I'm still eating Thanksgiving Dinner, and will be for a while. When my family's get together wound down, I insisted upon taking all the food that others were planning to throw away. I had even brought a cooler for that purpose. I came away with a ton of turkey, ham, and many side dishes.

Phase One: I ate a few turkey sandwiches and ham sandwiches, and froze a bunch of the meat.

Phase Two: I made a big pot of turkey noodle soup, ate a few bowls, then froze it.

Phase Three: I made a "Thanksgiving Pie" -- really just a layered casserole of turkey and the sides, with mashed potatoes on top. Kind of a shepherd's pie.

Phase Four: Got sick of the Thanksgiving Pie and felt it was time to either toss it or freeze it. Instead, I put it in a big pan on top of the stove, added water and seasonings, and made a decent soup. Then I froze it.

Phase Five: I'm taking a macaroni casserole to a Christmas party tomorrow. I'm going to add some of the cut-up ham. (I don't usually do this, but I looked up recipes and saw that many called for it).

Don't know what phase six will be, but I still have quite a bit of ham in the fridge. Maybe grind up some of it for ham salad? Put it in a breakfast casserole?

I'm proud to report that in the month of November I spent a whopping $54 on groceries. (Note that I count only food in my grocery budget -- I have a separate line for household supplies). Between the conference at the beginning of the month, Thanksgiving weekend and the leftovers, I really didn't need to buy much food to have at home.

Last night I had frozen pizza and it was a welcome change!