Meal Planning: Week of December 16th

No review from last week - other than to say it was good, and I failed to take photos of our food last week - what is happening to me ;)

Due to a couple elaborate meals I am planning for Christmas and New Years Eve, my brain isn't wanting to get creative in the short term.  All of our recipes for this week are ones we have had in the past couple weeks - tried and true.

Saturday:  Carnitas over cabbage.  We didn't end up making this last week.

Sunday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

 

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (15 oz) can kidney beans
• 1 (15 oz) can black beans
• 1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 (12 oz) can beer  (or 1 can chicken broth)
• 2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
• 1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning**
• 3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts  (1lb of chicken tenders)
• shredded Cheddar cheese
• sour cream
• tortilla chips

Directions:

Place the onion, kidney beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer or chicken broth, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker.  **Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend.  Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients.  Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours.

Remove chicken breasts from the soup, and allow to cool long enough to be handled. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup, and continue cooking for 2 hours. Serve topped with shredded cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips

Monday:  Leftover soup

Tuesday:  Roasted Red Pepper and Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken Breast and Brussels Sprouts

Wednesday: 

Wednesday: Creamy Tomato Basil Soup and Grilled Cheese

Thursday: Boboli Pizza w/ Meatballs or Smoked Chicken.

Meal Planning: Week of December 9th

Review from last week:

Nothing special or new to review, and just a couple pictures:

Chicken Paillard (yum):

French dip sandwiches and apples:

Here is what we have planned for next week:

Monday: Carnitas (Costco) over shredded cabbage.

Tuesday: Toasted Quiona Salad with Scallops - This is one of the (very) few dishes I used to make back before I really cooked much.  Greg LOVES it, and we haven't had quinoa in awhile, so it sounds like a good recipe to do again!

Wednesday:  I have a staff meeting and a work dinner, so I'm going to encourage Greg to pick up Wendy's and try the Pretzel Pub Burger he has been drooling over for a month.  (Or have left overs) :)

Thursday: Brown Sugar and Balsalmic Glazed Pork Loin

Friday: Chicken Parmesean and Broccoli with Browned Butter and Mizithra Cheese.  We are having Shauna, Brandon and Bronson over for dinner!

Saturday: Left Overs

Sunday: Italian Sausage Spaghetti - This is another recipe that I made a lot before I knew what I was doing in the kitchen.  My friend Shauna emailed it to me and I remember asking her really novice questions like "how many noodles do I make to go with this???.  Also, please note how specific she had to be about where I would find the Italian cheese.  LOL.

Spaghetti noodles

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1 lb. hot italian sausage

Mushrooms

White onion

Garlic Powder

Fresh herbs (optional): basil or oregano

Fresh garlic

8 oz italian cheese blend shredded (you'll see it hanging in the cheese aisle..it's just kraft or store brand)

Directions

Cook the italian sausage as you would ground beef; season with garlic powder, salt and fresh ground pepper; drain and put to the side.

Saute' the mushrooms and onion in fresh garlic and olive oil.

Combine the italian sausage into the saucepan with the mushrooms and onions then add the sauce and saute.  I like to add more garlic powder and keep seasoning until I like it.  I also like to take some of the tang away by adding just a slight bit of sugar then salt.  Add the whole package of cheese, put a lid on it, and let it simmer for 20 minutes or so. 

Voila'!!  Ready to eat :)

Yep

Photo Catch Up

Playing with his barns.  On Thanksgiving, my mom brought over my old Fisher Price barn.  It was so cute to see him walking animals back and forth between the two.

Ben lovvvvvvvves jumping off of things now.  This morning, he even requested "one, two, three jump" (which is what I always say when we play this game).

Reading his truck book with dad.

Last weekend, Callie and I took the kids to paint pottery down in Edmonds.  It was so much fun!

Catching up on things over their morning cups of coffee/juice.

Riding dirty at the Total Wine and More.

Puzzles (another vintage toy of mine)!

Helping mama clean up.

