A Very Belated Thanksgiving

In phone pictures...

I hope you had a wonderful holiday.

Lightened Thanksgiving Recipes

As I mentioned in yesterday's post the husband and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for family for the first time this year.  When I was planning the menu I decided I wanted to do some lighter recipes, including a large salad so that all the choices were not super heavy and high in calories.  I went over to one of my favorite light recipe sources, skinnytaste.com and did a search for Thanksgiving recipes.  I found this great salad.

Baby Greens with Goat Cheese, Beets and Candied Pecans

Uh-mazing.  Instead of cooking the beets myself, I used a can of whole beets.  I drained, rinsed, and cut them into quarters.  Then I let them sit in some of the salad dressing to marinate while I prepared the rest of dinner.  It worked out great.

Close up yumminess.

The other recipe I was looking for was one for sweet potatoes.  I don't know about you, but I am not a big fan of the marshmellow-y over sweet candied yams.  I wanted to do a lightly sweet dish of sweet potatoes.  I found that recipe too!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes Brulee

This recipe was SO easy.  I boiled and mashed the sweet potatoes on Wednesday and refrigerated them.  I heated them up on Thanksgiving and added the brown sugar for broiling.  Simple.

Ignore the little burned bit of sugar on mine.  We ate around it and it was delicious.  If you are looking for lightened Thanksgiving recipes next year, bookmark this page on Skinny Taste.

This year we skipped the green bean casserole.  My sister steamed up some green beans and then sauteed them with a little bacon, tossed in some roasted baby bella mushrooms and topped with crispy bacon.  Super easy...super delicious.

The prep and cooking this year was so easy that I was actually wondering if I was forgetting something on Thanksgiving day.  No, it was just that easy.  Loved it.

Happy Tuesday friends!!

Weekend Recap

Thanksgiving photobomb!

I love my sister.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, food and new recipes!  This year was the husband and my first time hosting everyone for Thanksgiving and we had 12 family members join us.

We served lots of the regular dishes...turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, and gravy...and lots of the regular recipes...bread stuffing, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green beans.  Along with a couple of new recipes from Skinny Taste!

This salad is fantastic!

These sweet potatoes were Uh-mazing.  Details and links to the recipes will be in the blog tomorrow.

I had a little drink station set up also with a light cranberry cosmo as the cocktail for the day.

On black Friday the sister and I wanted to shop, but we didn't want to be anywhere near a mall so we went to Pier 1.  I found these gigantic candle sticks for my dining room.

I am in love.

I also got some unscented pillars for the filigree candelabra I got on clearance from Willow House for my fire place.

I am bummed Willow House is phasing out their home goods, but I am enjoying their close out prices.

Sammy had lots of fun with her cousing Mo over the weekend.

I had tons of fun with my sister and my nieces.

I hadn't seen these beautiful girls since last February!!  I am so happy I see them again in three and a half weeks!!  I miss them already!

Sunday after my family left I wrapped presents...I can't believe I am 99% finished with Christmas shopping.

Now to relax, decorate and enjoy the season!!

I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Since we still had the old den sofa in the garage we thought we'd take this opportunity to wish you happy thanksgiving from the family, Robert Earl Keen style.

I hope you are full of turkey and thanks!!

Weekend Recap

All of last week and last weekend were super duper busy!!  I thought we had SO much done in the house and we had it all mostly together.  Well, when you realize you only have a week and a half to be ready for 5 house guests and hosting Thanksgiving for 14 you realize you still have LOTS AND LOTS to do!!

Let's start with house guests.  I am so excited to see my sister and my nieces and my brother-in-law that I can hardly stand it!

I can't wait to see these faces!!!

As far as work on the house goes we finished cleaning out the box room.  We got storage stuff sealed in bins and stored in the garage or attic.  We did a lot more donation runs and we did a lot of box recycling.

Friday evening we went on a date to Gallery Furniture and bought a beautiful new sleeper sofa for the den.

(source)

Tomorrow, hopefully, there will be a picture of it in the den.  It arrived on Sunday, but we haven't fully de-cluttered and vacuumed and all that, so I didn't take any at home pictures.

Saturday I managed to squeeze in time to get a Christmas card picture and order our cards.  The star of the card this year?  Sammy!

She was very tired after her photo shoot.  Poor puppy.

Trixie decided she did not want to be in the pictures.

"Kiss the paw and I might acknowledge you."

She lies.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!! 

Weekend Recap and Weigh In

I am thankful for all the fun and family time I got to spend with everyone over the Thanksgiving holiday.  I am not thankful for all the food I chose to eat...which is why I skipped the scale this morning.  I will be back on track this week and on the scale next Monday.

The family time was great!  There was sidewalk chalk.

And popsicles...

The Neal's dog Mo loves to be in the back of their suburban...I think he feels nervous like he might get left behind if they decided to suddenly leave.

There was one evening that is was cool enough to light the fire outside.  It was warm and cozy and we enjoyed some red wine.

 

We had no shortage of food for Thanksgiving dinner.  Everything was delicious.

I will say I didn't have some of everything, which was smart.  I did however have seconds, which was probably not smart.

My sister Audrey and her hubby John went antiquing on Westheimer on Sunday.  They have moved into a new house and needed a few things.  We went with them to pick up their goods and happened on these awesome end tables.

I love them and they had a pair!!  I was so excited.

To finish out the weekend, some of the Christmas decorations started to appear!

Coffee tastes better in a Christmas mug...at least I think it does.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!