Showing posts with label dec cookday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dec cookday. Show all posts

Friday, January 27, 2012

December Recap

here in the last week of January, is a recap of our December dinners (if I can remember it all!). For the most part, all of the made-ahead dinners were amazing and it definitely helped keep the chaos of December to a minimum by having dinners ready to go each night. The only thing that wasn't perfect was the pizza pasta bake for the crockpot. Since everything in that dish was already cooked and it just needed reheating in the crockpot, four hours was plenty. The day I left the crockpot on all day for close to eight hours while I was away from home, the parts of the casserole that were touching the sides of the crockpot got burned. While the flavor was delicious, it wasn't a dish that you could leave unattended all day. But I would still recommend it for a night that you're planning to be home, but just don't feel like standing over the stove.

With that out of the way, here is an abbreviated recap of the fun month we had getting ready for Christmas without having to worry about where dinner was coming from:

Mister Man and his one front tooth

bundled up to see the elaborate
residential light displays in our city

Little Miss showing us what the monster from
Rudolph says, "ahh! rarrrrrr!"

Gift tags with photos to make it easy for
Little Miss to help distribute them

all together on Christmas Eve

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Last dish of the day

December dinners are cooked and ready! Whoo!!! This was the last dish on my list: Yummy beef filling for lettuce wraps.

Meatballs

One night when I was pregnant with Little Miss, Deputy Handsome asked for spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Just the thought of touching raw meat made my stomach turn, so I taught him how to make meatballs himself. Since then, he has taken on the task often, even though I don't have the constant nausea anymore. Today I recruited him to help me whip up two different batches of turkey meatballs for our month of make-ahead.
The end is in sight! Good thing too, I'm not sure how much more food my fridge and freezer can hold!

Two skillets on the stove

Back: BBQ-spiced edemame; front:barley risotto. Both require just occasional stirring so it's easy to cook them at the same time.

Break time

Sitting down for the first time since breakfast to cuddle with Mister Man. I am over halfway done with my meal prep for today and after lunch I'll have a handsome helper in the kitchen with me while the kiddos nap :)

A lot at once

All the veggies for the day are chopped! In the freezer bags, two BBQ chicken dinners. On the stove, cooked ground beef - half to go into the pot also on the stove (pizza bake!) and the other half ready for taco soup. Four meals just about completed!

Kicking off cook day

Yummy start to a full day of cooking: Apple Pie Oatmeal for me and Deputy Handsome