Monday Menu with a Turkey

Welcome to a holiday week!  Thanksgiving is upon us and we are taking the week off of school to relax and reboot our family.  Sometimes parents and kids all need a break.  We will be minus Riley this year again, but she is joyfully flying to her grandparents' house this week to also enjoy some down time.  We are looking forward to having her home in December, right before her birthday!  She will be 20, oh my!  That is a separate post altogether!

So on to our menu for the week- notice there will be turkey!  Gobble gobble.  You will see its reappearance in a few meals next week as well, since I buy large and freeze in handy 2 cup portions to use for other meals.  Saves time and money!

Monday- Orange honey Glazed chicken  (yes, I know this was from last week, but we ended up going out and it never got cooked so I am trying again this week.  If you are looking for something different, pop some chicken breasts in the crock pot and add your favorite sauce.  Serve over rice!

Tuesday- Salisbury Steak with wine sauce

Wednesday- Egg Roll in a bowl

Thursday- Thanksgiving Meal- Just for fun here is what we eat:

• turkey
• mashed potato casserole (recipe below)
• green bean casserole
• cranberry sauce
• rolls
• gravy
• stuffing
• and of course, pies!  Can't forget the pies!

It is simple but we love it!  Family time needs to be more about the family and less about the food!  Do what your family loves and don't worry about the rest.

Friday- Thanksgiving leftovers

Saturday- Sloppy Joes

Sunday- Turkey and rice soup

So funny story- I LOVE mashed potatoes.  Like REALLY love them.  As in often ate them for a meal in college.  Just them.  (hey, it's what poor starving college students do, right? Except I was never starving!) Anyway,  I always loved to use Thanksgiving as an excuse to make them in large amounts.  One year we needed to make for a crowd so my mom and I made them quite ahead of time and set them aside.  By the time we got around to serving them, they had turned into a bowl of starchy mess.  Absolutely horrible, though it did provide a good laugh later.  Since that time, because sometimes we feed larger crowds and I prefer to be in the kitchen before people come, not while they are with us, I started making the mashed potato casserole, recipe below.  I make it (or two or three) the day before and pop it in the oven an hour before we eat. Saves time, and is just as yummy!

I pray your family has a beautiful Thanksgiving!  I am grateful for many things, including YOU!

Blessings,

Author: Michele Pleasants

Mashed Potato Casserole

ingredients:

• 5 lbs. potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1- 8 oz block cream cheese
• 1 C sour cream
• 1-2 tsp garlic salt
• butter

instructions:

1. Peel and cook potatoes until done
2. Beat potatoes, adding the cream cheese and sour cream until smooth
3. Add garlic salt and mix well
4. Pour into a 9x13 pan and dot with butter.  You can sprinkle with paprika if desired
5. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes

notes

This can be made a day ahead and refrigerated until ready to cook.  You may need to add 15 minutes of baking time.

Created using The Recipes Generator

What Are We Doing with the Turkey?

Every year at Thanksgiving I buy a BIG turkey!  A big one.  Regardless of how many we are feeding.  Some years our house has been full and other times it is just a quiet celebration with our family.  But regardless of the numbers, I still get a BIG turkey!


Why, you ask?

Because I love using the left overs for other meals.  Actually, sometimes those meals are better  than the actual Thanksgiving Day meal, in my opinion!

So what do we make with all that turkey?

• Meal 1- Sliced turkey leftovers.  You need to have the Thanksgiving meal at least twice, right?!

• Meal 2- Turkey Sandwiches on rolls (at the boys request, not just sandwich bread)

• Meal 3- Turkey Rice Soup (you knew there was a soup coming, right?)  We found a great recipe for this soup in a little soup cookbook on the book clearance aisle years ago and it is still a favorite.

• Meal 4- Turkey Enchiladas  This is a good one to freeze for later!

• Meal 5- Turkey Divan  An old standby, but good way to get broccoli into your kids!

• Meal 6- Turkey Alfredo

So yes, be looking for these meals on the menu plan after Thanksgiving, and don't worry, I do not have them all in a row!

Usually the Saturday after Thanksgiving I take all the meat off the bone and freeze it in 2 cup portions for easy grab and go use in recipes later!

