The Ultimate Thanksgiving Recipe Swap
How LYFETYMES Can Help You Pull Off the Ultimate Thanksgiving Recipe Swap
With Thanksgiving being right around the corner and CDC releasing Thanksgiving COVID guidelines we wanted to help people around the world make early preparations for one of America’s favorite holidays - Thanksgiving. The holidays are supposed to be a time to gather with family and friends, eat delicious home-cooked dishes, and make memories. Due to COVID-19, the holidays will look a lot different.
Family being advised to not fly in for the holidays means you might not be able to hang out with your favorite aunts and cousins that would normally fly in for the holidays, or even worse you won’t be eating your aunt Linda’s famous Thanksgiving dish that you’ve been looking forward to all year. To help recreate those yummy memories LYFETYMES came up with a recipe swap Thanksgiving Party to make sure you get the famous green bean casserole you’ve been dreaming of since you devoured it last Thanksgiving.
Whether your family hosts a potluck style Thanksgiving dinner or you designate one person to cook for the day this recipe swap idea works for everyone. Decide who is going to participate in the swap and head over to LYFETYMES.com to create your Thanksgiving Recipe Swap Challange and easily share recipes.
Let’s Talk Turkey
A LYFETYMES SHARABLE URL
If you don’t have an account already. You can create a free account in seconds. There are key features on LYFETYMES you want to take advantage of the Thanksgiving recipe swap.
To begin, you will need to create a new celebration where you can be as creative as you want. Give it a fun name such as Nanna’s Make your mouth water Key Lime Pie.
Your Celebration details should be simple with the date of Thanksgiving, Create a fun Thanksgiving website you can share on social media or via text. For your website picture you can check out our new, free animated 3D invites here that you can easily download and upload to your celebration website. You can find these animated invites under the Shop Party Decor tab here. You can also edit your URL name to personalize it. Here is an example of Thanksgiving Recipe Swap
From your Celebration Dashboard, you will be able to invite the friends and family you wish to swap recipes with- add them as Co-Hosts so they can have full access to sharing pics, videos, and the menu planning page to send recipes via email.
Use the Pinspiration Boards feature to add step by step photos and videos/ link of how to make the famous dish. You can add video links!
The Goods
The menu planning feature on LYFETYMES is a favorite of mine. Not only is it great to plan the menu for any event but it also makes for a great every day easy to use grocery trip list. You can’t make nanna’s famous key lime pie without all the ingredients, so this menu planning list is a great way to share the ingredients needed with your friends and family. Your family can easily print it out and it saves you time when it comes to giving them your secret ingredient. My family and I can’t wait to try this recipe swap idea. It's a great way to stay safe at home and still eat some of your favorite dishes.
The best part? You will keep this Recipe Swap forever - Every Celebration created is kept in “Your Celebration” forever. This is a great family activity and a way to catalog your favorite family recipes forever. On Thanksgiving Day share all the recreations on your social media with your own hashtag like #lopezrecipechallange.
Have any questions or need some ideas? Reach out to us here and we are happy to help!
Ideas to Decorate Your Front Porch for Fall
Ideas To Decorate Your Front Porch for Fall
Decorating my home according to the season or holiday is one of my favorite past times. Nothing puts me in the holiday spirit like adding some good decor to my home. We gathered some easy and affordable ideas to decorate your front porch for fall.
Create Some Cute Pumpkin Planters
(photo from: @wyosparkle on TikTok)
The Supplies you will need:
Pumpkin candy baskets (3 to create 1 planter)
1 can of Spray paint
Twine
Hot glue gun
Flowers of choice
Because of COVID-19 your kids might not be able to use their Halloween candy baskets so let’s put them to use. If you don’t have any from previous Halloweens I found this pack of 10 on Amazon. Grab some spray paint. I went with a white matte spray paint for my pumpkin planter. Remove all the handles from the baskets and begin spray painting. Once they are done drying, stack them on top of each other and hot glue the bottoms to the top of the basket - you may want to add some rocks or dirt for weight. Wrap the twine a couple of times around the spaces you hot glued together. And for the final touch add some fall colored florals inside the top basket. To complete the look add an assortment of pumpkins to your porch, a cute fall wreath, and corn husk stalks by the door.
We partnered with RedFin and other experts on their latest blog post to bring you 15 Ideas to Decorate your Front Porch .
Work Outwards
Fill the space around the door and work outward from there to the steps as you’re decorating the front porch. This gives it an eye-catching illusion of looking like you decorated more than you did. Start with a bright autumn wreath or garland on the door and add some taller accents around the door frame, like a fall sign or colorful garland. Add beautiful fall flowers in a pot at the base and then add lanterns or pumpkins of different sizes, colors, and shapes trailing down the steps. You can add Halloween decorations and simply take out those spooky pieces on November 1st.
