Thanksgiving 2022

Our new refrigerator was supposed to be delivered last week, after weeks of our slowly consuming the contents of our current previously full fridge, but it still isn't in stock yet. The store we ordered it from says it'll hopefully arrive before the end of the month. It's just two days till Thanksgiving now, so I think it's safe to assume the new fridge won't arrive until after the holiday. Time to go shopping and start cooking.

For breakfast on Thanksgiving morning, Sameer wants to make Cheesy Amish Casserole. I bought Morningstar crumbles to go in place of the bacon. I also plan to add a diced green bell pepper for flavor. We can eat this while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV.

Tomorrow night (Thanksgiving Eve) we're having nachos because it's easy and yields no leftovers. I'm including it in this meal plan so I get all the ingredients I need at the store today. We didn't end up making this last week, so I think I just need to pick up some guacamole from the Whole Foods.

Last year I ended up doing a lot of extra cooking on Thanksgiving just because I was bored and felt like it. We'd like to eat those same items, but it seems like a big commitment, so I'm dividing this year's recipes into "must do's" and "may do's." If I have the energy and desire, I'll make the may do's, but they are at the lowest priority level and can be made over the following days as necessary.

 

 

Must Do

Crudites with Homemade Ranch Dressing
For lunch and noshing on till dinner time.

 

Gardein Turkey Cutlets with Gravy 

I already found a bag of these at the grocery store a few days ago, which makes me very happy.

 

Green Bean Casserole

 

Easy One-Hour Dinner Rolls

Sameer picked out this recipe to make himself.

 

Stuffed Mushrooms with Horseradish Cream Sauce

 

Cheesy Creamed Corn

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

 

Whipped Sweet Potatoes

I bought a bag of sweet potatoes a few days ago. I'm just going to bake them and then peel and whip them in the standing mixer. No additional ingredients, same as always. It's nothing fancy, but it's healthy and I like it.

Candied Pears

Pumpkin Pie

I think I'm just going to buy a pie at the store today because I don't like making pumpkin pie and I don't care what it tastes like because it's always the worst part of the entire meal in my opinion. My family cannot tell the difference and doesn't care where it comes from as long as we have it.

Cinnamon Ice Cream

May Do

Buttermilk Cornbread

Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

Seared French Beans with Caper Bagna Cauda

Cherry Pie Wontons

I made this last year without a recipe, but here is a recipe for the cherry pie filling. This is assuming I can find frozen tart cherries at the store.

Apple Pie Filling

Because I could make apple pie wontons too. Or maybe an apple crisp with to serve with leftover cinnamon ice cream over the weekend.

Cream Cheese and Green Onion Wontons

I just made these last year to use up some wonton wrappers and because I love to eat them, but everyone felt they were a great addition to snack on ahead of dinner. I think they had forgotten how delicious a fried wonton wrapper filled with cheese is.

 

We are going to have a vast amount of Thanksgiving leftovers, especially if I make all the may do's listed, but we always finish them off within a couple of days, ever since I started limiting my holiday cooking to things I really love to eat (e.g., no more stuffing or cranberry Waldorf salad) . Last year I made vegan lentil loaf the next night to eat with the rest of the sides since the Gardein turkey cutlets yield little to nothing in the way of leftovers. I plan to do the same this year. We already have plans to get takeout from Simran's favorite pizzeria next Saturday night, so we should be set for meals throughout next weekend.

Meal Planning

I can make a couple more dinners out of what I've got on hand, but I'm planning to go to Whole Foods tomorrow, so I want to have a multi-day meal plan I can shop while I'm there. I didn't make the barley vegetable soup yet, so I've still got everything to do with that. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and starting to get cooler again, so maybe the soup and sandwiches from the fresh bread I'm going to buy. Here is what else I'm making:

Sandwiches and Vegetable Barley Soup

I still have mozzarella and cream cheese that could easily become grilled cheese. I also have vegan Swiss cheese and vegan butter and veg turkey, lettuce, and tomatoes that could become the garlic bread sandwiches. Or club sandwiches. I might do soup and sandwiches two different nights, with different soups and different sandwiches. I just need a loaf of bread to make these two dinners.

