pepperoni pizza

Make kid-friendly simple meals that are easy to fix for the whole family on Thanksgiving week. Meal planning for this holiday week involves more than just preparing time-consuming traditional recipes for the big turkey day. Enjoy quick and easy-to-fix recipes for the entire family.

Surprise your children who are out of school this week with fun foods that are filling and nutritious. Save at least one day during their time off to have a big breakfast together. Or, let each child decide the breakfast choice one morning.

Grocery List for Week of Thanksgiving

Make your grocery list for the week of Thanksgiving ahead of time. Think of easy meals to cook before the big day, and include any ingredients for those on your grocery list. If you have kids at home, ask them to help you make lunch each day before Thanksgiving Day.

I’m sure you already are planning what you’ll be cooking for the holiday, but here’s a head start on a grocery list. This list includes items for side dishes as well.

  1. Sweet potatoes: Make a sweet potato pie, sweet potato casserole, bake sweet potato slices, or boil the potatoes.
  2. Canned pumpkin or a fresh pumpkin (for pumpkin bars, pumpkin pie)
  3. Cranberry sauce (the Southern must-have for chicken and dressing)
  4. Pecans (for pecan pie)
  5. Turkey breast lunchmeat (for an easy meal during the holiday week)
  6. Cornbread stuffing: See my delicious Southern Cornbread Dressing with Chicken recipe.
  7. Cornbread mix: Either buy two cornbread mix packets or a package of cornmeal.
  8. Milk and eggs for the cornbread. Buy lots of eggs because you’ll need them for pies, desserts, and deviled eggs.
  9. Whole turkey (unless you plan to cook ham)
  10. Apples (for an apple pie)
  11. Pie crust
  12. Dinner rolls (Oh, and don’t forget butter.)
  13. Cans of corn (for a corn casserole)
  14. Green beans for the green bean casserole
  15. Brussels sprouts: It’s a great side. See this recipe, Stove Top Roasted Brussels Sprouts.
  16. Butternut squash soup ingredients
  17. Fresh salad ingredients
  18. Irish or red potatoes to make creamy mashed potatoes
  19. Green vegetable if you prefer something other than Brussels sprouts, green beans, or salad
  20. Fresh fruit for the week
  21. Paper plates, plastic cups
  22. Chicken tacos
  23. Stovetop Mac
  24. Containers for Thanksgiving leftovers

The main thing to plan is good food for everyone during the week of Thanksgiving. The easy way to do this is plan an easy Thanksgiving menu. In addition, stick to tried and true or easy recipes.

Game Plan for a Big Feast

Plan early, delegate, and purchase all the ingredients you’ll need ahead of time. Early November, check with each one who plans to bring food for the Thanksgiving feast. Since every family has home cooks of every level, ask each cook to bring their favorite dish.

If you have newlyweds in the family and it’s the first time to help out with Thanksgiving holiday dinner, ask them to make a dessert. Get help with decorating and setting the Thanksgiving table. When you’re cooking the turkey and cooking last minute side dishes on Thursday, time goes by fast. So it’s a good idea to have help with setting the table, making sure nothing is forgotten.

Simple Meals and Make-Ahead Foods for Week of Thanksgiving

If you have young children or grandchildren for the week of Thanksgiving, get them to help with simple meals. Let the kids actually cook the meals on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. They will have fun and be helping you out as well.

Monday night before the holiday, make out a to-do list of anything you need to cook or buy on Tuesday. For example, you can bake the cornbread in advance and boil eggs for deviled eggs.

By Wednesday night, you should have all of your make-ahead foods done because you’ll be crazy busy on Thursday morning.

Breakfast Quick Meal Ideas

Listed below are some easy breakfast quick meal ideas you and your kids might like. They’re also in the cookbook, Simple Summer Recipes. Click on the photo below to order on Amazon:

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Click on the links below to get the recipes.

Serve some of this delicious strawberry milk…

buttermilk
Strawberry Milk

for your kiddos. And for a quick and easy lunch or dinner, try out this Mini Pizza recipe. I made these for my two youngest grandchildren, and they loved the pizza snacks.

Mini Pepperoni English Muffin Pizza Snacks

This is another very easy simple meal the kids and all the family will like:

Pepperoni English Muffin Pizza Snacks

Easy Pepperoni English Muffin Pizza Snacks

Course Snack
Cuisine American
Keyword pizza
Prep Time 7 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 17 minutes
Servings 4
Calories 280 kcal

Ingredients

  • 1/2 Thomas 100-Calorie Multi-Grain English Muffin
  • 1/4 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese Or use one cheese slice per muffin half
  • 1 slice Applegate Naturals Uncured Pepperoni

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 420 degrees.

  2. Cut each English muffin in half.

  3. If using grated cheese, add a handful (about 1/8 cup) to the top of each muffin slice (or use sliced cheese torn in four pieces, three on top of the muffin and save one for the top of the pepperoni).

  4. Add one pepperoni slice on top of cheese.

  5. Add another 1/8 cup grated cheese on top of the pepperoni (or if using sliced cheese, put the fourth piece on top of the pepperoni).

    pepperoni pizza snacks
  6. Bake the pizza muffins for ten minutes (more or less, depending on how fast your oven bakes) - you'll know they are ready when the cheese has melted.

    pepperoni pizza

The mini pizza snack makes a great meal or snack for the whole family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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