#94: How to Have a More Meaningful Holiday Meal

Join Riley and Roni for a conversation about reducing the craziness around holiday meal planning and prep. We dissect planning, food prep, managing leftovers, and adopting a new mindset to maximize enjoyment! We hope this episode helps you accept the imperfections and get the most fulfillment from your holiday meals this season. Cheers and Enjoy!

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Transcript

Roni: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Plan to Eat podcast, where I have conversations about meal planning, food, and wellness. To help you save time in the kitchen, reduce your grocery bill stress less about food. And delight in dinner time.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the plan to eat podcast. I've got Riley back here with me again today, and we are talking about the holidays We basically are coming on today to talk about the craziness around holiday food, meal planning, meal prep, and how we can reduce some of that craziness, focus on the enjoyment of holiday meals more than the stress.

Riley: I love it. I think it's a thing that we should all prioritize every holiday.

Roni: Yes, I mean, we talk about this a lot of plan to eat that just food and meals are great. Source of connection, a great way to like, uh, bring your people together, you know, have meaningful [00:01:00] conversations. And, you know, we talked about previously the importance of family meals together. And turns out holiday meals are a family meal together.

So you get all those great benefits of having a family meals together, maybe inviting a few extra people into your life to enjoy it with you as well. But if you're the person who cooks the meal. Which maybe you are listening to this podcast. Maybe it's your partner. Maybe it's, you know, a different family member, but we all probably have experienced the stress that comes along with cooking a holiday meal, or at least cooking part of a holiday meal, uh, or even just hosting the holiday meal, like, right, like maybe other people are just bringing the things to your house, but you've got to clean and decorate and do all the things like there's a lot of pressure, there's a lot of pressure put on holiday meals.

Riley: They really are. And there's a lot, I mean, you know, we could go into a whole another conversation about what makes holiday stressful outside of the food and prep, and those are things that we can't control, but what we can't control is the food [00:02:00] and the prep. And it can go wrong too, but that at least feels like something that we can, um, have a little bit more control over and do a little bit more planning around to simplify it and make it a little bit easier for us.

And ultimately ease that stress, which is one of my favorite benefits of meal planning, favorite benefits of plant to eat

Roni: I agree. So we're going to structure today's conversation into kind of four areas. We're going to talk about some planning tips, some meal prep tips, and some post meal tips. It's like what to do with your leftovers. And then maybe some mindset shift ideas related to this, you know, prioritizing the joy of the holiday over the perfection of the holiday. Meal planning tips, holiday planning tips. One of my main things that I think about is obviously creating a meal plan. That's what we hope people are doing. but I really think that the, a good thing to think about is like choosing fewer recipes to put in your holiday meals. So, you know, if [00:03:00] you're, if you're somebody who celebrates your family celebrates Thanksgiving and maybe you do the.

You know, traditional thing and you have turkey and stuffing and gravy and green bean casserole and sweet potato, something mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce rolls.

Riley: deviled eggs,

Roni: devil. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Riley: casserole. Pumpkin pie.

Roni: I feel like the list can be basically never ending. There's at least like 15 things that we just said, I think.

Riley: Feels like it. It feels like it. I think that is some of what makes, um, particularly Thanksgiving feel really festive. That people, like, is like the idea of, like, there's just so much to choose from. It's a bounty, you know? , but it doesn't have to be that way. I think you get to take the reins on what that looks like.

Roni: Yeah. I think if you can think of what, like, what are the impactful dishes in there that, maybe you always make green bean casserole and like literally one person likes it. It might not actually be worth your [00:04:00] time to make that thing because, or worry about that dish if it's not really something that everybody enjoys or is going to like wow everyone at the table.

Riley: I like to ask people that are coming what their favorite Thanksgiving food is. And then ultimately ask them to bring that dish. And I know that that will add to, you know, like I just said, the bounty of the meal. There's so many options. And the reason that I do it is because it ensures that there is a food at that meal that that person likes.

and is maybe nostalgic to them. It's something they've always eaten. Um, and then I just ask them to bring it. Maybe they're already bringing something else and they add, Oh, I want cranberry relish. Okay. Would you mind bringing that? I want you to bring it because it's going to taste the way you want it to.

It's going to be the recipe your mom had or your grandma had or whatever. And I think in that way, it's actually kind of a unique way to see how people celebrate the holidays in their families or in their, from their geographical region, because my husband is from Colorado and I'm from the South and what we eat at Thanksgiving is [00:05:00] different and there are things that I can't live without at Thanksgiving.

And then there's things he can't live without at Thanksgiving. And so when you expand that to all of your guests, Hey, bring what you're going to eat and what you like, tell us, you know, we have a list, so we know what everyone's bringing. But it kind of gives you, it's a kind of a unique look into the way that they celebrated it growing up.

Roni: Absolutely. Yeah, definitely gives everybody a conversation starter, particularly if you're having a group of people together where maybe not everybody knows each other, you, one of your siblings is inviting some of their friends to the meal because they didn't have anywhere else to go for that specific holiday.

