Instead of serving your family turkey for the fourth or fifth night in a row, you can incorporate some of the white meat into treats for your dog. It’s easy, healthy and will use up some of the excess! Make sure you use just the white meat with no skin.

The-Day-After Turkey Omelet
from thepoop.com

1 egg
1-2 tbsp. mashed potatoes
1/2 cup diced cooked turkey meat
1/2 cup cooked vegetables, chopped
1/4 cup desired cheese, grated

~ Heat a medium-sized pan with a small amount of olive oil.

~ Whisk together the egg and potatoes. Spread in pan.

~ Place turkey and veggies on top in even layers. Cover; simmer until egg cooks and the mixture is warm.

~ Sprinkle cheese on top, then cook a few more minutes until cheese is melted and egg is golden brown. Let cool.

~ Cut into wedges. Store in refrigerator.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

Leftover Turkey Treats for Your Dog

We’d adjusted to the idea that our granddaughter, who attends college 500 miles away, wouldn’t be home for Thanksgiving.  Imagine our surprise with her arrival Tuesday evening.  She’d been able to arrange a ride with a classmate and his parents to their home about 75 miles from us.  Her dad secretly met her and helped with the surprise.

Thanksgiving image: sxc.hu

I remember my parents arranging a surprise trip for us to visit my aunt and uncle in another state for Thanksgiving when I was a youngster.  They didn’t tell us children until they knew the weather would be good and Father could get away from the farm tasks for the weekend.  That has remained in my memory for years, especially when I come across pictures taken at my aunt and uncle’s home.

Savor the Thanksgiving memories and blessings, whether they’re surprises or not.  Compile journals and scrapbooks for future generations so they can glimpse your family’s holiday experiences.

How are you saving your Thanksgiving memories and blessings?

Post from: Blisstree

Thanksgiving Surprises Create Memories

Giving thanks for gardeners – and don’t forget your own garden!

In oddball gardening news, most crime highlighted in the news is about money, drugs, violence and so on. Well, recently a theft of peat moss, half a bag of fertilizer and assorted gardening tools made the news – it’s a little amusing and a relaxed version of crime. Disclaimer: Not that I condone crime of any kind, but geez, at least stealing gardening stuff is a new twist, and at the very least a useful, less violent crime.

Using up all the leftover Thanksgiving veggies – some of which you hopefully grew.

Thanksgiving quotes for fun.

Plan ahead for next year by Growing 10 Plants for a Thanksgiving Cornucopia and plan on growing your own Thanksgiving veggies next year (pdf).

Lots and lots of ways to use up Thanksgiving leftovers.

Get some visual stimulation after all that food with some gorgeous fall garden shots…

• One Foggy Fall Morning at Portland Japanese Garden
• The Garden in Autumn – a beautiful set!
• Autumn Garden Acer Glory
• Japanese Maple in the Fall

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Organic Thanksgiving leftover ideas… (note, remember you can switch out conventional ingredients for organic on any recipe you like)

• Turkey and Roasted Vegetable Quiche
• Garlicky Mashed Potato Pie & Hotcakes
• Sweet potato pancakes
• Organic turkey noodle soup
• Sweet potato cornbread
• Turkey pasta toss
• Turkey with Sweet Potato Dumplings
• Pumpkin pie muffins – for excess non-sweetened pie filling
• Organic turkey pot pie
• Leftover Pumpkin Pie Brulee
• Morning-After Cranberry Sauce Muffins
• 7 great ways to use leftover corn
• Turkey chili
• Stuffing Frittata

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Happy Thanksgiving & Organic Leftovers

Don’t forget to check out the Thanksgiving pet safety tips from both last year and this year, especially on feeding dogs bones.

There’s also the National Dog Show today after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC, and check out the after Thanksgiving pet sales at online pet stores like Petsmart and Petco.

Have a safe and happy holiday!

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

A Happy Thanksgiving for Your Pets

IMG: Sxc.hu

I have one craft, which is my Turkey handprints that grow. I do this every year with the kids and then we look at them the following year and see how much they have grown. It really is a neat thing to see.

