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NOVEMBER 2025
Backyard Briefings
LET’S TALKHolidays
It’s that time of year again. As I get older, the days somehow always seem to get shorter each year. I don’t know why that is, but I do know that this time of year can be very stressful for some people.
As homesteaders, we do our best to try to make the meal times easier by planning and prepping ahead of time, but it can still be a stressful time of year, maybe you are traveling, or your kids are out of school and running around the house, maybe you don’t have plans with people and that makes you sad. Whatever place you are in right now, I hope this guide will help decrease the amount of stress you feel this time of year.
PLANNING Meals
One thing I do that makes meal planning easier is making a menu. I know that seems simple, but even just planning a weekly menu can help minimize the stress, especially during the holidays. The sooner you can plan the holiday meals, the sooner you can shop or at least plan for the ingredients. This may sound obvious but as you get busy, days seem to slip away from you, so planning sooner is always better. And on super busy days who wants to cook? I know I have fallen into that trap before.
Menus are great while shopping because you grab the things you need plus you won’t be spending extra money on foods you don’t. This holiday season, consider planning your meals ahead of time.
MEAL TIMEPreparation
If you come from a large family or have great friends who are like family that you like to spend the holidays with, one tip to help relieve the stress from the holidays is to do a potluck style gathering.
A potluck is when everyone brings a dish for the group to share. This means you should end up with plenty of food to go around without the hassle of doing all the cooking. Simply put, you are sharing responsibilities.
I do enjoy potluck style outings plus I know there will be atleast one thing on the menu I will enjoy. This is my go to holiday hosting style.
LEFTOVERS Repurposing
Recently I started this new way of cooking that really helps take the pressure off of meal times. When I am cooking, I will always try and make extra. For example, if I am making a pizza or tacos, I will cook an entire pound of meat. Whatever I do not use for that meal, I will save and use it again for another meal.
This week, we had a bunch of tri tip leftover so after the first meal, I turned it into steak sandwiches. The extra veggies I used to make a breakfast bowl the next morning.
Simple tips like these, help you to use all of your leftovers and reduce waste in your fridge because let’s be honest who hasn’t forgotten about food shoved in the back of the refrigerator before.
NO ONE
A GREAT COOK, is born BYDOING IT one learns
Julia Child
RESOURCES Use‘Em
The last tip I will give you that I CANNOT stress enough is to USE WHAT’S IN YOUR PANTRY! I know it seems simple, but so often I use what I have in my pantry or fridge to determine what I make for dinner that night or week. For example, if I make a batch of pesto for a recipe like pizza and I have leftovers, sometime that week I will be making pasta. And if I have leftover meat in the fridge as well, I’ll throw that in there too. This is probably my favorite way to plan my meals because I don’t need to put much thought into the week, just a few days or so and rely on leftovers the rest of the time.
RECIPES LeftoverSteakSandwiches
Ingredients:
1/4 lb of leftover steak
2 bell peppers
½ white onion
2 teaspoons of Nature’s Seasoning
1 tablespoon of avocado oil
4 slices of cheddar cheese Sliced bread of choice Cream cheese (optional)
Directions: Wash peppers and slice vertically along with the onion. Heat oil in a pan and sautee the veggies until tender. Flavor the veggies with nature’s seasoning and then remove from pan. Reheat the steak no longer than 15 seconds and place bread in the toaster.
Once toasted, place on a baking sheet and turn oven on broil.
Assemble the bread with steak, veggies and cheese(s). Place under the broiler until cheese is melted. Place the remaining bread on top and enjoy.
YOUR PUBLISHERMeetthepublisher
Alexis is passionate about self-sufficiency and the opportunities that come with being self-sufficient. She has been gardening for about 4 years; often experimenting with growing different kinds of food and propagating healthy cuttings for her small nursery.
In addition to homesteading, her experience expands over a variety of marketing skills including graphic design, web development, social media and email marketing, PR, and publishing. She’s also writing a book!
