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2024 Thanksgiving Menu and Meal Prep Timeline

* image These past few months have been busy for our family, especially since our oldest joined a local swim team. Between juggling our work schedules and balancing school with practices... we're all pretty wiped out. Although it's a lot of work, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. Preparing the holiday meal for our family fills my heart with joy, and I can't wait to get started. To make things easier for me, I don't deviate much from  our first Thanksgiving  as a family. The dishes I make are familiar ones, and the recipes for them live at my fingertips. Keeping the same menu year after year means I don't have to spend time researching recipes or planning a new one. Here are my tried-and-true Thanksgiving recipes, as well as my prep timeline for the big day!

Slow Cooker Beef Short Ribs with Polenta

Slow-Cooker Beef Short Ribs with Polenta | Taste As You Go
Slow Cooker Beef Short Ribs with Polenta

I'm sensing a trend. A slow cooker meal trend. Many people have resolved to use their slow cookers more often in the new year. I think this is a fabulous idea and something that I should do more often!

Although I love being in the kitchen making delicious food, there are times when I need to focus my attention elsewhere or when I'm too tired to concentrate on pulling a meal together at the end of a long day, especially given my long commute.

Enter the slow cooker.


Slow-Cooker Beef Short Ribs with Polenta | Taste As You Go
Slow Cooker Beef Short Ribs with Polenta

I had my commute in mind when I prepared this version of beef short ribs. Stephen and I love short ribs, and, chances are, if they're on the menu when we go out for dinner, one of us is going to order them. But it dawned on me that I had never made that at home before.

To make my life easier, I planned these short ribs as a Monday-night meal so I could use Sunday night to prep the ingredients. Doing most of the work the night before took a lot of the pressure off of getting everything on the table at a reasonable hour on a work night.

And we're all about eliminating stress, right?

I left for work the next morning with my mind at ease knowing that Stephen would turn the slow cooker on around lunchtime and that dinner would be nearly ready once I got home. All we had to do was prepare the polenta to serve with the short ribs. In no time at all, we were sitting down to a rare treat for dinner.

Better yet? I had leftovers to bring for lunch the next day!

Do you have a favorite slow cooker recipe? If so, then share in the comments below and lets see if we can help others keep their New Year's resolution by providing them with lots of recipes to choose from! To get things started, check out my other slow cooker recipes:
Slow Cooker Beef Short Ribs with Polenta - Printable Recipe
(adapted from Food.com)

INGREDIENTS
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 1/2 pounds boneless beef short ribs
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 cup white onion, chopped
  • 1 cup low-sodium, reduced-fat beef broth
  • 3/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup Sriracha
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • Polenta, prepared according to the package instructions
  • Fresh Italian parsley, chopped

INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Preheat your slow cooker by plugging it in and turning the setting to "warm".

  2. Put flour, salt, and pepper in a large Ziploc bag. Add the short ribs. Seal the bag and shake until the ribs are well-coated with the flour.

  3. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the ribs in the butter on all sides. Once browned, put the ribs in the slow cooker and cover to keep warm.

  4. In the same skillet, add the onion, beef broth, vinegar, brown sugar, Sriracha, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and chili powder. Stir to combine.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring. Make sure to scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan.

  6. Pour the mixture carefully over the ribs. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours, or until the meat of the ribs falls away from itself with the touch of a fork.

  7. Serve over polenta and garnish with fresh parsley.

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