Wishing my readers & visitors a Happy and safe ThanksGiving. This blog is devoted to help you GetYourBestBody. Since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I’m going to share some of our traditional family foods. 
Admittedly, some of the dishes take me off track, but if I follow my own advice and drink water before meals and watch portion size, I’ll be ok. I plan for this day, because I don’t expect all of my efforts to be in vain. So, here is a snap shot of my ideal ThanksGiving Day meal.
My family usually has a Honey-Baked Ham as well for those pork lovers. My favorite part of the meal though, is the side dishes. I like them a certain way because it brings back memories of growing up with some country-cooking aunts and cousins and a great grandma who baked the best goodies without measuring anything. Side dish #1 is the famous Macaroni & Cheese
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You must know I’m not talking about just any old macaroni and cheese, but the kind made with all real ingredients,3 cheeses and seasoned bread crumbs for the topping. The crunchier, the better.
Our family meal wouldn’t be complete without Southern Style Greens, seasoned with leeks and sometimes smoky ham. My one time a year indulgence. If you are a fan of Greens, you will absolutely love these.
Greens are one of those foods that taste great and are good for you. If you leave a reply with contact information, I’ll send you my family recipe. You’ll love it.
Another staple for our family is cornbread stuffing. This is one of my comfort foods and with the right compliment of Giblet Gravy, I could eat the stuffing with a generous portion of cranberries. The stuffing is “stuffed” with onions, celery, mushrooms, sausage, peppers, and of course seasoned corn bread.
This is another favorite and the stuffing can be dressed up endlessly by adding things like nuts, olives, oysters, cranberries, raisins, chopped crab or shrimp. Extra vegetables makes this a fairly healthy dish while maintaining the flavor.
My family always has candied yams, but not the kind with the marshmallows on top. Ours are different and I flavor them with orange juice, chopped red pepper flakes and top them with a walnut topping. Different, but a great compliment to the other dishes and not as sweet as the marshmallow traditional dish.
We are a vegetable loving family and love to add green beans. Again, we don’t do the typical casserole with the French Onion Rings & mushroom soup, although I do like that dish.
Our beans are done southern style, with smoked ham hocks or some other smoky meat, hot sauce and lots of finely chopped onions. Sometimes, small new potatoes are added to the green beans making this more like a casserole that can serve as a main dish.
The final part of our meal is the dessert and our favorite is Sweet Potato Pie. We’re not big fans of pumpin pies, but we are all over the Sweet Potato. That’s what I grew up with and I think the flavor is richer.
An added bonus is that sweet potatoes are really good for us, provide fiber and other rich nutrients. The smell of baking pies is the absolute best. I found a fitting picture & here it is…
When you add cinnamon and nutmeg to the pie and get that lightly toasted crust, nothing is better. Sometimes, we add pecan pies and southern style banana pudding or peach cobbler. But, I think I’ve done enough damage.
After all this writing about the perfect ThanksGiving Dinner, guess what? I don’t have to cook this year. My husband just telephoned and told me, our good friend, April invited us over for dinner. So, I have something else to be thankful about…and that is I’m thankful I don’t have to spend the day in the kitchen. OOPS – Almost forgot the gravy, but here it is:
Gotta love that girl. So enjoy your day, your dinner and your friends & family. Back to getting your best body – after Thanksgiving.
