prepared a traditional Thanksgiving meal for 25 of our Japanese students friends.  Neither one of us has ever cooked an entire meal for such a large crowd but we pulled it off beautifully.  Aside from the issue I had making the gravy {sorry ladies, that's why lunch was delayed today!} everything turned out perfectly.  Our menu included

Ham
Stuffing {my family recipe}
Angel Biscuits {Melissa's family recipe}
Green Bean Casserole
{my family uses the French's recipe, hers uses the Campbell's so we made a small dish of each}
Broccoli Casserole
{again, different family recipe's so we made 2 dishes, mine is similar to this one}
Sweet Potato Casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Corn
Mashed Potatoes
Pumpkin Pie & Pecan Pie


Each of the ladies also had a small bag of my homemade chex mix to take home with them.

I'm still in shock that we fit all 27 of us into my house, but after a little living room furniture tetris, we made it work



After we ate, we played Pictionary for a while.  Melissa and I drew while the ladies guessed.  Here are the words we went through.  They did AWESOME considering Melissa and I are NOT artists!

Melissa and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves today and I hope think the ladies did too!  Miraculously, my house was clean and back in order by 430 which made me really happy, I expected it to take me days to clean up!

I am so grateful to know these women and be able to share our American traditions with them!


{I cannot believe they got Buster to sit for a photo!  He never does that for Jason and me}

Speaking of Buster, he was so well behaved today...well almost.  He was great while the ladies were here.  After they left and we cleaned up a bit we had to return the tables and chairs we borrowed so we loaded up Melissa's van and headed out.  When we returned, I found the dog INSIDE the trash bag eating the food scraps...apparently I had forgotten to take the giant trash bag we used outside before we left!  I couldn't be too mad at him, it was funny and totally my fault!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

My favorite holiday is getting close!

My favorite part about Halloween is when it's over!  I'm not a big fan of the holiday and I just see it as one more hurdle to get past before we finally get to my favorite holiday, THANKSGIVING!  Apparently everyone around here has decided to skip straight from Halloween to Christmas this year, I cannot find a single thing Thanksgiving related but they sure do have everything set up for Christmas already!  I'm determined to give Thanksgiving the attention it deserves.

I try so hard every year to wait until Halloween is over before I start my Thanksgiving plans but when I started seeing turkeys and pies on the cover of all my favorite food magazines in the check out aisle I just couldn't resist.  



{all photos courtesy of  Google Images}

I started my plans 2 weeks ago.  Last year I posted two VERY detailed explanations of all the prep work I do for this holiday.  You can read those here and here if you're interested.  I'm warning you though, I go above and beyond , to the point where some may start to call me crazy.  This year I'm hosting two full meals, once on the 16th for about 30-40 Japanese ladies that I {and my friend Melissa} teach English to and once for a bunch of friends on Thanksgiving day.  In between those two full meals, I'm also making stuffing/dressing for a church lunch and a turkey & stuffing/dressing for our unit FRG meeting.  That adds up to 3 turkeys, 4 batches of stuffing/dressing, and 2 servings of each of the sides that go along with the meal, like green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, pies, etc., all in 9 days.  While most people would see that list and throw in the towel or recruit help, I am super excited about all of the shopping and cooking!  I can't wait to get started!

Anyone else excited about Thanksgiving?!?!?