Meal Plan Monday 12/21

mimser

What’s cooking this Holiday week?!

ec1212

@mimser thx for posting!!

Tonight was Broccoli grilled cheese with truffle cheddar & tomato soup  

Tues - salmon larb & coconut rice bowls 

W - sautéed rainbow chard & crispy charred white beans
Thurs - Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas eve! We’ll have a couple seafood apps then a giant seafood pasta production over linguine marinara
Fri - ordered our Christmas meal from a local resto, we’ll have cinnamon rolls for breakfast and mushroom lasagne with veggie sides for dinner. Making a bourbon pecan pie for dessert at hubby’s request. 

Also it’s not Christmas week without cookies! Limiting myself to two kinds this year since we’re the only ones eating them. 😋

- Peanut Butter Thumbprints: https://www.danpelosi.com/post/peanut-butter-blossoms

- Linzer Jam cookies: https://whatsgabycooking.com/christmas-linzer-cookies-with-raspberry-preserves/

mimser

Tonight was leftovers that my MIL made: lamb with potatoes and chicken stew

Tomorrow will be leftover Greek roasted chicken that we made yesterday 

Wednesday will be steak with rice and brocoli

Thursday will be greek lemon chicken soup, greek roast pork with honey sauce (https://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/greek-style-roast-pork/) , a Christmas bread with walnuts (https://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/christopsomo-recipe-greek-christmas-bread-with-walnuts/) and I'm making some greek holiday cookies:
Honey cookies: https://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/melomakarona-greek-christmas-honey-cookies/

Butter cookies: https://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/kourabiedes-greek-christmas-butter-cookies/

Friday, I'll make a turkey roast with cranberries (https://www.ricardocuisine.com/holidays/recipe.php?c=main-dishes&id=7182) with spinach and mashed potatoes Au Gratin (https://www.ricardocuisine.com/holidays/recipe.php?c=appetizers-and-sides&id=7462). Dessert will be a traditional Pouding chômeur (https://www.ricardocuisine.com/holidays/recipe.php?c=desserts&id=378)

mrosek91

Last night was Sabich

Tonight was leftovers

Tuesday chicken?
Wednesday lasagna

Thursday spaghetti with meat sauce

nsk489

I feel like I cheated at dinner this week:
Tonight I grabbed a rotisserie chicken and sides from the grocery store. Then we have a Hello Fresh box coming with 3 nights worth of meals (my sister had a freebie to share, we don't normally get this--I am looking forward to not having to think about what to make!).
Christmas Eve we will have bacon wrapped filet mignon, and my husband is making goat cheese mac & cheese.
Christmas dinner we usually just have appetizers and munch all day long, so we will be gorging on lots of fried food lol (mozzarella sticks, potato skins, buffalo wings, etc.)

Also LOTS of cookies to eat this week--I already finished making my baklava, sand tarts, peanut butter blossoms, and cocoa cookies. All that's left to make are Greek butter cookies (koulourakia) 

littlelibelula

I did our Costco run this morning for the month, so we have lots of fresh veggies. 

I'm always curious, why do most of the meal plans only have one meal?  I understand that maybe breakfast is simple or repetitive, but why no lunch. Does everyone just eat leftovers, repetitive or eat out? 

Monday:
Lunch: Garlic fish, broccoli, beans and rice
DInner: Chili and rice

Tuesday:
Lunch: Chili,  broccoli and elbow macaroni
Dinner: SIL (now that's it's Christmas vacation and she's officially on break, I will take advantage of her cooking skills as often as possible) 

Wednesday:
Lunch: Sushi (Is all sushi bad or just the un cooked fish?) 
Supper: Baked mystery chicken (pick a pre-season bag from the freezer), carrots,  broccoli and rice. 

