For the past four years, we've celebrated Friendsgiving with a close group of six friends who opt not to travel on the busiest travel holiday of the year. No matter who decides to host dinner, the rest of us jump on the metro or decide to car pool a mere 15-20 minutes away to share thanks and celebrate with delicious food. It's true that Washington, D.C. is known for some of the best gourmet food in the country, which may be why our Friendsgiving menu seems to get more creative every year. It's become a sort of friendly competition to see who can put the most delicious modern twist on the traditional Thanksgiving feast. I've always insisted that you can create gourmet meals without spending tons on groceries, if you know where and how to shop. This year, I have to give credit to ALDI for coming through on amazingly affordable grocery prices that have allowed us to create deliciously fancy and super simple recipes for our party this year. Check out this year's recipes: Cranberry Cinnamon Goat Cheese Bites, Honey Baked Sweet Potatoes, and Turkey Curry!
Appetizer: Cranberry Cinnamon Goat Cheese Bites
Ingredients (around $5, makes 24 bites):
- Specially Selected Brand cranberry cinnamon goat cheese (found in the dairy section at ALDI)
- 1 box Bake House Creations pie crust (found in the refrigerated section at ALDI)
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- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Grease mini cupcake pan with butter or non-stick spray.
- Roll out pie crust as thin as possible. Cut 24 2in x 2in squares. (Each pie crust should make about 12-13 squares. You will need to use the scraps to re-roll dough.)
- Using a knife, cut 4 small triangles out of each corner of the dough.
- Fold sides up, overlapping each flap before placing in the cupcake pan. This will create a flower-like design for the pastry cups.
- Bake pastry cups for 9-12 minutes, until golden brown. Take care not to over-bake.
- Allow pastry cups to cool completely before removing from pan.
- Place pastries on an oven-safe serving tray and fill each pastry cup with goat cheese. Prior to serving, cover with foil and place in oven for 3-5 minutes, to warm the bites.
Honey Baked Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients (around $6, serves 8):
- 2 lbs Scott Farms sweet potatoes
- 3 tbsp Berryhill honey
- 2 1/2 tbsp Carlini olive oil
- 1 tsp Nature's Nectar lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
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- Pre-heat oven to 400 degree F.
- Wash, peel and cut potatoes into one inch cubes.
- Combine honey, olive oil, lemon juice and sweet potatoes. Mix and coat potatoes well.
- Place in baking dish and bake for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender.
- Serve and Enjoy!
Turkey Curry
Ingredients (around $18, serves 8):
- Kirkwood boneless turkey breast
- 4-5 cloves
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp curry powder
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp all-spice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 8-10 baby carrots, chopped
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 can chickpeas, drained
- 1 cup peas
- 2 cups Specially Selected basmati rice
- 1/2 cup plain Friendly Farms Greek yogurt
- Coat slow cooker bowl with butter or nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the turkey breast in the slow cooker. If turkey has netting around it, stick cloves in the netting. If it doesn't have netting, stick cloves directly in top of turkey breast.
- Pour chicken broth over top.
- In a small bowl, mix together ginger, curry powder, chili powder, all-spice, salt and pepper.
- Spread mix over turkey breast.Add cilantro, carrots and onions to slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on low for 5 1/2 hours.
- Add chickpeas and peas. Cook for an additional 30 minutes minutes.
- Begin boiling the basmati rice according to package directions.
- Remove turkey turkey breast from slow cooker. Slice into thin pieces.
- Gradually stir Greek yogurt into the slow cooker sauce and allow it to warm and thicken.
- Place rice on plate, add turkey breast and pour curry sauce over top.
- Serve and Enjoy!