One of our favorite things to do with recipe development at CCN is to take a traditional favorite and "CCNify" it! We aren’t fans of cutting food groups out. We certainly aren’t fans of removing our beloved favorites. So we take your favorites and your family traditions and we make them more accommodating to your needs. This isn’t to say you need to take every single recipe your Grandma ever made and change it. To be honest, there are some that just need to stay the way they are... and that’s ok with us! We do it too. We don’t strive for perfection, we strive to feel great, and sometimes feeling great comes with a side of nostalgia and that feels good too!

Do you believe me that it’s possible to eat what you want and still feel good? Have you been around here long enough to know I’m telling the truth? This isn’t the overhaul, eat all the turkey you want but only one side gimmick. This is trusting your body and loving it enough to provide valuable nourishment. We call CCN a way of life because it’s ingrained in all of our lifestyle habits. We don’t starve ourselves all day in order to “reserve calories” for Thanksgiving dinner. We do the opposite. We fuel ourselves all day and stick to eating every 4 or so hours to keep our blood sugar stable and thriving.

We also always incorporate our colors and those colors include plenty of fiber to help our bodies better identify fullness cues. It’s honestly very hard to overeat when you’re eating the right amount of fiber!

Today, my husband and I sat down together and planned our menu and now I’m super excited to spend the time with my family and teach them how to make some of our Thanksgiving favorites!

Here’s what we decided on - all of which can be found in our Healthy Holiday Cookbook.

For breakfast/brunch, we're planning chicken sausage sweet potato hash with some fresh fruit on the side.

For lunch, the girls will make a charcuterie board that includes all of our snack favorites: simple mills crackers, different kinds of cheese, fruits and veggies and hummus dips. Maybe we’ll throw on the recent crab dip from the Healthy Holidays challenge too! We will also be making Apple Cider Butternut Squash Bisque.

For our Thanksgiving feast, we will be making:

A Turkey

Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Haricot Verts with Crispy Shallots

Broccoli Casserole 

Oven Roasted Veggies with Butternut Squash and Sweet Potatoes 

Garlic Mashed Potatoes 

Corn

Pumpkin Cheesecake 

Chocolate Pie 

We’ll also be having banana cream pie for my husband's family and his Mom will make some of their family favorites as well! 

My kiddos always create some sort of game we play at the table to keep everyone there and connecting longer than just the meal. It usually has to do with gratitude and giving each other compliments. It often turns into funny stories and makes for some incredible memories.

I love any chance to connect to my family, but especially for the holidays! Part of me wishes we were traveling to Ohio this year to be with my extended family, but I also cherish the time with just the six of us. We will be hosting whoever makes it to our home, which for sure includes my in-laws, but you never know who might show up! Some of his siblings, some of my siblings, neighbors, friends, whoever it may be! 

And as my Thanksgiving gift to you, use code FIVEOFF to get $5 off our Healthy Holiday Cookbook. 

I hope some of our CCN recipes make it on to your table this year. 

Have a blessed Thanksgiving my friends!