And so it gives everybody a kind of a conversation piece to, to, you know, talk about, well, here was why I brought it together. This sweet potato pie and, you know, my grandma made it this certain way. It has X, Y, Z in it, which is, you know, just always the thing that I think about when I think about Thanksgiving or something like that.

To your point, focusing kind of on what are people's favorite dishes rather than what you think are like the expected dishes for the [00:06:00] meal. That just kind of goes along with like, what's the, what are the impactful things that I was saying?

And, you know, asking people what they like is an important part of not just assuming, you know, what everybody likes. Yeah.

Riley: important part of step one, right? Who's coming? And then from there, what are we all bringing? Because I think, it's a huge stress relief, I think, to have people help you make Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever holiday you're celebrating. I think it, it just helps, right.

It helps alleviate the load from being on one person who's hosting, helps everybody bring something that they like. I think, so those are your first kind of steps into planning is who's coming and then what are we all bringing and kind of making, and then making what you're like, if you're hosting, you can fill in all the rest and plan around that.

Roni: Yeah, absolutely. And I think related to that too, if you know that people are coming who have specific diets or allergies, obviously taking that into account initially, but that could also be a great place [00:07:00] to ask somebody like, Hey, will you bring something that suits your needs? Because, you know, You know, if I had somebody coming to my house who, you know, was like severely celiac or something, I might be like, I don't actually know all of the like ins and outs of what that person can and can't eat and I might screw it up.

So like making sure that they're bringing something that like meets whatever their dietary needs are, is also a thing to consider in here.

Riley: I think that is really helpful. It also, if everyone's bringing food that everyone can eat, you know, whatever you're working around, whatever. You choose to do in the way you make this work. It can help everybody else know, Hey, just remember, you know, this person can't have whatever. Um, and obviously everyone has to kind of work around like some things you can't eat some things you can't.

Uh, and that's just kind of how it works. Right. But another aspect of that is serving sizes, because once you know how many people are coming and I say, Roni, would you mind bringing the green bean casserole? There's going to be 20 of us and not probably not all 20 people are going to eat green bean casserole.[00:08:00] 

But it would be helpful to know, you know, if, if you're the only person bringing desserts, you want to have desserts for everyone or whatever that looks like. And so just figuring out serving sizes plays a big role in the planning process.

Roni: I'm glad you brought that up because obviously in Plan to Eat you can adjust the serving sizes of your recipes so you can accommodate all the people who are coming.

Riley: hmm.

Roni: I had another tip just really just for those who are plan to eaters adding prep notes to your meal plans like once you create your meal plan and adding just notes or prep notes to your meal plan.

So you remember To thaw the chicken four day, not chicken, turkey, thaw the turkey four days ahead of time or whatever it is, or to, you know, then brine the turkey, uh, to, You can make certain things ahead of time. You could make, you know, you like your certain casseroles or your pies and things ahead of time.

So like adding those prep notes to your meal plan so that you have kind of like a timeline in plan to eat of when you can prepare and thaw and everything. I think that's really helpful for that planning process.

Riley: Mm [00:09:00] hmm. I've used plant to eat for holiday prep before and I use those notes to also say people's names and what they were bringing. Um, so that it was all in one place, you know, you can have the text thread, you can have the shared Google doc and those things are helpful. But as the person who was hosting that meal that year, it was helpful for me to see, okay, Roni's bringing this and my friend down the street is bringing this and my, my Brothers bringing this, you know, just so that I can remember and not feel like we have a hole or whatever.

Um, and then also if, if anybody says, Hey, what did I tell you? I was going to bring, I can reference it. But it's all in one place. It's in the week of the holiday. And I usually don't plan a lot of other meals that week. I usually just try to keep those really simple because I know we're going into a day or a couple of days where there's a lot of food prep happening, a lot of cooking happening.

And so I try to keep everything else about my week pretty simple. And so I just use another day that week to include all of that stuff. And then exactly like you just said, putting in things, okay, I need [00:10:00] to. A note, bold, tape, saw your turkey. Today is the day you start thawing that turkey. Today is the day you thaw that ham or anything else that might get thawed out.

Even just considering like, When you go to make like, let's say cheesecake, you want your cream cheese to be room temperature. You can't just make it with me. You know, it just, it's just easier. Right. And so just anything that needs a bit of time ahead, it's helpful to have those notes because for me, it's out of my mind, it's on paper, so I can trust it.

It's not on paper, it's on my digital meal planner, but it is put down somewhere where I can reference it easily, but it's not taking a brain space, which can be You know, just that brain burden we talk about all the time is it becomes a lot when you're juggling all the balls around the holiday.

Roni: Right. I'm actually glad that you messed up and said paper there, because that's one thing that I was, that's actually one thing I was thinking of when you said, you know, mentioning people and what they're bringing is you might normally write that on a sheet of paper. We all know that those pieces of paper [00:11:00] get lost or accidentally thrown in the trash or whatever.

And so, yeah, if you put that information in your plantee planner, It's always there for you to reference and it's not going to get just randomly chucked out just on accident.

Riley: And then when you're in the middle of the grocery store and you, you don't have to reference that list for some notes you've made for yourself around the holiday.

