Thanksgiving is upon us, and of course this makes for ever-changing menu plans. I will say, it does feel a bit strange to be thinking about what to eat more than a week from now. I realize, though, that with our holiday plans, if I don't think about the menu now, the earliest I would get to it was probably next Monday. And that means that Saturday through next Tuesday would be a mess of trying to get shopping done and meals on the table. So here I am planning!
The first thing for me to take into consideration for the upcoming week is that this last meal plan that I was working with got changed. Our 6 dinners at home have now become 4. Since I already had what I needed to make all of those meals, I had to figure out which ones to keep on schedule and which ones to move back into this coming week.
By the time I realized the plans were changing, we had already had the stir-fried noodles and pizza, and the meat was thawing for the Swedish Meatballs. I decided to move the Baked Potato Soup and the Lasagna to the upcoming meal plan for two reasons:
1. Each of these meals makes more than we can eat in one meal. Actually, that is part of the reason why I chose these dishes. Leftovers are perfect for me for lunch. But since the last dinner that we eat at home will be tonight (Monday), and we won't start up again until Saturday, these leftovers would probably go to waste. Have I mentioned that I hate wasting food? The Swedish Meatballs (made last night) would give me the lunch that I needed, and the Broccoli and Rice Casserole would be just enough for one meal (for tonight).
2. The ingredients for both of these meals will hold until I start making normal dinners again. For both, my protein is still frozen, so no rush there. And the produce is very shelf-stable. So unlike the Swedish Meatballs with the meat thawing, B&R Casserole with the broccoli waiting in the refrigerator, these two dishes won't be harmed at all with waiting until next week.
So now looking ahead, I know that as plans stand now, I need to have an evening meal for only 3 nights. In fact, it might only be two, but I'm going to to ahead and plan for all three because I would rather have to push one back instead of scramble to figure out what is for dinner.
With all of that in mind, next week we will be having:
Baked Potato Soup
Lasagna
Beef Stroganoff
Now normally I would do my shopping on Wednesday, but since we won't start the dinners until Saturday, I'm going to wait to get what I need for the Beef Stroganoff. However, I am going to the store tonight to pick up a rotisserie chicken that the B&R Casserole needs. I was originally going to just cook some chicken that I already had on hand, but that would make way more than I needed and could get rid of before it went bad. I also need to get the foods that I am going to contribute to our Thanksgiving dinner. Two desserts and one side. Now that's my kind a meal! I suppose I should eat some of the turkey.
As an aside, here is my thinking with having Beef Stroganoff. I have two good recipes for Beef Stroganoff. One is a full-fat, seriously creamy version. The other is one from Cooking Light. Yes, it is light. But it is also very good. At first I was leaning toward the heavier Stroganoff, but then I reminded myself that while I'm not trying to lose weight at this moment, it would probably be a good idea to have the lighter version since we would have just been coming off of Thanksgiving.
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