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Friday, November 25, 2016

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the Thanksgiving week

Mexi-bean soup, made from refried beans, canned tomatoes in liquid, cumin,
vegetable liquid, carrots, olives and topped with fried corn tortilla strips

Friday
  • turkey, cream cheese, dried cranberry sandwiches on homemade French bread
  • canned corn, heated in the microwave
  • carrot sticks and 1000 Island dip
  • olives
Saturday
One daughter and I worked at a fund-raiser all day. we were blessed with everything to make a large tossed salad for dinner that night -- lettuce, cucumber, grape tomatoes, baby carrots, croutons and dressing. As we were gone all day, I looked in the freezer for something to go with the salad. I found a large container of soup.
  • tossed salad
  • soup from the freezer, a homemade tomato-beef soup from last week
  • corn tortilla chips
  • birthday cupcakes (my son's birthday)
Sunday
We went out for a birthday celebration lunch to celebrate both my son's and his girlfriend's birthdays. When we came back home, we had a scratch-baked cake, and opened gifts. We were all so full that I knew dinner would be a small and simple one. Here's what I made:
  • large tossed salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, parsley, ranch dressing (all from the fund-raiser that my daughter and I worked on Saturday), plus olives, cheese, turkey, cabbage
  • corn tortillas, topped with cheddar, chopped onions, chili powder and olives, then broiled until toasty
Monday
Early week will feature refried beans as the main item. Day #1 of refried beans will be bean, cheese and rice burritos.
  • bean, cheese, rice burritos, plus I found one fast-food packet of hot sauce in the fridge, split five ways
  • carrots sticks
  • leftover cake
Tuesday
Day #2 of refried beans -- turn some of the beans into Mexi-bean soup, by adding some canned tomatoes, liquid from veggies, olives, cumin, carrots sticks leftover from last night, cut into dices and all was simmered on the stove until the carrots were soft.
  • Mexi-bean soup, topped with fried corn tortilla strips
  • oranges
  • leftover cupcakes
Wednesday
Day #3 of refried beans, more bean burritos. Dinner has to be simple tonight as I've been busy cleaning the house. We'll be 7 tomorrow. A friend of my daughters from school will be joining the 6 of us. I hope we've got everything covered.
  • bean, cheese and rice burritos
  • oranges
  • leftover cake
Thursday
The big feast day.
  • turkey and gravy
  • praline sweet potato casserole
  • green bean casserole
  • stuffing
  • Thanksgiving fried rice, with turkey ham, Brussels sprouts, carrots, and green onion
  • pumpkin pie, apple pie
  • olives, pickles, cranberry sauce

I know what we're having for dinner tonight, and I bet you can guess!!

For those in the US, I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with family. And for all of us, I guess the holiday season is upon us, now. Holiday music on the radio. Decorations going up in the neighborhood. Black Friday sales, and a few freebies (free donuts and coffee at Fred Meyer, this morning). 

Have a wonderful weekend, all!

8 comments:

  1. It's always interesting to hear about what people serve for Thanksgiving. Much of the menu is often the same with family variations. On your menu, I'm not familiar with the Thanksgiving fried rice that you served. Is that a special tradition?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi live and learn,
      I just had leftovers of the Thanksgiving fried rice. It was sweet potatoes and not carrots, as I thought last night. Very yummy. My son's girlfriend brought that. I believe she said she saw the recipe on facebook.

      I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving together. And I hope you have a day or two of rest this weekend. I imagine with all you have going on that you need a little break.

      Have a great weekend live and learn!

      Delete
  2. Seems like a balanced week, light and simple before the big feast! Again, I like how you ended turning days of beans into a soup.

    Yesterday was very confusing but in the end both daughter and son had the day their way. Daughter's family came early in the day to cook turkey, ham, stuffing and butter mochi. The plan was not to overindulge but snack on this, and later for an easy dinner out, meet with son's family closer to town. Turned out everyone ate too much during the day and had hardly an appetite for an early dinner. So we decided to eat at the take out side of the restaurant. However, our daughter got her wish of cooking a homemade meal while our son got his wish of spending the day with his in laws and meeting with the rest of us at a place closer to their Black Friday shopping. Since he's off on Friday, his first since he can remember, he wanted to spend the long weekend, without the kids, celebrating the festivities around town and celebrating their wedding anniversary. That's why it was confusing. But in the end, we enjoyed ourselves very much, as unconventional as it was. It was a funny thing to eat at a cheap take out on Thanksgiving and loitering in the parking lot to finish the get together.

    Have a restful day!!

    YHF

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi YHF,
      it sounds like your family holiday all turned out well. Our family invents new traditions for the holidays, too. Our Christmas Day is usually untraditional. One daughter's favorite years have been when we've gotten McDonald's for Christmas dinner and watched a movie at home. not exactly traditional, but it worked for me. this year will be non-traditional, too. We're thinking a taco salad bar for Christmas Day dinner. It's simple, everyone can have however much or little they want, and there won't be much prep or clean-up.

      I hope you are enjoying your time with the grandkids. Have a great weekend, YHF!

      Delete
  3. Your praline sweet potato casserole sounds similar to the one I serve. It's my MIL's recipe (whipped sweet potatoes topped with pecans, brown sugar & butter). My kids asked my yesterday why we don't have sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. I told them I grew up on that kind (my grandma's version) & it wasn't until I married their daddy & ate their grandma's sweet potatoes that I changed my mind about not liking sweet potatoes:) Our feast went well. We had WAY too much food. We will have leftovers for at least a day ir two & I plan to roast another turkey this weekend. (I sent the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving home with my in-laws.)

    And, my husband was kind enough to brave the Fred Meyer sale with me today. Socks, socks, socks! I was hoping their turkeys would be discounted, but they weren't. Melissa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Melissa,
      We were at Fred Meyer, this morning, too, enjoying the free coffee, donuts and juice. I checked the turkeys and milk/eggnog, but no luck, this year. Some years I find awesome deals on markdown milk on the day after Thanksgiving.

      Yes, our praline sweet potatoes sound exactly like your MIL's recipe. One of my daughters made it this year, and she added raisins to the praline topping. It was really pretty delicious with the raisins.

      Oh, enjoy all of those leftovers. It makes for light cooking duties all weekend. A welcome change!

      Have a great weekend, Melissa!

      Delete
  4. It has been a flurry of a week. It was very busy at work knowing that we would have a short work week.

    One day this week was baked chicken and baked potatoes, another was chicken with rice and then our traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, cheesy potatoes, green beans, applesauce, cranberry sauce,buns and stuffing. Dessert was some kind of chocolate dessert. Today (Friday) we went to friends house who had a big gathering yesterday with their kids and grand kids but they wanted us over today so I asked them to keep the meal simple and don't do another big meal just for us. So we had leftovers from their Thanksgiving dinner which was mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, stuffing and buns.Dessert was berry pie or pumpkin pie.

    Both dinners were quite different from each other and delicious. I made turkey stock out of the carcass of the turkey and even gave my cats a treat of turkey stock. ONe cat has been battling a cold so I give her broth once in a while.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alice,
      Your meals sound delicious, even the leftovers from your friend's Thanksgiving. Someone else's leftovers are always a treat, as they're new to us.
      I'm glad your weekend was so pleasant!

      Delete

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