Add Some Plaid
I don’t know about you, but when I think of fall I think of my favorite long sleeve cozy plaid shirts of vests. Not only do I love adding plaid to my wardrobe I also love adding it to my home. Whether it is plaid pillows, throw blankets, or rugs you can instantly get ready for fall with the help of a plaid pattern. Get some plaid pumpkins or doormat and add it to your front porch decor.
5 Tips For Throwing The Best Thanksgiving Feast
Thanksgiving is traditionally a day for friends and families to get together for a special meal. The holiday is usually celebrated with a turkey dinner although, everyone has their own traditions. Thanksgiving and cakes and desserts, autumn decorations, Thanksgiving dinner foods, and favors. See more Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving ideas at LYFETYMES.com
When I think of Thanksgiving, I sometimes wonder why I would want to get my head into this time-out from the rest of the world. I suppose it is because I like feeding people — cooking is my favorite thing to do. I think of all of the smells that go into making the meal, seeing all of the cooking happen is really exciting and if a part of me is lucky enough to be a host on Thanksgiving, I’m sure a part of me wants to become more like Martha Stewart as I try to impress the guests with my “gourmet dishes”.
Just like holiday dishes, Thanksgiving planning can often be overwhelming. There are so many options, there are so many activities to do, and even if you have a specific plan, it can still seem like there is always room for revision. The best way to tackle this stressful week of Thanksgiving preparations and have it go as smoothly as possible by being organized. Need help planning? Christmas has come early….
TIP #1- HAVE A PLAN
LYFETYMES - YOUR FREE DIGITAL HOLIDAY PLANNER
LYFETYMES is Your FREE Digital Party Planner. We will help you plan your perfect Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving stress-free so you can enjoy the party and soak up every moment. Start Stress-Free Planning in 30 seconds: Forget the boring Holiday card,
Create Free Celebration Websites at LYFETYMES.COM
Tip #2 - COUNT MOUTHS- How Many People Are Your Feeding?
PAPER HOLIDAY INVITES ARE BORING
Get the word out fast, Create a Sharable Celebration Website for FREE on LYFETYMES, Manage guests & track RSVPs, shop amazing decor, create menus and invite Co-Hosts to help out! You will never know how you did it before LYFETYMES.
If your Thanksgiving plans have not yet been finalized, don’t fear — there are some simple ways to get started and prevent the holidays from becoming a high-stress mess. This Thanksgiving season, start with the most important thing — Guests! Create a Thanksgiving guest list in LYFETYMES and folks can RSVP on your personalized website to get an accurate count of who and how many people are coming.
TIP #3 MAKE YOUR FOOD MENU & BUDGET
Remember to keep those already invited in mind when you plan your Thanksgiving menu. It can be tempting to let your family dictate what you serve and what you don’t, but it is far better to have a plan in place and then listen to the suggestions that your family gives you. Don’t underestimate the ability of your family to make your life easy by sharing what they like to eat and bring and enjoy the things that you don’t normally order from your favorite store. You can build your menu and budget in LYFETYMES and email to yourself or assign tasks to other hosts or guests.
After deciding on the menu, you can set up your kitchen and make as many of the preparations day before. I like to prepare all of my vegetables at the same time and then cut, slice, and boil them all at the same time. This will ensure that I get all of my time-consuming cutting done before I go to bed.
TIP #4 DECORATING CAN BE EASY
LYFETYMES Featured “TALK TO ME TURKEY” PARTY SET
If you are looking for Thanksgiving decorations visit LYFETYMES for our amazing party sets, that will handle all the decor, delivered in one box to your door and you can set up in minutes, Don’t forget about decorations for the kitchen, roll out some butcher paper and write what your dishes are and it looks great and easy clean up. You can buy inexpensive versions of all of the bowls you would use for the hostess gift, your platters, and napkins. One great idea is to download free Thanksgiving printables (we will have on our Pinterest Page) to add some extra “wow: factors. Follow us for the latest party ideas and trends at https://www.pinterest.com/lyfetymes/
TIP #5 ENJOY THE DAY- IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE PERFECT
By the time the big day comes around, your guests will be ready to enjoy a great meal, there will be plenty of decorations out and ready to be used, and you will have a less chaotic feeling to you. Of course, the recipes can change each day and even the food can change from week to week, but by laying things out and doing some necessary things early on, you can focus on what is important — making sure that the food tastes great and is served the way you want it.
We make a big thing about the concept of doing “what you love” at any time. By deciding ahead of time what you want to have the guests eat and use as decorations, you ensure that your Thanksgiving week will be exciting, fun, and enjoyable. By using LYFETYMES the needs of your family and sharing those with your guests, you can ensure that everyone is happy. This will be one of the best and easiest preparations you have ever made. It is important that you enjoy yourself on Thanksgiving, but more important is not to overdo the food. Create a delicious feast, which everyone will enjoy while keeping the stress of the day down.