Roni: I

Riley: I told her I'd grab that. And what was it? You know, whatever it is. Yeah.

Roni: Do you have any more planning tips or should we move on to prep?

Riley: Let's see. One of the things that I have written is just planning can help you figure out what to make ahead of time and what needs to wait. My mom often will make some from the South and we have a cornbread, like dressing casserole. We don't have stuffing. And that's something that like that is an example of something that my mom will make ahead of time and freeze.

And and so I mean, I mean, like two weeks ahead of time is

Roni: Oh,

Riley: And so, um, that same idea can be applied to many [00:12:00] other things. And so just knowing, okay, these are the dishes we're going to have and then divvying them up to say, okay, I can do this the week ahead. That means I don't have to do it the week of or the day of.

And so that planning piece of just kind of figuring out the pieces of the meal, figuring out who's bringing what, can just even allow for that, just what to make ahead of time and what needs to wait. And I think that's a pretty big piece. It's a big piece for me as somebody who likes to do things as many things as I can do in advance.

Roni: Right. And that also helps reduce the stress if you're able to start taking action before and you're not just waiting for everything to happen on the day of. That's just like overwhelming. It just builds and builds and builds to be like, okay, I'm gonna have to wake up at three o'clock in the morning to start cooking this meal for everybody.

That just sounds awful. And so, yeah, getting anything done ahead of getting anything done ahead of time is way better. Yeah.

Riley: For sure. Yep.

Roni: So as far as prep, food, food, prep meal prep. So we already kind of talked about the idea of having other people bring things, that's [00:13:00] kind of part of, uh, prep is like. , having kind of a potluck style, you can assign side dishes or desserts or appetizers or whatever, to other people to lighten the load for yourself and related to that, you know, once people are at your house or your family who lives with you, I think involving them in the meal prep is a great way to try and lighten the load.

I understand that this can also lead to some stress. If your family is not, if you're the one who normally does the cooking, maybe your family isn't accustomed to being in the kitchen. They might not know some of the techniques that you would normally use. Uh, I still just think it's a really important time to ask for help.

My mom really struggles with this on Thanksgiving day or Christmas, you know, whatever the big holiday meal is, she spends the entire morning. Basically in the kitchen by herself, she won't let us help her. You know, she's just like, you guys go and enjoy yourself. I'm going to do this thing. Like I said, on the one hand, I understand it because sometimes you don't want to have to [00:14:00] teach somebody how to do something in the moment.

And then on the other hand, I'm like, but we miss out on so much of that day that we could spend with her, that she spends in the kitchen by herself. And so I think there's just a really, there's a, of reasons that this is important. It's part of the lightening the load, but it's also part of that spending the family time together and doing something that's like productive and helpful.

So I think asking for help is like my number one prep tip.

Riley: It is also my number one prep tip. And just for listeners, we didn't, we didn't compare notes beforehand. It's also my number one thing. And in a, just to kind of piggyback off of what you said, assigning tasks is also could be a very difficult thing. An idea around that is to, if you're a list maker, like me make a task list.

And then that way, when you people are like, how can I help? You can say, Hey, just see what needs to be done on the list. And if you're the one hosting, I'm thinking this goes way beyond food prep. I think this is, do we need picnic tables [00:15:00] or do we need like, you know, foldable tables that need to be set up?

And do we need to put tablecloths on them? Um, do we need to get, hors d'oeuvres out or anything like that? That we're having, if we're having a late meal, what are we having before that? Having people fill in gaps. Of those kinds of things, you know, my family does a lot of charcuterie style or derbs prior to big meals like that.

So the people who are hungry or little kids, there's something for them. If we're having a meal at a weird time, like four o'clock in the afternoon. And so setting those kinds of things up, setting up tables and chairs, folding napkins, like doing a load of hand towels because we've used them all in the prep days, you know, whatever it is.

But maybe making a list might be helpful for you is if you know that about yourself, that you want the help, but you have a trouble assigning tasks, making a list around it, getting ice from down the street to put in a cooler for beverages, whatever it looks like. It can be these little things that help people be a part of the process.

Maybe you have a really small kitchen and people just can't help, you know, maybe you've got a couple of people to help you, whatever it looks [00:16:00] like. But asking for help and then assigning tasks. And if you aren't good at that, make a list that they can reference.

Roni: I love that idea. I love that you mentioned that I had the idea of, yeah, like create a checklist. Um, and also create a timeline for, you know, like you could, this is kind of that idea of like putting it in plan to eat. You could create a timeline. You can also create like a day of timeline, but I really like the idea of having other people reference it so that.

If you're somebody who's incredibly detailed, which I know many of our listeners are having a timeline, that's like, here are the am tasks. Here are the, you know, afternoon tasks, here are the PM tasks. And like, you know, some things can get done first thing in the morning. You can set up the tables and they can just sit there the rest of the day.

That's not that big of a deal, but you know, maybe warming up the rolls, obviously they need to happen right before you serve dinner. So, you know, kind of like organizing things that way. If you are very structured, organized person. There's lots of ways that you can make it so that people realize there are ways that I can [00:17:00] help ways that I can contribute.

