There's no better time than the present to try a more health conscious and locally sourced approach to putting together your Thanksgiving feast!
We recently teamed up with some of our friends from SalterieOne, The Hale Life and The Garden Of Easton to prepare an easy-to-imitate Friendsgiving Feast made with 100% dairy, gluten and refined sugar free ingredients from some of our favorite local vendors, and have put together this how-to guide to help you create your own healthy holiday table this Thanksgiving!
Keep reading for step by step instructions on how to create your own #moodfoodapproved Thanksgiving!
You don't have to be Martha Stewart to create a beautiful table!
Mood Food's founder, Melissa Peralta, used simple items that she had on hand (and a little help from her friends at The Borrowed Board, Pond Street Flowers and The Garden Of Easton) to create her bright and inviting Friendsgiving table!
The Borrowed Board is a hand crafted rustic rental company based out of Scituate, MA that provides unique slab-top farm tables that easily fit into indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as authentic antique seating to easily create a nostalgic, dreamy vibe without a lot of additional decor - and is one of Mood Food Wellness Co.'s sister companies!
Melissa created her cozy tablescape by using a pretty plaid blanket scarf in lieu of a traditional table runner, combining lots of mix-matched bright white dishes, and adding in a mix of glass and metallic pieces to create eye catching glimmers throughout the tablescape.
She also used lots of organic elements like beautiful baby pumpkins, fallen leaves and fresh flower blooms from Pond Street Flowers to add warmth, texture and delicate pops of complimentary colors into the mix.
Cheers to better choices!
Everyone knows that alcohol isn't the best thing for you, but for many it goes hand-in-hand with the holidays, and no one wants to feel left out!
Part of what makes alcohol so appealing around the holidays is that A) it seems like everyone else is doing it because it's "tradition", and B) it temporarily reduces feeling of stress and anxiety, which seem to increase exponentially as we approach the new year!
So, rather than just serving up a traditional rosé from the "Mood Food Approved" (all natural, organic, vegan, no added sugar) wine collection at Barrel & Vine in Cohasset, Melissa also selected a bottle of her favorite non-alcoholic adaptogenic crystal elixir from Rock Grace to share with her guests so no one would feel like they were missing out if they didn't go for a pour of the traditional rose.
In addition to being delicious, Rock Grace's crystal elixirs are made with all natural ingredients and zero added sugar, as well as adaptogenic herbs that have been shown to help reduce and regulate the body's response to stress, making it an ideal alternative to traditional non-alcoholic wines which are more often than not a nutritionally empty choice.
Melissa also mixed up a signature mocktail made with pure pressed apple cider, orange and clove essential oils, and sparkling mineral water to create a lower-sugar version of everyone's favorite fall beverage, spiced apple cider!
While fresh is always best, essential oils are a great way add bold flavors to your recipes while maintaining the ingredient's natural health benefits, and are much easier to store than many fresh ingredients!
We love using Young Living's Vitality oils from our friends at The Wellness Hive when we use essential oils in our recipes!
Good friends bring food, but the best friends bring recipes!
We asked each of our fabulous foodie friends to bring a dairy, gluten and refined sugar free dish featuring their flagship products, along with an easy to recreate recipe to share in this blog, and boy did they deliver!
A hearty soup always makes a great starter, but this silky butternut soup made with small batch bone broth from our friends at Hale Bone Broth is so decadent that it also doubles as a delicious gravy as well!
The Hale Life is a Hanover based, female founded wellness brand focused on so much more than sales of its flagship product!
While best known for its small batch bone broth, The Hale Life has also created an online and in person community around their brand that helps people to embrace a lifestyle that is equal parts healthy, accountable and enjoyable.
If you aren't already following The Hale and its founder, Melissa Smith, you will definitely want to give @thehale4life a follow and keep your eye on this amazing lady in 2021 and beyond!
Duxbury Saltworks is another of our favorite female founded brands!
Led by an inspiring team of local ladies, Duxbury Saltworks creates the most delicious hand crafted sea salt right from the pristine waters of the Island Creek Oyster bay.
For their Friendsgiving dish, Duxbury Saltworks sent team member Brandi with wild rice and sage stuffed squash made with their latest dill, chili, paprika and peppercorn infused seasonal salt blend.
Our friend Tyler Jones, founder of The Garden Of Easton, brought a delightfully expected autumn stir fry made with pine nuts, raisins, baby bok choy and kale from his modern micro-farm.
Our super simple signature dishes...
For our Mood Food contributions to the feast, we whipped up a few of our favorite takes on some traditional turkey day classics: a savory herb stuffing, simple cranberry sauce, slow roasted bird, and crumbly cranberry apple tart.
Our Harvest Stuffing is made with just nuts (or seeds), apples and veggies, but totally tricks the taste buds and tummy into feeling like you're enjoying the best bread stuffing you've ever had!
We like to get our japanese sweet potatoes and honeynut squash from Holly Hill Farm in Cohasset!
This Salted Citrus Canberry Sauce is made with just four simple ingredients and will have you wondering why you ever bought the canned kind in the first place!
Because bogs in south eastern Massachusetts are the main producer of fresh cranberries, it's likely that any bag of Ocean Spray cranberries that you pick up at the grocery store will be locally sourced, we like to get our cranberries right from the source at Bogside Acres in Middelboro.
Our Famous 15 Hour Salty Bird promises crispy skin and tender meat with just three simple ingredients, and is so easy to recreate that you can literally do it with your eyes closed!
We love to get our chickens from Plympton Poultry and Thanksgiving turkey from R&C Farms in Scituate.
This paleo, keto and vegan friendly Cranberry Apple Crumble Tart is the perfect alternative to traditional holiday pies that are loaded with refined sugar and other questionable ingredients!