Harvest Cake with Vanilla Cashew Cream Icing

It was an extra special day in the Wiebe house yesterday! Levi turned TWO!! He lights up this house...we love him. I bookmarked this recipe a few weeks back thinking it would make a yummy birthday cake for our Levi...gotta love a flavourful fall recipe!! What I REALLY loved about this BIRTHDAY cake was that I knew every single bite contained something that was actually BENEFITING our boys' bodies!! Now that's almost an oxymoron! I appreciate the 'homemade' appeal to this cake...that's kinda what birthday's should be all about:) We gladly gave Levi a 2nd piece!!

I could tell from the beginning steps of making this cake, based on the smell that filled our house, that it was a good one! Will definitely make this cake again. The kids AND adults loved it...especially the 'icing'! Made the recipe pretty much 'as-is'. Although I used fresh pressed apple juice out of our juicer...so I found the icing a but thick to blend so I added a bit of lemon juice and coconut oil. That's it! Garnished with raw almonds and dark chocolate chips...which left this two-year olds birthday cake practically a nutritional supplement! It was awesome...and FILLING! All those nuts in there make the cake go far.

ENJOY!! Would compliment any Thanksgiving dinner wonderfully this weekend!

Here's a few photos of the birthday boy in action:) Love our Levi!

Sweet Potato & Ground Turkey Shepard's Pie - No Crust

Turkey Dinner Anytime!!! That's what I call this meal! Started making this dish about 2 years ago...and it's always a crowd-pleaser! Saw an episode of Rachael Ray way back when and she made something similar...relatively simple to whip up...and a meal in itself...gotta love that! No photos of this dish...YET...as I always forget to take one!! I plan on making this for dinner tonight though...so hold on for a photo to be added asap!



First things first...can you believe our little turkey...Levi...is going to be TWO tomorrow!! This was taken by the lovely and talented Daniela Sitar when Levi was just 5 days old...at 10lbs 4 oz he was already pouring over the edges of the turkey platter! I thought it might be cute to re-create this photo this Thanksgiving...but decided that our 'little' 36lb turkey (a.k.a. Levi) might now require additional supports under the dining room table! Oh what a cute little turkey he would be though:)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Sweet Potato & Ground Turkey Shepard's Pie - No Crust

INGREDIENTS

5 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1-2 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil
2 lbs ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, finely chopped
5 stalks of celery, chopped
2 tsp poultry seasoning
salt & pepper
4 TBSP butter
2 TBSP flour
2 cups turkey, chicken or vegetable broth
Few dashes Worcestershire sauce
2 cups frozen peas

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Boil or steam sweet potatoes in a large pot until soft, about 15 minutes.

In a deep skillet or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil. Add the turkey and cook, breaking up with a spoon. Stir in the onion, carrots, celery and poultry seasoning. Season with salt and pepper and cook for about 7 minutes...until the veggies are all softened.

In a small pot, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Whisk in the flour for 1 minute, then whisk in the broth and the Worcestershire sauce. Simmer for a few minutes until thickened, then stir into the turkey mixture. Stir in the peas and remove from the heat.

Drain the sweet potatoes and mash until nice and creamy...add butter if desired!

Take out your favourite casserole dish and pour the turkey mixture into it. Top it off with the mashed sweet potatoes.

Place in preheated oven for about 15 minutes...just so the flavours all have time to set and mix together.

ENJOY

ps...pumpkin pie is ALWAYS a great follow-up to this dinner!

pss...freezes great...or make ahead earlier in the day and set in fridge...then reheat in oven until hot throughout!