Thanksgiving Menu Planner - A Bountiful Love

Thanksgiving Menu Planner

 Two more weeks and it's Thanksgiving day! While 2020 had been full of ups and downs, confusion and convictions, unity and separation...months quickly passed by. I hope that even though we do not know what the holidays will look like and not certain of what the next year will look like, I hope that you will still find joy in this season. Holidays may look a whole lot different this year but there is always something to be grateful for. Let it be a good "challenge" in terms of creativity. Last Halloween, I was impressed with the resourcefulness of several churches and communities. We went to a couple of Halloween drive-through just to see their inventiveness, the girls ended up having a blast.  

 I don't know about you but in our household, we are going to try something new. When my girls were babies and young, we like to keep Thanksgiving dinner simple. It is always, A. we order a pre-cooked Thanksgiving dinner and B. we spend it over our family or friend's house. Both are memorable and fun. We even once had our Thanksgiving dinner at Macaroni Grill! That was awesome too. This year, it will just be the four of us celebrating Thanksgiving in our home, and (drum roll) we will be cooking our Thanksgiving dinner.

 My husband and I think that it is time to make those special memories in the kitchen with our girls. They are now in that age range ( 8 and turning 11 soon) where they can help and make something in the kitchen. Each one of us is responsible for one recipe to make with our guidance of course. It will be fun, something new, and I can't wait to build these new memories with them.

  

Though we had a solid plan as to how we want to celebrate our Thanksgiving day, I still do not have it on pen and paper. Yes, you have read that right! This mama still functions on an old school pen and paper. Technology (known as our cellphones)  is great and helpful but there just some habits that I'd like to keep. There are plenty of free printables for a menu plan out there with beautiful designs. However, some have too many pages or categories that I do not need. Some utilize too much ink (frugality is still in style) and some menu plan printables require a subscription meaning you need to sign-up on their email list to be able to get the freebie. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, it's just there are times that you may just want the printable-no strings attached.

 So I made my own Thanksgiving menu planner. Simple and straight to the point. The first page lets you plan our meals.



The second page lets you write and organize your shopping list per category.


 
Page 3 continues with the pantry category that will include all your canned goods, baking, and any pantry essentials). I have also included the NOTES section. I try to simplify my shopping and shop at one grocery store only but sometimes some of the items may not be available in one store. I use the notes section to write the items that I need to grab at another grocery store. 


The next page is the TO DO section, as we all know that the secret to a stress-free great Thanksgiving meal or gathering involves days of prepping ahead. It can be cutting/chopping ingredients ahead of time, thawing your turkey, or any housekeeping you need to do before Thanksgiving. This section only has 4 sections for 4 dates but you can print as many as you need if you needed more than 4 days.


The last page is the NOTES section. As you can see, the whole page is just for notes. Consider this page as your "brain dump" page or a reminder page. You can use this page to organize your recipe notes-- which cookbook or website you found the recipe. This page can also be used for jotting down tweaks on a recipe. I sometimes follow a recipe but I try to change or add some ingredients to make it my own. Just like the TO DO section, print this page as many as you need.



As promised, you do not need to sign-up to receive this free printable (though I will appreciate it if you choose to sign-up for my monthly newsletter). If you decide to share this printable, I only ask that you share this exact blog post link where you found the free printable. 

Google Drive

Adobe PDF



If you have any problems or trouble downloading this printable, feel free to leave me a message here or on any of my social platforms and I'll gladly send it to your email.


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NEXT READ:

The Best Crockpot Mac and Cheese







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