Menu Planning

I haven’t done this for a couple of weeks. Between being sick and just not feeling up to being creative about what we eat, I just haven’t felt the need to post the half assed crap we’ve been filling our bellies with. This week feels easy because I’ve been working my way through items that are in my pantry and freezer (and I like having short grocery lists and therefore smaller checks to write). Also, I have to make my trip into the city to restock my basics and to pick up tamale materials. It’s tamale time again and while part of me likes my little traditions, the rest of me dreads the very long hours spent making them. It’s different when you have help but since I have none of my own family and no friends here, I make tamales all alone. Boo, hiss. Oh well. It’s worth it when I give them to my usual tamale recipients for the holidays and see their faces. They get very excited about them and that makes me feel proud.

Saturday
Shopping (and eating) in Idaho Falls

Sunday
Breakfast: potato and bacon hash, eggs, biscuits
Dinner: grilled steaks, Caesar salad, rolls

Monday
Breakfast: sour cream pancakes
Dinner: plain Jane lasagna with Italian sausage, leftover salad (I LITRALLY have to purchase nothing for this meal; I have leftover noodles, frozen spaghetti sauce, leftover sausage, ricotta and mozzarella. I love it when this happens.)

Tuesday
Breakfast: poached egg & sausage “Reb-Muffins”
Dinner: baked pork flautas, rice and beans

Wednesday
Breakfast: egg scramble with bagels (the trick, I’ve learned, to getting Erik to eat bagels without complaint is to simply not toast them. Isn’t that weird?)
Dinner:  caldo de res, corn tortillas

Thursday
Breakfast: breakfast tacos
Dinner: Emily’s chicken & sausage gumbo, cornbread

Friday
Breakfast: eggs, beans, salsa, flour tortillas
Dinner: spinach, artichoke, and pepperoni pizza

So Sunday is tamale day. Also: snickerdoodle day. Been craving those.

And can we talk for a second about Thanksgiving? It’s only three weeks away, people. I thought it might just be me and Erik this year (I’m getting a new nephew on November 21!) but my in laws aren’t going to go to Colorado that week. They’ll go post-Thanksgiving. This works well for me because I CANNOT make that scaled down a Thanksgiving meal for two people. That is no fun at all.

Here’s my holiday menu so far: 

herb butter roasted turkey
mashed potatoes
candied yams (for my father in law. I hate these, they’re disgusting)
cranberry sauce (homemade)
noodles (it’s an Annetta tradition in her typical carb overload fashion. I love them. So does my mother in law.)
rolls (homemade)
green bean casserole (from scratch)
dressing (modified from my mom’s recipe; I’m using sourdough bread and adding mushrooms this year. I used roast butternut squash last year and I’m trying to decide if I want to do it again.)
pumpkin pie (of course. I live for effing pumpkin pie)
sweet potato pie for my pumpkin hater. (I’m actually thinking of trying this recipe instead of my usual. Except with regular crust, not graham cracker.)

As much as I love Christmas, Thanksgiving is honestly my favorite holiday. What is everybody making this Thanksgiving?