Easy Meals for Thanksgiving Week

I love the week of Thanksgiving! There are so many yummy foods to make, so many fun people to see.

If you are the hostess, you may find yourself busy all week and scratching your head in confusion when your people ask you what’s for dinner. Every night leading up to Thanksgiving.

What is this?! Don’t they know they’ll eat on Thursday?

The answer to this question is simply to plan easy meals for Thanksgiving week. Plan abundant snacks and even plan an easy breakfast for Thanksgiving day.

Why Plan?

It will make life easier. Meal planning for Thanksgiving week will help you feed your people as well as make your holiday prep easier.

It will save money. Sure, you could send someone out of take out every night but that will cost a pretty penny. If you’re going to do Thanksgiving on a budget, plan your meals.

You gotta eat. It’s as simple as that. But, there are a lot of moving parts this week. Get ahead of it and plan some easy meals for Thanksgiving week.

Easy Meals for Thanksgiving Week

I chose this selection of recipes based on how easily and quickly you can prepare them as well as how varied they are from each other. This time of year lends itself to turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and all the sides, so I mixed things up with some different flavor profiles.

You’ll notice that for Friday and Saturday I included dinners that will use up leftovers if you have any.

I recommend making turkey freezer meals with leftover turkey, especially if you have a lot left. Since December is always so busy, future you will appreciate something prepped in the freezer.

Here’s what’s included in this Thanksgiving Week Meal Plan:

Sunday Dinner

Monday Night

Asian Take-out is nice, but it is really expensive. This sheet pan-style Cashew Chicken bakes alongside a pan of Baked Rice. You’re free to go do something else while dinner cooks!

Prep tip: If you’ll need cooked rice for any holiday meals, you can make extra now. If you end up with leftovers, you can stir it into soup on Saturday night.

Taco Tuesday

I am a huge fan of tacos on Tuesday, particularly a taco bar where everyone gets to add what he or she likes. But I also know this takes a lot of time to set up and clean up. If you’ve got a lot of prepping and baking to do this week, this make-ahead dinner is perfect.

Beef Chimichangas can be made in the morning or even frozen and then baked when you want them. I like to serve them with this Mexican Coleslaw which is quick and easy to mix up.

Prep tip: While you’re prepping the carrots for the slaw, consider what other carrots you’ll need to peel and chop for Thanksgiving dinner and for the soup on Saturday. You can do all this prep at one time and ease your work load later in the week.

Sandwich Night

If there was ever a night when you need quick and easy, it’s the night before Thanksgiving, so let’s enjoy these easy, make ahead Hot Ham and Swiss Sliders. They are freezer-friendly, so you can make them ahead of time, too.

Serve them alongside a simple spinach salad to get some fresh produce into everyone before all the pie.

Prep tip: If you’re going to serve ham on Thanksgiving, you can either make these with a different cold cut, like beef or turkey OR you can swap this meal plan with Fridays and make the sandwiches with leftover Thanksgiving ham.

Thanksgiving Dinner

I’m not going to tell you what to make for your Thanksgiving Dinner, but I do recommend my Easy Roast Turkey Breast Recipe.

I’m making two turkey breasts this year along with the kid-friendly Thanksgiving sides such as Cranberry Sauce, Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes and my Mushroom and Onion Gravy Recipe as well as an abundance of veggies.

Prep tip: while you’re chopping veggies and prepping your side dishes, be sure to make a stock box so you can easily make Turkey Stock after the meal. Save all the leftovers as you’re going to want them for soup on Saturday! If you’re making a veggie tray for Thanksgiving, make extra to go with Friday night pizza.

Black Friday

Whether you spend the day shopping for Black Friday with a plan, attending a hockey game (go Kings go!), or hunkered down at home playing Christmas music, Fridays call for pizza.

You might make your own pizza dough if you’ve got the energy, otherwise, lean on one of our quicker pizza options, like French Bread Pizza or Tortilla Pizza.

Prep tip: Pizza is a great catch-all for leftovers. Look over what’s left from Thanksgiving in terms of meat, cheese, and veggies and see what fun combinations you can make on a pizza!

Soup Saturday

Cozy up with a bowl of this Pilgrim Minestrone, aka Turkey Rice Soup with Spicy Sausage. It was originally inspired by Thanksgiving leftovers!

I rewrote my original recipe to be made without leftovers, so be sure to read the notes about how to incorporate what’s left from your big feast.

Prep tip: if you don’t have leftovers from the Thanksgiving bread basket, pull out that loaf of frozen garlic bread you made on Sunday to go with the soup.

Grocery List for the Week’s Meals

Hit the Shopping List button below and adjust the servings for the different recipes you intend to make for Thanksgiving week. If you are omitting a recipe, simply zero it out.

Then click Generate Shopping List. You can check off items you already have and print the list.

Note: The grocery list below does not include traditional sides for Thanksgiving dinner as I believe those are up to your discretion. Make adjustments to the list if you choose the swaps I mentioned for Wednesday and Friday.