This Thanksgiving, Dole and I are encouraging families and individuals to include greens in their meals! We know that Thanksgiving can be a hard holiday to eat healthy for, but with a few little swaps and the addition of fresh Dole greens, it can be done!
I was completely stumped while trying to think of a healthy Thanksgiving recipe until I saw my friends Taryn and Julia the other day. I asked them, what is a dish that gets left out during Thanksgiving? Something uncommon. That’s when it hit us as we were all talking – there’s plenty of delicious side dishes for Thanksgiving, but there also tons of leftovers, and not much to do with them – except for eat the same meal over and over again for an entire week. I’ve surprisingly never made a sandwich out of leftover Thanksgiving food, but I am alllllll over it this year!
Since most Thanksgiving leftovers are pretty rich, I added some fresh Dole Spinach and my new favorite type of “bun” to my Thanksgiving sammy! I just recently discovered sweet potato buns, and I seriously wish I knew about them sooner. When baked with olive oil, they taste amazing as a bread or bun replacement, plus they’re loaded with beta-Carotene which is excellent for vision.
Sweet Potato Buns
The biggest (widest) sweet potatoes you can find.
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice sweet potato into 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch thick slices. Coat both sides with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the sweet potato rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 20-30 minutes. Flip the sweet potatoes halfway through baking.
Leftovers Sandwich Ingredient Ideas
Dole fresh spinach or sautéed spinach
Tofu Turkey (or regular turkey)
Cranberry sauce
Creamed corn
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Gravy
Green beans
Stuffing
I hope you have a happy & healthy Thanksgiving with your family and friends!
For more healthy thanksgiving recipes, check out Dole’s Butternut Squash with Eggplant-Pomegranate Sauce, Caramelized Pear, Roasted Tomato and Lentil Salad, Vegetable & Kale Au Gratin, and Roast Turkey Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette.
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P.S. If you have ever been to a barre class (especially Pure Barre) 
I know it’s not even thanksgiving yet and say “for every set of Christmas lights lit before Thanksgiving, an elf dies,” but I couldn’t resist making these adorable lights! For the sake of the elves, they won’t be lit until after Thanksgiving. #savetheelves
Start saving/collecting tall holiday red cups and lids from Starbucks.
I meant to buy a strand of 50 regular christmas lights but ended up with a strand of 50 icicle lights, which actually worked out better than I though! I opted for white because they match the lids of the Starbucks cups.
Flip your cups upside-down and carefully make a slit with a sharp knife.
Spin the cup around and carefully make a second slit creating an “X” shape.
Push the Christmas lights through the bottom of the cup.
Pull the remaining lights on the icicle strange through the cup.
Once the lights have been pulled through and into the cup, close it with the lid.
The back end should look like this, with the lights hidden inside. Repeat all of the above steps with each cup.
And then voilà, you will have a strand of Starbucks red cup Christmas lights!
*I have only left my red cup lights on for about 10 minutes, so please use caution and keep your eyes on your lights to make sure they are safe and don’t overheat!