Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. Not because of the traditional meal, obviously, but because I get to spend quality time with the people I love. Every year, my family and extended family has served Meals on Wheels for the Salvation Army. This was our 20th year. It is an awesome experience. We get there early and get everything ready, cut the pies, top them with whipped cream, and put them in individual containers. Then we have an hour or so to hang out with each other, play games, or this year I taught my niece how to do cartwheels.

Then the food is ready and the volunteers are let in. If you don't know how Meals on Wheels works, it is an awesome program run by the Salvation Army that brings meals to people who can't get out of their house on their own and don't have/can't afford help. However, on Thanksgiving, their normal route drivers don't work. So, volunteers come in, we serve them the food, and they take it to the people in need. Everyone is serving. Everyone is happy. It is great. We always get thanked for our service, but our service would be worthless without the hundreds of people who show up to drive all over the city to take people in need a beautiful Thanksgiving feast. It is a lot of fun and we are done by around noon, which means I still had time to make a delicious feast for myself.

There is a lot that goes into this meal, it isn't one of my "quick and easy meals" but it is significantly less time intensive and easier than a full Thanksgiving meal. All in all, I think I started cooking around 12:45 and I was done before 2:00. But I had a big mess to clean up. Thank you to my husband to helping with that and for my baby for napping and playing.

I split the ingredients up based on what portion of the meal you need them for. So there are a lot of repeats as far as spices and oil, etc. but I figured it was easier this way, just in case you only wanted to make a portion of the meal. Or you could go dish by dish. I also placed them in the order that I cooked based on cook times so things should be finishing together.

Ingredients

1 acorn squash, halved

olive oil

ground sage

rosemary

salt

pepper

1 small sweet potato, washed and sliced

3 small beets, peeled and diced

1/2 golden delicious apple, washed and sliced

1 T olive oil

1/4 c balsamic vinegar

2 tsp maple syrup

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

salt and pepper, to taste

1/4 tsp ground sage

8 Brussels Sprouts, washed and halved

2 tsp olive oil

1/4 c balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 c couscous

1 c water

1/4 c Craisins

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

2 tsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 tsp olive oil

Cranberry Sauce

2 avocados

1/3 pomegranate, seeded

salt, to taste

3 T Tahini

2 T pumpkin puree

2 tsp maple syrup

1 tsp lemon juice

dash of cinnamon

warm water, to thin

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Half and seed acorn squash.

2. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with sage, rosemary, salt, and pepper

3. Bake 35 minutes or until fork tender

1. Wash and cut potatoes, beets (peel), and apples and place in a Ziplock bag

2. Add oil, vinegar, syrup, mustard, and spices to bag and toss around/massage to coat.

3. Let marinate 5-10 minutes

4. Pour into an 8x8 baking dish and bake 35-40 minutes, until fork tender

1. Wash and slice Brussel's Sprouts and place in Ziploc bag (I just washed out the one from the other veggies)

2. Massage to marinate and let sit 5-10 minutes.

3. Roast 25 minutes, stir 15 minutes in to prevent burning/sticking. (They will turn a little black)

1. Combine couscous and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and simmer until water in absorbed.2. Remove from heat and let stand. Fluff with a fork and stir in Craisins

1. Drain and rinse garbanzo beans and place in ziploc bag (just washed it out again) with syrup, oil, and spices. Massage to coat.

2. Pour into a medium pan and cook over medium heat until crunchy. Stir often to prevent sticking/burning.

3. Set aside.

1. Make cranberry sauce, or pull premade sauce out of fridge

1. Peel, seed, and smash avocados in a small bowl. Seed 1/3 of a pomegranate into smashed avocado and stir together. Salt to taste.

1. Combine Tahini, pumpkin puree, syrup, lemon juice, cinnamon, and warm water and whisk to combine. (Start slow on water and keep adding until the sauce is pourable.)

Assemble your bowl

I put one half of the acorn squash in the bottom of my bowl and filled it with the couscous and chickpeas. Then I drizzled that with the pumpkin Tahini sauce. Next I filled in the sides with Brussel's sprouts, and the beet/sweet potato/apple mix. Next I topped it off with cranberry sauce and pomegranate guacamole.

ENJOY

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