Turkey breasts were on sale this week, so I thought I’d get us in the Thanksgiving spirit and have some early bird.

My meal:

• turkey breast in the slow cooker
• mushroom dijon gravy (from this recipe)
• roasted broccoli
• carrot and potato mash
• fresh apple cake

This may look like a big, time-consuming meal, but I planned ahead to get everything done. The only work for the turkey was at 9am, then it was doing its own thing all day. I made the cake and mashed potatoes while Hannah was napping. I also used the bagged pre-cut broccoli florets and pre-sliced portobello mushrooms (both on sale) which cut down prep time.

The slow cooker turkey recipe was so easy! I ended up overcooking it a bit, but with the gravy it was delicious. Brett didn’t talk for a while, he just made happy eating noises.

Our lives were changed when we discovered roasted broccoli, and we eat ridiculous amounts of it. And it’s really easy – just coat florets in olive oil and salt and pepper. Put on baking sheet and roast for 20ish minutes at 450ish degrees. Crazy good.

I made up the carrot and potato mash. I cooked the carrots then I cooked the potatoes then I mashed them up with some butter and milk. They were very flavorful, and the carrots give a major health boost to normal mashed potatoes.

Hannah is not eating broccoli or mashed potatoes at the moment, but she tried everything and liked the turkey. There was a wishbone in the turkey breast, so we taught her what to do with it.

I think she got the good end.