Meal Planning: Week of December 29th

Review from last week:

I ended up not making the warm winter sweet potato salad when I realized I had regular potatoes, not sweet potatoes. Instead, I made pan-seared chicken and topped it with arugula, lentils and bruschetta sauce, that I made while watching Home Alone 2.  Side note - I totally thought that Home Alone 2 (and 1, for that matter) were kid friendly....but the part where Kevin is throwing bricks at the robbers off the roof and they are smacking one of them in the face, (which I found hilarious as an 8 year old) was traumatizing for Ben.  The look on his face was one of TERROR - shit. 

The Pho place near our house closed at 3pm on Christmas Eve, so I bought it to have for lunch and we had a random mix of snacks for dinner instead: Celery with cream cheese, Trader Joe's Frozen Chicken Pot Pie Bites (I would not recommend - they were just okay), lentils and bruschetta, and chips...

Greg wasn't feeling crockpot honey sesame chicken, so instead he made us deep fried cod (yum).  To go with it, I made the first of the recipes from a book Lisa and Evan bought me for Christmas, A Boat, A Whale & a Walrus by Renee Erickson: Butter Lettuce Salad with toasted pistachios, green herbs and pecorino-romano cheese.  It was AMAZING, and has me eager to try more recipes from this book (which is also a piece of art - I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves food as much as I do....should that person exist).

Lagered chili was tonight - made it with ground top sirloin.  Shout out to Greg who hussled out to the store to pick up chili powder that I had run out of and needed ASAP! :)

Plan for next week: SOUP!!!  I have stumbled across so many soup recipes that have sounded so amazing this week, so I wanted to cram them all in at once.  (Which is convenient, since I'm home from work and have the extra time to get a pot of soup cooking)!

Monday: Leftover chili

Tuesday: Something from the freezer/leftovers (or creamy lentil soup)

Wednesday: NYE!  Kristin and Craig are coming over for dinner and board games!  We were going to make beef tenderloin, but stumbled upon a pre-cooked lamb roast (by Tom Douglas) at Costco and decided to give that a try.  (Is lamb our new NYE tradition)?  To go with it, creamy rosemary potatoes.  2014 Ingle holidays brought to you by The Pioneer Woman!

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Sausage, Potato and Corn Chowder

Saturday: Out to dinner and a movie :)

Sunday: Leftover chowder, or leftover chicken potato florentine soup I have in the freezer.

Christmas 2014

It was a truly wonderful Christmas this year.  My wish is for every Christmas to follow to be like this one :)  

On Christmas morning, we got up with Ben to see what Santa had brought him.  He was VERY excited, and happily played with a few un-wrapped toys while Greg and I woke up over coffee for a bit.

We opened a few gifts just the three of us and played before my parents arrived.

Then we set the table for breakfast:

My mom made her delicious Danish puff - so so good as usual!

Then we opened gifts again!  Ben helped open every present - includes ones for others :)

In the early afternoon, Lisa, Evan, Shirley and Fred joined us for drinks, presents and eventually, dinner!  It was awesome having a full house for the holiday!

Shirley and my mom:

The boys, drinking hot toddies and looking through Lisa and Evan's wedding album:

Me and Greg:

Lisa and Evan Skype-ing with Evan's family in Michigan (and Ben joined them):

"Put a plate on top of your head and draw a Santa Claus".  LOL.  A very abstract turn out:

Me and Lisa:

Dad, me, Lisa and Fred:

Evan and I doing dinner prep:

Lisa and Evan in their new camping chair!

Me, Greg, Lisa and Evan:

Dinner time!

We finished the evening playing our new game "Ticket to Ride" while Ben painted a masterpiece:

Followed immediately by a bath and getting snugly in his new bear bathrobe :)

What a great day!  I'm exhausted the day after - the Christmas Tree has already been taken down (we have had it up since the day after Thanksgiving!) and I'm slowly transforming the house back to normal.

Decking the Halls

It's feeling Christmasy over here!

90's Christmas music on repeat!

Made Christmas doughnuts:

Ben approved!

So anxious for Christmas to arrive!

You Better Not Pout

Meal Planning: Week of Christmas

Review from last week:

Pizza chicken - always a hit.

Another of my top ten (easiest and most delicious) dinners we make: pan-seared chicken, mashed sweet potatoes and snap peas.  This night marked the beginning of our new rule for Ben: this is dinner and if you don't want it, you don't eat.  We have reached the point where we are tired of being able to count all of the foods Ben will eat on one hand.  My thought is if it's not an off the wall crazy meal I've prepared, (like something spicy or too "exotic" for a 3 year old), he will eat it.  Or he will skip it and be extra hungry for breakfast. :)  Gone are the days where I cave an hour later and settle for peanut butter on a graham cracker for dinner.  I'm pretty sure this process will require extra wine consumption.  I'm up for both challenges.

Salmon with cranberry-walnut stuffing.  

Instead of the other salmon dish, I made Lasagna stuffed spaghetti squash:

We also never made the cod tacos - but we will next week.

I'm looking forward to the next 2 weeks of not going into the office!  (One week off, one week working from home).  Hopefully this time at home will allow a lot of time to cook, and also a lot of time to work out and work off the holidays ;)

Plan for next week:

Monday: Warm Winter Sweet Potato Salad with Lentils & Cider Vinaigrette

Tuesday: Leftovers/freezer meal

Wednesday: We enjoyed ordering take out last Christmas Eve.  This year, we are thinking of having Pho :)

Thursday: Christmas!  We have a fun day planned with my parents coming over in the morning for brunch: My mom is bringing her (and Betty Crocker's) traditional Danish Puff, and I'll be making Eggs Benedict.  That afternoon Lisa, Evan, Fred and Shirley coming over for Christmas dinner!  We are doing it potluck style, and Greg and I will be making a Christmas Ham with Raspberry Mustard and biscuits.   (I salivated over the Pioneer Woman Christmas episode this year and declared I would be MAKING IT ALL)!

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Crockpot Honey Sesame Chicken over Bulgur

Sunday: Lagered Turkey Chili

XO Christmas Party

Last weekend, Greg, myself and Ben hosted a Christmas/Hot Cocoa party for Rachel, Maureen, Erica, Becca, Brenna (Chi Omega friends), their spouses and most importantly, their kids!  I had SUCH a fun time planning and making some fun appetizers and treats and decorating for the party!  Everyone brought food with them - so we spent a few hours stuffing our faces and chasing around the NINE kids that were running/crawling around!  It was complete and total chaos, but the absolute BEST kind!

A peak into what it takes to gather 9 kids on 1 couch:

Impossible to get a family picture sometimes, but we got pretty close :)