Traditional AKA Boring Thanksgiving Dinner

Every year, I make the same basic, traditional (AKA, boooooring) Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, pie. Last year I think I did something REALLY exciting and made deviled eggs, woohooo. I love the holiday, but when it comes to the feast, I am horribly dull and uncreative. I think may do something REALLY wild and get canned pie mix or something! How’s that!? Yeah, I think it’s about as exciting as free online dating, too, mmhmmmmm…

I don’t know why my brain just goes tilt when holiday meals roll around. I’m honestly not much of a “foodie.” I like plain meals. I LOVE turkey and my mouth is watering just thinking of having that… but I never liked making (or eating) the very fancy-schmancy meals that grace the table like a work of art. It seems that it’s a burden to cook on the holidays. Like everyone else, I want to relax and sit down and just BE QUIET without running around, working on stuff. But the holidays is a lot of cooking, lots more cleaning, and by the time I can sit down, folks are ready to go. :-p

What about you? Do you like to cook up a big storm? Do you make amazing dishes for the holidays? If so, do you want to cater my holiday meal, LOL?

I guess I’m just not domestic enough for it. I prefer to hang with the guys, talking about tools and politics and hunting and stuff.

Super Fast Meals for Busy Families

As much as I regale the marvels of fresh, non-processed foods, I do serve them. A little TOO frequently, in my opinion. Oh, we’ve made some advances, but no way do we eat salads and fruit slices all day. Wow, that’s actually a TON of work, time I wish I had, lol! So we do eat “ready made” meals sometimes. Because school has begun and tis’ the season for winter preparation and the onset of the holidays, I thought I’d share a few of my “Quicky Meals,” as I call them. They are great for throwing together in a hurry when you suddendly realize dinner has to be on the table in an hour and you have nothing thawed!!!

1. Pasta with frozen meatballs.

Sometimes I skip the meatballs and throw leftover cubed chicken (when we have it) and pesto sauce. Pesto sauce is SOOO good and a little jar goes a long way.

2. Chicken with shrimp and pasta.

I wrote about this recipe here; I call it Easy Shrimp & Chicken Garlic Pasta. It does require some preparation, but not much!

3. Greek Salad with flat bread.

We love this one. It requires almost no cooking (if you serve shrimp, you have to cook it or thaw the pre-cooked stuff). It does require a lot of table setting (a zillion jars of stuff). I wrote a post about some of our favorite salad ingredients here.

4. Tuna Casserole Sans Peas

I hate peas! So my tuna casserole has nary a one. I love tuna casserole because it can be on the table in about 90 minutes. The hardest thing about it pre-cooking the pasta and trying to shake the gravity-sealed cream of celery soup out of the cans. Here’s our favorite recipe for Easy Non-Peas-y Tuna Casserole.

5. Crockpot Manhattan Clam Chowder

This is a great one if you have 15 minutes to spare in the morning. Pre-cook the sausage or crumble the breakfast bacon leftovers into the crockpot, and throw in a bunch of ingredients. Allow it to simmer all day. By dinnertime, the house will smell delicious. Clean up is SO easy, too. My personal favorite is my own recipe, Manhattan Clam and Fish Chowder.

6. Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa

I love this, but the kids have grown out of it. I don’t know WHAT it is about edamame, it makes me feel like superwoman after eating it. It’s just so good. The kielbasa is a little salty and too flabby for me, though. I think the edamame with the tortellini or just the edamame is good enough. I have the recipe here: Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa.

7. Leftover Turkey Pasta Primavera

This is an AMAZING dish, perfect for after the holidays when your fridge is stuffed with leftover turkey. I love it because it is so easy and so delicious. Check out my recipe here.

These are the few recipes in my repertoire that I use for those moments of OHMYGOSHIFORGOTTOSTARTDINNER. Which, incidentally, are occurring a LITTLE too often for my tastes. But I’ve been clobbered with writing assignments with such technical topics like Technical Recruiter Consultant Jobs and electric wiring!

Hey, if you have any Quicky Meals that you want to share, please do! I think the family is starting to tire of my repertoire, lol.