I really like that. You mentioned that as a, as a way to delegate.

Riley: Another thing to add to that delegation list is we all know somebody who doesn't cook, but they're very willing to help. They might be your dish person. And I mean, we all need that. The dishes pile up or you're in the middle of prep and you need that one cup measuring, or you need that fill in the blank and it's dirty.

And so just having somebody be your go to dish person could even be the way that somebody is helping, hugely helpful. It fills in a need, and give somebody something to do who's really willing.

Roni: I love that. Another prep idea I had is just finding some like cooking shortcuts for yourself. If you're feeling really stressed or pressed for time, you know, you can often buy pre chopped vegetables, store bought pie crusts, you know, frozen appetizers that you can just reheat in the oven or your air fryer or something.

It just because it's a holiday meal, I [00:18:00] don't think it means that everything has to be homemade for it. You can do some of these like shortcut kind of things because the purpose is to, you know, have the meal and have that quality time together. Not necessarily spend all day stressing out about like minutia of the preparation.

Riley: Oh yeah, that's great. Another tip that I had around prep is, um, prepping the dishes you're going to serve the food in. And I just mean collecting them, knowing where they are, maybe have them sitting out somewhere so they're easy to grab. Including plates, including serving spoons, including, flatware for eating dinner, glasses, like maybe you have something setting the table and that is their task, uh, from that task list.

But one of the places that where I tend to struggle is, Oh, I guess we're serving this in the foil pan. I cooked it in because I don't have a air quotes pretty dish for it. Um, and now that this is for me, I don't typically do fancy holidays. I, I have friends who [00:19:00] go to holidays at their parents house.

It's not anywhere else. And they are fancy. They're dressed up. There's it's candle lit. It's, you know, Exquisite right and that sounds dreamy. My holidays are usually a little more casual. And so while the tinfoil pan or whatever I cooked it in is like not my favorite it also doesn't like irk me like I know it could irk someone else.

And I'm sure there are listeners who are thinking, no, there's literally no way I would do that and maybe I should be embarrassed that I even said it out loud. But that's why this one came to mind, because I do hate the, in the moment, there's nothing I can do about it. Now. I don't have a dish for that.

We've used every other dish in my kitchen, every glass sheet, every glass, nine by 13 pan I own and every pie plate and whatever. Um, and so I think just thinking through, do I have what I need? Because the day of is not the day to do that.

Roni: is actually really good at this because she keeps Basically all of the like holiday meal things just [00:20:00] in like one spot in the storage closet, you know, so it's like, okay, go get things on like the middle shelf. And it's all of the, you know, we have a few like crystal, Bowls, you know, for like appetizers and things.

And we have like specific little like gravy bowls and things like that. It's nothing super fancy, but it's things that she always appreciates If she has them, she wants to at least use them one or two times a year. So it's like, you know, use them during your big meals. So yeah, she's, my mom's actually really good about that.

Like you come over to her house in the morning and she's had those dishes out for like three days. Like,

Riley: I admire it. And I do go to places and look at the dishware and think, Oh, I should probably grab some of those. I'm going to try to be better about it this year. For everyone listening, I won't serve anything in a foil pan.

Roni: did you have any more prep tips? Should we move on to leftovers?

Riley: Some of these might be a little bit obvious, but I'm just going to throw them out there. I've already referenced prepping what you can ahead of time, casseroles when appropriate. But one really important one [00:21:00] is read your recipes.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: I know this probably sounds like I shouldn't even have to say it out loud, but I am one of those people who glances at a recipe, thinks I know everything.

And I do go rogue on recipes quite often. But one of the things that I do poorly is when I get to the end and it's like now bake for three and a half hours. Oh dear. That is not the problem I want to be having on Thanksgiving day. Whatever the holiday is, you know? And so just reading my recipes, if I'm making something that I've never made before, just giving it a little look through, I very rarely make things that are not what, uh, like familiar.

Exactly. Yeah. I very rarely do that on a holiday. Sometimes I go rogue. So just reading your recipes, especially if maybe you're a new, newer chef, newer cook, maybe you're hosting Thanksgiving for the first time. And when you are hosting a holiday for the first time, it can feel very scary because it all's riding on you.

It's okay. Share the load, but read your recipes ahead of time so that you aren't going crazy or you're not, you know, getting in [00:22:00] trouble with, Oh, well that needs to be in the oven. And this needs to be in the oven at two very different temperatures, um, and doing what you can ahead of time. That'll help with that Tetris of the meal plan.

And I mean, this one's probably a planning aspect too, but just ensuring that something gets baked long enough and at the right temperature and things like that. Just making sure you have all the ingredients too.

Roni: Mm hmm. I mean, I actually think that that's, uh, There's a couple things that I think are important to that. Number one, we've all started a recipe and then been like, oopsies, this is going to take three hours. And I was supposed to take 30 minutes. If you've ever been on a sourdough bread journey, you know, sometimes the sourdough has to ferment like overnight.

Riley: Yes.

