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Thanksgiving in August

It’s 3 months until Thanksgiving, and I already crave it. So I decided to do a small August Thanksgiving for the two of us. To minimize cooking time we kept the sides simple: Garlic-Almond Green Beans and Cheddar Mashed Cauliflower. Plus, we used the crockpot to cook the turkey breast. Crockpots are immensely useful, but I recently discovered that they also produce super-tender and delicious poultry. You can put a bone-in turkey breast or an entire chicken into a crockpot, with no liquid, and have incredibly juicy and succulent meat in 8 hours. Not only that, but you can even use a completely frozen turkey breast and it will still be done in 8 hours. You can use the leftover turkey for everything from enchiladas to soups, salads and chili. The turkey takes about 5 minutes of prep time, and the other dishes only took about 30 minutes of cooking. So go ahead and enjoy Thanksgiving in August!

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Place the frozen turkey breast in a slow cooker (crockpot). Cover with salt, herbs de Provence and any other seasonings you desire. Turn on low for 8 hours. If you like browned skin, place the cooked turkey in an oven set to broil and watch closely until the skin is crispy.

2. Steam or microwave the cauliflower according to the instructions on the package. Add the cauliflower to a pot over low-medium heat and mash with a potato/bean masher until coarsely mashed. Add salt, pepper and milk to the pot and use an immersion blender (or dump into a food processor) to puree the mixture, adding more milk as necessary to reach desired consistency. Once it has been pureed, stir in the cheese.

3. Add 1 Tbsp olive to a pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the garlic and almonds. Stir often and cook until the almonds and garlic are browned, but not burned. Add the green beans and stir to coat. Then add the chicken broth and stir, then turn the heat to low. Simmer until the liquid is mostly gone but the green beans are still a little crispy.

4. Saute the mushrooms in a saucepan over medium-high heat until fully cooked. Don’t drain the mushroom juice. Add the 2 cans of turkey gravy along with kosher salt, pepper and herbs de Provence, to taste. Bring to a boil and serve.