dinner – Page 26 – Pollywog's Place Blog

Special Holiday Meals: Our tried and true favorite Thanksgiving recipes plus a new tradition in the making

Published on November 17, 2023September 23, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

It’s so hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week! I haven’t finished all my shopping yet but plan to have it wrapped up before the end of the week. We will probably have a lot of our usual dishes plus a couple of new ones ‘keto-friendly’ versions. We won’t be ‘restricting’ ourselves to keto foods for Thanksgiving as we want to have the freedom to enjoy, but not overindulge, the dishes that everyone brings to dinner.

I love using Canva to make up pretty menus and such! Please excuse my typos… oops!

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Getting Ready for the Holidays Week 5 (The Week Before Thanksgiving)

Published on November 13, 2023September 16, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog7 Comments

Thanksgiving is getting closer and I’m sure you are getting constant reminders about how close it is getting to Christmas! Over the past few weeks, I’ve posted about some of the things we are doing to help prepare our homes for the holidays and hopefully prevent a little of the CHAOS. We will continue to review those things and work on a few more things this week. Our list is as follows:

We continue to look for things that don’t belong and get them put away where they belong or get rid of things we don’t really need as we do our weekly ‘Home Blessings’.
If we have items (or cards) that need to be mailed, we will try to get them taken care of ASAP… sometimes I have gifts sent directly to the recipients, but I try to warn them ahead of time so they can be on the lookout for them.
If I haven’t bought the wrapping paper and supplies, then I will try to make sure to get those this week. I also make sure that I have ordered any special tablecloths or tableware that I may need so it gets here in plenty of time.
I’m also trying to plan to do the 3 gift rule here this year, but I’m not sure how it will go yet. I’ve got some links about this idea HERE, HERE, and HERE. This will hopefully encourage the focus to be more on Jesus than Santa and the gifts he will bring.
I will review the menu lists in my Holiday Planner so I can try to add as many of the pantry goods to my weekly grocery list as well as double-checking to make sure that we have plenty of the everyday essentials like toilet paper and paper towels because we don’t want to run out of those things when we have guests.
I’ll review my list of ‘make-ahead’ items and try to knock out a few of them so there will be less to do at Thanksgiving. I will also pull out some of my recipes that will use up the leftover turkey and such if we have any.
I will also look up some information about Thanksgiving traditions and history to add to our homeschool lessons as well as some fun Thanksgiving activities. You can check this post HERE for some ideas!

Life is crazy enough without adding holiday stress to it. The simpler we can keep things, the better in most cases and we are always trying to find creative solutions to things we need to get done. By spending just a few minutes a day working on these tasks it helps to get us prepared without causing a lot of unnecessary stress.

For more great ideas you can check out the FlyLady website HERE.

Getting Ready for the Holidays Week 5 Download

Creamy Cabbage and Sausage

Published on October 23, 2023October 17, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog10 Comments

This dish is so unbelievably good and it’s easy and quick to make as well. I made it in the crockpot but it could come together quickly in a skillet as well. I had originally had Kielbasa and potatoes on my menu but I wanted to change it to something that Mr. Awesome and I could eat on our ‘diet’… this was the perfect dish to replace our old favorite!

I didn’t get any pictures as it just didn’t last long enough to take pictures. We ate this with a pot of ‘Get Methylating Soup‘ (lentils), riced cauliflower, and some fresh-picked Rosella greens… yum! I think the next time I might make some veggies other than the soup though. Fried potatoes and macaroni-n-cheese go really well with this dish.

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December 2022 Menu

Published on December 6, 2022December 3, 2022 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

I know I haven’t posted a menu in a while but I figured I could post the one I just made up. This was made using the free printable meal planner I have HERE. You will see that we have certain things that rotate on a set schedule but we do try to keep our dinners a little varied to keep everyone happy.

