It's time for Leftover Thanksgiving Pizza

It is almost time for one of my favorite Thanksgiving family traditions. It's time to make my Leftover Thanksgiving Pizza.  We look forward to this pizza every year, a day or two after our Thanksgiving meal.  This year we are actually having two Thanksgiving meals, so we will have some leftovers to use. We will have a small family traditional Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving, and then a big family pot luck meal over the weekend where most likely there will not be a lot of leftovers. 

We love this pizza so much, I make three pizzas for only five people. I am getting hungry just thinking about it.  I wrote out the full recipe in a post from last year, so instead of redoing the entire post, I am going share a link to the full recipe here.

Here is a tip in case you plan on making some.  While buying your groceries for your Thanksgiving meal, pick up a few extra crescent rolls, boxes of stuffing, and cheese ahead of time, just in case you do not have enough leftover from the Thanksgiving meal. 

Enjoy! 

 

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Easter Make Ahead French Toast

Here we are just a few days before Easter.  While I love that it is already Spring, I'm not sure how I feel about having Easter in March this year. I feel I have so much more time to get ready, when there is more than two weeks between St. Patrick's Day and Easter.  

This week I am going to share two of my favorite Easter recipes that are both easy to make, and some of my families favorites.  The first recipe is Make Ahead French Toast.  It is such a great holiday recipe, because you put everything together the night before, and then pop it in the oven Easter morning while you are celebrating with family.  

You will need 

a loaf of your favorite bread (we love cinnamon raisin) 

4 to 6 eggs

1/2 cup milk 

vanilla 

cinnamon sugar (if desired) 

cream cheese (your preferred flavor) 

If you are making this for more than 6 people, double the recipe. 

You will need two slices of your chosen bread per person.  I have made this recipe is so many different ways over the years.  I will be sharing pictures from some of the different variations. 

On this particular day we did not have cinnamon raisin bread on hand, so I used Aunt Millie's Country Buttermilk bread.  My cream cheese of choice that day was strawberry, and added it to each of the bottom pieces of bread. 

On the top pieces of bread I added some cinnamon sugar.  

This picture was from a different day, but at the same step.  I wanted to fit more bread into my pan, so instead of using full pieces of bread, I squeezed in 12 half pieces.  Mix the eggs and the milk together in a bowl, and then pour it over the bread.  Cover the casserole dish with foil, and put it in the fridge overnight. 

In the morning, let the pan sit out for a few minutes so the casserole dish is not too cold when you put it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Once in the oven, bake for 30 minutes. I removed the foil the last 5 to 10 minutes.  I would put this in the oven before my kids looked for their Easter eggs, and when they were done  breakfast would be ready. 

I made this variation just a few years ago. I added cinnamon sugar and used regular cream cheese.

I think this year might have been my favorite version. I used cinnamon raisin toast, regular cream cheese, and then covered the toast with strawberries and syrup. 

I believe we had guests this particular year, which is why it looks a bit fancier.  I used thick bread, strawberry cream cheese, sliced strawberries, and Redi-whip.  

No matter how you decide to put together your make ahead french toast, it is always a great dish to serve for Easter morning.  

 

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How to make Strawberry Bread

 One of my favorite things about summer is that so many berries  are plentiful and in season.  While I am posting this delicious bread recipe just after the peak of strawberry  season, I know they are still easily found and still on sale in many grocery stores.  

This bread recipe is one of my son's favorites.  Back when he was in middle school and early years of high school he had a cooking series on my blog. His Cooking with Kyle recipes were quite the fan favorites back in the day, and are still available in the link at the top of my blog, and in search. 

There is an affiliate link in this post 

There is a little back story on the reason why there are two different bread pictures in this post. We made the big loaf first. He was so impatient to try the bread that he talked me into cutting it before it had cooled, and it fell apart before I could get more pictures. He ate almost the entire loaf by himself. He "offered" to make more for his Cooking with Kyle series.  The second time we made the bread, we mixed things up a little bit by making mini loafs, and also adding a banana. 

I love this picture of him. He was so serious when he was cooking.  

Kyle mixed the dry ingredients first 

They are:

3/4 c flour 

2/3 c sugar 

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda 

1/4 tsp salt 

He then mixed the wet ingredients 

They are:

1 1/2 to 2 c strawberries 

1/2 c softened butter 

2 eggs

2 Tbsp milk 

1 banana (if desired) 

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with either a mixer or by hand.  

