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Thanksgiving In A Pot


There are several meals this table eats that could be eaten all year round but are not for one reason or another.  Thanksgiving is one of those meals.  Mostly because of the turkey because as you should know by now, this table (mostly me) loves, loves, loves turkey:  BBQ Turkey, leftover white meat turkey cold right out of the fridge, Turkey and Cranberry Panini, sliced turkey dripping in warm gravy, Turkey Salad Sandwiches, and turkey picked right off the bone.

Ever searching for dinners to incorporate more healthy foods like greens, squashes, beans, and peas a recipe for Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet was discovered.  Bright and colorful, lean meat, lots of veggies, one pot meal with cranberries.  Albeit dried, not fresh, but cranberries nonetheless. What was not to love? 

Modifications Made: 
Kale was swapped for fresh chard from the garden.  Reduced sugar cranberries replaced original dried cranberries.  Reduced sugar are just as tasty as the original with half the sugar.  Really, one can always reduce their sugar intake and these are a perfect way to add a tangy sweet with added sugar.

Scaled for Likability: Great
An immediate T&T recipe winner tonight.  The next time this dish is made, chard stems would be added while the turkey is browning to offer a more fibrous layer to the meals healthy complex.  Kale or mustard greens would have been equally as good instead of chard but spinach would not hold up to the texture level of the ingredients.  Fresh cranberries might have added a nice brightness to the meal but they may have been too delicate to handle the ground meat and sweet potato chunks.  Sweet potato could have been swapped for butternut squash for a softer starch.  Purple sweet potatoes mixed with butternut squash would have been great, too.   This one pot meal was served over buttered white rice but would have been even better with wild rice or quinoa.

So good, so healthy, even with the cranberries, so versatile.  All the yummy flavors of Thanksgiving served up in one pot year round.  A true winner has been born.

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