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks	Desserts
Sunday 12/4	Eggs, hash browns, sausage, English muffins		Fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans	Fruit
Monday	Cereal/Oatmeal	scrambled egg sandwiches	Steak/Sweet N Sour Meatballs, Mac N Cheese, Baked Potato	Fruit
Tuesday St. Nicholas Day	Santa Pancakes	PB&J sandwiches, fruit	Leftovers	Fruit
Wednesday FULL MOON	Muffins, Bagels, or Toast W/Eggs and Cheesy Grits	soup, grilled cheese, fruit slices, rice pudding	Homemade pizzas	Fruit
Thursday	French Toast, Fruit	Chicken Salad, sliced tomatoes & cucumbers, lettuce	Loaded potato soup, crackers	Fruit
Friday	Cereal/Oatmeal	Leftovers	Salmon/Chicken Patties, Mashed Caulitaters, Creamed Peas, pineapple slices	Fruit
Saturday	Make Sourdough Donuts or English Muffins		Chicken Stir Fry, Fried Rice, Egg Rolls, steamed veggies, sauce	Fruit

Notes:

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks	Desserts
Sunday 12/11	Monkey Bread, Eggs & Grits		Cheddar Chicken, potatoes, veggies	Fruit
Monday	Cereal/Oatmeal	egg salad sandwiches, veggies	Homemade pizzas	Fruit
Tuesday	French Toast, Fruit	PB&J sandwiches, fruit	Taco ring, salad	Fruit
Wednesday	Blueberry Oatmeal Bread, scrambled eggs	Soup, Grilled Cheese	Sandwiches, french fries	Fruit
Thursday	Pancakes, Fruit	tuna salad sandwiches, fresh veggies	Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Cheesy pull-apart bread	Fruit
Friday	Cereal/Oatmeal	Leftovers	Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin, mashed potatoes, veggies	Fruit
Saturday POLAR EXPRESS!	Waffles, Eggs, Bacon		SEE MENU	Fruit	Fudge Cookies

Notes:

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks	Desserts
Sunday 12/18	Biscuits n gravy/Sausage/Eggs		Breakfast for Dinner	Fruit
Monday	Cereal/Oatmeal	scrambled egg sandwiches	Tortellini Soup, buttered bread	Fruit
Tuesday	French Toast, Fruit	PB&J sandwiches, fruit	Easy Bean Tostadas, Rice, Salad	Fruit
Wednesday	Muffins, Bagels, or Toast W/Eggs and Cheesy Grits	soup, grilled cheese, fruit slices, rice pudding	Shepherd’s pie, fried cabbage, beer bread, fried apples	Fruit
Thursday	Pancakes, Fruit	Chicken Salad, sliced tomatoes & cucumbers, lettuce	Homemade Pizzas	Fruit
Friday	Cereal/Oatmeal	Leftovers	Alice Springs Chicken, salad, baked potatoes	Fruit
Saturday Christmas Eve	Make Sourdough Donuts or English Muffins			Fruit

Notes:

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks	Desserts
Sunday 12/25 CHRISTMAS	Cinnamon Rolls, SCRAMBLED EGGS, SAUSAGE, OR BACON		SEE MENU
Monday	Cereal/Oatmeal	egg salad sandwiches, veggies	Leftovers	Fruit
Tuesday	French Toast, Fruit	PB&J sandwiches, fruit	Tacos or Taco Soup, Rice, Chips	Fruit
Wednesday	Cinnamon Swirl Quick Bread, scrambled eggs	Leftovers	Mississippi Pot Roast, mashed potatoes or egg noodles, veggies, milk	Fruit
Thursday	Pancakes, Fruit	tuna salad sandwiches, fresh veggies	Creamed Spinach & Bacon-Smothered Chicken, salad, garlic bread	Fruit
Friday	Cereal/Oatmeal	Leftovers	Sloppy Joes, French Fries, Slaw	Fruit
Saturday NEW YEARS EVE	Cheese Danish, eggs, bacon		Crunchy Chicken, Squash Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, or potato cakes	Fruit

Notes:

Some days are left blank to allow us to use up some of our pantry and freezer supplies. You can check out some other meal-planning posts HERE and HERE.

Time to think about those last couple of Holiday Meals!

Published on December 5, 2022November 29, 2022 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

Here in our neck of the woods, the stores are looking a little sparse so I’ve been trying to grab what I can when I see it for our upcoming holiday meals… have you planned yours out yet? If not, I’ve got some easy recipes for you to use and some menus from previous years that may inspire you.

Our holiday meals here may not be quite as grand as they have been in the past but when everyone joins around the table we have more than enough!

Here are some of our favorite recipes: