Weekly Meal Planning

Is it seriously Thanksgiving week already? This year has just flown by. The baby will be here in a little over a month -- I can't believe it!

I did a pretty decent job of sticking to my meal plan last week. One night we had sandwiches and one night we had sloppy joes instead of what I'd planned to make, but I'm pretty proud of myself for being eight months pregnant and still making at least some effort to make dinner every night. I'm not doing Thanksgiving dinner, so this week should actually be pretty low-stress for me.

Monday: Pasta with creamy spinach and parmesan cheese. I'm taking advantage of Andrew's current tolerance for spinach and trying to add it to our menu whenever I can. He and I will probably both eat the leftovers for lunch until Thanksgiving. The only change I'll make to the recipe is to use bow ties or penne instead of fettucine, because short-cut pastas are easier for Andrew to spear with a fork.

Tuesday: Crispy chicken wraps, potato chips

Wednesday: Sandwiches, potato chips. I want something quick and easy (and something that creates no leftovers) since I'll be busy making pies for Thanksgiving.

Thursday: It's Thanksgiving, so we'll be eating all day long. My contributions this year (and every year) are sweet potato casserole for Joe's family dinner (you'll get the recipe soon, hopefully before Christmas if I can get around to it), and pies for my family dinner (this year they're getting a sweet potato pie with streusel topping and a coconut chocolate pecan pie). I'm also going to try out this cranberry butter on Joe's family, because it sounds too simple and delicious to resist.

Friday: Leftovers. There will be lots.

Saturday: Vegetable lasagna, salad

Sunday: Cream cheese chicken, salad

Weekend Breakfast: Potato cakes made with leftover mashed potatoes, stuffing and turkey, topped with fried eggs. I created this breakfast last year to use up our Thanksgiving leftovers. It's surprisingly delicious, and Joe wanted to make it a yearly tradition, so that's exactly what I'm doing.

Baking: Chocolate chip cream cheese muffins, pumpkin bread, cheesy onion quick bread -- all of which will be frozen for when the baby comes. I'm going to be exhausted and overwhelmed when he arrives, but I am not going to be hungry. (Okay, I'm not going to lie: I can't guarantee that all of the muffins will actually make it to the freezer.)