Thanksgiving Highlights 2016

 

I meant to pop in yesterday morning but here’s what happened:

First, I didn’t open my laptop on Wednesday beyond 2:30 pm. My son and I went out in the afternoon after I picked him up from school and once we got home after dinner, I considered myself unplugged from everything other than my television as I was glued to watching MTV’s marathon of The Hills for the rest of the night.

Yesterday I made the mistake of checking my email when I first woke up which meant I spent my time searching the Henri Bendel and Kate Spade websites for Black Friday sales instead of writing a post before heading out for my Thanksgiving morning run.

So hi. I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!

I love being lazy on Thanksgiving but I guess I am not as lazy as I think. I ran 10 miles instead of my usual Thursday morning run of 7 or 8 since I had the extra time.

While watching the parade in my pajamas with my son, I made my famous oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies (the dairy free version –recipe here ) and since I had the oven on, I also made up a dairy free pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe too. If you like pumpkin, I would say these cookies came out delicious but I didn’t pay attention to my recipe therefore I cannot share it. I apologize!

Oops. We just looked at Thanksgiving dessert first! Let’s back up to the main meal!

My son and I headed over to my parents’ house in the afternoon so that we could drive in with them to the city to go over to my aunt and uncle for the holiday.

My aunt sets the best table. Always.

I say this every year but my aunt’s taste and choice of flowers is the reason why she was in charge of working with my florist for the centerpieces at my wedding way back in the day.

The food is always amazing too. As a vegetarian, the Thanksgiving side dishes have always made me happy but this year they were extra delicious.

There was broccoli slaw, a kale salad and highly addicting roasted cauliflower. I could have eaten the whole bowl!

I also had asparagus, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, mashed parsnips, roasted potatoes and quinoa.

I piled a few plates that looked like this.

Back to dessert again. I didn’t get a full picture of the dessert table because I was too busy eating chocolate cake and my cookies. Gosh my oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies came out so good! I hadn’t made them in a while so it was nice to know I still had my talent in me.

I was definitely full but not sickly full which means Thanksgiving was a success.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend!

Previous Thanksgiving Posts:

Thanksgiving Highlights 2015

Thanksgiving Highlights 2014

Thanksgiving Highlights & Black Friday Appetite 2013

[bctt tweet=”Thanksgiving highlights! #thanksgiving #food #cookies #vegetarian #sidedishes ” username=”cookiechrunicle”]

Which foods were your favorites yesterday?

Are you shopping Black Friday sales today?

 

Happy Meals

I have big plans for this last day of July.

That’s right. I intend to bless Lifetime Fitness with my presence this morning.

I decided I might as well live it up on this July 31st because as of tomorrow, August 1st, my membership is officially frozen.

I may take a spin class or a kickboxing class or some other group fitness cardio class. Or sample all of them. We shall see.

At least I will be getting in some valuable cross training time.

And if I am lucky, the cross training will help calm down my insane appetite.

I can’t complain though; food has been good to me lately.

While I have been more than enjoying myself by eating out quite often these days, it never needs to be complicated or elaborate to have some tasty food at home as well.

I went a little crazy the other day and deviated from my beloved steel cut oats in favor of a simple blueberry oatmeal pancake.

Topped with berries, peaches and peanut butter. Delectable.

See this? This would be a really tasty and simple sandwich. Romaine lettuce, tomato, roasted red pepper, avocado and a shmear of hummus on Ezekial Bread.

The concept of a sandwich is still fascinating to my taste buds since the majority of my lunches are salads.

Although, I must admit that even my salads have been a good time lately, especially now that I am on an omelette salad kick.

And don’t think that omelettes are only an option when eating at home. Nope.

I brought mine with me yesterday.

I had my weekly lunch date with the cutest little girl in my world, actually, whole world.

I prepared my omelette ahead of time…

Wrapped it in foil and then reheated it quickly in the toaster oven before plopping it on top of a salad.

What did my little girlfriend have? She dined on spinach and potatoes.

Speaking of potatoes, check these spuds out:

Totally crispy. Totally delicious. Totally easy to make.

Cut up the potatoes, place them in a Ziploc with a drop of olive oil, a few different seasonings and some parmesan cheese.

I roasted them in the oven (at 450 degrees) along with a large pan of broccoli, asparagus, brussels sprouts and cauliflower (seasoned the same as the potatoes).

If you have patience, leave them in the oven for a good 40 – 60 minutes. The longer you roast, the better.

I love side dishes.

In fact, I think that side dishes don’t get enough credit and some of them really deserve to be promoted to entrée status.

Now hey, what’s this box of 100 Calorie Chocolate Pretzels doing in my pantry?

Confession: I have begun to “bring out the big guns” in my attempt to outdo the ice cream man. He may have soft serve but all he has is sprinkles and hot fudge for toppings.

**********************************************************************************************

I NEED TO KNOW:

What have you been eating and enjoying lately?

Favorite simple side dish?

Do you find you are eating out a lot more this summer?

What do you pack for lunch during the week?

Favorite ice cream/yogurt toppings?