Thanksgiving 2016

Welcome to the weekly link-up recently turned Blog-Hop Just Enough Info or just, JEI for short. This lovely Blog-Hop is hosted by The Zelie Group and we would love for you to join us! This week we are discussing Thanksgiving! I'll also be sharing some of our fun activities we have been doing during this fun family holiday! Let's get started with this week's questions:

Do you have to cook for Thanksgiving? If yes, what’s on the menu? If no, high five!

Yes! I always cook for Thanksgiving! I love to do it and I hope I am able to do it for years to come! We were lucky enough to enjoy a Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving feast at the kids' school this past Friday, a Friendsgiving in my cousin's home this past Sunday and an amazing Thanksgiving with new friend's yesterday. We like to cook a lot so we have leftovers to make soup and casserole over the week after Thanksgiving. Here was our menu:

Appetizers:

Crockpot Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Meat and Cheese Tray

Vegetable Tray

Dinner:

Turkey

Cranberry Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes

Macaroni and Cheese

Peas and Onions

Green Bean Casserole

Cranberry Sauce

Gravy

Drinks:

Cranberry Apple Cider Sangria

Sprite

Cranberry Sprite

Sparkling Apple Cider (Non-Alcoholic) 

Desserts:

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Fruit Salad (Brought by our friends)

Pumpkin Roll (Brought by our friends)

Ube Cheesecake 

(I purchased this homemade dessert from a coworker who makes this dessert from scratch!)

I am still in a food coma and exited about leftover meals this week! I am also excited to start my new workouts starting today! I have to get back to where I was so I am healthy for myself and my kids. Want some of my recipes? Just comment below!

What famous person would you like to invite to your family Thanksgiving?

If I could invite any famous person to our family Thanksgiving, I would love to have Pope Francis over! How amazing and life changing of an experience that would be! I could imagine that there would be no better Thanksgiving!

Excluding family, health and basic needs met - what are 3 things that you are thankful for?

Well since I am not suppose to mention my husband, kids, health and my basic needs.. this list may seem weird to some but I am truly thankful for my cats, coffee and time to make memories! These aren't things that I need to survive, unlike my family, health and home, but they definitely make life more amazing!

1. My Cats: Lemon, Shadow and Cloudy

I know that's probably funny to hear but these little fur balls of pure love really keep me sane sometimes. As I am typing this, Lemon is snuggling with me on my heated blanket and purring. It's an amazing feeling feeling of relaxation and love combined into one. You like our holiday accents for our fur babies? 

2. Coffee!

Coffee is a life-saver for me! I live off of it. With juggling the kids crazy schedules (sports, therapy, cub scouts and friends) with my work schedule, household work and the million other things I find myself getting into, the caffeine pickup is a necessity! Plus it tastes amazing! Pumpkin Spice, peppermint mocha, hazelnut flavors ... lattes, cold brew or a cup of french press... so many options and I love them all!

3. Time to Make Memories

Making memories and enjoying experiences are the MOST important to me. I love having time to celebrate things, even if it's not super exciting to anyone else. For example, the boys had a Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving celebration at school and I decided to make Turkey T-shirts and masks. I think the whole family had a blast! All the stuff I needed to make these fun turkey costume pieces I found at the local craft store. Even the shirts the boys are wearing in the first picture at the top of this post. 

For the masks:

Plain white mask

Brown felt (Turkey mask base)

Yellow Felt (Beak)

Red Felt (Wobble)

All I did to make the masks was place the felt over the brown felt and layered it with a second mask to draw the outlines of the mask. I should have drawn the eye outline as well instead of guessing as you can see from the white part of the mask showing through. I hand drew the wobble and beak in the corresponding felt and used fabric glue to stick it all together! If you have elastic, you can skip the white mask all together and  just add the elastic to the felt mask itself. Super easy and super cute. 

For the shirts:

Plain T-shirt (I wanted to find brown shirts but could only find black shirts)

Red, orange, yellow felt (feathers but you can use any colors!)
White Felt (Eyeballs)
Black Sharpie

Yellow Felt (Beak)

Red Felt (Wobble)

Draw some feathers in the colored felt, cut them out and fabric glue them on the back of your shirt to be able to make the 'Shake Your Tail-feather" Shirt. If you like the one pictured at the top too you could add it to your tail feather shirt or by itself! Just cut some white felt circles for the eyes (Sharpie to make the pupils). Yellow felt for a beak and red felt for the wobble. 

You have all week to answer this week's questions all about Thanksgiving:

1. Do you have to cook for Thanksgiving?  If yes, what’s on the menu?  If no, high five!

2. What famous person would you like to invite to your family Thanksgiving?

3. Excluding family, health and basic needs met - what are 3 things that you are thankful for?

Next week we will be discussing all about Holiday Get-Togethers:

1. What's your go-to "someone's coming over" recipe? 

2. You have 5 minutes to tidy before guest arrive. What are your tidying shortcuts? 

3. What sort of music sets the mood for the perfect gathering?

The Zelie Group has some fun questions coming up in the next few weeks so make sure to follow us on Facebook and we would love to hear what you are interested in! What are you looking to learn about? Do you have questions about the Faith? Questions about the Liturgical Year? We want to help and learn and grow with you and your families!

Also stop by the new Page I created on my blog for new information concerning The Zelie Group. It is a work in progress but it has a good start!

God Bless!