He used this mini loaf pan which makes four personal size loaves. 

If you are baking a full size loaf, bake it at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes.  If you are baking mini loaves, it takes about 30 minutes at the same temp.  

If you would like to add powered sugar glaze on top, it is really easy to make.  Just add a few tablespoons of milk to powered sugar and mix until you get the consistency that you like. 

You may notice there isn't any glaze on the bread in this picture. There is a good reason for that.  Kyle was being very impatient again, and didn't want to wait to for me to make the glaze.  I was barely able to get the pictures that I did, before he made the bread disappear. :) 

 

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Our experience with Every Plate

I have been thinking about trying a meal kit for quite awhile. It never seemed like the right time. When my kids were younger, I thought they were too expensive, and might not have food my children would like to eat.   Recently I had a conversation with a couple of my teacher friends, one was the teacher who I subbed for during her maternity leave.  She was telling us that she had received a meal kit after the baby was born.  She really liked the convenience, but was not sure if it was the right one for her and her family. The other teacher mentioned a couple of plans she thought might be a better fit.  One of those she  mentioned was Every Plate, and said it was one with a very affordable price.  When I got home that day, I looked into it.  She was right, it was cheaper to get a meal kit for three meals than it was to go out to eat once.  I asked my daughter if she would like to give it a try, and she said yes!  We ordered our first box,  which was scheduled to arrive a week later. 

 

On the day it was supposed to arrive, I received an email from the company.  It said they had received word that there was a slight delay during shipping, but they were working hard to get it to my door as soon as possible.  They assured me it was packaged in such a way it should be okay for an additional couple of days.  They also told me if there were any problems at all, to call customer service and they would help solve any issues.  There was nothing to worry about though. The next morning I received notification that it had been delivered.  I contacted my daughter who promptly brought it in, and put everything in the refrigerator while I was at school.  Inside the box was a thermal bag, then inside the bag were 3 large ice packs. One on the top and bottom of the food and one between the produce and the meat. 

Under the first ice pack was a box of produce, and other miscellaneous ingredients for our chosen meals. We also had an extra drink in the box, with a card that said here is a free gift to try. 

  

Under the box of produce, was the meat for our chosen recipes sandwiched between two more ice packs. They were packaged in tightly sealed packs, and the right amount for our 2 serving meals.  

The meals were chose were Chicken Sausage Penne with Pink Sauce, Loaded Baked Potato Chowder, and Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops with Zucchini and Potatoes.  We both wanted our first meal to be the pork chops. (you can chose chicken as an option instead of pork for a small upcharge) 

I am already seeing an unexpected positive thing happening with receiving this meal kit.  I am spending more quality time with my daughter.  We decided we should work together to make these meals. She has been preparing and cutting the produce, while I have been cooking it at the stove.  Not only does working together cut down on time to to make each meal, we are both invested in the outcome.  WOW! We do not normally eat a lot of pork chops, but we both agreed this meal was DELICIOUS!  We ate every single bite. 

Our second meal was Chicken Sausage Penne with Pink Sauce. We also liked this meal. There are a few minor tweeks we would make though, if we were to try it again. It had a bit too much sausage for our tastes, and not quite enough cheese. We have even talked about trying a meatless version on our own with the recipe card. 

Our last meal was the Loaded Baked Potato Chowder with Bacon and Cheese.  They did send a jalapeno to add, but we chose not too since neither one of us like jalapeno. While making this chowder, I was a bit concerned because it called for an entire onion.  The onion they sent us was pretty big, and I can not eat a lot of onion.  Instead of putting in the full onion, my daughter put in 3/4 of it instead.  I rarely make soup from scratch, but this one was easy and ready in less than an hour.  This recipe was another WOW!. We both agreed this recipe was a keeper, and we will be making it again. It was flavorful, and cheesy just the way we like it.

Out of the three meals we tried, we loved two, and liked one. Pretty good stats. That is definitely a reason why we are going to try another box.  

This is not a sponsored post.  I am sharing about Every Plate because we had such a good experience, and I think others will like it too.  If you would like to try Every Plate you can choose plans with 2 servings or 4. You can also choose how many meals you would like to receive for the week, 3, 4, or 5.  My daughter and I are doing the smallest plan 2 servings, 3 days a week because that works best for us.  

Do you think you would like to give it a try?  Here is a link to a $20 off credit for your first box.

I would love to hear about it if you decide to try it! 

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