Meal Planning: Week of December 28th

Review from last week:

Flank steak:

 

Chipolte Chicken Salad with Avocado Crema - not pretty but very tasty!

Chicken and Potato Florentine Soup (in progress).  I halved this recipe and still had soup for DAYS and even had some to give away to my coworkers.

 

Christmas!!!  As usual, we spend our holidays eating!  Food not pictured here, but I made the French Toast I was so eager to make and eat again that Sarah made at the cookie exchange.  And it was probably the easiest recipe EVER and came out perfectly.  Don't be surprised if I invite you over for brunch instead of dinner in the future because I'm going to be finding reasons to make this again (and again).

The rosemary, thyme, salt and peppercorn crust we put on the Prime Rib:

The cheeseboard (joint effort with Lisa and Evan)!

The holiday cocktails brought by Lisa and Evan:  Rosemary Infused Citrus and Cranberry Holiday Pop Cocktail.  MAKE THESE.  I'm going to make my own rosemary infused simple syrup to put in my champagne on New Years :)

Plan for next week:

Monday: Slow-Cooker Jerk Pork with Caribbean salsa

Tuesday: Leftover pork over rice and salad

Wednesday: Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Boats and salad

Thursday: New Year's Eve! Take out Indian Food :) 

Friday: Spaghetti Squash Enchilada Bowls

Week in photos: Cookie Exchange, Christmas Treats and I'm on the Naughty List

Last weekend, Rachel (and Raleigh) came over to bake cookies for the Chi Omega cookie exchange!  We had a lot of fun and realized that baking is hard when you would rather be drinking and talking.  We also took the last batch of cookies out of the oven about 15 minutes before the power went out!  I was living in SERIOUS FEAR that we were in for another several days without power - but luckily it came back on at 11 pm that night.

Ben and Raleigh watching "oooh ooh ahh ahh" (Curious George).

 

All the cookies at the party.

All the ladies!

 

The amazing food Sarah made.  I'm still dreaming of it and can't wait to make that french toast!

 

 
Sarah had a really fun game we played where we chose from a bunch of mason jars with secret contents to determine if we were naughty or nice.  I chose naughty, and got these amazing teeth that Ben absolutely loves.

 

So a couple weeks ago, I was celebrating Ben writing a "B".  This quickly turned into "BEN" and now is all the letters and we are constantly spelling and writing things together.  It's amazing.

So many treats in the house this month.

The other night, Ben asked me if he could have "1 more treat".  I told him no.  And instead of throwing a fit, he calmly walked over to the chalkboard and told me I was going on the naughty list :)

Ben had fallen asleep in the car one afternoon so he was extra snuggly when we got home.

Playing Candyland at bedtime.

This is what happens on a no nap day :)

Meal Planning: Week of December 21st - Christmas!

Review from last week:

Flank steak (made by Greg) with roasted cherry tomatoes.

 

  BLT's and tomato soup.  Sometimes the most simple meal is the BEST.

 

Pasta and salad.

 

Plan for next week:

Saturday: Going out wine tasting and to dinner with Kristin and Craig!

Sunday: Flank Steak and Salad

Monday: Chicken and Potato Florentine Soup

Tuesday: Leftover soup

Wednesday: Mac and cheese

Thursday: Chipolte Chicken Salad with Avocado Crema

Friday:  Christmas!  We are hosting and I'm so excited about it!  For breakfast, I'm making a Texas French Toast Bake that Sarah  made at the cookie exchange party and I have not been able to stop thinking about.  For dinner, we will make a Prime Rib with Rosemary Salt Crust, Burgundy Mushrooms and bake a loaf of bread - the rest will be brought by our guests :)  Looking forward to an evening with family and friends!

Week in Photos: The Lights of Christmas, JLO's Baby Shower, and Ben wrote his NAME

Hilary and Violet came to town last week!  We wanted to do something Christmasy with them, so we all decided to buy tickets to The Lights of Christmas up at Warm Beach!

None of us had been before - and it was absolutely worth it!  The weather held out for us (it was POURING all the way there and all the way home) and the kids seemed to love it.

 

The real reason that Hilary was in town was for Jamie's baby shower.  We spent a lovely afternoon with Jamie and all her friends showering her and baby Jailyn with everything they could possibly need for her arrival in February.

