What I Spent
I spent:
- $42 at Safeway
And that’s it.
seasonally colored fungus 🙂
Mainly, I was trying to stay out of the stores because I hate the pre-Thanksgiving crowds! I’ll do a trip this coming weekend instead, when everyone will be shopping at retail stores, not grocery stores.
What We Ate
Saturday
Zoe wasn’t here, and I made myself some sauteed fish and also some sauteed broccoli.
Sunday
I made those ham and Swiss sandwiches Zoe likes so much, plus a green salad.
Monday
Zoe was at work doing a closing shift, and when I got home from work, I heated up some squash soup and made a grilled cheese sandwich to go with it.
Tuesday
I got home pretty late from work, and I just ate some cottage cheese with fruit and called it good.
Sometimes, I’m just too tired to do anything more!
Wednesday
It was an unusually warm day, so I grilled some burgers, and we ate those with a fruit salad and some potato chips.
Thursday
We don’t like turkey, so I opted for roasted chicken instead.
But we do not ever skip honey-glazed rolls at my house.
Honestly, these are more important than whatever meat is served. 😉
My college girl ended up getting scheduled to work the day before and the day after Thanksgiving, so she couldn’t make it here, but she DID make a batch of honey-glazed rolls to take to her friend’s house.
I seem to have produced future generations of honey-glazed roll makers. 😉
Friday
I’m working a 12-hour shift today (good thing I’m not a Black Friday shopper!!). A friend of mine is working too, and she suggested we meet up after work for dinner. So that’s my dinner plan. : )
Joyce
Monday 1st of December 2025
I used your "Basic Roll" recipe for Thanksgiving. My kids LOVE them!. They took the remaining rolls home. :)
Elaine T
Saturday 29th of November 2025
The rolls always look so amazing. I gave away my stand mixer due to space so I may need to find another way to knead them. I flew in from Hawaii to NY on a red eye on Wednesday morning and started gathering ingredients to make this soup which I googled https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/ginger-chicken-soup/. And it turned out to be delicious and a healthy way to get back to normal life. I packed it up for working Thursday Friday Monday and Tuesday. Sunday will be when my family does Thanksgiving. My hospital gave out $50 gift certificates which we could redeem at several online sites. I chose Amazon and treated myself to a few holiday scented candles which I have been wanting and was considering splurging for.
Jan
Friday 28th of November 2025
We don't have Aldis where we live, we mostly shop at Trader Joe's, paper goods, cleaning supplies, and things like olive oil from Costco, and we get a twice monthly CSA. We fill in occasionally with a Safeway that is only a few blocks from our home.
Unfortunately, Safeway has become problematic. Their prices are high and their quality has really gone downhill. My husband bought a bag of "fresh" cranberries late last week under their store brand. When I reached my hand in the bag, a finger stuck through a rotten, moldy cranberry. There were many in the bag, along with many that had turned to raisins, and many white (not ripe) cranberries. I had to sort through the entire 1 lb bag before making cranberry sauce. This is not an isolated thing. The quality of their produce and meat has gone steadily downhill, but the prices have gone UP.
Whole Foods 365 brand is competitive with Safeway's prices, and the quality is always very good, plus they have sale items. And a local chain is upscale and pricey with excellent organic produce, but offers a 10% senior discount on Wednesdays, so we get some things there to fill in for the endless giant heads of cauliflower and cabbage our CSA always provides.
I don't like turkey either! We splurged on an organic, pasture-raised chicken of a pretty good size and had a lovely meal. Our CSA gives us HUGE carrots (my husband calls the "Chernobyl Carrots" even though they are organic) They are sweet as sugar, and taste like REAL carrots. I made a carrot souffle that was so sweet my kids swore it was sweet potatoes WITH marshmallows (nope although there was vanilla and added sugar--I only added half of the sugar called for in the recipe). One and 1/2 carrots weighed out at 1.5 POUNDS! Husband made a pumpkin pie but substituted half and half for sweetened condensed milk and forgot to add some sugar, so my kids ate the carrot souffle for dessert! LOL!!!
Geneva
Friday 28th of November 2025
Friday: My husband made Rosemary Mushroom Chicken with a side of mashed potatoes and grilled Caesar salad as a thank you dinner for some friends. The husband of the couple made us some lovely shelves for our basement bar and installed them on Friday night. We paid him because he runs a small business, but a thank you dinner is always fun.
Saturday: We hosted my husband’s business partners and spouses. There was a request for my Jambalaya which I paired with cornbread, homemade pimento cheese spread, and mini mandarin cheesecakes.
Sunday: Aldi pizza
Monday: Golden Orzo Chicken and Corn Soup – my husband was feeling under the weather and requested brothy soup.
Tuesday: Three Cheese Zucchini Stuffed Lasagna Rolls – pulled from the freezer
Wednesday: Leftover Orzo Chicken Soup
Thursday: Thanksgiving – Pork tenderloin (we aren’t turkey fans), mashed potatoes, stuffing, sauteed green beans, roasted carrots, gravy! My in-laws brought the rolls, my parents brought the pies, and I forgot the cranberries in the fridge. We eat around 1pm so that everyone can drive home before the sun sets before 5pm. We made Costco’s cauliflower crust frozen pizza at 6pm since we sent everyone home with most of the leftovers.
Michelle S. in California
Friday 28th of November 2025
I always read everyone's comments but have rarely commented, so l'm trying to be better about it!
I spent 3 days pressure canning various types of beans, plus a batch of beef stew. So guess what we ate a lot of ? Beans. Haha.
Before l started canning, l made a big pot of pinto and black beans to have on hand for quick meals. We had beans and rice with salad on the side, bean burritos, with cut up raw veggies on the side, and bean tacos with fruit on three separate days.
I had three pint jars of garbanzo beans not seal, so l made a big batch of hummus with them, and we had hummus with pita bread, veggies and fruit one night, plus extra for lunches and snacks.
My husband brought home a rotisserie chicken from Costco, so l made stock with the bones, a big batch of chicken, vegetable and rice soup, and kept aside half the chicken to use for sandwiches and chicken salad.
It was the first Thanksgiving we didn't have our daughter with us, as she was in Hawaii meeting her boyfriend's family, so instead of me sitting home and crying, Lol, we went camping at the beach and ate fish and chips for Thanksgiving. It was different, but we had a nice time. And our daughter is having a blast in Hawaii, so that makes us happy.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!