In a couple hours we’re headed to Annalyn’s preschool for her Thanksgiving Feast. I’m not sure what to expect, as this is our first year at this school, but judging by my kiddo’s excitement and chanting of, “Feast, feast, we’re having a feast!” it’s a pretty big deal.

The teachers provide the meat and drinks, while the parents were asked to bring side dishes. I didn’t realize at first that we were supposed to sign up for what specific dish we’d be taking, so by the time I found the sign-up sheet outside her classroom, other parents had already claimed the usual holiday meal suspects (green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes, etc.).

Considering how stressed and busy I’ve been feeling lately, I decided to take the easy route and wrote “Veggie Tray” by my daughter’s name.

Well, that’s taken care of, I thought. At least, that’s what I thought until I stopped by Pinterest on my daily social media route a few days later. That’s where I saw the cutest veggie tray made in the shape of a turkey. A turkey!!

I couldn’t resist. Placing the veggies in a turkey shape on my nice platter didn’t take much longer than dropping the veggies into my plastic sectioned tray. After all, I was going to be chopping and slicing veggies no matter what the tray looked like!

And the few minutes extra were totally worth it, because Annalyn thought this was the fanciest thing ever. The fact that I let her “help” made the whole thing even better (to her). And, seriously, it was not hard. Here’s how I did it:

Turkey Veggie Tray

Ingredients:
Several leaves of romaine or other lettuce
2 (each) yellow, green and red peppers
1 cucumber
Baby carrots
2 black beans (olives would also work)
Toothpicks
Serving platter

Arrange the leaves of lettuce on your cute plate. Make an oval at the bottom with slices of cucumber (this is the turkey’s body). Slice the peppers into half-circle rings, keeping the bottoms of the peppers for later. Arrange the pepper slices above the cucumbers – yellow, then green, then red ones. Then line up the carrots for the top row of feathers.

Next, take the bottom part of a green pepper for the head. Attach a yellow pepper beak, red pepper waddle and two black bean eyes with toothpicks. Black olives would work for eyes, too.

The site I found this on made legs out of celery. But since we don’t eat celery normally, I didn’t want to waste a whole bag for one stalk. I used two more carrots instead.

Thanks to Eating with Food Allergies for the idea! (And Pinterest, of course, for convincing me a turkey veggie tray was way better than a regular one!)

What dishes are you taking to your “feasts” this week?

This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, 33 Shades of Green, Works for Me Wednesday, I’m Lovin’ It, Foodie Friday and Eat at Home Cooks Ingredient Spotlight.Also, FYI, affiliate links are used in this post.