 

Afterwards, Hilary and I went out wine tasting and to dinner!

Typing letters:

I continue to be amazed at how interested Ben is with all things letters, spelling, reading and writing.  It's a seriously explosion of learning and interest and I can hardly keep up with him (although I certainly LOVE trying)!  He is also quite passionate about puzzles at the moment!

He also is so interested in helping us with everything we are doing.  He wants to participate in all activities and we are constantly trying to do a better job of letting him help.  My main goal for the holidays (my office is going on break soon) is to have him help me a bunch in the kitchen :)

Meal Planning: Week of December 14th

Review from last week:

Not a ton of cooking this week, but here is what we made:

Chicken with brown rice, cucumber/tomato salad with lemon Greek yogurt dressing.

Mexican pork carnitas:

Chicken, mashed sweet potatoes and snap peas.

Plan for next week:

Saturday: Grilled Steak and salad

Sunday: Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken

Monday: Turkey Club Sandwiches

Tuesday: Staff Dinner for me, leftovers for the boys

Wednesday: Tomato Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

Thursday: Baked Pasta with Sausage and Spinach

Friday: Leftovers

Week in photos: Steelers vs. Seahawks, Jeannette's Birthday, and Christmas Decor

On very rare occasion, the Pittsburgh Steelers (Greg's team) come to town to play against the Seahawks.  Greg had been talking about this game for a longggggggggggggggggggggg time - but tickets are very hard to come by!  He had been planning this day for awhile - he was either going to go down to the stadium to tailgate with friends, or he was going to watch the game at a bar somewhere near home.  He had essentially given up hope of getting tickets (at a reasonable price).

The day before the game, a friend of mine on Facebook posted that her 100 level tickets were up for sale!  I told Greg, and after making a few calls to see if any friends were interested in spending the cash on this game (they weren't), I told him that we were buying the tickets - and that I would be going to the game with him. I figure if Greg is willing to take a trip to NYC with me so I can see Hamilton, this is something I HAD to make him do.

And we had the BEST TIME.

 

Emily and Chris were down at the game tailgating - so we met up with them and drank some of their beer :)

Then we went down to Safeco to meet up with Karla and Bryan - and their Steeler fan friends!

View from our awesome seats.

Ran into Gina during halftime!

It was seriously one of the most fun days we have had in awhile.  Thanks to my mom for signing up for a last minute babysitting day!

The night before, we had dinner with Jeannette and family at The Spaghetti Factory - her annual birthday celebration! 

New boss at work asked where all the Christmas decor was.  I volunteered to head out to get some (since I'm pretty sure all of our old stuff has been trashed or is buried deep in our storage unit).  I think I did pretty good!

Sleepyheads.

 

OH, and Ben has started to write letters!!!!  I cannot believe how interested he has been in learning lately - particularly with reading and writing.  It's AMAZING and I love it so much.

 

Meal Planning: Week of December 7th

Review from last week:

The winning recipe from last week came from The Pioneer Woman.  I've become rather obsessed with her show lately - one of the things I look forward to most about weekend mornings (new episodes)!  This recipe she had for leftover Thanksgiving paninis was mouth watering.

   

The chile-rubbed steakes with quick kimchi and tomato rice from Blue Apron was fantastic.

 

As was the crispy catfish Ramen.  Like, SO good.

These chicken meatballs with kale from Blue Apron were great!  The celeriac mash was not.  So I had it with pasta instead.

 

I made the ricotta meatballs and chianti sauce yesterday to be able to heat up for dinner tonight (Friday), but Greg had some last night (in lieu of the chicken meatballs).

 

Plan for next week:

Sunday: Slow-Roasted cherry tomato and arugula pasta 

Monday: Pan-Seared Chicken & Sauteed Bulgur with Tomato Salad & Creamy Lemon-Yogurt Sauce.

Tuesday: Slow-Cooker Mexican Pork Carnitas

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Pan-Seared Chicken with Mashed Sweet Potatoes and snap peas and roasted carrots with feta and truffle oil

Friday: Leftover Korean Beef and Butter Chicken from the freezer, over cauliflower rice. (I froze portions of each, so we can decide who wants what)!