Day Three hundred and fifty-six

This was the day before Thanksgiving. You can see my house is clearly in cooking mode.

Pumpkins: Before.  These went into a pie, bread, and some went into the freezer for future use.  I was fortunate to receive a giant box of pumpkins and squash from my Uncle and Aunt who have a farm in Iowa.  This was only the second time I'd ever cooked w/fresh pumpkin. Definitely worth it!!

And of course, pumpkin seeds.  I made these savory and seasoned them with a little S & P. The next batch were cinnamon sugar.

Roasted sweet potatoes. Tomorrow these will be a part of a casserole.

After: Pumpkins.

Lunch for my little one: Peanut butter and jelly on crackers, and pear slices.

A super easy supper (who has time to cook when you're roasting vegetables all day?!): Brown rice spaghetti with alfredo, chicken nuggets, and steamed veggies.

Shredded zucchini, for the freezer. This will go into chili, meatloaf, and bread.

Day Seventy-four

Chicken apple sausage. This will be part of tomorrow's cornbread stuffing.

"The Yummiest Mashed Potatoes Ever" (according to the recipe). I'd have to agree! They have sour cream, cream cheese, a little pureed white bean in here. Also for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

Another one for tomorrow... Sweet Potatoes... to be garnished with marshmallows, of course.


Whole wheat french bread (dough- bread machine). This isn't for Thanksgiving; just the night's dinner.

Dinner: Four cheese whole grain pasta bake, french bread, and green beans.

Day Seventy-three

Two days until Thanksgiving... let the preparations begin! Sweet potatoes roasting, and cornbread baking.

Shredded carrots, for a carrot-herb biscuit. This is another pre-prep done for Thanksgiving. For this recipe, I measured and combined the dry ingredients, and shredded the carrots, but I won't do the rest of it till the morning of Turkey day.

Cornbread! Recipe: Sneaky chef. This cornbread will go in the stuffing. It was made with half white/half whole-wheat pastry flour, with a cauliflower-zucchini puree, some coarsely-chopped corn, and a little flax seed. May sound weird, but it is super moist and delicious.


Pumpkin pie pudding (Recipe: Cooking Light). This won't be on the Thanksgiving menu, but a friend of mine gave me some cooked sweet pumpkin from her garden, so I pureed it, made a double batch of this, and sent half home with her.


Breakfast for dinner: Spinach and cheese omelets and whole grain english muffins. After this, we had some sliced bananas, and then dipped into the pudding a little bit. ;)