Generally this time of year, we would be packing up to travel right now. We would be saddling up the old minivan and heading to wherever we’re going for the holiday, and then I would work remotely pretty much every day except Thursday (and even then a little, some years, because law firm). Oh happy day, this year we are hosting! So no traveling for us! This also means I get to be in charge of the menu. I love holiday cooking! I will stick to my “couple of fancy things, a couple of easy things, and a couple of out-sourced things” rule for holiday cooking. Luckily, the typical Thanksgiving meal is actually mostly simple things – roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing couldn’t be simpler!
Meanwhile, there are also 5 dinners between now and Thanksgiving Thursday, so I have to meal plan for those as well. Here we go . . . And before I go too far, I want to make sure you all are aware of two of the best leftover-turkey recipes ever: chicken (turkey) and fall vegetable pot pie; and white chicken (turkey) enchiladas. My shopping list shall include the ingredients to make these on the post-Thanksgiving Friday and Saturday, as well as stuff to make pancakes and eggs for breakfast, and turkey sandwiches (with mayo, pickles, and salt and pepper) for lunches. Mmmmmmm.
Best Stuffed Peppers. The husband loves stuffed peppers, and I bought all the stuff to make these completely forgetting that he would be gone for about 11 days. I could freeze the meat but the peppers won’t last that long, so alas, I shall make the so-called “best” stuffed peppers, and the boys will complain about them, and the person for whom I made them won’t even get to try it, because I am a harebrained weirdo.
Blue Apron Thai Chicken Meatball Curry. Ditto with the forgetting of the husband thing – I wouldn’t normally get a Blue Apron order w/o him in town since the children are not always enthusiastic consumers of the fancier food. But it came in the mail, and eat it we must – it’s kale and coconut curry and chicken meatballs, so nothing too offensive and hopefully they eat it.
Ravioli with pesto and asparagus. I bought ravioli, will toss it with chopped cooked asparagus and some pesto. They’ll like this at least.
Fish Sticks and Tater Tots and peas. Zero points for health (well, maybe half a point for the peas), double points for ease and “cleaning old tater tots out of the freezer.”
Potato, green bean, and cheddar quiche. We had delicious potatoes and green beans as a side earlier this past week, so I will chop up the leftovers and put them in a quiche.
THANKSGIVING!!
Morning – BLTs, mini-cinnamon rolls, and bloodies/mimosas/poinsettias.
Dinnertime –
The bird – I’ll try a dry brine. Not entirely convinced brining is worth it, but we’ll give it a try. I’ll probably buy jarred gravy, to be honest. It will, of course, be stuffed with Sausage and Herb Stuffing.
Cranberry sauce. I’ll also get a can of the stuff because unaccountably, my sister loves it.
Angel biscuits. The picture of these shows them all buttery and amazing.
Slow cooker mashed potatoes. To simplify the range/oven situation, we’ll utilize the slow-cooker for these.
Fennel-apple slaw. I may be the only one that likes this, so I won’t make much, but it sounds delish.
Fresh steamed green beans. I don’t hate green bean casserole, but since we have so many heavy saucy things, I think a lighter green bean is called for.
Sweet potato and sage butter casserole. The typical marshmallow thing is too sweet. This sounds much more subtle but yum.
Desserts shall be out-sourced, or perhaps I will ask my sister to make a pie or two.