Menu Plan Monday: November 21- November 27

It's finally here! It's the week of Thanksgiving! Do you have special family traditions to celebrate Thanksgiving? We do! I would love to hear all about your traditions too. I'll be sharing all about our family traditions and much more We already got started with our celebrating yesterday with our Friendsgiving Celebration at my cousin's house, which was absolutely amazing! There is a little snap shot of our evening yesterday further down the post. I'll be sharing about our night more in my Thanksgiving post later this week!

Don't forget that the first Sunday of Advent is this upcoming Sunday too! It's called Stir-it up Sunday and it is traditional to stir-up some Christmas pudding together as a family. Some fun facts about Christmas Pudding:

• Christmas pudding is traditionally made with thirteen ingredients that represent Jesus and his twelve disciples. 
• Coins and charms use to be added to the Christmas Pudding and if you were lucky to find one in your slice on Christmas it meant you were in for some good luck. 
• Christmas Pudding is traditionally stirred by everyone in the family from East to West. The direction is given to remember the Wise Men that came to visit Jesus in the Nativity Story.
• You are suppose to make a wish while it's your turn to stir-up the Christmas Pudding!

I am so excited to see what everyone has planned for their menu's this week! Here is my menu for this Menu Plan Monday:

Monday:

Chicken Nuggets and Mac and Cheese

Tuesday:

Daddy is Cooking so probably Pizza :)

Wednesday:

Leftovers

Thursday: Thanksgiving

Baked Turkey, Green bean casserole, Cranberry sauce, stuffing, peas, mashed potatoes and so much more... you'll have to come back to checkout the entire spread!

Friday:

Leftovers or Turkey Soup

Saturday:

Leftover Casserole

Sunday: First Sunday of Advent

Turkey or Chicken Stir-Fry and

Christmas Pudding for Dessert

I figured I would share an awesome no-bake (I mean no steam) and healthy recipe for Christmas pudding. Its extremely easy to make and can be shaped into almost any shape.

More Healthy Christmas Pudding:

1/2 cup soft pitted dates

1/2 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup ground almonds

1/2 almond flour 

1/2 cup milled flaxseed (or rolled oats)

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 tbs vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp cardamom

1-2 tsp orange zest

Combine all the dried fruit and vanilla extract to your blender or food processor and blend together until you have a sticky mixture. Remember to scrape the sides of the blender or processor when you dump the sticky mixture into a bowl. Then add the ground almonds, almond flour, flaxseed (or oats), salt, spices, protein powder and orange zest with a wisk or large spoon. Continue to blend all the ingredients together into a sticky dough. Don't forget to allow the entire family a turn to stir up the Christmas pudding and make a wish! Shape the dough into balls (whatever size you like) and place in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up. You can use ice cube trays that have those cute little shapes too! If you want to make them look more traditional, you can dip them in chocolate before placing in the refrigerator or freezer again. You can freeze some to save until Christmas Day! I normally put them in the refrigerator on Christmas Eve to defrost. Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday: November 14- November 20

I have been attempting to get back onto the fitness train lately for No Excuses November and although it has been a struggle, I have managed to complete a water challenge with my husband so far. Now I am rearranging my schedule to get my workouts in before my day has actually started so say a few prayers I can get my body into a new routine with as little issue as possible. I am starting my Thanksgiving Planning too..especially since I have a Friendsgiving to go to this weekend! What are you making for Thanksgiving? Here's my post for Menu Plan Monday: 

Monday:

Pizza 

Tuesday:

Leftovers or Turkey Hot Dogs (Daddy is cooking)

Wednesday:

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Thursday:

Boys will Eat at Cub Scouts Meeting, Leftover Soup and Salad for me!

Friday:

Turkey Burgers (Special Request by Hubby)

Saturday:

Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Cinnamon Butternut Squash, Pecans and Cranberries

Sunday: Friendsgiving!

We will be enjoying a Friendsgiving Celebration tonight and will be potluck so I will share recipes, pictures and more on this fun event later in the week!

As I promised in an earlier post, I will start to share some of the recipes I'll be using here so you can give them a try. If there are recipes you have seen throughout my Menu Plan Monday posts you would like recipes, pictures or maybe some ways to modify to fit your diet or time constrictions, please let me know! I am always up for a challenge and I love to share. This week I decided to share my recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup. I am warning you that I use this recipe most often when I find I have lots of canned items in the household so it is super simple to make. With the cool weather turning cold and snow right around the corner I will be preparing many hearty but healthy meals like this one. 

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe:

1 lb Grilled Chicken (diced)

2 (15 oz) Cans of Corn

2 (15 oz) Cans of Black Beans

1 (15 oz) Can Diced Tomatoes

1 Green Pepper (diced)

1 Onion (diced)

1 (20 oz) Container of Chicken Broth

1/8 Cup Lime Juice

Cumin, cilantro, garlic salt and pepper to taste 

Crushed Tortilla Chips (garnish)

Garnishes (optional)

Sour Cream or Plain Greek Yogurt

Avocado

Shredded Cheese

To start, Grill approximately 1 lb. of chicken. You can substitute with shredded rotisserie chicken or even canned chunk chicken (I have made this recipe with all three). Drain and Rinse the cans of Black Beans. Dump all ingredients into the crockpot except the crushed tortilla chips. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or high 2-4 hours. When you serve this soup you can either place the crushed tortilla chips on the bottom of the bowl and pour soup over it or sprinkle it on top with any of the other listed garnishments. 

Enjoy!