Thanksgiving recap and some food prep

Hi there!

How was your Thanksgiving?

Ours was pretty good! I took a little bit of time off of everything – blogging, working out, showering…..

Hey, if I wasn’t sweaty, why would I need to shower?

Okay, seriously, I’m kidding. Sheesh! I showered. I promise.

We headed up to my folks’ house for Thanksgiving.

Halfway there, I realized I left the butternut squash at home. #sidedishfail

But, it worked out okay because 1. less butternut squash I have to share, 2. I remembered the brownies, and 3. we had PUH-Lenty of food!

And wine, of course. 🙂

Most of it was catered but there was reheating, etc to do. Took a MAJOR load of stress of my mom’s shoulders.

And I was pretty thankful about that, too, because my sailor and I usually end up in charge of the turkey (we grill it) and it was raining and miserable. I love me some grilling but grilling outside in the cold rain is about as much fun as waxing the bikini line. Right? Right.

Everything was really, really good!

My sister was in charge of the pumpkin pies and she totally made me a gluten-free (minus the crust) pumpkin pie!

swoon!

I was totally not expecting it and was weighing my pumpkin pie options (do I just eat the pumpkin and leave the crust, take my chances with the gluten-y crust, or skip it altogether and just eat a brownie?) when she pulled it out of her bag of tricks. 🙂

We headed back home on Friday (Black Friday shopping? no thank you.) and proceeded to sit on our butts all weekend.

Okay, not really.

We ran errands on Saturday and we hit up some antique/consignment stores and found the most amazing chairs for our dining room table!

We bought the table from Ikea back in 2001 and still had the original chairs we bought with the table.

13 years and 7 moves later, those chairs were DONE. One actually broke a couple of weeks ago. While someone was sitting in it. Thankfully, the chair took the brunt of the damage.

We also bought a new Christmas tree!

The tree we’ve replaced was almost 20 years old and had been through WAY more than 7 moves. It was falling apart and starting to look a little like Charlie Brown’s tree.

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It was definitely time to upgrade. This one is pre-lit! No more ring around the rosie trying to string lights! #winning

I also did a little bit of food prep.

I made some of Lindsay’s Quinoa Breakfast Bars for grab ‘n go breakfasts/snacks (edited the recipe to make it gluten free). They’re all individually bagged and ready for snacking.

 If you have not made these yet, you are totally missing out. Super easy and super delicious!

 I threw together a pot of Smoky Beef and Black Bean Chili for lunches this week.

 Stay tuned for the recipe tomorrow!

steamy!

 

 And, finally, I tried a Pinterest recipe for Ginger Chicken Stir-fry and it turned out fabulously!

We have leftovers so that adds at least 2 more lunches or quick dinners this week. Whoop!

I also roasted up my accidentally left-behind butternut squash. 🙂

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Talk to me: Did you shop on Black Friday? How long were you out and what time did you wake up to go?

– jennifer

Weekend things and a little bit of food prep

Hi there!

Happy Monday!

Are you gearing up for Thanksgiving? Are you cooking? Have you started cooking already? Are you traveling to where someone else is doing all the cooking? <—-winning

I’ll be doing only a small amount of cooking this year as we’re headed to my folks’ house.

Mom’s having the bulk of the meal catered (this should be interesting – my first catered meal experience) and the rest of us are  responsible for a few side dishes and desserts.

I’m making this. I made it for just us last year and it is the bomb dot com.

Plus, the pecan tree in my back yard is literally vomiting pecans so…..yeah.

My town had its Thanksgiving market on Saturday and my favorite vendor was going to be there so, you know we had to go. 🙂

There were like 65 vendors or something!

Lots of artsy craftsy stuff.

There were lots of puppy dogs.

Seriously, I can’t post pictures of all the dogs – we’d be here all day.

And there were lots of leafy green veggies!

There was a pony that I wanted to ride but I don’t think he was there for people of my size age.

I loaded up on sweet taters (duh!) and apples and the biggest butternut squashes I have ever seen (needed for above recipe!).

I tried to get my sailor to take a picture of me holding the butternut squashes but he said no. Because I don’t have a porn blog.

Seriously, where was HIS brain? Haha

And besides, has he never ever heard of food porn?

Whatever.

So, he took this picture of this goat instead. Her name is Latte. She was hanging out with the goat cheese lady. Mmmm…..goat cheese……

Here’s my haul on fresh beef. Score!

After the market, we took our goodies home and headed out for some lunch and errands.

We went to our favorite Indian place. MMMM…

I had the medium spicy vindaloo and was sweating bullets at the table. lol

For the record, I only ate one little triangle of the naan because it is made with wheat and I’m doing that whole gluten free thing.

I was okay with it (or I just couldn’t tell I wasn’t because I was still breathing fire) but a few hours later, I had an iced skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks and that made my stomach hurt.

