Thanksgiving may look a little different this year, but one thing is for certain – there are still a lot of things to be thankful for. Whether you’re celebrating with your immediate family at home, or virtually with extended family and friends, you can make new traditions this year that you can carry on in years to come.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we would like to help you make it extra special this year! If making an entire turkey dinner doesn’t make sense for your household, why not create a beautiful snacking board that has something for everyone on it? This snacking board can become a new tradition that carries on into years when we can all be together again to celebrate the holidays. If you do make that turkey dinner, we also have the answer to “What do I do with this leftover turkey?”

Nothing says Thanksgiving like the smell and taste of roasted red peppers. They’re easy to make and so delicious. We created a Roasted Red Pepper Dip for this Thanksgiving Snacking Board that is quick and easy to make. If you’ve never roasted peppers before, we’ve got you covered.

First, you’re going to take three Pure Flavor® Red Sweet Bell Peppers, cut them in half and clean out the seeds. Then, you’re going to place them on a baking sheet and drizzle them with olive oil. Rub the oil into the peppers for better coverage. Lay them cut side down and put them in an oven preheated to 400º F where they will roast for 20 minutes.

Here’s the part where you really need to pay attention and be ready for because it will help you immensely! It is our hack to peeling those roasted peppers. Get a glass or metal bowl ready before you take the peppers out of the oven. Then, when you take them out, move the peppers quickly to a flat surface, like a cutting board covered with paper towel, and quickly put the bowl over top of them. This will trap the heat inside, effectively steaming the peppers. Leave them like this, undisturbed, for 10 minutes and you will see that peeling the skin off is much easier. Peel all the peppers you’ve roasted in preparation for making the dip.

While the peppers are roasting, bust out your blender or food processor and get the other ingredients ready to go. We like to set everything out so that when it’s time to start adding everything, it’s all there in one spot, premeasured and within arm’s reach. There’s no particular order to adding them in, but we do suggest that you start with the beans as they will blend much better when they are closest to the blades to begin with.

When your dip is all blended together, you will see that it is this wonderful reddish-orange color and it will smell incredible. We decided to be festive and serve it in a hollowed-out pie pumpkin. It pairs well with crackers or a fresh baguette, but some of us were dipping slices of Long English Cucumbers and strips of bell peppers too.

With your dip being done, it is now time to start prepping to make your Ultimate Thanksgiving Snacking Board! Trust us when we say that preparation is key. It keeps things tidy and if you cut up a lot of items, it will save you time for when they need to be refilled on the board and believe us when we say it will need to be refilled!

We started by cleaning and cutting peppers into strips – in three different colors because we all eat with our other senses before the food actually gets into our mouths. Then we cut up slices of cheese – three different kinds for variety, a dry salami and some apples. (Sliced apple hack: store extra apple slices in a little bit of lemon-lime soda so they don’t turn brown!) Now it is time to arrange everything on your board. We included our Uno Bites™ Nano Cucumbers, Sangria® Tomato Medley and Juno® Bites Red Grape Tomatoes, along with an assortment of crackers, sliced up baguette, dried cranberries, strawberries, blackberries, grapes, pepitas, and dates.

We did promise to give you an idea on how to use up that leftover turkey dinner… This idea is amazing – you take those leftovers and turn it into this Turkey Leftovers Platter! We sliced up some Long English Cucumbers, Tomatoes On-the-Vine, and Sweet Bell Peppers. Then we piled the leftover turkey and stuffing in the middle of the platter along with leftover cranberry sauce. We arranged dinner rolls (but biscuits would work great here too), tomato, cucumber and pepper slices, Sangria® Medley Tomatoes, Swiss, Cheddar and Provolone cheese slices, and olives around the leftovers in the center. Now everyone can eat what they want, in the way they want, plus it’s a different arrangement from last night’s dinner and there’s no food wasted.

Snacking boards are an incredibly easy way to get more veggies into your diet, so don’t just think that they are only for special occasions! They are perfect for rainy day afternoons, movie nights, date nights – the list goes on and on.

To view, download or print the full recipes: Roasted Red Pepper Dip, Thanksgiving Snacking Board, Turkey Leftovers Platter.