[Vegetable barley soup and garlic bread sandwich with veg turkey etc. I made these Saturday night. Sim had "pizza sandwich" (veg pepperoni and cheese on garlic bread) and the soup. I tossed the last of the green beans from the freezer into the soup. Friday night we had grilled cheese and tomato soup.]

 

Breakfast Burrito with sausage

Haven't made this one in the past week. Still using up sausages from the freezer. I'm planning to do this one tonight for dinner for Sim and me. This might use up the potatoes in the pantry.

Lasagna and Garlic Bread and Green Salad

I could use up the last of my mixed greens and some of the salad dressing from the fridge making salad, and any sourdough leftover from sandwiches could become garlic bread. There is an open jar of pizza sauce in the fridge that could be dumped into the lasagna. Maybe the kalamata olives too. Why not. I also have a bag of cut spinach in the fridge, half of which could probably fit into a lasagna.

Tofu Provencal and Brown Basmati Rice Pilaf and Some Kind of Veggie Side

Because I'm still working on finishing off the capers currently in the fridge.

 

Falafel

Because I have half a jar of tahini and a full container of cashew yogurt in my fridge, and a falafel dinner could use up part of those. I really only need to buy parsley, pita bread, and a cucumber or two for this.

 

Spiced Spinach Tofu Stir-Fry and Brown Basmati Rice

To use up the remainder of the frozen spinach and some if not all of the cashew yogurt. I really just need some fresh spinach and some tofu to make this.

 

Nachos

It's a fun junk food dinner, and it can use up the last vestiges of cheese and pickled jalapeno from the fridge. Might put this one off until closer to fridge delivery date, especially since it doesn't yield leftovers.

Cherry Chocolate Chia Pudding 

Still need to use up some more dark cherries from the freezer (there's at least one bag left), but I need to buy more dates first.

 

Chocolate Banana Shake

Because it uses up the bananas in the freezer. It's also a nutritious way to offset a chocolate craving since it's just unsweetened soy milk, frozen bananas, and unsweetened cocoa powder. 

Meal Planning

Time for meal planning again. Here is what I've got to use up (I'm getting into the jarred items in the fridge now): veg pepperoni, veg turkey, frozen homemade veg sausage patties, frozen tofu cubes, artichoke hearts, capers, roasted garlic hummus, baby carrots, celery, frozen spinach, frozen peas, frozen green beans, frozen diced red and green bell peppers, pickles, cornichons, pickled jalapenos, pickle relish, vegan kimchi, and kalamata olives. There are obviously some other condiments still in the fridge, but these are the bigger and/or more specialized items that I don't think deserve to be moved to coolers while we change refrigerators. We also have a bunch of frozen bananas, pancakes, and waffles, but we tend to go through those quickly. Here is what I'm making:

 

Creole Red Beans & Rice

I can use the frozen diced bell peppers in this. I already have the rice, dry beans, and a can of Rotel, so I don't need to buy anything. 

 

Lemon Butter Pasta with Artichoke Hearts & Capers 

This is going to use up my artichoke hearts and some of my capers. I just need to buy a couple shallots, and I'm going to get the Gardein frozen cutlet things that can be made into chik'n piccata. Maybe Friday night for this one.

 

Sandwiches and Vegetable Barley Soup

I'd like to make some garlic bread sandwiches with the veg turkey, vegan cheese slices, and lettuce, tomato, veg bacon, and mayo. Just because I love those sandwiches. I can also make "pizza sandwich" for Simran from the same garlic bread, veg pepperoni, and the mozzarella currently in the fridge. I haven't made this soup in ages, but it's easy and will use up some more of my vegetables and the pearled barley in my pantry, and I can also use it for lunches and serve it with other dinners this week. I think I just need a zucchini to make the soup.

Breakfast Burrito with sausage

I still have so much homemade veg sausage in the freezer, plus russet potatoes in the pantry. I just need tofu to make this. And some tomatoes, which I'm getting anyway for sandwiches. This could be a night Sameer is fasting.

 

Tofu & Veggie Stir-fry and Rice or Noodles

This will use up the container of frozen cubed tofu as well as some of the random vegetables. I didn't list my bags of frozen broccoli because they are the steam-in-bag kind I can prepare and finish off in one meal. I can use one up on this. I also have a big container of Bragg's liquid aminos in the fridge that I forgot to include on my list above that I'd like to use.

