Happy Thanksgiving! I have so much to be grateful for, this has been an amazing year since we moved to Vermont. This has been the most wonderful thing ever to happen to me, and it’s basically the point of this entire blog. Now, the only problem, we’re actually down south for Thanksgiving (yes I know what kind of an idiot spends Thanksgiving in South Florida?). Well, it’s us this year, and this will be the last one, I assure you!
So our Thanksgiving this year is pretty chill because we drove back down from Vermont, we took 3 days to do it this time, which was better, we weren’t as wrecked from the drive. But I’m not feeling up to a huge Thanksgiving gathering so we decided we would do a small meal at home. But you know I love to eat, so I’m not skimping but I am making it easy on myself! So I’m sharing my handy dandy quick and easy Thanksgiving meal list with recipe links below!
First of all, we’re just doing a frozen Butterball turkey breast, and guess what? It doesn’t even have to be defrosted! How about that, from freezer to oven, in 2 and a half hours (I’m allowing for 3-4 tbh). And then I’m just doing jarred gravy (and gravy comes with the turkey breast too), jarred cranberries (I know, I know, no self-respecting New Englander would do that, but I’m not in New England right now so don’t tell!). Aaannnd to top it all off I’m doing box stuffing too, but wait, did you just drive 21 hours before the holiday weekend?? Ha ha I thought not so cut me a break lol! And my husband loves pumpkin pie, I bought one, he bought two already, and I’ve been joking with him because there’s this funny meme about people who eat all their hurricane snacks prior to the hurricane even arriving, he’s going to eat all his pies before Thanksgiving I guarantee!! And he also bought an apple. But I have my own dessert planned too, so let’s get to the stuff I actually am going to cook!
I’ve used my girl The Country Cook’s Easy Sweet Potato Casserole recipe for awhile now, it’s so easy and so good, and I absolutely love her blog, yes, she shops at Walmart, yes her recipes are not healthy, but honestly, every one of them is great. I just love her! And this casserole has a streusel topping which is much nicer than tiny marshmallows!
Then I’m also going back to my Southern roots (I cook soul food too, I do, it’s like my grandmother used to make), and trying this Southern green beans recipe from Divas Can Cook (hell yes they can!), I had some extra slab bacon in the freezer so I figured I would try it. And then I’ll do mashed potatoes, nothing special to those though I did find this nice Million Dollar Mashed Potato recipe, but who needs an extra 8 oz. of cream cheese on Thanksgiving?
And finally, you’ve got to have bread, I am not a fan of yeast rolls at all, I never have liked them, so instead I’m keeping my theme going with these Butter Dip Biscuits (do you see now why I did not want to do the mashed potatoes with cream cheese?). And last but not least, I’ve been craving pecan pie, I’ve had a mini pecan pie now in my pantry for oh, 3 months or so now, I’m not going to eat it at this point but I think it’s been sending me subliminal messages (or could it be that fact that duh, it’s Thanksgiving, pecan pie!) so I’m going to try these Southern Pecan Pie Bars with Shortbread Crust. I’m a big fan of bars because I pick, so I can like, break off a piece of a bar and eat it, portion control ha ha. And I’ll serve those (and the pies) with ice cream and warm caramel topping, yup.
I love to talk about food, holidays and fun so I would truly love to hear what you have planned, leave me a comment below, and I know this is a brand new blog without many readers (if any!) yet but I really appreciate the all (or one) of you that do follow! Happy Thanksgiving!