With my husband being away and not meeting with any family, I don't have special Christmas food plans. Husband says we should make dumplings together. MIL will probably be with us Thursday to Monday since the city has a forced locked down on the weekends of Christmas and New Years. MIL and SIL will probably do a lot of the meals over the weekend.🤩

And cookies, @nsk489 @mimser @ec1212 I am definitely going to take some of those ideas. I'm not planning on presents this year, maybe something small from the house for my MIL, SIL and my DS. But I really want to do cookies for the neighbours. There are 14 on our street, but 4 of them I'm not convinced are moved in yet. So that leaves me with 9 houses, with 3-4 people in each. Any ideas of how many cookies you would give without seeming excessive or ridiciously few? 
I did 6 last time for my youth group, 1 person per bag. I love the cookie ideas. I forgot real butter at the shopping trip this morning so I'll probably make sugar cookies instead. 
- Sugar cookies (maybe multi-colored) 
- Gingersnaps (molasses cookies) I found a local source for molasses and I'm so happy. 
- Snickerdoodle - Maybe a chocolate one
(I never found marshmallows in Costco today, but peanut marshmallow squares sound so awesome.) 
I'm also thinking of those peanut butter blossoms, @nsk489 I am intrigued, they sound good. Or maybe the thumbprints. 

nsk489

@littlelibelula my husband doesn't eat breakfast, I usually have either frozen waffles, a bagel, or yogurt for breakfast. We eat leftovers for lunch (or sometimes will make an egg sandwich or peanut butter jelly!). So really dinner is the only cooking for us.

I think the peanut butter blossoms are the same as the thumbprints (that's just what I grew up calling them). We give cookies to the neighbors, I usually give 2-4 of each type of cookie (it depends on how many types of cookies I made at the time I'm giving them away, lol. For example, we made a plate for a friend the other day but I wasn't done baking, so I did 4 baklava and 4 sandtarts. If I had more variety I would do less of each type of cookie).
Snickerdoodles are my FAVORITE and I never make them

mkc3888

I didn’t plan any meals this week, so we’ll probably be eating out today and tomorrow. Yesterday my mom cooked for me because she wanted me to help her reset her Apple ID password and new iPad. So I had deer rice and gravy with butter beans. Thursday we are having my mom and sister over to exchange gifts. I’m doing mostly a spread of appetizers, meatballs, chicken salad sandwiches, cream cheese and pepper jelly with crackers and a veggie tray. Also a ham and kings Hawaiian rolls. Friday we are going to my in-laws and having cinnamon rolls for breakfast. 

Liz101015

We are having jalopeno popper slow cooked chicken with rice for lunch today and tomorrow. Dinner will be sweet potatoes tacos. For christmas eve we are doing a light version of the festival of fish since just the three of us and then cheistmas day my hubby is making a light version of a dominican xmas feast. Its the first Christmas we have not traveled to family in Florida to celebrate so should be interesting. 

mimser

@nsk489 I loove koulourakia! I usually make them for Easter! I'm probably going to bake a batch of melomakarona tonight...!

@littlelibelula I usually alternate between cereals, oatmeal or french toast in the morning, never planned ahead or exciting 😅 As for lunch, I'm the only one having so I usually heat up leftovers or make myself a sandwich. About sushi, some pregnant women eat it others don't. If you go for vegetarian or cooked options, you should just make sure it comes from a reputable place and ask them to avoid cross contamination with uncooked sushi. But even this can have risk, it's a super personal choice. 

@ec1212 and @Liz101015 what is the tradition behind this festival of fish?

ec1212

@littlelibelula i usually don’t plan ahead for breakfast - it depends on how I feel. Usually eggs or oatmeal or an almond milk smoothie with collagen/fruit/some healthy fat.  

DH and I do our own thing for lunch. I work full-time from home (thx to Covid) so I throw together something easy or leftovers so I don’t get too sidetracked from my workday by cooking. 

@mimser here’s a link with a lot of cool info. It’s an Italian-American tradition that kind of stems from not eating meat / fasting on certain days in the Catholic calendar. DH doesn’t have any holiday traditions so I’m excited to introduce him to this this year and hopefully do it in future years with our little family. 

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/567912/the-feast-of-the-seven-fishes-facts

ccmrc143

On Sunday I made two large pots of soup for my friend who is due in a week to put in her freezer, and we’re eating those leftovers. One is a white bean and vegetable soup with kale and peas, and the other is lentil soup with carrots and sweet potatoes. Also made a fresh loaf of bread. 

For Christmas Eve we’re making a seafood paella. I’m excited! 

Christmas Day I’m making Chelsea buns for the morning, and we’ll have a lot of appetizers and snacks throughout the day and leftover paella. Really want to spend the day relaxing and not cooking! 

Oh also we’re trying this recipe for a non-alc mulled wine: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mock-mulled-wine