A trip to the Children's Museum.

Posing in the vest that Lisa bought him for his birthday!  

Thanksgiving 2013

I absolutely love being able to host Thanksgiving at our house.  Actually getting up early and preparing the meal really helps me be a little more patient in waiting to eat it :)

Although, it's not officially Thanksgiving until I have snuck a forkful (or 4) of my mom's stuffing.

In the morning, Greg and I took Ben up to the middle school track and we got a quick run in.  It was nice to be outside on such a crisp and cold day knowing that soon our bellies would be warm and full :)

I made a loaf of bread:

I used some of the baby shower decor to decorate the table :)  Thanks, Maureen!

I had seen some really cute place setting ideas in Better Homes and Gardens.

Ben got a turkey leg:

We all got turkeys:

Ben ended up going down for a lonnnnng nap right as we sat down to eat.  He wasn't interested in eating ANY part of our meal.  Annoying.  But he woke up with the cutest cowlick:

Other than eating, we played with toys and watched football and drank a LOT of wine that evening!

It was such a fun holiday -  I already am looking forward to Christmas :)

Our Christmas Tree

For the first time as a family, we went out to chop down our own Christmas tree this year!  Dan and Jeannette have had a tradition to join their friends the Wheelers (and the entire extended Wheeler clan) to go tree hunting together each year.  We had been invited over the past couple years, but always opted to put up a fake tree or purchasing a tree from a lot.  But this year with Ben being 2, we thought it would be a fun experience for him.

On Saturday morning, both Greg and I were up an HOUR before Ben was.  (Whattttt?)  Once he got up we bundled up and went up to the tree farm.  It was really fun to see all of the kids so excited about selecting the perfect tree and then seeing all of the different choices.  We ended up with this one, which we both now agree is not quite as full as we would like, but I'm hoping once we add some garland to it it will look a little more complete :)

Afterwards, we all went to Bob's Burgers for lunch + beer :)

Meal planning: Week of December 3rd

Review from last week:

This chicken tortilla soup recipe is becoming a family favorite.  This time, I let Ben join me in dumping all of the ingredients into the crock pot and he loved every minute of it.

Boboli pizza - always easy and good.

More on Thanksgiving in another post, but our meal was so delicious and effortless this year!  I highly recommend giving this crock pot turkey breast a try.  We also made prosciutto garlic green beans, regular old mashed potatoes (and then added lemon juice, minced garlic and garlic powder) and I baked a loaf of my homemade bread.  Yum!  My mom brought over stuffing (easily one of my top 5 dishes of all time), sangria cranberry sauce and candied yams, which I just learned was my Grandma Brown's recipe:

Candied Yams or Sweet Potatoes
From Grandma Brown

Heat 2 cups water and 1 cube butter until butter is melted.  Mix together 1 cup brown sugar and 3 tablespoons corn starch.  Put through a sieve so there are no lumps.  Add to water and butter.  Stir over low heat until thickened.  Pour over cooked yams ( sliced thin) and 2 apples ( sliced thin  - optional) in casserole dish and bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

The night before Thanksgiving, we were invited to join Dan, Jeannette, Laryd and a few other family members to celebrate Jeannette's birthday at the Spaghetti Factory!  Nothing like carbing up before the big feast, right?  It was really fun and especially nice not to have to cook on Wednesday.

Me and the birthday girl:

Laryd entertaining Ben with a rousing game of peek-a-boo:

Ice-cream!

Here is what we have planned for this week:

Saturday:  BLT chopped salad with feta, corn and avocado - Our favorite dish from the summer.  We had it last night and made extra to have for lunch today.

Sunday: Roasted Red Pepper and Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken Breast, and salad.  

Monday: Chicken Paillard.  (Is it obvious I am trying to counter all of the stuffing we I consumed last week?

Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie

Wednesday: French dip sandwiches - no recipe, just roast beef on a roll and a packet of au jus

Thursday: Left overs.

Friday: Creamy tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.