November 23, 2024

Weekly Menu 11.24.24

The Weekly Menu 11.24.24 helps you plan for one of the best food weeks of the year~

The Weekly Menu 11.24.24 covers not only Thanksgiving but the run-up to it and, maybe more importantly, what to do after the big day.

What’s your favorite part of Thanksgiving?

Mine is having family close and enjoying every minute, even the hard work. I love setting the table. My second favorite part, though, is a tie between the Mashed Potatoes and Sausage Cornbread Stuffing. Plus, the Green Bean Casserole. Oh, and the Pumpkin Cheesecake. Man – the Gingered Cranberry Sauce. We’re having turkey, too. ♥

Can we talk for a minute about the leftovers? We’ve finally gotten smart and are cooking a slightly smaller bird along with a turkey breast. Baby Boy likes to make us all grimace when he puts the leg on his plate, but none of us is a dark meat aficionado. What this means for us, is that we will actually have some turkey leftover too.

I’m licking my chops over here.

We’re pretending we’re in a fancy steakhouse on Sunday, as we aren’t going to have a whole lot of beef this week. On Monday, we’ll pretend we always eat healthy in the lead-up to Thanksgiving with a big salad with Pops Crispy Chicken and homemade Honey Mustard.

Tuesday, we’re introducing some deli ham and bacon sammies, which are easy and also not chicken. I can make the Roasted Red Pepper Pasta early in the day – it keeps great at room temp.

If you take a look at the Thanksgiving 101 post, you’ll see that I recommend doing a lot of the Thanksgiving prep on Wednesday. Because I’m cooking the meal of the year the next day, we do take out Wednesday night. I’m hoping Chinese, but I don’t usually get my way on that one.

Who am I kidding?

I always get my own way. Another thing to be thankful for. I’ll probably insist on something everyone likes though. It’s a mom thing.

I’m including our actual Thanksgiving menu below, and I don’t want to hear any sh!t about it. I am fully aware that it is completely over the top. Things get added on and never get kicked back off, and every year, we talk about doing away with some of the sides, but we can’t ever decide on which one. We also have a vegetarian who’s a member of the family now (YAY!), and there is no way I’m making her pick around meat if I can help it. Besides – that stuffed acorn squash is DELISH.

Don’t worry about me – I’ve been planning ahead, and I’m good at delegating. Plus, can I tell you a little secret? We bought the pumpkin and pecan pies, and the peanut butter pie is a gift that Baby Boy got from work. I’m only making the Pumpkin Cheesecake and the Apple Crisp. Shhhh.

If you want a full, day-by-day guide to the whole shebang holiday, check out:

HOW TO: THANKSGIVING 101

Is this your first Thanksgiving or your first in a while? We’ve got hacks, shortcuts and plenty of ideas for beginners at:

NOVICE THANKSGIVING

Finishing up the Weekly Menu 11.24.24

I like to have a day off before eating the leftovers, so we have a simple soup on the menu for Friday night. We’re taking everything out of the fridge and having a free-for-all on Saturday. Mix leftover cranberry sauce with some mayo to make a terrific topping for the hot turkey and Swiss sliders.

Prove irrefutably that leftover potatoes are better than no potatoes:

Shape the leftover mashed spuds into flattened balls and brown them in butter melted over medium-high heat in a cast iron skillet (affiliate link). Voila – Potato Croquettes. How versatile is the mighty spud?