Roni: You don't want to get caught in one of those situations, but then also Knowing the recipes and knowing, you know, when you need to change the temperature of your oven for different things, right? Like if it needs to be super hot for this thing, but maybe it needs to be a little cooler just to reheat these other things.

That can be part, like you said, kind of that planning [00:23:00] process of creating that timeline of like, okay, once the turkey comes out of the oven or whatever, we're going to immediately, like we need to switch modes and, you know, the temperature needs to change to this so we can put those things in there. And I think.

Unless you are, I don't know, like a memory genius wizard person, you know, you need to just like reference your recipes really quick to make sure you know what you're doing.

Riley: I can think of one particular example and I never buy or I never make homemade rolls for a holiday. Um, one I'm gluten free and so I buy rolls that are glutinous for everyone else. Um, and so I'll usually buy the kind that you. Thaw. They're frozen. You let them thaw. They have to rise and then they can be baked.

Notoriously. Dude, I forget that they have to be thawed out to rise until the very last minute. And okay. And by last minute, I usually mean I've got time to recover it, but so often it's been the thing that is still in the oven when we sit down to eat. I'm like, well, the rolls will be out in a [00:24:00] minute. And so that's one of the things that came to mind when I was writing that down, just reading your recipes.

If that means you're reading the back of a package, it's the same thing.

Roni: Yeah. I like that. Okay. So you had your holiday meal. It was amazing. It was delicious and wonderful. You had an amazing conversation. What do you do with all these leftovers that we have? Maybe you are. amazing at calculating exactly servings and portion sizes for people. Uh, hopefully you didn't get in a situation where you didn't have enough.

That sounds bad. I think most of the time, uh, people overestimate how much food to prepare. And how much food is actually going to come to your, to your holiday table. I think just like right off the bat is, send some food home with people. If people came over to your house, send them, you know, buy some extra little Tupperwares or have some plastic bags and like send [00:25:00] people home with things.

Alternatively to that, you could have like a second meal, not on that same day, but like maybe the next day you have a different set of people that you would like to have, you know, a friend's giving or something with, and you just eat your leftovers the next day with a different group of people, that might not enable you to send leftovers home with the first group of people, but you know, whatever.

Riley: Growing up, we would have, I'm thinking of Thanksgiving in particular, earlier in the day, like more like noon. And then our dinner, which usually everyone was, you know, everyone was very, it was, um, variety of times that people would be hungry after that big of a meal. And so some people were starving at four, some people were hungry at seven 30, whatever that looked like.

So we would have, The Thanksgiving food was the dinner that night, which I think really helped, cut down on what lingers in the fridge, you know? Um, and I think I, I don't hate that way of doing it because you don't have to think about it then, you know, what people are having. Cause [00:26:00] you know, especially at my grandparents house, we would just hang out.

We'd be staying the night, you know? And so just having that as the next meal alleviates the stress for the host to think, what am I going to serve? Or what if people get hungry? People might not be hungry, but if they are, there is something for them. And so I, I mean, that's an option just changing around the time that you have the meal could work for that.

I also have written down sending plates home with people, or maybe having some kind of, telling people to bring something like a Tupperware container, a glass dish that they could put leftovers in so that they're not all staying with one person. I think that's, you know, then if you brought green bean casserole, you're not only taking green bean casserole home, you could have some other things.

I think a big question to ask in this is do you like leftovers? Because if you do then abundantly plan so that you have leftovers. Growing up, I feel like there were certain people in my family who lived for the leftovers of a holiday meal. They, they tasted better to them the second time than the first.

They liked to, uh, They didn't have to get [00:27:00] everything the second time. They just got the little pieces they liked, whatever that looks like. They made sandwiches from rolls, et cetera. Um, so I think I'm asking that question. Do you like them is a big question. We've talked about this before. And if you don't, then rein it in a little bit, like maybe don't plan, for so much, you don't need a 400 pound Turkey, you know, like you can get the small one, right?

Roni: That's a really good tip. Uh, kind of related to that, I have. The idea of in the days before your big meal, don't plan recipes that have a bunch of leftovers. You know, you don't want to have leftovers on top of leftovers in your fridge. So it's like, maybe the days before the days that you're prepping some of your other food and stuff, maybe those are just days we're eating sandwiches.

And we're having really simple meals. You're not making like a whole pot of chili that's going to have, you know, leftovers for the next seven days if we wanted it. Or if you do, you just freeze it right away. Uh, I think. I think getting, I think it can be easy, particularly if [00:28:00] you're in a situation where people are coming to your house from out of town, it can be really easy to be like, you know, we're having lots of meals together.

I need to make sure everybody is fed and taken care of. I think you should really go light on the days before. So that way you're not stuck with tons of food.

Riley: Yeah. Yeah. Cause I mean, we, we hate food waste here and I hate food waste personally. Um, and so nothing's worse than having worked really hard to cook something and then throw it away because you didn't get to eat it. So with that, I, I, I am somebody who really likes leftovers. So that's good.

But also I feel like I do try to repurpose them. Um, most, most, most of the time I will use the turkey and I will make bone broth out of it and then immediately make turkey noodle soup with it. Like I have a plan. It's going to immediately become that. Um, almost always at the holidays, I have carrots leftover, celery leftover, onions leftover from whatever it was that I had made with them.

