Meals and Food

I love me the meal plan. I do it every week now. I'm kid of bummed that I didn't post them here because it would have been nice to track. I've kind of expanded the way I do it though; I come up with the number of required meals but don't normally assign meals to days. I also have a list of main dishes that I can easily look over and pick from - that doesn't keep me from pouring over cookbooks though. I still love to do that. As a matter of fact, we're having a couple of new pasta recipes this week thanks to The Dinner Doctor. I know lots of people are fanatical about making everything from scratch but I'm not. If a can of cream of mushroom produces edible results and I don't have the time to make a creamy white sauce then canned soup it is.

This week looks like this:

• Penne with ham and sugar snap peas with salad. Supposed to be rotini and prosciutto but I like penne better and have you seen the price of prosciutto?
• Mac N Cheese casserole - soooo easy. Blue box, cream of mushroom, tuna and peas.
• Burritos/Tacos with rice and refried beans.
• Smoked salmon penne with capers and lemon. I probably spent the most on this dish but did find the salmon on sale. This is supposed to have ziti but - well, I like penne better.
• Taco soup - already have leftovers for after school snacks, lunch or soup and sandwich night next week.
• Spaghetti and meatballs.

...and then there's my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmothers house:

• Sweet potato casserole - probably mashed but lumpy with butter, brown sugar and marshmallows.
• Creamed peas with onion.
• Green bean casserole.
• Runny cranberries (a thin cranberry sauce) - if I can get the recipe from someone besides my MIL. Otherwise I'll make it up.

The cool thing the past month or so is that I've ended up with enough leftovers from one week to feed us for part of the next. It helps that Jake goes out for dinner with the GF or Matt goes to a friend's house.

The In-Law family is already planning The Night Before Christmas party they throw every year. It is a time for the whole family to get together, NOT on Christmas, eating and enjoying every one's company as well as exchanging gifts through a reading of The Night Before Christmas, hence the name of the party. So here's how it works. Everyone brings an inexpensive gift suitable for male or female (kids pass among themselves) and everyone settles in a circle. One of the girls (just because my boys aren't interested and the younger boy is 4) reads the story. Every time the word 'and' is said, the gifts are passed. Whatever you end up with at the end of the story is yours. It's fun. This year the party is on December 20 and I've been asked to bring two batches of chili. I'm looking forward to it but may be hung over. My company party is on December 19 and I always drink plenty that night.