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Day Twenty-Seven, Thanksgiving Day! A festive, homey, family-filled feast all from storage (except the turkey). We all enjoyed the meal and the fellowship and for the the first time in many, many years, I did not go overboard making food and we did not go overboard eating too much. It wasn’t about what we had this year, it was about being thankful for anything and everything. There is nothing wrong with having lots of great food and a Thanksgiving FEAST, but this year, it wasn’t possible, and to my surprise, my family enjoyed the pared-down celebration, as did I. I am learning so much about simplicity and being content with it. Now, the caveat is, we DID have food and plenty of it. I know people who do not have food on Thanksgiving and any other days, and my heart and prayers go out to them. We are not suffering as these precious ones are and I don’t even want to sound like I’m comparing our situation with those who have nothing and no way to get it unless local charities help them. We, on the other hand, have a great deal and I don’t want to sound as if I’m complaining for one second. And we do pray for people who are truly making due with very little.
If you missed the previous posts in this series, you can catch up here. The oldest posts are on the bottom, newest on top. You’ll find all the recipes for No-Shopping November on this page.
Cooked, spiced and dehydrated garbanzo beans
Day Twenty-Seven
Kitchen /Menu
Our day started well, awaiting family to come from hours away and finish up the preparations for the meal. Here’s what we had:
Roasted brined turkey (cooked Wednesday)
Cooked the carcass in the roaster for turkey stock
Roasted green beans
Whole wheat bread
Mashed potatoes
Cranberry sauce
Mac and cheese
Chocolate Nut Pie with whole wheat crust
Apple Juice
Spiced cooked, dehydrated garbanzo beans
*The turkey was the one item we allowed ourselves to purchase during No-Shopping November and we chose a 20 pound organic bird. We brined it Tuesday and roasted it Wednesday, removed the bones, placed them back in the roaster, added water and slow cooked for stock.
*The roasted green beans were from the other day and we simply reheated them.
*I made a pan of whole wheat rolls the day before, but somehow in the big cooking/ baking day, the rolls did not get baked long enough, sooooooo, they were inedible. Now, I consider myself a baker and this failure hit my pride hard. BUT, thank G-d, I had some of my homemade whole wheat bread in the freezer, which I took out and let thaw in time for supper and it worked great. The underdone rolls will be turned into crumbs and I will mix them with the pet food (which we are running low on) to stretch their food until we can buy more. If we still had our chickens, they’d be getting some too! So, the rolls won’t go to waste, but I felt horrible about messing them up.
*The fresh potatoes we used (15 pounds) we had been saving from 2 months ago (we usually buy 50 pounds per month) and we saved these out for Thanksgiving. I used homemade almond milk and cream cheese.
*Mac and cheese, again from food storage, and again, had on the shelf for years, and the type we don’t buy on a regular basis. However, all of our holiday recipes call for mac and cheese (a family tradition) and while I can make homemade, we didn’t have the supplies, so the food storage boxes were fine. And the kids loved them. No, not the healthiest choice, but definitely a good one since we used food storage and it met the need and completed the family tradition.
*Cranberry sauce was a very small can (8 ounces) and we’ve had it in food storage for years. Not organic, just the jelly-type of cranberry sauce. It was appreciated and went fast.
*Chocolate Nut Pie was a recipe from Elana’s Pantry and hers is a pecan pie. We didn’t have pecans, so I used almonds. It was delicious and the 2nd year I’ve made it. Big hit. I used my whole wheat pastry pie crust this year, but in the past I’ve used her gluten-free crust and it’s fabulous.
*Apple juice was our last one left from our Azure Standard order 2 months ago. I held 2 gallons out, 1 for the turkey brine and 1 for drinking for Thanksgiving.
*I cooked soaked garbanzo beans the other day and placed them in the dehydrator, sprinkled with salt, garlic powder and smoked paprika. They are crunchy and super-yummy!
Since we ate our supper late (6 PM) as we usually do, everyone was too full for snacks and we had our pie with homemade dairy topping (from freezer storage) about 9 PM.
So today, the leftovers rule!!
Thoughts
Considering everything, we are very thankful to G-d for His faithfulness and for our family. Thanksgiving was a great success!
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