Buddha Bowl

Just for my lunches. This will use the kimchi, some of the baby carrots in the fridge, and the broccoli sprouts I've been growing this past week. If I have any kimchi leftover by the time the new fridge is about to arrive, I'll just eat it straight from the jar.

Beyond Hot Dogs and French Beans with Caper Bagna Cauda

If I make this early in the meal plan, I can make the garlic bread for sandwiches out of the remaining hot dog buns. I'm making this to use up some more of the condiments and pickle relish on the hot dogs, as well as the capers on the green beans. Maybe Saturday night.

Additional Meal Planning

So far since the last meal plan we've made the spiced spinach tofu, the grilled cheese and tomato soup, the yellow rice (Sameer and I split it for lunch), waffles, and the cherry chocolate chia pudding. Yesterday I made a quadruple batch of breakfast sausage patties to use up some of the TVP and oat bran currently in my freezer, and I ended up making McDonald's style sausage egg and cheese biscuits for dinner. I used up some of the buttermilk leftover from the waffles to make biscuits. 

 

Today I made a double batch of pancakes to use up the last of the cashew yogurt. The extra sausages and pancakes can survive fine in ziploc bags in the freezer, and I'm sure they'll all be eaten before the new fridge arrives in a month.

I stopped by Pete's today and bought a few groceries because I needed fresh bread to go with the Shakshuka that I'm making for dinner tonight. Tomorrow Sim and I will eat various leftovers for dinner. Wednesday I'm planning to make French Onion Skillet Lasagna. Thursday (another fast day for Sameer) will either be more leftovers or breakfast burritos with the vegan breakfast sausage patties (I just need to buy potatoes) or some kind of sandwiches if I have bread to use up after today. I could make Tofu Pot Pie on Friday night. Sameer wants to make scrambled eggs and roasted tomatoes soon, so maybe I can get him to make that Saturday night since I hate cooking on Saturdays. We could have some of the pancakes or waffles with those too. Sunday could be Creole Red Beans & Rice since I have some diced bell pepper in the freezer to use up. Monday could potentially be my second attempt of the corn risotto (link is to post with my notes rather than the original recipe), which would use up the additional frozen corn I've unearthed (there was so much corn hidden in my freezer), some of the arborio rice in my pantry, and the last of the white wine in my fridge, which I opened the last time I made this risotto. I started making smoked paprika oil today, so theoretically it'll be ready next Monday. I just need a zucchini to make this. I also now have red kale, fresh avocado, cooked black beans, and date syrup leftover from making cherry chocolate chia pudding yesterday, so I need to make that kale salad recipe from The How Not to Die Cookbook, either for my lunch or to go with a dinner. Maybe tomorrow night.

The kale salad. I didn't love it. I added the last of my vegan blue cheese after I took this pic and that improved it, but now I'm out of vegan blue cheese. It's a really healthy salad though, especially without the vegan blue cheese. I have enough of the components leftover to make it at least twice more.

Friday night dessert after I made tofu pot pie. The base is just the leftover pie crust cut into cookie-sized triangles and baked. I melted some Justin's chocolate hazelnut spread (like Nutella but vegan and better quality) in the microwave and spooned some on, then topped with fresh raspberries. It's nothing special, but Sim loves it and it requires almost no additional effort.

Second attempt at corn risotto. You can see the smoked paprika oil. It didn't add as much as I expected it to, but I think using like half a cup of vegan parmesan was a good call, as was vastly increasing the amount of veg topping I made. I used one cup of arborio rice and all the corn in my freezer. I didn't even attempt to measure it. I'm eating the last of the leftovers for lunch now. I didn't even save the leftovers last time, so I think this means it was better.

Meal Planning

It's Friday. Time for some meal planning. Last weekend we ordered takeout one night only to discover when I arrived for pickup that the restaurant was closed (thanks, online ordering system), so I'm going to assume I have to cook all the meals this weekend. And we're going to Bengtson's Pumpkin Patch tomorrow, so I'm going to assume I'll be exhausted when it's time to cook dinner tomorrow night.