All that goes. Into the bone broth or all that goes into the Turkey noodle soup or Turkey [00:29:00] and stars, whatever, you know, whatever you wanna make it into, Turkey chili, something along those lines. You know, it's a bit different. It's not ground Turkey. You, you can repurpose it into something. You can make it into a pot pie with all of

Roni: That's, that's one of my tips. Yeah.

Riley: yeah, a lot of options for what to do with leftover Turkey. Ham is similar, especially if you have a ham bone. It, it, you can make that into a delicious Hammond bean soup. Which is what I almost always do with it. And I'll even use some of that turkey bone broth in it, just to expand it a little bit.

And those are low ingredient things typically, or they're dried ingredients. So they're not things that I had to plan for. I can just throw it together. Especially if you have family in town for a couple of days, it gives you a way to continue to feed them with the food you've already cooked, or could have on hand without it taking up a lot of fridge space because not everybody has a lot of fridge space.

Yeah. Yeah.

Roni: I had some, my basics were like so many leftovers can be turned into a soup, a stew, a quiche, a [00:30:00] casserole, Both turkey and ham go really well in all of those things. Same with leftover potential leftover vegetables. You know, if you're a family who does as part of your appetizers, you have, you know, like a veggie platter and then, you know, you're left with like, Oh my gosh, we have, you know, so many leftover carrots or broccoli or whatever, you know, repurposing those kinds of things into a quiche or a soup.

So that way you're not just thinking only about like, well, we're just going to re eat, re eat, um, we're just going to eat. Thanksgiving dinner again, you know, trying to repurpose it into something else. You actually like maximize using all of those things. Mashed potatoes. You could make like a shepherd's pie and you could make the shepherd's pie with your ham or your turkey.

I saw actually our blogger, Linda, from sip insanity. She has a recipe for stuffing waffles. So like repurposing your stuffing or your mom's cornbread. Whatever it was called. Maybe creating that into waffles.

Riley: Yeah. It's interesting. And just totally doing something different [00:31:00] with it. Um, especially if you're somebody who doesn't like leftovers, it completely changes it. 

Roni: Yeah. And they, I mean, and then there's the obvious of like, you can freeze leftovers. Um, particularly if you have a vacuum sealer or something, you could just kind of like freeze individual meals. And then maybe. You know, two weeks from now, you're no longer, you're like, okay, I'm ready for some turkey again.

You know, maybe, maybe you got your fix earlier. It, those things can just be taken out and, you know, reheated and once again, repurposed in something else potentially too.

Riley: I mean, my husband loves pie for breakfast. So

Roni: Who doesn't love pie for breakfast?

Riley: I know, I knew I would say that and get a rise out of you cause you love pie for breakfast.

Roni: I love anything sweet for breakfast.

Riley: I mean, there's not that much difference between a piece pie and

Roni: A pancake.

Riley: a pancake. Yeah. So, uh, yeah. My husband loves that. So he loves leftover pie.

Roni: Yeah. 

Riley: What's your favorite leftover?

Do you like them?

Roni: I do. I actually [00:32:00] really like just having like another Thanksgiving meal. I really like, honestly, I love cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce is just so good. And maybe it's because I only have it like once or twice a year that I just love it so much,

Riley: Are we talking cranberry sauce out of the can or cranberry relish?

Roni: Um, both.

Riley: You like them both. Okay.

Roni: Yeah. I like the one that's chunky and the one that's just like a log of Jell O. I like them both. But I like the mixture of the flavors together. Like I like the roll and the turkey and the gravy with some cranberry. Like the cranberry just like, I don't know, gives a little acid, a little elevation to all of the things.

Riley: Little citrus.

Roni: a little citrusy in there. Yeah. So I do like, at least like the next day or maybe like one or two days after, I like just eating the same meal. After that, I think I prefer more of like a, like a quiche or a casserole kind of a situation. Like if you had a ton of leftovers, [00:33:00] usually there's not so many leftovers that we're like, not through it within a day or two.

So what about you?

Riley: I'm with you. I, it's funny that you said that you liked just the redo, because I really liked that when I'm thinking about, I mean, we're getting close to Thanksgiving here, so that's what I'm thinking about more than other holidays, but I just like the plate redo with all my little favorite things on it.

Yeah, I'm not like, I think my brother is one of those people who like goes for the, I'm going to make a sandwich out of everything I ate and then make it like a Thanksgiving sandwich. I don't do that. I like the plate.

Roni: Yeah. I think my husband would be at the sandwich person too. He likes a good sandwich.

Riley: Yeah, I, but I'm with you though. After about one or two times of the redo, I like the soup.

I think I go soup because usually it's cool and chilly outside. And, so I like, I really like a good ham and bean soup with leftovers or, some kind of turkey soup. So.

Roni: Yeah. Ham and bean soup is a good, like any time that it's cold outside, just so comforting.

Riley: I know some people are very [00:34:00] soup adverse, um, but I really like it. And so I think there's this time of year gets me really excited for soup.

