Hey Friends!

Happy November!

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I hope you all had a fun and fantastic Halloween weekend 🙂

I mentioned on Friday that Brian and I went as Mary Poppins and Bert and we were both pretty happy with how our costumes turned out!

Our friend Liz joined us for a Halloween party and she had a SUPER cute and creative costume…a paper doll!!

We had a great time at the party on Friday, but came home so we could get to bed relatively early because on Saturday morning we had plans to hike up in Breckenridge, CO.

YES! That would be snow covering the ground.

The hike was amazingly peaceful and so pretty.  I’ll be sharing more pictures and details this week 🙂

After the hike, I got busy in the kitchen as I tested out three recipes that I want to include in our Thanksgiving menu this year.  We had a couple of friends over to enjoy the pre-Thanksgiving treats and everyone really liked the tester dishes!  I am so excited and happy that everything turned out 🙂

I shared a pic on Facebook and Instagram and several of you were asking for the recipes that I used…ask and you shall receive friends!

Maple Pecan Sweet Potatoes from Tone it Up

I followed the recipe and made a small tweak by adding about 2 tsp of real vanilla extract to the potatoes.  Also, instead of tossing the pecans in honey I tossed them in real maple syrup.  The end result, a delicious and subtly sweet side dish that just smelled “holiday!”

Sweet and Savory Root Vegetable Stuffing from Giada De Laurentiis

For this recipe I also made a couple of small changes. Instead of sourdough bread I used a delicious nine grain bread that had a very nutty flavor and chewy texture.  I then added in one cup of quartered chestnuts (my absolute favorite!) for a little rich and meaty flavor in this vegetarian stuffing, and I omitted the goat cheese topping.  Everyone loved all the different flavors and textures.  This is definitely a keeper recipe.

Pumpkin Sage Biscuits from Minimalist Baker

The only tweak I made to this recipe was because I JUST ran out of cinnamon while making the sweet potatoes.  So, instead of using cinnamon I added in a pinch of Pumpkin Pie Spice.  These biscuits were wonderful!  They were fluffy, flaky, warm, and everything you want in a homemade biscuit 🙂

Now, for our meals this week!

Breakfast:

• Breakfast burritos (I’m actually making a TON of these to hopefully last me through the rest of the month!)

Lunches:

• Chopped veggies with hummus
• Salads
• Hardboiled eggs ( love keeping all these things on hand to make lunch quick and easy!)
• Brian will be enjoying our pre-Thanksgiving leftovers with baked chicken 🙂

Dinner:

• One Pot Curry Lentils and Vegetables
• Warm Fall Salad (Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, sweet potato, winter squash , pomegranate, white beans) with baked fish
• Mexican (I’m thinking sweet potato nachos for me and regular nachos for Brian)
• Chicken Soup
• Leftovers?  So hard to predict how much we may have…

I hope you all had an awesome Halloween, first weekend of November, AND enjoyed that extra hour of sleep last night 🙂

Question of the Day:

• What’s on your Thanksgiving menu?