I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving Holiday weekend!  We still have family in from out of town so our holiday weekend is not over yet! We still have some Christmas cookie baking, soup making (I’m making the cauliflower chowder soup that is in next weeks meal plan!) & Holiday home house touring to go today!

 

I tried to make the first meal for next week a lighter meal that is super easy to make since everyone is probably a little tired of being in the kitchen! The first three meals are actually very light and easy meals.

 

Sunday- Baked Potato Bar

Monday- Creamy Cauliflower Chowder

Tuesday- Appetizers

 

Our family has a tree decorating tradition every year. Instead of having a full dinner when we decorate the tree, we have appetizers! It is a fun way to make it feel like a party atmosphere and for us to slow down while we are decorating the tree to enjoy the moment. We munch then hang a few ornaments, munch again and hang some more ornaments. With all the appetizers set out on our coffee table it is an easy way to eat and decorate at the same time! Even if you don’t decorate your tree, appetizer night is a fun way to get in some of those party appetizers we love but never make on a normal night.

You can pick and choose what is easy and what your family loves for Appetizer night. I take the girls to the grocery store and let them pick out a sweet treat that they love. My eldest picked Milano cookies, my my middle child hasn’t decided yet and my youngest daughter picked chips ahoy brownie cookies. These are snacks that we never buy so it is a treat for them and mom gets a break in the kitchen!

My husband and I pick the appetizers and every year we stick with shrimp cocktail (my favorite!) and select specialty cheeses and summer sausage (my husband’s favorite!). I also buy the fancy Christmas ribbon candy that serves as a gluten free sweet treat for me, but my kids love them as well!

This year I am adding pickle roll ups to our appetizer list. Notice that all of our appetizers are no bake. I do this purposefully because it just makes a somewhat chaotic event a little less crazy! The pickle roll ups are so easy! Buy Budding beef, cream cheese (whipped makes it super easy) and dill pickle spears. Spread cream cheese on a slice of budding beef, place a dill pickle on the beef and cream cheese, roll it up and then slice into bite sized pieces! Yum!

 

What about the rest of the week’s meal plan?

Wednesday- Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole (for some reason I am craving a casserole and this looks super easy!)

Thursday- Traditional Pot Roast (sounds intimidating, but it is oh so easy!)

Friday- Pot Roast Horseshoe (using the leftovers from Thursday to make a horseshoe)

Saturday- We leave Saturday off our meal plan list to give you a night for leftovers, eating out or the spontaneous change up in meal plan! Feel free to move around the recipes in our meal plan to suite your family’s schedule this week.

 

Click the image below to print off the meal plan & grocery list for this week!

The meal plan has the title linked to the recipe. Click on the recipe title and it will take you to the recipe where you can click and print. You can also save the meal plan on your computer and just go to the recipe each day instead of printing. Lastly, if you are a member of Plan to Eat (see sidebar) you can save each of these in your Plan to Eat calendar.