Turkey Handprint:
Construction paper
hand
pencil
scissors (if too young mom/dad should do the cutting)

Take your child and trace their hand on the paper. Cut out the hand and decorate it in order to make a turkey. We like adding googley eyes for the turkey and drawing (coloring) in the red flappy thing.

Here are some other arts and crafts:

A free Thanksgiving e-book that has over 30 arts and crafts to do for Thanksgiving, this should definitely keep the kids busy for at least a half hour.

Over at No Time for Flashcards (title cracks me up) there is a page full of craft ideas, I really love the Native American headdres and corn.

Davinie actually found a recipe for Pumpkin pie playdough mix, she also has a list of other Thanksgiving crafts your kids will enjoy.

Lyons Happening has her two boys showing us the Thanksgiving crafts they made, one of which is a story box about the indians and pilgrims. My kids will love drawing on a box with their version of what happened, I can’t wait to try this out. They also show off their Thanksgiving Turkeys.

Katelyn over at GadaMedia wrote an article on making a Leaf headband for Thanksgiving. I think the kids would have a ton of fun with this. Course knowing mine they’d want to go outside and get real leaves.

Post from: Blisstree

Thanksgiving Craft Round-up For Kids

These easy-to-make dog biscuits are made with canned pumpkin (make sure you’re not using the canned pumpkin pie mix!) and peanut butter for a tasty and healthy snack. They also smell pretty good while they’re baking!

Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Dog Treats
from allrecipes.com

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

~ Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

~ Whisk together the flour, eggs, pumpkin, peanut butter, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.

~ Add water as needed to help make the dough workable, but the dough should be dry and stiff.

~ Roll the dough into a 1/2-inch-thick roll. Cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

~ Bake in preheated oven until hard, about 40 minutes.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Dog Treats

One friend mentioned she is compiling a journal of holidays. 

Image: sxc.hu

Some are memories of former days and some are a record of current celebrations.

Post from: Blisstree

Saving Thanksgiving Memories with Children

Image: sxc.hu

Yes, the first Thanksgiving, from which this  holiday of thankfulness originated, took place in Plymouth, MA.

However, it wasn’t celebrated nationally until Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of “Godey’s Lady’s Book,” decided that Thanksgiving should become a national holiday. She initiated a campaign to have a day in late fall set aside for us to give thanks for our harvests and many blessings.

From 1846 to 1863, she wrote letters to presidents, governors, and any influential people she could think of. Many editorials appeared in her magazine, urging the recognition of this celebration as a holiday.

Finally President Abraham Lincoln listened to Mrs. Hale. He decided that a day of thanksgiving in autumn also might help create harmony in the nation midst the Civil War.

In 1863, he declared Thanksgiving Day would be the last Thursday in November.  In 1941, Congress passed a resolution which changed Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday of that month. Since then, the fourth Thursday, which sometimes is the last one, has officially been Thanksgiving.

Post from: Blisstree

Thanksgiving Becomes a National Holiday

Beautiful Sweets Fall Colors cookies (shown above) – all natural and organic with a fun splash of fall colors, including assorted leaves, pumpkins, acorns and other fall-themed cookies. The company also uses gorgeous, eco-friendly recyclable gift packaging.

Autumn Rose Bouquet – VeriFlora Certified orange Milva roses, fall colored spray roses and hypericum berries or Italian ruscus.

Maple Leaves & Gingerbread Acorns – all natural, Kosher, leaf-shaped maple butter cookies and acorn-shaped gingerbread cookies,  plus the Dancing Deer company uses eco-packaging when possible.

Fall Asiatic Lilies – VeriFlora Certified Asiatic Lilies in a fall-themed bouquet contains a mix of two to three colors selected from red, orange, and/or yellow.

Chocolate Covered Pears – Rogue Valley pears, dried moist and then covered in organic dark chocolate with a white chocolate spiral.

Organic Culinary Herb Wreath – Crafted from organic marjoram, dill, thyme, sage, lavender, anise, cinnamon sticks, and yarrow, and accented with chili peppers. An excellent Thanksgiving gift idea or decor idea instead of flowers because you can actually season your meal with it!

Post from: Blisstree

Eco-friendly Thanksgiving Flowers & Treats