Our Thanksgiving will be lean compared to our usual tradition. [View all]

We don't want to leave our dogs this year or put them through the stress of travel, so we are staying home. The only daughter who lives in Texas is having a tonsillectomy just before the holiday and won't be traveling either. So we decided to keep it simple. I couldn't find turkey thighs this year and I refused to buy an entire bird just for myself--hubby is a vegan. So when I saw chicken leg quarters on sale, I bought a package, cooked them in the Instant Pot and shared the edible refuse with the dogs. I saved the fat to make gravy and used the broth for dressing (and gravy).

Though I didn't plan on the usual feast, I still ended up with 2 big pans of chicken and dressing. I put them in the freezer and I'll use one for Thanksgiving, one for Christmas, wherever that holiday finds us. I don't know why I didn't think of doing this ages ago. I like chicken better than turkey anyway and it's more readily available.

I have a vegan field roast for hubs that comes with its own dressing and gravy and I plan to roast a few sweet potatoes and serve them with butter and candied pecans. I have a pumpkin pie in the freezer. Along with a simple green salad, I thought that would be it for the dinner, but one of of my hubby's sisters took pity on us having to spend a quiet holiday at home alone ( ) and decided she and her husband would join us. So now we are adding a Mediterranean spread to the traditional foods. Ok. I was ok with what we had, but it was nice of her to take pity on us?