Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Can you believe its just a few days away? I'm not hosting this year - but, I thought I would share with you a simple spreadsheet that has brought some sanity to my Thanksgivings of years past!
Image via Lonny Magazine
I created this simple spreadsheet a few years ago, Its a calendar, a reminder system, a shopping list and sanity saver all in one!
What I do first is get a final(ish) head count - it is much easier to plan when you know how many people you will be serving (shh... then I add like 4 more to make sure we have leftovers!).
When we host, I don't do a ton of the Thanksgiving cooking as my husband is a magnificent cook and cooks a killer turkey! So my job is generally logistics, taste tester and baker!
So...You can imagine how big of a deal it is when someone (oopsy) forgets to buy that one ingredient that makes the dish... never again with this list!
Our next step, my husband and I decide on a menu for the day. I go through the recipes and pull out the ingredients necessary for each dish. I then enter it into this spreadsheet with the quantity needed.
Next step, I go through the kitchen and see what we have already in our pantry - if I have the ingredient I leave the line black and put an X in that collum. If I cant find it, the line goes to red (really helps when at the store).
While grocery shopping I then mark each thing off as I put it in the cart to make sure I don't miss anything (never again!!!).
I also use this list to keep me organized while preparing, I like to include what "special" items I will need for setting the table so that I can start pulling those out and washing them if needed a few days before. Since we have a pretty small kitchen and just one oven its been really helpful to schedule oven time so that everything is done when we needed it to be!
So there you have it! Hope everyone has a most wonderful holiday with their friends and families! Do you have any tips and tricks to make your Turkey day run smoother?
Want a copy of this spreadsheet to get you started? Just sign up for the email list and leave a comment on this post and I will send you an excel file to get you started!
XOXO | SLL
