Recipes and food ideas

1022

It’s good, isn’t it @Rhubarbsoda ? It surprised me because I’ve made so many pasta casseroles, but I’ll definitely make it again. So good. Plus I love feta, haha.

Meal planning for this coming week is done, this is like the least I’ve ever made for Christmas but this will help our bottom line and I’m not hosting for the first time in forever, plus dh literally requested ham, which the circular says will be on sale, so it kind of works out! I’m probably just a bit sad I’m not hosting and doing a giant 6 course gourmet thing, but it’s definitely the right decision for this year. I think I can use enough elbow grease so it won’t feel deprived, my plan is a boat load of cookies to compensate, lol:

Weekend Food - Leftover Burritos, Eggs, Noodle Soup and Chicken, Buffalo Cauliflower

Breakfast- Hash Brown Onion Frittata; Rice w/ Egg

Lunch- Freezer Ministrone + Crackers

Dinner #1- Cheese Pizza w/ Olives and Artichokes

Dinner #2- Farro Vegetable Skillet with Tempeh

Dinner #3- Christmas Food

Christmas Treats- Pupu (cheese, crackers, fruit, cashews/walnuts/peanuts, deviled eggs, stuffed grape leaves, zacusca, olives, pita, pickles, etc.) , Homemade Cookies (lemon bars, hershey squares, sugar cookies, italian wedding cookies), Red and Green Bruschetta, Cranberry Seltzer Spritzers

Christmas Dinner- Ham + Roasted Red Potatoes + Brussels Sprouts + Homemade Dinner Rolls + Pumpkin Pie

(leftover ham = northern beans and ham for lunch the next week plus ham hock for flavoring)

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1023

Is anyone else holiday baking? I just finished three dough balls for the fridge (2 italian wedding cookie, 1 sugar cookie). I’ll bake and decorate tomorrow!

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1024

Kiddo reminded me of a low spoons meal I had forgotten about - peanut butter and banana sandwich, add honey if you like.

On the complete other end of the spectrum from that, our Christmas dinner is going to be either ham or turkey (brought by my dad and his wife), mashed potatoes and gravy, butternut squash mac n cheese, and a bunch of roast vegetables. Mr. Meer is going to make an apple pie (my fingers just tried to call it an applie). I told him he’s the best husband. :drooling_face:

Prep ahead

Process butternut squash if we get a raw one instead of from the freezer section
Chop various vegetables for roasting - parsnip, carrots, sweet potatoes, brussell sprouts.
Chop, boil potatoes for mashed potatoes
Bonus: Gingerbread baked oatmeal

And pick up the house. We just had it clean a couple weeks ago, what happened?? Why is every flat surface covered with crap?

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1025

I made 3 flavors of fudge, toffee, and a honey chex mix for work a week or so ago, and will take cookies and cinnamon rolls to my Moms on Saturday.

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1026

I’m currently without a kitchen (doing a full renovation) so I’m planning some holiday baking for late winter/early spring or whenever I have a kitchen again.

  • Sugar cookies, most of them cut out with dinosaur cookie cutters and decorated with winter sweaters
  • Gingerbread biscotti
  • Almond biscotti dipped in dark chocolate and dusted with peppermint
  • Jan hagel
  • Popcorn drizzled with white and dark chocolate and dusted with peppermint flakes (may be manageable even without a kitchen)
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1027

Yes, but not until closer to Xmas. Peanut butter blossoms, sugar cookies, kolacky unless the cream cheese shortage has hit here already (Boyfriend is going grocery shopping shortly so guess we’ll find out.)

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1028

My homemade hummus came out very bland. How to fix? I am thinking some oven roasted garlic? I did put garlic in it but clearly not enough.
Any other suggestions?

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1029

Really hard to make it not bland without salt :confused: it brings out all the other flavors.

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1030

I’m finishing up a double batch of buried cherry thumbprint, and we have a double batch of spritz and some ginger cookies already done. I have to make some more muddy buddies, and I have a batch of sugar cookie dough in the fridge. We give cookies to like 8 sets of neighbors, so luckily most of those aren’t staying here :slight_smile:

It’s still probably too much, because I completely forgot about Italian wedding cookies and I love them. I grew up calling them Russian Tea cakes or Mexican wedding cakes, it’s interesting that the same cookie has so many regional names.

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1031

Hmph. I’m not supposed to have salt. And I’ve made it at home before without salt and not had it turn out this bad. Maybe if I make it spicy? Hm.

1032

Yes! Fiancé is a cookie tornado today. Gingerbread, bourbon chocolate sables (he made a cute white and blue sugar mixture to decorate the edges), salted brown butter Rice Krispies, Italian butter cookies, toffee sandwich cookies. Making plates to deliver to friends on Tuesday!

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1033

Did you add enough fats?

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1034

Yep. Just prepping the cookie doughs. I have been dragging my feet on prep. I give cookies to friends. But I :heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart: cookies!

I am testing a couple of wheat-free cookies because a friend has a wheat intolerance (not gluten).

1035

Hm. Likely not. The tahini seemed kind of dry, and I didn’t have a lot of olive oil on hand so just used what I had.

At any rate, I just threw an entire bulb of roasted garlic in there and that helped somewhat. When Boyfriend gets home from his food shop maybe more oil is in order.

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1036

Do you have roast sesame oil? That can be a lovely flavor punch, although I’ve never used it along side tahini. Def some olive oil is a good idea.

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1037

I feel like you can’t go wrong with lots of garlic, and lots of lemon juice. Without salt those are the two things that will add the most flavor. When I make hummus I usually do 6-7 cloves of garlic +1/3 cup lemon juice or so….oh and lots of olive oil

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1038

Oh, I wish! Shoulda picked up some of that at TJ’s. Oh well, next time.

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1039

… did I even put lemon juice in this? Maybe that’s the problem!

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1040

OK, a large dose of both olive oil and lemon juice and it is MUCH better.

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1042

Has anyone ever cooked a turkey breast? I ordered one (3lbs) because it was way cheaper than salmon or beef and comparable to chicken. It arrives on the 23, goal eating is 25th. It says skin on and I think frozen. Fancy organic.

If I fail the meat I tarians also have smoked salmon and deli roast beef

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