Here is what I have to use up in the fridge/freezer: green kale, baby carrots, sliced cucumber, leftover cooked white rice, cashew yogurt, frozen red bell pepper slices, frozen cubed tofu, a few eggs, the better part of a loaf of sourdough bread, more frozen corn, a small amount of frozen green beans and some frozen peas, and some bags of frozen dark sweet cherries. Here is what I'm making:

Spiced Spinach Tofu Stir-Fry and Brown Basmati Rice

For dinner tonight. There is one piece of garlic naan left in the freezer, which I can give to Sim. This will finish off the cashew yogurt with a best by date of today. I might sneak the green kale into this alongside the spinach and see if anyone can tell. I will also make mango sorbet from a can of mango puree in my pantry because it's a nice dessert that always makes Simran happy. [Edited 10/16/2022: I did put the entire bunch of green kale in this dish. It was like 50% kale, and I reserved the rest of the spinach for the shakshuka and skillet lasagna. No one said a word. I honestly couldn't taste the difference.]

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Saturday night dinner. Because it's easy and we like it, and it'll use up a bunch of the sourdough loaf because it's sandwiches. We already have garlic aioli in the fridge from last time I made grilled cheese.

Yellow Rice

To use up the leftover white rice in the fridge. I need to buy more cashew yogurt to make this. This can be lunches or part of dinner. It'll probably yield two bowlfuls.

Waffles

Sameer wants to make waffles from two of the eggs. He also wants to make scrambled eggs and stewed tomatoes, so maybe we can have brinner one night.

Shakshuka 

I'm going to buy another dozen eggs today to use in this. Maybe Sunday night. I can serve any remaining sourdough bread toasted with this.

Hard-Boiled Eggs

From the remainder of the eggs. For general snacking type purposes.

 

French Onion Skillet Lasagna  

Just because I have a bunch of lasagna noodles in my pantry. May or may not happen in the next week, so I'll buy the mushrooms when I know for sure.

 

Tofu Pot Pie

This would use up some of the frozen green beans, peas, and corn. Not necessarily this week, but I can usually make this with exclusively ingredients I have on hand. 

 

Cherry Chocolate Chia Pudding 

This is why I have those dark sweet cherries in the freezer to begin with, so I may as well make this. 

Meal Planning

I've only made like three meals since I posted last, but I need to buy at least a few groceries to make much of anything else, so I'm meal planning for the rest of the week. Here is what I'm making:

Lasagna

I think this will be tonight. It'll create plenty of leftovers for Sim and I to have for dinner again tomorrow night when Sameer is fasting.

Buffalo Tofu Salad

 

Hearty Veggie Hoagies    

If I make these Wednesday, I'll have a more reasonable amount of pesto to use up on the alfredo pesto primavera. It'll also use up part of my red bell pepper and one of the red onions in my pantry. Any leftover veg can either go into the primavera dish or be served plain (e.g., the sliced cucumber). Wednesday is also slated to be the warmest day for a long time, and I don't want to have to turn on the air conditioner in October.

Alfredo Pesto Primavera

Maybe Saturday night because it's really easy.

Corn Risotto

I'm going to make this oil infused with smoked paprika because I feel like the dish we had at Althea contained something like that. I think it said "herb oil" in the menu but it was red like a chili oil and I remember some kind of smoky flavor in the dish. So I'm trying this and just seeing what happens. I'm also buying a zucchini to serve grilled and on top of this and any leftover zucchini can go in the primavera dish.

[Edited 10/7/2022: I made this tonight. I reduced the arborio rice to 1.5 cups without adjusting the liquids and it still required the addition of a couple more cups of liquid (the last of the cashew cream and broth plus as much soy milk as it took) to make it a risotto consistency at the end. I don't have a lot of experience making risotto though, so maybe I did something wrong. Either way, stirring in the extra liquids at the end was fine. I used vegan parmesan from the grocery store and subbed homemade cashew cream (raw cashews + water in a high speed blender) for the heavy cream. I also tossed in a couple lemons worth of zest that I'd stashed in my freezer just because it seemed like a good idea. In place of the fresh corn, I used about four cups of frozen corn I had wanted to clear out of the freezer. I had to omit the infused oil because it apparently takes at least a week to make, and I didn't start that far in advance. For the vegetables on top, I cut up a zucchini and a couple of tomatoes and cooked them in a dry skillet on medium high heat to get a general roasted effect quickly and easily. I seasoned them with salt, fresh ground black pepper, and smoked paprika. They were the highlight of the entire dish. If I make this again, I want to make sure to do the smoked paprika infused oil drizzle and a full sheet pan of roasted zucchini and tomatoes. I would also reduce the rice to 1 cup. I would also top with some microgreens for color and texture like they did at Althea.

