Holiday Menu

As much as I adore Thanksgiving Day, I really only do the most basic of dinners. I stick with the boring old traditional meal: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, a vegetable, pumpkin pie.

Christmas, however, is much different. Christmas is cozier, the holiday week is longer. For example, I only have ONE day to prepare for Thanksgiving Day: Thursday. (Wednesdays are very busy with school so I don’t cook that day). So Thursdays are generally not good days for me. But for Christmas, if the day falls on a day other than Thursday, I am set and have loads of time to prepare. I am in the beginnings of formulating a nice Christmas meal. Tell me what you think:

Turkey (we love turkey so I always have it)
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes

– I know it looks traditional already but the kids and husband demand those three basic foods, lol!

Pumpkin soup?
Stuffed eggs
Cranberry… ? something
Brussel sprouts (my favorite)
Something chocolatey for dessert
…not sure what else, maybe a nice but very different kind of veggie. Got any ideas?

I am already looking forward to it. Maybe that’s because I am hungry right now, lol. It’s going to be a quiet day, a day where we RELAX and cozy up in front of the gas fireplace on hickory furniture and just BE QUIET for a while. Already my heart beats softly in anticipation.

What are your special plans that day?

Super Fast Meals for Busy Families

As much as I regale the marvels of fresh, non-processed foods, I do serve them. A little TOO frequently, in my opinion. Oh, we’ve made some advances, but no way do we eat salads and fruit slices all day. Wow, that’s actually a TON of work, time I wish I had, lol! So we do eat “ready made” meals sometimes. Because school has begun and tis’ the season for winter preparation and the onset of the holidays, I thought I’d share a few of my “Quicky Meals,” as I call them. They are great for throwing together in a hurry when you suddendly realize dinner has to be on the table in an hour and you have nothing thawed!!!

1. Pasta with frozen meatballs.

Sometimes I skip the meatballs and throw leftover cubed chicken (when we have it) and pesto sauce. Pesto sauce is SOOO good and a little jar goes a long way.

2. Chicken with shrimp and pasta.

I wrote about this recipe here; I call it Easy Shrimp & Chicken Garlic Pasta. It does require some preparation, but not much!

3. Greek Salad with flat bread.

We love this one. It requires almost no cooking (if you serve shrimp, you have to cook it or thaw the pre-cooked stuff). It does require a lot of table setting (a zillion jars of stuff). I wrote a post about some of our favorite salad ingredients here.

4. Tuna Casserole Sans Peas

I hate peas! So my tuna casserole has nary a one. I love tuna casserole because it can be on the table in about 90 minutes. The hardest thing about it pre-cooking the pasta and trying to shake the gravity-sealed cream of celery soup out of the cans. Here’s our favorite recipe for Easy Non-Peas-y Tuna Casserole.

5. Crockpot Manhattan Clam Chowder

This is a great one if you have 15 minutes to spare in the morning. Pre-cook the sausage or crumble the breakfast bacon leftovers into the crockpot, and throw in a bunch of ingredients. Allow it to simmer all day. By dinnertime, the house will smell delicious. Clean up is SO easy, too. My personal favorite is my own recipe, Manhattan Clam and Fish Chowder.

6. Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa

I love this, but the kids have grown out of it. I don’t know WHAT it is about edamame, it makes me feel like superwoman after eating it. It’s just so good. The kielbasa is a little salty and too flabby for me, though. I think the edamame with the tortellini or just the edamame is good enough. I have the recipe here: Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa.

7. Leftover Turkey Pasta Primavera

This is an AMAZING dish, perfect for after the holidays when your fridge is stuffed with leftover turkey. I love it because it is so easy and so delicious. Check out my recipe here.

These are the few recipes in my repertoire that I use for those moments of OHMYGOSHIFORGOTTOSTARTDINNER. Which, incidentally, are occurring a LITTLE too often for my tastes. But I’ve been clobbered with writing assignments with such technical topics like Technical Recruiter Consultant Jobs and electric wiring!

Hey, if you have any Quicky Meals that you want to share, please do! I think the family is starting to tire of my repertoire, lol.

Meal Ideas For Large Groups

During the kitchen renovation, as we are assisted by some dear friends throughout the project, I will be serving snacks and meals while they are here. On a given day, I may have as many as 20 people eating. I have to do all of this without a working kitchen (no stove, no sink, very limited electricity). It will be a challenge, to be sure! But we are not undaunted by challenges! What’s required here is PLENTY of planning. The nice thing about having a blog is that I can plan it all on that, and not worry about loosing a sheet of paper or a notebook, amongst all the noise and dirt. My daughter (the main kitchen helper) will have my netbook available outside (in our attached garage) where the temporary kitchen will be located. From there, she can access this list as well as research any recipes she wants to incorporate. Thank God for wireless Internet!!!

So here are a few of my meal plans and ideas for this project. I will only have a few major meals, and rotate them until the job here is done. I’m hoping this will be sufficient. We’ll all be working hard, so no need to make any diets for quick weight loss with this!

Meal 1
Greek Salad
Flat Bread
Fresh Fruit

Meal 2
Marinaded and Grilled Spiedies
Leftover Greek Salad
Hoagie Rolls
Horseradish Sauce/Mustard/Olive Oil

Meal 3
Hamburgers & Hot Dogs
Potato Salad

Meal 4
Grilled Chicken Legs
Leftover Potato Salad
Chips
Fresh Fruit

Meal 5
Ham and Bean Soup
Bread

Meal 5
Wok-on-Grill Stir Fry
Rice
Fresh Fruit

Grocery List 1
Iceberg Lettuce
Kale
Red Cabbage
Cucumbers
Olives
Feta Cheese
Carrots
Artichokes
Red peppers
Croutons
Salad Dressing: Italian, Red Vinegar, Caesar, Blue Cheese, Ranch
Flat Bread
Cantaloupe slices
Apples

Grocery List 2
Beef chunks
Spiedie Marinade Sauce
Red peppers
Green Peppers
Onions
Horseradish Sauce

Grocery List 3
Ground Beef
Hot dogs
Hamburger Rolls
Hot dog rolls
Red potatoes
Green Onions
Celery
Boiled Eggs
Mayonnaise
Dill Seed

Grocery List 4
Chicken Legs
Barbeque Sauce
Chips
Melon slices
Apples
Bananas

Grocery List 5
Turkey Ham
3 cans black beans
3 cans white beans
5 cans chicken broth
Salamida Hickory Pinch seasoning

Grocery List 6
Frozen Broccoli Florets
Carrots
Sugar Pea pods (from garden)
Onions (from garden)
Bamboo shoots
Bok Choy
Red Cabbage
Soy sauce
Garlic powder
Rice in Rice-cooker
Grapes
Melon slices
Apples

More to come!