Meal Planning: Dec. 19 - Dec. 26, 2019... including Christmas food
Everything is all off schedule. So I'm backing up and catching up on this because maybe people still need to do grocery shopping before Christmas?
Thursday
Pizza with caramelized onion and crispy bacon
The sharp-eyed reader will notice that this was on last week's menu. This is because there was some difficulty about making the dough, so we postponed the dinner a day. The previous night, when we should have had it, we had pasta with jarred sauce and a salad instead. Always have pasta and jarred sauce in your pantry. It's far cheaper than ordering pizza
Spinach salad
Friday
Kung Pao chicken
This is from a combination of recipes and I kind of make it up each time. It is part of my ongoing (and as yet unsuccessful) attempt to recreate a dish we had in a funny restaurant near the Great Wall outside of Beijing. The restaurant didn't really look like one like someone's house they served food in. We were told the dish was 'spicy chicken' which is really not helpful when trying to locate the recipe. Kung Pao chicken is vaguely close, but not close enough.
Jasmine rice
Egg rolls
Saturday
Hamburger soup
Simple and easy. It's pretty much ground beef, vegetables, and barley.
Biscuits
Homemade
Sunday
Chalupa
We're having friends over (the M. family and the W. family, which means lots of people). This is one of my go to recipes for serving crowds and I double it. It's pork roast cooked in a slow cooker with chilies, spices, and pinto beans. You serve it over tortilla chips with lots of toppings.
Monday
Escarole with sausage and white beans
I love this dish, but do you have any idea how difficult it is to find escarole out here? My garden WILL work next year, and I will grow my own.
Garlic bread
Tuesday (Christmas Eve)
Baked ham
We don't really have a set Christmas Eve menu, so it is a meal I'm constantly tweaking. The trick is to have something special that doesn't take long because we will be coming from church. We're trying ham this year because I can put it in before we leave.
Scalloped potatoes
These and the stuffing I will make ahead and then put right in the oven when we get home. They will be done by the time we've settled and had appetizers.
Cornbread stuffing with sausage
Salad
Wednesday (Christmas)
It is the day of eating.
Breakfast
Cinnamon rolls
Orange rolls
Both of these are homemade. The orange rolls will be new this year, mainly because they sound good and I want to eat them.
Fried rice
Some children do not care for sweet rolls in the morning, but they do like fried rice. So, the day before J. will head out and buy a lot from a local Chinese restaurant, and we reheat it in the morning.
Grapefruit
There has to be something relatively healthy in the meal. Plus, I have silver grapefruit spoons so it seems as though I should use them at least once a year.
Lunch
Waffles
We have waffles for lunch because for a long time, after we opened gifts, we would pack up and head to J.'s mom's house. They were later rising than we were and were often just starting breakfast... of waffles which then became our lunch. After she passed away, we kept the tradition.
Sausage
Bacon
Dinner
We go to J.'s sister's house, so I only make the salad and carrots.
Rib roast
Yorkshire pudding
Salad
This isn't just any green salad. It has Gruyere cheese, poppy seeds, sesame seed, and a really yummy dressing.
Cooked carrots
Ice cream with fudge sauce
The fudge sauce is homemade using J.'s grandmother's recipe. It is particularly good.
Thursday
Leftovers
After all that, no one feels like cooking much of anything. We will scrounge whatever is leftover.
Thursday
Pizza with caramelized onion and crispy bacon
The sharp-eyed reader will notice that this was on last week's menu. This is because there was some difficulty about making the dough, so we postponed the dinner a day. The previous night, when we should have had it, we had pasta with jarred sauce and a salad instead. Always have pasta and jarred sauce in your pantry. It's far cheaper than ordering pizza
Spinach salad
Friday
Kung Pao chicken
This is from a combination of recipes and I kind of make it up each time. It is part of my ongoing (and as yet unsuccessful) attempt to recreate a dish we had in a funny restaurant near the Great Wall outside of Beijing. The restaurant didn't really look like one like someone's house they served food in. We were told the dish was 'spicy chicken' which is really not helpful when trying to locate the recipe. Kung Pao chicken is vaguely close, but not close enough.
Jasmine rice
Egg rolls
Saturday
Hamburger soup
Simple and easy. It's pretty much ground beef, vegetables, and barley.
Biscuits
Homemade
Sunday
Chalupa
We're having friends over (the M. family and the W. family, which means lots of people). This is one of my go to recipes for serving crowds and I double it. It's pork roast cooked in a slow cooker with chilies, spices, and pinto beans. You serve it over tortilla chips with lots of toppings.
Monday
Escarole with sausage and white beans
I love this dish, but do you have any idea how difficult it is to find escarole out here? My garden WILL work next year, and I will grow my own.
Garlic bread
Tuesday (Christmas Eve)
Baked ham
We don't really have a set Christmas Eve menu, so it is a meal I'm constantly tweaking. The trick is to have something special that doesn't take long because we will be coming from church. We're trying ham this year because I can put it in before we leave.
Scalloped potatoes
These and the stuffing I will make ahead and then put right in the oven when we get home. They will be done by the time we've settled and had appetizers.
Cornbread stuffing with sausage
Salad
Wednesday (Christmas)
It is the day of eating.
Breakfast
Cinnamon rolls
Orange rolls
Both of these are homemade. The orange rolls will be new this year, mainly because they sound good and I want to eat them.
Fried rice
Some children do not care for sweet rolls in the morning, but they do like fried rice. So, the day before J. will head out and buy a lot from a local Chinese restaurant, and we reheat it in the morning.
Grapefruit
There has to be something relatively healthy in the meal. Plus, I have silver grapefruit spoons so it seems as though I should use them at least once a year.
Lunch
Waffles
We have waffles for lunch because for a long time, after we opened gifts, we would pack up and head to J.'s mom's house. They were later rising than we were and were often just starting breakfast... of waffles which then became our lunch. After she passed away, we kept the tradition.
Sausage
Bacon
Dinner
We go to J.'s sister's house, so I only make the salad and carrots.
Rib roast
Yorkshire pudding
Salad
This isn't just any green salad. It has Gruyere cheese, poppy seeds, sesame seed, and a really yummy dressing.
Cooked carrots
Ice cream with fudge sauce
The fudge sauce is homemade using J.'s grandmother's recipe. It is particularly good.
Thursday
Leftovers
After all that, no one feels like cooking much of anything. We will scrounge whatever is leftover.
Comments