Thanksgiving 2011: Going Easy!

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Thanksgiving 2011 will be a little different for us this year. Why you ask?

Because this is the year of Easy!

As in lets keep it easy and simple and just enjoy the day, visiting and catching up with family and friends and just not making the food the focus of the day and being so tired from cooking that we can’t enjoy it. So we are saying so long & adios! to a lot of our “must haves” from previous years and trying some new items and maybe we are going to start some new traditions as well (hey hey you never know….)

We are thinking about this meal as  a “Nice Family Dinner” (a bit more than the average Tuesday Night din-din but still manageable ), instead of this crazy Eat-A-Thon where you have so much food that you have trouble cooking it all, eating it all,  and storing all the leftovers ? forget it …Arggg….

So here is what we are planning right now. There are some of the usual suspects that are Thanksgiving regulars, some new items and we are also planning and buying less, so we don’t have food to last until December 1st.

Our Menu Thus Far:

  • Trader Joe’s 1/2 Cooked Turkey (yep, only a half a bird AND  just heat and eat…sweet!)
  • roasted veggies (diced sweet potatoes, turnips and parsnips)
  • stuffing (OK yes homemade here, recipe to follow )
  • steamed green beans
  • mashed  potatoes
  • Cranberry Sauce (OK trying a new, raw recipe here… I will let you know how it turns out)

Easy Appetizers:

  • Cheese & Crackers
  • Veggies
  • Nuts

Easy Dessert:

  • Apple Blossoms
  • Sweet Potato  Bites

Right… No Sweet Potato Casserole and no pies either!

So while we will not have LOTS of leftovers to eat from for the rest of the weekend, we will have the peace of mind that we did not have a stressed- out cooking day to recover from.

Instead we can make gingerbread houses (our big family tradition), and just relax and enjoy the day with one another.

What about you?  Are you going all-out this year, or are you scaling back like we are?

Share your  Thanksgiving menu with us below or on Facebook!

Thanks!