Feeling smart...dealing with Thanksgiving
 

Since we're all facing or about to face holidays and overwhelming amounts of food, I thought I'd share.

My family was supposed to celebrate Thanksgiving yesterday with DH's family, but our nine year old got sick...really sick. Poor baby. He threw up everything he looked at yesterday. I stayed back with him while DH and our other son went. They brought home loads, LOADS of wonderful crap. LOL! Not to mention I had been to the store buying all kinds of sick people food following the old-fashioned BRAT diet, trying to think of anything my baby could keep down. So now we're loaded to the gills with all kinds of good/bad food. :dizzy:

I could throw it away. I could. But I don't want to, and I can't stop thinking about starving children, hurt feelings and my family really likes everything we're now stocked with.

So, I repacked it all and took it to our basement freezer. I'm starting to like this basement freezer I once thought was too inconvenient. So now, instead of feasting on all this crap for several days with this hurried feeling of must-eat-before-it-goes-bad, I can serve lean protein, steamed vegetables plus one unhealthy side at several meals over the course of many months. There is no reason to eat it all at once.

Every day is NOT Thanksgiving!

:carrot:

Sounds like a good plan to me. Sometimes I think that it is good to have what I think of as a "middle of the road plan".

LOVE that idea!

We pack lunch/dinner for DH. Makes it really easy for me since i don't have to cook :). leftovers is what he got after Halloween too. His mom's is gumbo is awesome! when it's that good you don't care if it's leftovers :D

since it's pack individually for him, i'm not tempted at all. it would be totally obvious if half the bowl went missing mysteriously. actually, there was a piece of chocolate cake in a sealed 1 c. container in the fridge. he brought some home for work, then want to eat some another day. i cleaned out the fridge. it was still there. he never ate it. we both forgot about it lol. out of sight, out of mind.

Great idea! You are full of awesome holiday goodies ideas woman!

We are going to my MILs for Thanksgiving.. I'm worried about what she will serve, and worried if I will be able to eat anything other than a small amount of turkey. Hubby said well just make a few things to take that you can eat.. so I am trying to figure out what that will be..lol

Oh and the leftovers she will send home.. right in the trash (she isn't the best cook out there anyway ;) )

Haha! This year I've been on plan for a year, so I'm really hitting reality now. Last year my family was all on board with my craziness and I could pull off throwing things away. This year though, it seemed rude. My MIL called me to make sure what she was sending back with us was suitable to my diet which I thought was really kind. I don't like being so militant about our diets. We need to find a happy medium that works for me AND my family. We all need to learn to eat in moderation.

So that is my new approach. Nothing is working so far with our oldest son, so I'm backing off and hoping to teach moderation. Maybe that will work. If not, well we're all an experiment of ONE. I'll just keep experimenting.

I'm not so sure any of the family will mind if I toss whatever she may send home...lol Hubby used to rave about her cooking, now I think he has seen the light..lol The only thing I can't get him to think mine is better of is chili.. hers is horrible and she puts macaroni in it.. just thinking of it makes me want to vomit..lol. He does say mine has better flavor but for some reason she has him believing that chili should have macaroni in it. I have tried explaining that I have never ever seen anyone else do such a thing.

Oh well gotta love inlaws right.

I am glad to hear this. At least your MIL is trying to work with you instead of against you!

I'm Canadian (eh) so we had our Thanksgiving last month -- I absolutely adore my mom's turkey dinner with all the fixins, and there's no way I'm going to substitute poor imitations of my favourites for one meal. And you're right, EVERY DAY is no thanksgiving, same with Christmas. It doesn't have to be a weeklong feeding frenzy. I have the ONE special fantastic meal with stuffing and gravy and don't feel guilty one little bit. Because I know it's ONE meal. The rest gets packed up, white meat turkey comes home and that's it, and into the freezer it goes. Easy Peasy. Things don't have to be more complicated than that!

I'm in Cincinnati so ours must go on spaghetti. :D Chili is layered: spaghetti, chili, beans, onions, cheese, cheese, cheese. :rofl:

At my house we sprinkle the cheese, but that's it in a nutshell. I've learned to go light on the spaghetti too. But macaroni in it...yeah, I can see it.

Eliana that is the perfect solution...:encore:That is a really good idea freezing a lot of the left overs. That way I could make healthy vegtables, salad and thaw out one thing every once in a while and eat a small portion of the holiday yummies in moderation with the healthy stuff.
I also like the idea of a freezer far away...kinda out of sight out of mind. I hope your son is feeling better! :happ3:

It's a freezer that came with the house. LOL! It's gigantic and the previous owners didn't want to move it. Can't say I blame them. At first I hated it and unplugged it. Now it houses stuff I don't want to eat. My first item I didn't want to eat...the kids' Halloween candy. Shh, don't tell. I hid it in the empty unplugged freezer and I replenish their stash (14 pieces) on Saturdays. That way I stay out of it too. Then yesterday I made Buckeyes because...well I don't know why. Stupid really. I guess because OSU was playing. Last night while I was trying to get to sleep I had the brilliant idea of stashing them in that freezer too. From there came the idea to put all the Thanksgiving junk down there with the freezer turned on.

I LOVE IT!!! Mac in Chili is what we used to call...chili mac...gross no matter how you say it. I have my husband almost brainwashed. There are times he thinks he HAS to HAVE apple cobbler but since he's the only one eating it, he has to buy it in small portions so he doesn't loose his mind and eat the whole thing. Thanksgiving and Christmas eating frenzies were never a big deal for me. I didn't eat a lot but it was the everyday inhaling of food that got me. So now that I have that under control...mostly I should do well.

Speaking of odd things at holiday dinners...my MIL makes this curry broccoli souffle and it looks horrible. It tastes ok nothing I would have at my house but they love it...eeewwww!!

Okay - what's with the spaghetti and chili thing? DH's dad is from Ohio and was a single dad for awhile, and DH has horrible flashbacks of chili and spaghetti for dinner. He's scarred for life now! Being a Kansas girl from birth, I cannot fathom how this travesty came to be :D Must be an Ohio thing!

It is a Cinci thing. My family is from upstate NY and we never ate it that way either and I didn't like Chili. It wasn't until we moved here that I learned you're SUPPOSED to eat it with Chili. :rofl: I actually learned I like it that way.

It's because of two competing chains, Skyline Chili and Goldstar Chile. Skyline, I think it's Skyline, boasts chocolate in their recipe. :p