Here is an idea for a scrumptious thanksgiving side dish to serve with your turkey. Keep in mind this is a dry dish so it won’t be too good with something like meatloaf.

But if you are not making a meatloaf, or are making multiple dishes, sweet potato fries are always an excellent addition. Offer your guests some ranch sauce, and some beer if that is their kind of thing, and they will be gone in seconds, so make sure you make enough!

Ingredients for approximately 2 servings:

1 large sweet potato (>12 oz) peeled (often called yam at your local grocery store)
2 tblspn olive oil
2 tbslpn crushed rosemary
1/2 tspn salt
2 tbslpn parsley

Preheat oven to 425F. Cut poatoes into wedges or fries as desired (not more than 1/2 in thick for even cooking).

Toss all ingredients into a zip loc bag and make sure potatoes are thoroughly mixed with remaining ingredients.

Place fries onto baking sheet covered with aluminum foil. Turn occasionally as you bake them.

When ready they should be fairly browned. Add salt or pepper to taste and you are all set!

Good dipping sauces: ranch, sauce dijon, honey mustard ranch sauce

I simply love this dish!!!

And like I said I am using a product called Slimvia just to try it out in combination with a personal trainer.

So my goal was 8lbs and I am proud to say that so far I have lost 10 lbs! It’s going great! I’m not stopping now – just a few days until Thanksgiving and I am going to continue exercising.

My personal trainer has said that this is a very unusual number with the amount I’ve been exercising. She is really against supplements but I think she is starting to consider the fact that this Slimvia product is actually doing something. I hope so! If that’s the case, I’m going to start paying for it because the first month is just a free trial. If it works… why not keep going?

The top top top thing you need to remember is Time. If you don’t get this thing done in time your dinner will be ruined! Of course as a last resort you will have the microwave or warm water but that could do some serious damage to the taste of your turkey.

1 - If you check your local ads NOW (it’s about 2 weeks to the day), you might be able to find some good deals on a fresh bird! Of course, if you have limited fridge space then that’s another issue. No need to buy a new fridge just for this day. Go with a frozen bird.

2 – If you choose to melt it in water, do NOT use warm water; it will begin cooking the meat and could create complications down the road.

3 – Do not defrost your turkey unwrapped at room temperature. Bacteria love that environment. Do it in water – either in a giant cooler or bowl if you have one, or try your bathtub or a sink you’re not using. Don’t just leave it out to sit there.

4 – Thawing in the fridge is a whole ‘nother story. It will take about 24 hours for every 5 lbs so make sure you are on time.

Set a reminder in your phone right now to put that thing in the fridge or in the water in time for the holidays!!!

I HATE canned cranberry sauce. I don’t know how anyone can serve that stuff. They must have never tried home made sauce! It’s so tasty – to have pieces of turkey with warm sugary cranberry sauce on top is probably my favorite part of a thanksgiving meal. It’s scrumptious without a doubt!

To be honest, last year I used a recipe from Cooks.com and will be using it again. I’m not going to plagiarize so here is a direct quote from their website. Enjoy!

PS: I don’t like the citrus flavor in the sauce but feel free to give that a whirl.

From Cooks.com:

Ingredients:

1 quart cranberries
1 cup water
1 3/4 cups sugar
citrus for flavoring (optional)

The general rule is: Use 1/4 as much water as cranberries. Add 1/3 as much sugar as cranberries. Wash and pick over cranberries, discarding any that are soft.

Bring water to a boil; add berries. Cover and cook over medium low heat until berries have burst outer skin.

Add sugar and boil a few minutes longer. If desired, cranberries may be strained before sugar is added.

Optional: A few tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange or lemon juice may be added along with a little grated citrus peel, if desired. A tablespoon of frozen orange concentrate is also a nice addition.

Let me know if you’ve had any success guys!

For another thanksgiving side dish, have a look at my sweet potato fries recipe! My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

Here is a wonderful idea for a turkey meatloaf recipe. Make sure you have some ground turkey available – you can either buy it at the store or grind it yourself. If grinding yourself be sure to go for the leanest cuts possible because you are not actually using that much turkey meat. Might as well use the best! I recommend for going around 95% lean. Anything higher may result in a really dry meatloaf.

Feel free to use turkey burgers for the ground turkey. Read the nutritional facts – cheap turkey burgers can be over 50% fat!

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground turkey
6 slices of bread
2 eggs
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 garlic cloaves finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped bell peppers
1/2 can of chopped tomatoes with garlic
ketchup

Preheat oven to 350F and coat a loaf dish with cooking spray.

Mash turkey together with bread softened by pre-soaking in a cup of water. Add in salt, pepper, onions, peppers, garlic, and eggs. Combine and mold into loaf shape.