Meal Planning

It's Friday morning and it's week #2 of meal planning to clear out the fridge. Here are the things I am aiming to get rid of next: roasted garlic (I roasted two bulbs to make last week's garlicky mac 'n cheese, but you can put roasted garlic in practically anything), fresh broccoli (I bought a bagful to eat with my homemade vegan ranch dip), baby carrots & hummus, a red bell pepper, vegan blue cheese (best by date of next week), 2 avocados, Kalamata olives, pesto, random vegan cheeses, random dairy cheeses, vegan meat crumbles that have been in the freezer for ages, a scant amount of 2% milk leftover from Sameer's mom's visit, and a bunch of frozen corn. Last week I was overly ambitious and ended up cooking too many meals since Sameer just restarted intermittent fasting, and I ended up with slightly more leftovers than we could finish. Here is what I'm planning to make this week:  

Vegan Lentil Quinoa Loaf and Boxed Mashed Potatoes and Veggie Sides

This lentil loaf is good and easy and uses up a bunch of random stuff I keep on hand. I'm mostly making it to go with the mashed potatoes, which will use up the last of the 2% milk. Veggie sides might include the fresh broccoli, baby carrots, and potentially something from the frozen corn. I should probably make this tonight.

 

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Simran and I have been planning a "cozy spooky movie night" for the last couple of weeks. The plan is to eat grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, in addition to movie night snacks and possibly fresh baked cookies, and watch "Hocus Pocus 2" while snuggling under warm blankets. We're making a whole thing of it. The sandwiches will use up a bunch of the random dairy cheeses, and I could toss some of the roasted garlic into the soup. This will be Saturday night.

 

[We ended up making a cookie cake and vanilla buttercream frosting.]

 

 

Lasagna

This will use up some of the dairy cheese, the vegan meat crumbles, and some if not all of the spinach in the freezer. I can also stash any leftover lasagna in the freezer for future dinners.

Buffalo Tofu Salad

This is the only way I eat blue cheese, so I need to make this for some of my lunches / Sameer's fasting nights to use up the vegan blue cheese.

Alfredo Pesto Primavera

I can toss any random fresh veg into this, along with some of the pesto to make the sauce, and some of my frozen veg as well. I'll be opening a package of cream cheese currently in my cheese drawer to make the grilled cheese sandwiches tomorrow, and the alfredo sauce could potentially finish it off too, as well as the roasted garlic. I also have way too many boxes of dry pastas in the pantry at the moment. Clearing out the pantry isn't my focal point right now the way my fridge/freezer is, but it's always nice to clear it out enough to know at a glance what precisely is in there.

Corn Risotto

Sameer and I went to Althea in Chicago for lunch a week or two ago, and they served a really fantastic corn risotto (and I'm not usually that into risotto). It reminded me more of high end grits than risotto. I have no idea how to replicate it at present, but I'm bookmarking this link to use as a jumping off point. The Althea version had an herb-infused oil and maybe a smoked paprika flavor and featured grilled zucchini, tomatoes, and microgreens on top. It was a very summery vibe, but I mostly want to try this to use up the arborio rice in my pantry and the vast amount of corn in my freezer. I will NOT be adhering strictly to the recipe because I don't want to buy fresh corn or heavy cream (I expect to substitute a homemade cashew cream because that's easy), so it won't be truly representative of the recipe at all. It'll also be vegan. This might end up being a side to go with the lentil loaf, or I might just make it another week.

I ended up making spaghetti with vegan meat sauce, garlic bread, and steamed broccoli for dinner Sunday. It wasn't pre-planned, but it's easy, and I had less than an hour to work with when I finally started making dinner. It used up some of the aforementioned cache of dry pasta, a jar of marinara from my pantry, half of the vegan meat crumbles from the freezer, my last yellow onion, the tiniest slices of bread from the sourdough loaf I bought for making grilled cheese Saturday night, and the remainder of the fresh broccoli from the fridge.