Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Day Eighty-one

Before: Broccoli and six cheese soup (crockpot; Recipe: Make it Fast, Cook it Slow). The recipe was actually for three cheeses, but I had extra swiss and american that I needed to use up, as well as a four cheese blend, hence the six cheeses. :)


Seven hours later: Broccoli and six cheese soup


Cheddar drop biscuits (recipe: Cooking Light)


Dinner: Broccoli and cheese soup and biscuits. This dinner probably could've used a salad, but I was flying solo so I never got to make one.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Day Eighty

Breakfast: Peanut butter flax smoothies (recipe: Cooking Light). Somehow these tasted chocolately even though there wasn't any chocolate in them. Perhaps my taste buds just assume that all peanut butter is accompanied by chocolate.

Lunch: Bean quesadillas (pureed pinto beans and cheese) with frozen blueberries


Vanilla yogurt


Dinner: Leftovers from last night. Clean kitchen! :)

Day Seventy-nine

Maple spice muffins (Recipe: Doubly Delicious). These were really yummy.


Gingerbread house. We do one every year, and the girls love doing it, but they always try to eat it immediately afterwards.

Honey whole wheat bread- this one came right out of the bread machine. This is our favorite bread.


Dinner: Homemade chicken nuggets, which I made in the crockpot (recipe: Make it Fast, Cook it Slow), whole grain mac & cheese with cauliflower and yellow squash puree (recipe: Sneaky Chef), green beans, and clementines.

My husband was craving steak, so he BBQ'ed this for himself. I take no credit or responsibility for it.


Chicken soup with egg noodles- my daughter wanted this for lunch for tomorrow, so I let it simmer on the stove during the day and poured it into a thermos for the next day.

Day Seventy-eight

Breakfast: Whole grain blueberry pancakes (recipe: Annabel Karmel)
Dinner was leftover quesadillas, so my kitchen stayed clean! :)

Day Seventy-seven

Dinner: Chicken Quesadillas (whole grain tortillas, grilled chicken, black beans, shredded cheese, and 3/4 cup of the remaining sweet potatoes leftover from Thanksgiving), broccoli, and sour cream. According to my mom, who was there for dinner that night, you couldn't even taste the sweet potatoes.

Latkes. My daughter's teacher asked me to bring these into the classroom, so we whipped up a few batches to share with her friends.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Day Seventy-six

We've had leftovers coming out of our ears since Thanksgiving. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm so sick of sweet potatoes and turkey!! Tonight was the first night I actually made a real dinner, and there's also a breakfast sandwich my husband made. Since I had so many days of non-cooking, I'm not going to count those days, and will count today as where I last left off after last wk's Thanksgiving dinner.


Breakfast: Egg and cheese on a ciabatta roll

Dinner: Whole grain pasta in a ricotta and cheese sauce, with fresh baby spinach (recipe: Make it Fast, Cook it Slow) and then grapes

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Day Seventy-five: Thanksgiving

Cornbread and chicken-apple sausage stuffing... about to go into the turkey

The turkey... just stuffed and headed for the oven. We roasted it breast-side down for the first 1 1/2 hrs, and then breast-side up for the rest of the time.

The turkey... all roasted and ready to be carved. Carving is my dad's contribution to the meal. :)

Indian corn pudding... made by my mom
Carrot-herb biscuits... these are a tradition in my family, and SO yummy. Made with half whole-wheat pastry flour.
Pumpkin soup, made by my mom. Garnished with sour cream, toasted pumpkin seeds, and applewood bacon.
Sweet potato casserole... with marshmallows


Butternut squash... made by my grandma


The stuffing (from inside the turkey)


Gravy.. made by my mom


Mashed potatoes

Green beans with carmelized shallots

The meal... turkey, gravy, green beans, stuffing, cornbread pudding, biscuits, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and butternut squash. I'm full just typing that out!

The aftermath. I don't normally put pictures of people up, but when my husband fell asleep with his head in his dish, I felt I'd done my job. ;)

Pecan pie. As a rule, nothing store-bought goes on the table; but my husband woke up wanting pecan pie, and ran out to buy it while the turkey was roasting.

Maple pumpkin fudge, made by my mom

Apple pie, made by my grandma

Pumpkin pie, also by grandma


Thanksgiving butter cookies... also by grandma.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Day Seventy-four

Chicken apple sausage. This will be part of tomorrow's cornbread stuffing.

"The Yummiest Mashed Potatoes Ever" (according to the recipe). I'd have to agree! They have sour cream, cream cheese, a little pureed white bean in here. Also for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

Another one for tomorrow... Sweet Potatoes... to be garnished with marshmallows, of course.


Whole wheat french bread (dough- bread machine). This isn't for Thanksgiving; just the night's dinner.


Dinner: Four cheese whole grain pasta bake, french bread, and green beans.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Day Seventy-three

Two days until Thanksgiving... let the preparations begin! Sweet potatoes roasting, and cornbread baking.


Shredded carrots, for a carrot-herb biscuit. This is another pre-prep done for Thanksgiving. For this recipe, I measured and combined the dry ingredients, and shredded the carrots, but I won't do the rest of it till the morning of Turkey day.

Cornbread! Recipe: Sneaky chef. This cornbread will go in the stuffing. It was made with half white/half whole-wheat pastry flour, with a cauliflower-zucchini puree, some coarsely-chopped corn, and a little flax seed. May sound weird, but it is super moist and delicious.


Pumpkin pie pudding (Recipe: Cooking Light). This won't be on the Thanksgiving menu, but a friend of mine gave me some cooked sweet pumpkin from her garden, so I pureed it, made a double batch of this, and sent half home with her.


Breakfast for dinner: Spinach and cheese omelets and whole grain english muffins. After this, we had some sliced bananas, and then dipped into the pudding a little bit. ;)

Monday, November 22, 2010

Day Seventy-two

Mashed potatoes. This was for my daughter's school Thanksgiving feast. The recipe made such a large bowl that I kept some extra at home for dinner. (Score!)

Dinner: Leftover mish-mosh. Spaghetti from the other night, mashed potatoes from earlier, turkey hot dogs, and steamed broccoli.


Blueberry sorbet (recipe: Sneaky Chef). This really counts as fruit, as it is blueberries, cranberry pomegranate juice, and a splash of honey, pureed in the food processor. I love that my kids call it "dessert," though.