Thanksgiving Traditions with Amanda

Well here is to another week!  only 3 days left till Turkey day, I can hardly wait (way excited for my little sister to get home Tuesday)!   Today  I have my wonderful friend Amanda of Life In Every Word here to share some of her Thanksgiving Traditions, and a Yummy recipe!  Amanda and I have known each other for years, she is my college roommate, sorority sister and partner in crime (we have lots of great college memories)!  You really need to go check out her blog if you haven't already! She talks about life as a recent graduate from pharmacy school, fashion and all things girly.   So take it away Amanda!

Hey everyone!

 First of all thanks to Hilliary for asking me to do this guest post! What a great idea! I've always considered Thanksgiving one of my favorite holidays. My family has done the same thing for Thanksgiving since I can remember. We all wake up early to start watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We have cinnamon rolls for breakfast while enjoying the parade. Our favorite part has always been when the Radio City Rockettes perform!

We always have all our extended family over for Thanksgiving and my mom starts cooking well in advance. We usually get a huge 24 pound or bigger turkey! Now since Hilliary’s blog is all about food, I thought I should add a recipe that we always have at Thanksgiving to this post. Although I’m not sure how healthy this recipe is, I’m sure Thanksgiving is an exception to eating healthy ;-)

One dish my mom always makes is Peas With Bacon

You’ll need:

8 slices bacon

3 cans of peas

3 tablespoons of tomato paste

1 tablespoon Vegeta seasoning

½ teaspoon of pepper

You may be wondering what Vegeta is. It’s a great all-purpose seasoning that has been a family tradition forever. My grandmother, great aunts, mom, etc. use it as seasoning usually in place of salt in almost everything from soups to sauces to meats, poultry and fish. You can find it in most grocery stores.

Back to the recipe! First you chop the bacon into small pieces and cook in a saucepan until crispy. Then drain the fat out. Next add the cans of peas along with the water that’s in the can. Bring this to a boil. Add the tomato paste, vegeta, and pepper. Turn down to a simmer. Simmer for about 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Now you’ll have yummy peas to add to your Thanksgiving feast!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Yours Truly,

 Amanda

A Thanksgiving with Ashley!

I am so excited to have Ashely of Places To Go, Things To Buy her to guest post today about her Thanksgiving traditions, and what she is thankful for!  I have known Ashley for years, and she is one of my besties from the Butler Years!  If you have not checked out Places To Go, Things To Buy you really need to!  Go as soon as you finish reading this post.  You will fall in love with her humor, stories and fashion focused blogs!  But before I ramble on and on I will turn it over to Ash!!  

Thanks, Hilliary, for having me!  Grab a cup of coffee!  Let’s chat.

I’m Ashley from Places To Go, Things To Buy!  Hilliary and I have been besties for many years and now we’re bloggie buddies!  I love Hill’s blog—she has the best recipes and it’s always fun to see what she’s up to!

Thanksgiving has to be one of my favorite holidays, if not my very favorite!!  Now that I am married, my husband and I split up the holidays with both sides of the family, so for the past few years we’ve been doing Thanksgiving with my family down in Miami, Florida and then we do Christmas with his family in Dayton, Ohio. 

Thanksgiving has always been my Mom’s thang…..she has the BEST food ever and one day, when I’m hosting my own Thanksgiving, I will make all the same food as her!  Oh, and did I forget to mention, I am the youngest of 6 kids (yes. I know.) so Thanksgiving is the one holiday where everyone is together, which makes it even better!  Did that rhyme?  Yea, kinda.

Back to the food….I’ve been making popovers for the past couple of years for Thanksgiving and it’s been a big hit!  I make the Neiman Marcus recipe with the strawberry butter, found here.   And just to rattle off a few of our dishes: Chestnut stuffing (my absolute favvvv!), sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, creamed onions, homemade gravy, honey glazed carrots, green beans with almonds, and of course turkey…but that’s my least fav!

And of course for desert is a homemade apple pie (LOVE!) and pumpkin pie served with fresh whip cream and ice cream.  Yummm….clearly I’m ready for next week!  I’m so happy I still get to enjoy the same traditions I grew up with, but now we have more people around the table as we’ve all gotten older and found significant others. 

So, our Thanksgiving traditions are waking up and cooking all morning….eating around 2:00 PM…..falling into a food coma around 4:00 PM….. go out to a movie around 6 or 7 PM…..come home and eat more…..then go to sleep!

So what am I thankful for this year?

I am very thankful to have such a loving and awesome husband, who is my bestest friend in the whole world!

I am very thankful for my family, and being able to share yet another wonderful holiday with them!

I am also very thankful for my health and the health of those around me. Never take anything for granted!

Thanks for having me Hilliary!! Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and stop over to my blog sometime! :)

Thanksgiving Traditions with Meg of Henning Love

Hello everyone!  I have the fabulous Meg of Henning Love here today to share some Thanksgiving Holiday Traditions with you.  If you have not checked out Meg's lovely blog you really need to.  Meg's blog is one I look forward to reading everyday.  Her thoughtful posts, honesty, yummy treats, and beautiful DIY projects keep me coming back!  So without further a due I give you Meg!


