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3 Fancy Yet Affordable Thanksgiving Recipes

  November 8, 2018  |    #Live Fabulously

Our favorite Thanksgiving recipes

Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday, by far! We do it friends-style – not the sitcom – with our own real, live friends. Over the years, we’ve gotten the science of cooking a fabulous Thanksgiving Day meal down. With those years of experience, here are our favorite Thanksgiving recipes.

Our favorite holiday and our best Thanksgiving recipes

Every Thanksgiving morning, with one set of friends, we run the Denver Turkey Trot 5K as a cautionary prep before we stuff our yaps with tryptophan. Afterward, we hit a local bar to start our Thanksgiving libating. Yes, it’s only 10 am, but who’s judging. After preliminary drinks, we either host or attend Thanksgiving dinner with our other friend’s, one of whom is a professional chef. So, the bar is set high, but it’s a laid-back, easy day. We traditionally have the best food and laughs of the year. Oh, and we wear sweatpants. Sweatpants are of critical importance.

David loves traditional Thanksgiving dinner so much, he’s already dreaming about it and wants to share his food fantasies with you. We love saving money so much, we suggest downloading the Ibotta app to get discounts on many of the ingredients below. So, in honor of our favorite holiday, here are three of our favorite Thanksgiving recipes. One of David’s recipes below is world-famous, and we’ve shared it with friends and family to make year-round.

Thanksgiving Brussels Sprouts

 Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs Brussels sprouts
  • ½ C Shallots, finely chopped
  • 2 T “Better Than Bullion” (beef flavor-low sodium)
  • ¼ C Extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 C Warm water 

Instructions:

Mix the bullion with the warm water and set aside. Rinse and clean the Brussels sprouts. Don’t cut or pierce the base, like your mother told you.

In a large covered skillet, bring the olive oil to a high temperature and add the sprouts. Let the sprouts fry on each side until dark brown, till they’re nearly burnt and you’re nearly turnt, stirring regularly.

Once the sprouts are thoroughly dark on all sides, reduce the heat to low, add shallots and mix for approximately 2 minutes until shallots are lightly brown. Then, add the bullion and water mixture and stir.

Cover the skillet and let simmer on low for approximately 35 minutes (the length of time it takes to drink a glass of wine, maybe two . . . three) or until the sprouts are extremely tender and as easily pierced with a fork as your high school BFF stabbed you in the back. Check every 5 minutes to ensure the water does not completely boil down. Add water as needed.

Thanksgiving Red Wine Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 2 – 1 lb Bags cranberries
  • 1 ½ C Sugar
  • 1 Orange
  • ½ T Ground cinnamon
  • ½ t Ground nutmeg
  • ¼ t Ground cloves
  • 3 C Water
  • 1 C Cheap red wine (Trader Joe’s $6 Albero Tempranillo works well)

Instructions:

Sit down and drink a glass of wine and then pour another glass to drink as you cook. Rinse and strain the cranberries. Take a sip of wine. Rinse then grate the rind of the orange and set remnants aside. Sip your wine. Cut the orange in half and juice. Sip wine.

If you drank all your wine, now’s a good time to send your partner to get another bottle. Who are we kidding? Have them get a box of cardbordeaux or one of these affordable wines that are more affordable with Ibotta.

In a medium-size saucepan, combine the water, sugar, wine, orange rind and spices. Simmer on medium, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the cranberries, OJ and cover. As the liquid simmers the cranberries will start to burst. Stir frequently to prevent the sauce from boiling. Once the bursting slows, like microwave popcorn, completely smash and mix the cranberries into the sauce with a potato masher.

Do not taste or you’ll kill your taste buds. Allow the sauce to cool before serving, while you drink another glass of wine or two. I prefer to make this early in the day or even the day before serving to let the spices and flavors settle.

Thanksgiving Golden Beet with Arugula Salad

Ingredients:

Salad:

  • 2 Large gold beets boiled and diced
  • 8 Ounces of arugula
  • 1/4 C Sweet onion, chopped
  • 1/2 C Walnuts, toasted and hand crushed
  • 1/4 C Dried cranberries
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Dressing:

  • 1/4 C Olive oil
  • 1/2 C Lemon juice
  • 1 T Crushed garlic
  • 2 T Dijon mustard
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

  • Add all salad ingredients to a salad bowl and mix
  • In a separate bowl mix all the dressing ingredients and whisk
  • Add dressing to salad to taste just before serving

The best part is all these Thanksgiving recipes can be made in advance, except don’t mix the salad and salad dressing until just before serving. Some of the dishes are actually better made in advance. This is what we’ll start cooking throughout the week next week, as I massage my bird in its brine every night. Writing this almost makes me want to run to Boston Market, but I’m fancier than that, so I’ll just drink my wine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Note: This article contains affiliate links. This means we’ll receive a small commission at no cost to you if you buy items through these links. We only recommend products that we use or have thoroughly vetted and would recommend to our moms.

2 responses to “3 Fancy Yet Affordable Thanksgiving Recipes

    1. No we are not, but we do love to spice things up a bit and limit our meat protein intake. We eat mostly veggies and lean meats. Are you? Any vegan suggestions for our readers?

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