Roni: My husband is a soup adverse person. I cannot plan soup too many times in a, in a meal plan because yeah. And I cannot plan it too early in the year. It cannot be 75 degrees outside and we have

Riley: Oh yeah. It's risky. It's risky to plan soup at this time of year because the day temperatures vary day to day so much. And so you can't be thinking, you know, it's not like the dead of winter where you've got a pretty consistent, it's just cold. Um, yeah, I I'm with you though. soup season, so I'll eat it anytime.

Roni: Okay. So the last thing that we wanted to touch, was just talking about our mindset and rethinking, our holidays a little bit, kind of shifting from thinking about a perfect holiday to a meaningful holiday. Because the best part, the kind of magical part about holidays is the, fact that we [00:35:00] spend time together and every pretty much everybody like makes a purpose. I need to rephrase this. It's easy for people to make time around the holidays because you already have the time off of work. It, you know, there's like very few, I feel like conflicting things for people when you could normally just like maybe put off a family dinner or something, a family meal. The holidays is just, it's very built into the idea of the holidays.

Is that like, you're getting together with people that you love and care about. So, I think that's just a really special part about it is focusing on that, like connection and being present. And like, there's, there's a lot of enjoyment that can be had there that really gets taken over by the stress of, planning and preparing and cleaning and all of the things.

Riley: It's true. I think that around how do we kind of capture this mindset shift? I think is starting to think like what makes the holiday enjoyable to you?

Roni: Mm

Riley: What does it look like that day? Like, are you running around like a [00:36:00] chicken with your head cut off? I don't know many people who would say that's what I want out of that day.

And so thinking through what do I want this to look like? And then work backwards from that.

Roni: Mm hmm.

Riley: Um, because there have been holidays where my husband and I have ordered Chinese takeout and it was the best. And, which it's an option, like you get to make this what it is, like you get to make, or you get to make it what you want it to be is a better, what I should have said.

And so just thinking through that and working backwards from it and saying, okay, if this is what I want it to be, then these things need to be true, right? Like I need to. If I'm really overwhelmed by cooking all the dishes, then I've got to delegate the dishes. If I'm worried because our Thanksgiving is going to be a bunch of people who don't know each other, how can I make that more enjoyable for everyone instead of me feeling like I have to carry the team because nobody knows each other?

Um, and thinking, okay, I'm going to buy questions for humans. To have all over the tables so that no one feels like they have to [00:37:00] figure out how to talk to each other, you know, maybe that's the thing, questions for humans. I think they have a holiday edition. So you don't have to just get the ones that are like really personal.

They can be a lot more broad. Is it that you want it to be more unique because you're inviting people from other cultures? So you want to say, okay, we'll bring a cultural dish that is unique to you. This Thanksgiving is not going to look anything like it normally does. And that's what you want it to be.

I mean, that sounds really fun, but you're like working backwards from like what you envision it to be instead of working towards a really stressful day, like work back, like, okay, I want it to be this way. So let me work backwards. Okay. That means I need to have some good lists. It means I need to have a good plan.

And then that way, I don't know, you can just get to enjoy it.

Roni: Mm hmm.

Riley: And because you did all that prep work, that few, that idea of my future self is going to thank me because I thought this way, I want it to look this way. I want it to feel this way. What does I, what do I need to do to make that happen?

Roni: Mm hmm. I thought about a similar, a similar idea to that is thinking about if you're the person who is hosting the [00:38:00] holiday, what was, what's the reason that you're hosting? What was the reason essentially that you said, yeah, everybody come over to my house? Is it because you really wanted to impress everybody?

Is it because you, you know, wanted to have the perfect splay of, of food and accoutrement, you know, or was it because you wanted to have connection and family time? Um, I'm not saying that there's a right answer. I think I would prefer if people were wanting the family time. That's just my own bias. But, but I think in that similar vein of like asking yourself some of these questions and then like you said, kind of working backwards of like, okay, well, If it's to have, you know, family time and time for connection, like how are we going to maximize that in our day?

And if you were wanting to impress people, maybe you get out all of your extra fancy things and you go. I don't, I was going to say to TJ Maxx, you probably don't buy fancy things at TJ Maxx. Maybe, I don't know. But you know, like you go and you, you, you decorate extra lavishly and, uh, those kinds of things.

So I think. Kind [00:39:00] of setting your intention for what you're trying to get out of the holiday is an important part of that. Related to this is kind of like redefining what success looks like for you. Is the success of it pulling off a really elaborate meal?

Or is it being able to like, you know, get things done quickly and then sit down and watch the football game or whatever with your nieces and nephews? I feel like there's different ways that you can, there's definitely different ways that you can look at it, but once again, just kind of figuring it out ahead of time, uh, what that means for you in the day, I think can make you feel more successful.

Rather than trying to be like, well, I need to do all of the things, you know, figuring out like, what's the most important thing to me.

Riley: I love the idea here. It's just sitting back and saying, taking the time to be intentional. About it. Because you can make it all happen. If you plan this far in advance, you can make the perfect, everything, perfect, every place setting, perfect, every decor item [00:40:00] and you know, like you can do that, because you had the time to sit and be intentional about what you wanted it to be.

