Grocery Shopping Time!

I decided to take a day out of my week to get the initial grocery shopping done for our Thanksgiving dinner. Our list included all the ingredients needed to cook up our holiday feast. It was important for us to check labels to make sure all ingredients listed are gluten-free and we wanted to make sure we did our research on the food brands of any cross-contamination issues that others have reported. Our shopping trip took us a total of 3 hours as we went to a couple different stores to find our supplies.

The first week of November is devoted to menu planning and recipe finding. Whether your meal is a holiday tradition with family favorites or a new experience where you wish to collect as many different recipes as possible, the first week of November is when you should collect all these together. Once you have your recipes, determine which ingredients you will need and how much of each one. Chances are you will have the essential cooking supplies on hand, but make sure you take inventory of your pantry before you begin your shopping adventure.

You should complete your shopping trip as soon as the sale ads and coupons come out, which is around the second week of November. Search for coupons on the manufacture's website and search your local paper for grocery and wholesaler store ads. This will help cut some food expense for your holiday celebration. It will also give you time to locate hard to find ingredients so you will not be rushing around to various stores the last few days before the holiday.

The third week of November should be devoted to the preparation of cooking your holiday meal. Plan when you will perform each step and allow yourself time for trial and error. Holiday cooking can begin a week before the big dinner to help cut down most of the work on Thanksgiving morning. It helps to be prepared for any kind of distaster, so make sure you have a back up plan if something doesn't work out!

The first recipes you should make are items that can be stored for at least 5 days before dinner occurs. If you are following my meal plan, here are the preparation plans for each course...