Let's Talk Turkey Giveaway, $250 value

My favorite recipe for thanksgiving is a remake of green bean casserole. I use fresh green beans, pearl onions, fresh mushrooms and some turkey bacon. Place ingredients in baking pan add a little oil and mix well. Coo****il beans are the texture you like. Enjoy!

Mashed cauliflower - replaces mashed potatoes at our house now. Sometimes I may add a little potato but usually just the cauliflower. 

The secret is to steam the cauliflower outside of water I. A double boiler or a microwave steamer basket. That way you don't have to drain out a lot of extra water. and then when steamed soft, use an immersion blender to get the purée smooth. A little butter, salt, garlic powder and lots of pepper. Yum!

Crabmeat n shrimp stuffed mushrooms

1/2 cup real crab meat

1/2 cup minced up shrimp 

large white mushrooms or portabella mushrooms

1/2 cup cheddar cheese

1/4 teaspoon crushed garlic

sprinkle salt n pepper to add flavor

stream shrimp, mince or fine chop it, add crabmeat to bowl, add seasonings, add cheese to bowl 

stuff mixture in mushrooms

bake in oven until done

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

1. Boil potatoes
2. fry onions
3. mash potatoes
4. add onions, milk and spoonful of light cream cheese (I like to herb and garlic)

always a a creamy hit with the family.

Turkey melt - for the leftover turkey.

1 cup turkey chopped

Greek yogurt (in place of mayo)

1 scallion chopped (to taste)

Celery chopped

Mustard (according to taste)

Salt and pepper (to taste)

Cheese - I like American slice

Mix together all ingredients. Place on top of mushroom top. Add slice of cheese. Bake 350 for ten minutes. Mmmmmm! Enjoy!

Low carb Pumpkin cheesecake (made this several times and it's always a hit)

ingredients: 3(8 ounce) packages cream cheese, 1(15 ounce) can pumpkin puree, 2/3 cup Splenda sugar substitute, 1?2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1?2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1?4 teaspoon ground ginger, 3eggs (room temperature)

Heat oven to 325°F. Spray 8" X 3" deep cake pan with non-stick cooking spray. Line with parchment or wax paper, spray paper. Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Add pumpkin, Splenda, vanilla, cinnamon and ginger;Beat until smooth. Beat in one egg at a time until combined.

Pour batter into pan. Place cake pan in a roasting pan and pour boiling water around the outside of the pan until the water level reaches half way up the side. Bake 42-45 minutes or until cake is set in the center. 

Turn the oven off, crack the oven door and let stand in oven for 15 minutes. Remove pan from water bath and transfer to cooling rack; cool completely. Run knife around edge of cake, cover and refrigerate 4 hours to overnight. 

It's amazingly simple and not really thanksgiving themed, but one of the most common "green" foods at thanksgiving is green beans, which I HATE!  So instead, I like to make some simple asparagus.  I particularly like getting very thin asparagus and just putting a little extra virgin olive oil on it, salt, and whatever other seasonings I'm experimenting with (I try out different ones all the time for fun) and then just baking them in the oven on 425F until done (6-12 minutes, you basically just have to keep an eye on them because the time varies widely depending on the thickness of the asparagus as well as how done each person likes them!)

Well I'm still on my phases diet. Right now as I post I'm on cream soups and protien shakes, but when Thanksgiving rolls around I will happily be on my pureed diet. So I've been thinking of what I will be able to eat and I came up with this recipe.

1oz of turkey 

1/2 cup of broth turkey was baked in

3 Tbs of green beans

3 Tbs of mashed potatoes 

Blend that really well in a food processor and for dessert...

1/2 of a small sweet potato 

2tsp of sugar in the raw or 2 packets of splenda

Bake the sweet potato and then take half of it and mix with the "sugar". 

                          Enjoy!

This will be my first Thanksgiving Post-Op and being only 5 weeks out then it will be very very different.  What I used to love to make was roasted cauliflower with olive oil, parsley, and garlic.  I will not be on to veggies by Thanksgiving with my Dr's Phases, so this year I will be having cottage cheese or polish roses minus the onion!  Maybe a bean soup.

For a great leftover dinner, place refridgerated croissants in a wreath shape, fill with leftover stuffing, turkey and a thin spread of cranberry sauce. Pull the dough over and bake. Yummy!