Do you want it to be eclectic and random and everybody bring whatever they like to eat. If that's what you want, that's great. Just, but taking the time to be intentional, I think really starts to shift the mindset, because I think we. Get so habitual with habitual with holidays. Like this is what has to happen is the dishes we have to eat.

And I am one who really likes eating the same Thanksgiving every year. I I'm a creature of habit in that way. But if I'm going to somebody else's Thanksgiving and it's different, I'm going to enjoy it too, you know, but just taking the time to say, to sit back and be intentional about it and not think, okay, it has to go this way.

I want it to go this way instead. I don't want it to be X. I want it to be Y and working towards that goal. But just taking the time to think about it, I think is something that we don't often have time for, or I mean, I personally need to be reminded about it. I need to be reminded, why are you doing this?

And why do you want to do this? And, and what is the, what is your [00:41:00] end goal? And, and so being reminded of that leads me to like the ultimate answer of like, what's going to be the most fulfilling.

Roni: Yeah. And I, I like that you brought that up because I think that fulfillment is kind of the, the root of this of, If you spend your holiday being super stressed about X, Y, or Z, did you really get a lot of fulfillment out of that? You know, do you look back at it the next day and be like, I had such a good time yesterday, you know, whether it was cooking or whether it was, you know, playing, you know, badminton in the backyard, whatever the thing is, I would really hope that you can, that you can prioritize the things that you feel like are the things that get you the most enjoyment and fulfillment out of it.

If you are somebody who likes, kind of a. A method or a framework or a technique for this kind of thing. There is a, it's more of a time management technique. but I feel like it could actually really work here to try and figure out what are my like non [00:42:00] negotiables for the day. Um, and it's called the Eisenhower matrix.

And so essentially you create four quadrants. So you'd make like a little T on your, uh, or cross on your piece of paper. on one side, you say urgent and not urgent. And on the other side, you say important and not important. And so if you put things into the quadrant that is both urgent and important, those are things that are like your non negotiables that like, you're definitely going to include whether it's, you know, recipes or activities or, 

your vibe for the day. If there are things that are important, but not necessarily urgent, these might be some of the things, that you would not prioritize for this specific day. But like, if there were things that you were like, I really wanted to do this thing with my family. Well, maybe like the holiday day, isn't the best day to do that.

And you should like plan that for a separate day. And then you have the, Urgent and not important, uh, quadrant, which is generally what [00:43:00] people consider as like busy work kind of tasks. So, oftentimes these are things that we can delegate. Like you mentioned earlier, you can create your list of like, how are ways that people can contribute.

This could be some of those items that are like, you know, if the table doesn't get set perfectly, it's really not that big of a deal. Yeah. The table needs to be set. So it's like, there is some urgency around it, but like, if we put the forks on the wrong side of the plate or whatever, like nobody's gonna die.

And then you have your fourth quadrant, which is not urgent and not important, which means you should forget about it. Actually, you should just let it go. It just needs to be free and fly away from this, from this day. So if you want more of a visual of this, I encourage you to look up the Eisenhower matrix.

Um, to kind of like get a visual of it. Like I said, it's more of a time management technique, but I just thought about it in relation to this. If you feel like you're somebody who needs A visual of like, how do I actually get the most impact from this day and finding I think what your things are that are like your non negotiables as well as those [00:44:00] things that you could potentially delegate.

I think that's really important. And just as we've already talked about setting a time, the sat setting a time, this setting aside the time to figure those things out ahead of time.

Riley: I love that. I've never heard of the Eisenhower method. So I think that that is really valuable tip.

Roni: The last thing that I wanted to mention, I don't know what else you have, Riley, but. I just want to say, I don't think everything will always turn out perfectly. I'm going to say there's always going to be one or two or five things that are going to go wrong when you are having a holiday meal, having a holiday get together, I think doing your best to go with the flow and recognizing that there are small wins as well in your day, as well as maybe the things that didn't turn out quite perfectly is a.

Also a really good way to kind of like in the moment, change your mindset from stressed to enjoyment.

Riley: Would now be a good time to mention that my child puked on the Thanksgiving table last year, [00:45:00] because if you're thinking about things that are going to go wrong, that is the first thing that came to my mind. But sometimes you just have to laugh.

Roni: And you just got to go with the flow, right? Like there was no way to prevent that.

Riley: Thanksgiving got the best of her.

Roni: Oh, no, I like it. 

Riley: I don't think I have anything to add. I think this was actually really helpful for me in thinking about the holidays coming up. So I really hope it's helpful for everyone listening.

Roni: I agree. All right. Well, I, I don't think there's anything to link in the show notes today.

Riley: Well we could link to the Eisenhower method and maybe questions for humans.

Roni: yeah, that's a great idea. So we'll, we'll yeah, we will link to those things so that you guys have a little more information for that for your upcoming holidays. We hope that you have a great holiday season and, I'll be back in two weeks with another interview and Riley will be back next month to talk about new years. Thank you so much for listening and I will talk to you [00:46:00] soon.