Heat loaf in oven for approximately one hour covered in aluminum foil. Desired temperature should be ~160F.

When ready, let stand for 10-15 minutes. Drizzle LIGHTLY with tomatoes and ketchup as desired.

Serve with something liquid and cold – apple sauce, cranberry sauce, sour cream are all great options.

Leave comments if you have your own variation or if this was a success for you!

Rumor has it that the Apple black friday deals have already been leaked. The source of this rumor is the website Boy Genius Report. All they have been able to confirm so far are the following deals:

– up to 30% off all iPods

- up to 25% off all Macs

- up to 15% off all accessories and Apple hardware

Of course the iPhone and iPod Touch are not included in this sale. Nice try. These sound like good deals and on top of that Boy Genius is reporting that the store will open at 6AM that day. I’m not crazy enough to head out there and risk getting trampled for an iPod discount but there are plenty of people that are very willing. To those people I say good luck.

The next rumor is the Radio Shack black friday deals which have been posted to numerous black friday websites. For example bfads.net/radioshack has the information you’re looking for.

Nothing too crazy but some good discounts on digital cameras, a 10$ universal remote, 250$ Acer laptop, some cheap ipod accessories and a 30$ Karaoke player!

These deals are nothing to write home about but I’m sure we’ll find out more once Walmart releases theirs in less than a week. Then things are really going to get crazy. Did you know that Walmart plans to be open for twenty for hours on the day of thanksgiving? That’s just insane. I’m sorry but I just can’t get into the shopping spirit like that. I prefer to sit at home and buy stuff online – you can find plenty of information out there on the product and don’t have pushy salesmen to tell you what to buy without knowing what you’re getting. That’s just my 2 cents. Good luck shoppers!

I got tired of making same ol’ Pumpkin Pie every time for Thanksgiving. So here is an idea I’m going to share with everybody that is very lovely. It’s a little twist on the traditional! It’s called a pumpkin cheesecake and if you’ve had one before I’m sure you found it as wonderful as I did!

I of course put my own little spin on the recipe. I am a huuuge chocolate lover, I can’t get enough of it. My vice is Nutella spread so I have added that to the recipe. Feel free to add your own ideas – I’ve seen people use chocolate covered coffee beans or nuts, or even just chocolate chips.

But if you haven’t tried Nutella you’re missing out!!!

Here is the recipe for it.

Ingredients:

2 cups graham crackers
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup melted margarine

2 cups brown sugar
8 8oz packages of cream cheese
4 eggs
1 can solid pack pumpkin
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 can Nutella
whipped cream

The crust is easy. Just combine the graham crackers butter and sugar and press them against your pie pan. Bake for 4-6 minutes (do not let it brown) then let it cool for about 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325F. Bake for over an hour until it is getting crusted around the edges. Once it’s cooled down, use a cream gun or whatever you have got (even a spoon) to top the cake with some Nutella and whipped cream! Your guests will faint from all the flavors in their mouths (and the hours and hours of eating that goes on on Thanksgiving of course!).

I recommend serving it with a little bit of coffee to wake everyone up. Good luck and enjoy!

Now for the yummy part! Beat the cream cheese then one by one add the eggs, pumpkin, vanila extract, sugar and cinnamon.

Here is a great stuffing recipe that you can use to prepare your thanksgiving meal.

Ingredients

8 to 10 cups – Bread Cubes
1/4 cup – Butter
1 cup – Chopped Onion
2 cup – Chopped Celery
1 teaspoon – Salt
1/4 teaspoon – Pepper
1/4 cup chopped rosemary thyme and sage
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk

My suggestion is to use fresh bread because using dry bread can easily result in a soggy stuffing that’s simply too light to enjoy; more of a custard!

Make sure to soften all the ingredients (including melting the butter and cooking the vegetables a little bit) before combining them.

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine all ingredients except eggs and milk in a baking pan. Bake for about 10 minutes then pour beaten egg and milk mixture over the entire dish. Should be ready in approximately 30-45 minutes of baking – you should be able to see if it is ready or not.

Feel free to add some nuts and berries to the mixture to give it a special taste that your family will love; I left them off the ingredients list due to issues with allergies.

Check out the other recipes on my site and please leave comments! Thanks!

This is completely unrelated to my recipe website but by posting online every once in a while I am able to stay focused and my friends can check periodically too.

So far I am proud to say I have reached 7 lbs! The weird thing is that this week, I barely exercised. I had a lot of work to do and only went to the gym once! But my weight continued to drop! I don’t know if it’s that supplement that I’m taking or what but I’m very happy with the way things are going. Hopefully if I just maintain until the end of this month I can exceed my goal. 7lbs in 2 weeks is something I never expected.

Even though my initial weight, I will admit, was really high, I am still so happy to see these numbers!

Woo hoo!!!