I would challenge you to see how many meals you can get out of one turkey- you might be pleasantly surprised!

What do YOU do with leftover turkey?

Blessings,

A Month of Thankfulness

I do not want too much time in this month to go by before I mention thankfulness.

It is after all, the month to spotlight that theme, right?  While I fully believe that we should teach our children (and ourselves) the many lessons of thankfulness, I must admit that it often gets buried beneath the piles of schoolwork and laundry if I am not careful.  Therefore- I am thankful for a month to highlight THANKFULNESS!

Here's how we are doing it!

Thankful mirror!- Each day we will decide as a family one thing we are thankful for, write it on a construction paper leaf and post it on our big mirror in our living room for all to see.  Yes, you can make a tree or put them on your door or what ever location you choose, just make sure you put it where all can see!

Read scripture!- Do you know how many scriptures there are that talk of thankfulness?  What a great theme to use as memories verses for the month of November! Here are just a few, but there are so many more you can find!

• Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thess. 5:18)
•  So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,  rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Col. 2:6-7)
• Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Col. 3:16)
• Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! (1 Chron. 16:34)
• I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. (Psalm 7:17)
• I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. (Psalm 86:12)
• Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! (Psalm 100:4)

Study the first Thanksgiving!- Whether you read a book, google the info, or use a specific unit study, November is a great time to read about the very first Thanksgiving and remember how thankful we should be to the brave souls of the past who came to this country and paved a way for us!

Write notes of thanks!- Let's face it, snail mail and beautiful letter writing is almost a thing of old.  Sad, but true.  This month we are writing a note of thanks to someone in our lives each week to thank them for who they are.

What about you?  What are some ways you are showing Thankfulness this month?

Blessings,

Blessings...

Thanksgiving Surprise!

You may have already seen this on our facebook page, but if not-

We are thankful for this guy-

 and the fact that he was able to come home last minute for four days before he heads overseas.

And that we were able to carry off the surprise!

Blurry, I know, but I love the smiles!

I told the kiddos we were having a special dinner with Morgan, while he secretly snuck off to the airport to pick up dad.  Meanwhile the kids and I prepared dinner and then I made them all hang out with me in the kitchen.  Some, to remain nameless, whined about having other things to do, but I told them I was lonely and needed some attention!  You should have seen the look on their faces and heard the squeals when dad walked through the door!

Priceless!  Wish I had thought to have the video camera ready, but oh well.

Two burst out in tears and all have not stopped smiling since.

Monday begins our new, official countdown, but this time hopefully we can start healthy and we can start knowing the days actually count towards the 365 count!

I pray your Thanksgiving was blessed as well!

Blessings, Michele

How We Spent Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving a few days late!  I pray it was a blessed one.  The posts you have seen the past few days have been scheduled because we have been in Washington DC since Tuesday.  Yep, flew our oldest into Reagan National Airport and then hid away with her in a hotel until we put her back on a plane this morning and then came home ourselves.  We are exhausted, but had a FABULOUS time! 


I had told myself prior that dropping her off at the airport would be so much easier this time since we will see her in three SHORT weeks, but who was I fooling... it was still HARD!  The good news is she is doing well, has not decided while she was gone that she does not like us, and, did I mention, comes home in THREE SHORT WEEKS!

The other good news is you CAN do Thanksgiving in a hotel room!  Really!  I did cook the turkey before we left as well as the rolls and two pies, but everything else I took.  Pretty sure the people at the hotel thought we were moving in to stay!







See this small space...that was all there was, friends!  It was tight but it worked out fine.

Here's our makeshift table for six! With the fabulous husband setting the table.

SCP even said it was one of the best Thanksgiving meals we had ever had. ;)

Just goes to prove it IS about the people you are with, not the food.









 I will bore you with a few more pictures; some of us and some of the sights.  CP and I had not to been to DC in years and the kids have never been there except when passing through so we decided before the military sends us somewhere else next summer we better do the tourist thing while we are semi close.  We had relaxing mornings in the hotel, then visited a few places leisurely.  Fun, but low key.  Even managed to squeeze in a visit with some dear friends one day.  I could not have asked for a more perfect holiday and I am thankful for the time we had together.

Praying yours was blessed as well!