Hi readers of Hilliary's blog! I'm Meg and I write henning love and I am quickly going to do a commercial, I have a giveaway over on my blog that ends today. It is for a heart necklace from OliveYewJewels, please come enter.  Ok commercial over :-)

She asked me to write about some Thanksgiving traditions that I had growing up or anything Thanksgiving related. Before I begin, I want to briefly mention that I love Hilliary's blog. Her recipes are amazing, I mean that tzatziki with couscous salad, I mean c'mon give me a huge spoon to dig into that!

Ok onto my family traditions. First, let me preface by saying that Thanksgivings were usually just my immediate family since my dad was in the Air Force, so we didn't have the huge family gatherings until I was about in 7th grade when we lived near family. The food was pretty traditional, however, my mom did change some items a bit to blend into where we were living at the time. When we were in Japan, we might have used Japanese mushrooms and miso into a few of the items. Where they live currently, you will find my mom adding chipotles and other Mexican inspired ingredients into the Thanksgiving menu. Regardless of where we were living, I could always count on being active the morning of Thanksgiving, usually participating in a local turkey trot. Even when my parents started coming to my place for Thanksgiving, we still continue the tradition of being active. Whether it was a turkey trot or a bike ride, I could always count on that. Here are a few photos of the various Thanksgiving mornings from the last few years.

Last year!

Long Beach turkey trot

Please excuse the bad photos

Family bike ride pre-marriage

Now that I'm married, I have been thinking about traditions that I want to have in my own family, what legacies I want to pass on to my own children. First, I would love to continue the tradition of a turkey trot (hey, that is what baby running carriages are for). I want my children to know the importance of working out, exercising and taking good care of your body. Second, the other tradition I would like to participate in either the week of Thanksgiving or the morning of Thanksgiving is helping out at the church that we attend with their Thanksgiving outreach or serving at a Thanksgiving dinner at a soup kitchen. I know my children to know the importance of volunteering, and giving back to their community.

Those are some of the traditions I have in my current family and would like to have in my future family, the human version of furbabies :-)

Another part of Thanksgiving is blending the traditions that I grew up with Sean's family's tradition. I have to arrange Thanksgivings that are a blend of what I am used to and what my husband grew up doing in his family. For me, the next way I can do that is to cook some of the items that my mother-in-law does for her Thanksgiving menu. Two of the items that I have included in my Thanksgiving menu that is from Sean's family is a cranberry salad called St. Tropez salad, and banana rolls or the Pillsbury crescent rolls. My husband loves those rolls so I buy them for him. Then in the evening of Thanksgiving, Sean's family always watches, Christmas Vacation, which is a great movie, there are too many funny scenes!

The great thing about Thanksgiving is the blending of traditions and creating new traditions within my own family. These are just a few things that I love about Thanksgiving and the traditions my family and Sean's family grew up with and creating new traditions that Sean and I choose to create with our own future family.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, knowing how blessed you are wherever you are and thankful for the many awesome things you have in your life.

Thank you again Hilliary for asking me to guest post!

xoxo, Meg

Homemade Snacks

I love reading health magazines, I especially love the tasty and healthy recipes that many of the magazines feature. Usually these recipes are torn out of their magazines, placed into an unorganized folder aka the black hole of recipes!   This particular recipe was saved from the black hole of recipes!  These homemade granola bars remind me of my baked oatmeal only thinner.  The smell that filled the kitchen was delicious, sweet cinnamon, oats and brown sugar.  Nothing better then having something sweet in the oven!  The great thing about these granola bars is most of the stuff you probably have in your pantry right now, I made a few substitutions to my liking but they turned out great!  These bars will be the perfect addition to my healthy snack drawer at work!

Enjoy!

Homemade Granola Bars

Adapted from Women's Health, November 2011

1 Cup Pecans

1/2 Cup Walnuts

(I used Walnuts and Pecans in place of Soy Nuts and Pumpkin Seeds)

1 1/2 Cup Quick Cooking Oats 

1/2 Cup Nonfat Dry Milk 

1/3 Cup Brown Sugar 

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon 

1 Egg 

1 1/2 Cups Plain nonfat Greek Yogurt (I used Fage 0%)

1 Tablespoon Vanilla 

1 Cup Craisons and Raisons (instead of dried cherries)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

In a food processor combine your walnuts and pecans.  Roughly Chop.

Combine your chopped nuts, oats, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.

In a small bowl whisk your egg, yogurt, and vanilla together.

Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients.  

Stir to combine, now add your craisons and raisons.  

Pour batter into a 13x9 greased baking dish and bake for 25 min.

Cut into 15 equal bars.  

You can keep these bars wrapped individually in plastic wrap for up to three months!  To me these are way tastier then any store bought granola bar, so go make them right now!

Enjoy and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

Do you stock your desk at work with healthy snacks?

