Meal Plan for 1/20/2012 - 1/28/2012

• mac and cheese
• tomato soup and grilled cheese
• chicken tacos w/peppers and onions
• Prep: soak more beans
• Prep: rest of peppers
• Roasted Turkey
• Sweet potato casserole
• Freeze:cook then freeze beans
• Pot roast
• Chili made from leftover pot roast
• Lamb curry in crockpot
• Pork chops
• Steak
• Leftovers

Mealplanning for the Family Holiday Cookathon

Some multi-day leftover conversion combinations that have worked for me this year:

Meal 1:
Holiday Turkey
Mashed potatoes

Meal 2:
Turkey tacos (lime juice helps counter some of the 'heaviness' of the roasted meat)
Corn chowder (2 cans corn, leftover mashed potatoes)

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Meal 1:
Oven-roasted sweet potatoes
Homemade bread

Meal 2:
Homemade stuffing w/sweet potato & toasted homemade bread crumbs (sherry, diced sauteed onions)

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Every Christmas, I get a chance to practice my "cooking for a crowd" skills – when I go to visit my brother in Texas, I get to cook for six or so more people than I usually do. I'm not a particularly fast cook, and there are a wide range of tastes (conservative, semi-vegetarian, exotic) and 4-6 children (4 of whom have decidedly "preschool" tastes). The challenge I set for myself is to cook balanced meals with something for everyone without spending too long in the kitchen, or spending excessively. Plus, it's Christmas, which means there are a range of traditional foods that everyone likes to have this time of year.

Cherry-Coconut Pie

Cherry-Coconut Pie

Most of what you see here is the "Amazing Coconut Pie" recipe from the back of the coconut bag, but the addition of cherry filling and the blendering and then post-baking sprinkling of the coconut is my variation.

Ingredients:

• pre-made pie crust -- graham cracker was tastier than flour in my opinion, but oreo might be even better
• 1 can cherry pie filling
• 2 C milk
• 3/4 C sugar
• 1/2 C flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 6 T butter
• 1 t vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1.3 C flake coconut

Directions:

1. Spread filling in bottom of pie crust.
2. Blender up the milk, sugar, flour, baking powder, butter, vanilla, eggs, and coconut.
3. Pour into pie crust over the cherries.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes until top is golden.
5. Cover pie with remaining coconut.
6. Store in fridge.

Thanksgiving: Mission Complete

This year's Thanksgiving Menu:

• Traditional appetizers: carrot sticks and pickles. Whether they get eaten or not, these are necessary.
• Salad
• Turkey: from Wallace Farms. Brined, stuffed, roasted....perfect. Definitely the most moist & flavorful turkey I've made.
• Ham Steak: (flop! Didn't defrost it, then burned it...tossed it out. Gotta have one flop/holiday, and this was it.)
• In-bird stuffing
• Baked stuffing
• Gravy
• Mashed potatoes
• Sweet potatoes & pineapple
• Green bean casserole
• Roasted Carrots
• Wild Rice
• Stella's cornbread
• Homemade Cloverleaf Rolls
• Cranberry Orange Sauce
• 2 pumpkin pies
• 1 pecan pie
• 1 coconut cherry pie (the experiment...recipe coming soon)

Mission for next year includes:

• All above criteria
• Don't forget olives
• Another pie or dessert
• Another vegetable
• New sweet potato dish
• Home made stuffing both in-bird and out-of-bird
• An experiment
• Wheat or multigrain rolls

Tricky Baked Potato Wedges

I read something in Cook's Illustrated about microwaving potatoes then finishing them up on the stove or in the oven to cut cooking time without losing the flavor you get from baking potatoes. It really does make a big difference in speed and the flavor is great! Here's what I made tonight:

• some medium potatoes cut into quarters
• pepper, salt, etc
• olive oil

In my au gratin pan, I stirred around the potatoes and seasonings and oil a bit.

Microwave for 12 minutes

Bake at 375 or so for 20 minutes

Eat. Delicious!

Garage Sales and Farmer's Market

My Saturday winnings this week were a Little People zoo set and two kid's lawn chairs for a grand total of $7. We did our usual morning cookie run and hit the farmer's market, stocking up on a whole pile of favorites since the market is ending soon and we won't be able to go next week. Sunday we hit Office Depot for Pre-School Supplies and CVS for a stack of household supplies. We are pretty stocked except for paper products and milk.

I Got My Life Back

Maybe I'll actually have time to blog again now that circumstances at work are no longer hell and my home is gradually starting to look less like a disaster depot.

Accomplishments Today:
- free dinner from office bbq
- rescued a bunch of food from the office bbq that was going to go to waste, socked it away in the fridge and freezer
- 20-min kitchen cleanup and 20-min living room/dining room clean up with all 3 of my wonderful helpers

Home Finances Work:
- updated our budget status with mint.com and reviewed progress against goals (evaluation: pretty darn good, except that the economy is dragging against our net worth goal, and our dinners-out, SBUX habits from the past few months has put us way over in the "entertainment" category
- reviewed various deal sites, decided to subscribe to the zootles animal magazine for the girls for two years -- referrer link if you must know :) -- make sure you dig up a coupon code from RetailMeNot if you go for the deal, save an extra 15%. Also, make sure you pick a school to send a bonus 5% of your purchase. Parent Coop for Early Learning in Chicago, IL is a good choice ;)
- convinced myself that since we're not really out of anything and have a jam-packed-full fridge and freezers, plus fruit & vegetable boxes to pick up today, we don't need to do any shopping this weekend and we can stay home.

Next tasks:
- meal plan for the next week
- clean up back entry and front entry
- make some homemade tortillas, because they're yummy