4 Simple Ways to Improve Your Thanksgiving Meal This Year

Thanksgiving is one of the most treasured holidays in Canada and it only comes once a year.

As such, it’s important to take time to prepare the most delicious Thanksgiving meal in order to have a truly memorable time with friends and family. If you’re looking for ways to improve your typical Thanksgiving meals or you’re simply looking for more ways to make your meals exciting, you’ve come to the right place!

There are several ways to improve your Thanksgiving meals, but here are 4 simple ways to take your meal to the next level.

Use Locally Grown Ingredients

Meal prep for Thanksgiving is the perfect time to shop for local ingredients. It’s as simple as going to your local farmers’ market and picking up a locally-raised Turkey, in addition to locally grown fruits, potatoes and pumpkins. There’s no need to fill your table with industrially raised Turkeys or chemically filled foods in the name of convenience. For this year’s Thanksgiving, give local a try because the ingredients will make your meals healthier and tastier.

Another added bonus of buying local is that you get a better sense of where your food is coming from and the support you provide also keeps the local economy flourishing.

Get Creative

At Thanksgiving, the Turkey and stuffing are always the main attractions but you can still be inventive with your dishes. You don’t have to be a chef or culinary expert to make your Thanksgiving dishes dazzle, try using a creative approach to prep and serve your meals. Don’t reinvent the wheel, with a few tricks and new flavors, you can certainly mix things up for the big feast.

First, try switching up the usual potato dish. Do you simply do a one style potato mash? Or do you bake or roast them and scoop them out of the oven? Try something different this time, how does a Mashed Potato Medley mix sound? You can do this with a mix of peeled Irish, Red, Yukon Gold and Sweet Potatoes. A medley brings a lovely variety and a combination of flavors that will surely spruce up your usual potato dish.

Next up, you can try Bacon wrapped roasted Asparagus as well as Honey Glazed Carrots for appetizers and sides. What’s a traditional holiday meal without tasty desserts? For dessert, you don’t have to completely ditch the pies and ice-cream, but try to include healthy, low-calorie fruit salad mixes that everyone will enjoy. Keep reading to get more tips on healthy desserts options for Thanksgiving!

Get Outdoors

Fall season is finally here in Canada. Although it’s usually much cooler outside at this time of year than it is during the summer months, it doesn’t mean that you can’t take the feast outside. If you’re hosting a lot of family and friends (with kids) it’s a good possibility to consider an outdoors Thanksgiving in your backyard or patio, but make sure to check your weather forecast and plan accordingly.

If you’re going with this option, remember to keep it simple. Set up a few long tables with a variety of dishes and you’re good to go. Your guests will enjoy the nature’s calming breeze as they dig in to their meals.

Finish with a bang

Top the feast off with a bang! After all, Thanksgiving only happens once a year!

Dessert is the perfect finish to every Thanksgiving feast. One of the most simple to serve and refreshing desserts is fruits. There’s nothing better than fresh fruits to follow up a big hearty meal. This is your chance to end the night with a healthy and sweet option to curb those high sugar cravings.

Earlier, in this post we briefly mentioned that you can treat yourself or your guests to healthy, low-calorie desserts like fruit salads. Well, that’s one option that’s sure to be a winner among your guests. Other healthy dessert options include fruit drinks like a raspberry peach fruit smoothie that can be prepared with a blend of fresh cut peaches, frozen raspberries, unsweetened milk, chia seeds and ice. The result is a smooth tasty blend of fruity goodness to enjoy. Alternatively, you can also prepare a sizable serving of creamy mango coconut smoothies super quickly with mango chunks, coconut milk, honey, yogurt and ice cubes all blended together. Just because it’s a Holiday doesn’t mean you can’t eat healthy and still enjoy tasty desserts. One other reason for serving a healthy dessert is that it’ll leave guests feeling good and light after the main meal.

To summarize, Thanksgiving is an important traditional Holiday because it’s not just a time to be thankful for the things we have, but also a time when family and friends come together to share good food and memorable moments. This makes serving a good meal and creating a fantastic atmosphere all the more critical to having a better celebration than the previous year. Each of the tips provided in this post merely serve as guides to help make your Thanksgiving celebration a memorable experience.

Here’s how we’re helping our customers … we’ve extended our farm store hours to serve you better this Thanksgiving season. In addition, you can order your Thanksgiving Turkey online, but remember they’re only available to be picked up at our farm store.