Jambalaya

Happy Friday to everyone, I have the perfect recipe for you to make this weekend.  Yes, this is the Jambalaya recipe that I promised you all yesterday!  There is a little story behind this vegetarian jambalaya.  You see, there is restaurant in Dayton called Meadowlark.

 I went there with Mark and his family to celebrate my birthday and Mark's new job.  Long story short, Meadowlark had a fabulous vegetarian jambalaya filled with eggplant, squash, zucchini, and tofu!  Lets just say that this is a dish that I knew I wanted to attempt to recreate and I think Mark and I got pretty close!

Mark and I followed this recipe from Taste of Home.  Next time I am going to substitute two cups of chicken broth for the two cups of water!  Otherwise this recipe got a two thumbs up from Mark and I!

Vegetarian Jambalaya:
1 Medium Onion
1 Cup Chopped Celery
1 Cup Red Pepper
1 Cup Fresh Mushrooms
1 Cup Zucchini (Mark and I added)
3 Cups Tomatoes (we used 2 cans of tomatoes)
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
2 Cups Water (I suggest subbing in chicken broth for more flavor)
Paprika, Cayenne Pepper, Black Pepper and Parsley to Taste ( we used a cajun blend)
Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt for Topping

First chop all your veggies, Mark and I rough chopped them.  Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan and cook veggies until tender.  Add your garlic and saute another minute.

Stir in the tomatoes,

rice, water or chicken broth, soy sauce and the spices.

Transfer your jambalaya to a 2 1/2 quart baking dish.  Place in a pre heated 350 degree oven and bake for 65-70 minutes (or until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed).

Mark and I decided to bake chicken and tofu to top or veggie packed jambalaya with!  It was delicious, I cannot wait to try this recipe again with chicken broth!

Enjoy, Happy Friday and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

Have you had a great dish at a restaurant that you have wanted to recreate?  Have you been successful?

The Redwood Room

In Rochester there is a chain of three restaurants (City Cafe, Redwood Room, and 300 First (previously The Broadstreet), and they have been family favorites for as long as I can remember!  

 To make a long story short Redwood Room closed and has recently reopened (the Wolfe family is insanely excited about this)!  Lets just say that the restaurant opened in the Redwood Room's place was not successful, and everyone seriously missed the Redwood Room!  

To make a long story short my family went to dinner at the Redwood Room last night.  Dinner brought back tons of wonderful memories.  The Redwood room was the Wolfe family go to restaurant for special occasions, Birthdays, Graduations, Anniversary's you get the picture!  The Redwood room is known for its cozy dimly lit atmosphere, and their great selection of live music (voted 2007 most romantic restaurant and best live music, Rochester Magazine).   I could spend an evening there simply sipping on wine and enjoying the company of close friends and family!  

Dinner last night at the Redwood Room did not disappoint.  Dinner started out with artichoke dip and the fabulous Redwood Room bread with garlic infused olive oil and parmesan cheese.  I could literally make a meal out of this bread it is that good! But I kept myself in check because I was really looking forward to the main entree!  I had the hardest time deciding on what to eat for dinner though.  Everything sounded amazing, does that ever happen to anyone else?  Well after much debate and flipping back and forth between entrees I finally decided on the fish of the day which was Swordfish.  The Swordfish was served over mashed potatoes with a tomato sort of sauce and the swordfish was wrapped in thinly sliced potatoes.  It was delicious I cannot wait to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!   My mom ordered Shrimp Risotto with corn (amazing I stole several bites), Miranda had the famous Apple Cider Pork and my dad enjoyed a Cajun Pasta!  I wish I would have snapped a few pictures of dinner, but sometimes I am just to caught up in the moment.   I enjoyed being able to spend the evening with my family.  It was great to be able to share a wonderful meal, in a restaurant with a cozy atmosphere and fabulous food!

But oh wait the great meal didn't end after entrees!  We split Creme Brulee, and a wonderful French Silk Pie!  I have to say the French Silk Pie was my favorite.  

And for those of you who wanted to know how the Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting turned out lets just say peanut butter frosting is very very addicting!  Yum!  If you are a peanut butter lover like me this is the frosting for you!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!  Hard to believe the week is over!

Do you have a favorite restaurant that has closed and come back due to popular demand?

What I am Loving- The Soup Edition

The weather is certainly starting to get colder up here in Minnesota!  As I am looking out the window this morning it looks like today is going to be another chilly grey day.  These cold gloomy days are perfect for a great cup of coffee, a warm bowl of oatmeal, a fuzzy blanket, sitting by the fireplace and warm thick soups!  When the weather starts to turn chilly I find myself wanting one thing and one thing only (well besides oatmeal) soup.  With the endless flavor combinations its hard for me to get sick of eating soup!  My favorite soups are thick ones loaded with tons of veggies and flavors.  One great thing  about soup is you can add and substitute things to a recipe to suit your taste.  Not to mention if you make a big batch of soup you can eat the leftovers for days!   I thought today would be the perfect day to share my absolute favorite soup recipes, you know the ones I come back and make time and time again! 

Enjoy!