Thanksgiving Dessert To Go

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And just like that, another Thanksgiving has come and gone. It sneaks up on you and then seems like it’s over before it even started.

With as hectic as this time of year can be, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t stress myself out. As we’ve done in the past, we hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year. In total, I put together dinner (John did the turkey) for 10 adults and a handful of kids without losing my mind.

Early preparation and a few shortcuts were key in ensuring that everything went off without a hitch. From the get go, I started making lists. What I wanted to serve, the ingredients needed, and approximate timelines of when everything needed to start cooking.

I also took some shortcuts in the cooking department. I may or may not have used boxed stuffing mix and/or canned soup for the green bean casserole. And with dessert being such an important part of the Thanksgiving meal, I stocked up on Marie Callender’s® Dessert Pies at Walmart. Being able to simply pop the pies into the oven was such a time saver, especially considering that I baked a total of six of them to share.

Since John is an MP (military police), it often means that his guys (and girls) are working on weekends and holidays that most Soldiers otherwise have off. They patrol the base as regular police would do in any other town, and guard the gates which provide entrance to the base. Because of this, there was a chunk of Soldiers out doing their MP duties instead of spending the holiday with their families.

To sweeten the situation just a tad, I put together little desserts to share the joy of pie with the working Soldiers. It had to be something durable and easy to transport, so mason jars! I’ve got tons of jars around the house, which made it even easier to get these desserts together.

Using pies of the Pumpkin, Pecan, and Pumpkin Pecan Streusel variety that had been baked and cooled, I layered them with Reddi-Wip® in 8 oz. jars. I created printable Thanksgiving labels for the tops of each jar (get yours FREE for Thanksgiving or Christmas). I imported the image to my Cricut software, but you could just as easily insert them to a Word document, and print them from there to adhesive paper. I then used a piece of twine to tie a spoon to each jar and add a little decorative touch. Each Marie Callender’s® Dessert Pie crumbled comfortably fit into six jars.

We all know it isn’t Thanksgiving without a little pie, so I’m thankful for being able to share just a little bit of that joy with Soldiers who couldn’t spend it with their families.

For more delicious ideas on how you can Share the Joy of Pie, visit this page!