Did some research and turns out the skinny vanilla stuff has gluten in it! Blech!

I didn’t finish it. Which sucks. Starbucks ain’t cheap.

So, I’m thinking about heading to the doc to officially get tested for celiac, just to see. Because it really did make me feel bad.

Sunday was a pretty low key day.

I did a little food prep but not too much since we’re going to be laden with turkey leftovers, too. 🙂

I made some gluten-free banana bread. Because, it’s banana bread. Duh.

I made us some homemade chicken noodle soup (gluten free rotini pasta) with the last of the chicken from last week and some of the broth that I made.

To make it creamy, I added a tablespoon of grass-fed butter (I buy Kerrygold and if you haven’t tried it yet, you are totally missing out!) and about half a cup of heavy cream.

So delicious!

Then, I made some beef stew in the crockpot using some stew meat that I snagged at the farmer’s market.

I used less than 2 pounds of meat so I used upped the veggies a little. I also subbed Yukon Gold taters for the red taters because that’s what I had and I used regular onion because the recipe didn’t state red onion until down in the directions.

Yes, I broke the cardinal rule of following a recipe – I didn’t read the whole thing before I started.

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It worked out okay though. 🙂

I also didn’t add any frozen corn because I didn’t have any. T’was fine. Delicious, in fact.

Talk to me: What’s your favorite thing on the Starbucks menu?

– jennifer

Sunday Food Prep – what went down in my kitchen (9)

Hi there!

Is it just me or is anyone else disappointed that Monday actually made an appearance?

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Oh well, I guess it’s a good thing it showed up otherwise we’d never see Friday, right? #brightside

So, I spent a little more time on my feet this weekend than I probably should have.

I really should have put myself in that stupid walking boot but I didn’t. I just kept popping Advil and taking “rest breaks.”

*sigh*

I’ll never learn.

Anyway, I got down to some serious business in the kitchen on Sunday!

I don’t know exactly what hit me but I was a food prepping FOOL yesterday.

And, it wasn’t even that cold out – 40-50s maybe (and yes, that’s cold but it sure beats the 20s!) – but I felt the need to build a fire so I did.

Most awesome fire ever! #madskills

Between the fireplace, my oven, and the kitties who kept occupying my lap every time I sat down, I was as toasty as a marshmallow. 🙂

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So, the first thing I made was a loaf of bread.

I’ve mentioned before about tummy issues so I’ve decided to toss out gluten for a little bit and see what happens.

Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m not allergic and I definitely don’t have celiac but it’s worth a shot to see if maybe I have a gluten sensitivity.

I bought this Bob’s Red Mill gluten free whole grain bread mix and went from there. I made one last week and it made great toast that tasted amazing with smushed avocado on it. Mmmmmm

I actually bought some gluten free flour but, in order to make the bread rise, you have to substitute something “gluten-like.”

Like xantham gum.

Which, for one thing, I can’t even pronounce and, for another thing, is ridiculously expensive.

I’m not committing to it until I know. For now, I’ll spend $8 on a mix that has everything in it that I need, minus the eggs, fat, and cider vinegar. Yeah, I don’t get it either but it’s a small amount and the bread tastes great so….fine. Cider vinegar it is.

I also stocked up on quinoa so I made a nice big batch.

Had some for breakfast this morning – 1 cup quinoa, 1/2 cup milk, heat 60 seconds, add fruit. I also added some raw honey and almond butter because, duh, it’s raw honey and almond butter. 🙂

I snagged an organic chicken at the Harris Teeter and put that in the crockpot for about 5 hours.

I’ve made it before but this time, it literally fell apart when I took it out.

After I shredded it, which we’ll use for salads, sandwiches, quick meals, etc, I put all the bones and skin back into the crockpot, added some onion, carrot, celery, fresh thyme, some dried oregano, a bay leaf, and a bunch of water and I set it to LOW for 12 hours.

When I woke up this morning, I had homemade chicken broth that I portioned out into mason jars.

I had to come in to work early so I left them on the counter to cool and Thing 2 took care of freezing/refrigerating them for me.

I ran out of time to snap a picture but broth is broth and my counter pretty much looked like this, like last time. 🙂

Then, for dinner, I made Roni’s beef and sweet potato chili.

Holy. Yum.

I pretty much followed her recipe exactly except I added a teaspoon of some super-hot fire sauce I picked up a few weeks ago.

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There are only 2 things I would do differently – I would definitely cut the sweet taters into smaller chunks (honestly, I left them pretty big) and I would definitely use a whole lot less spinach. Like half. Or, I might leave it out and substitute something else. Thing 2 wasn’t crazy about it and thing 2’s BF didn’t eat at all because he “doesn’t do sweet potatoes” or pumpkin.

Whatevs. More for me! Cuz, I thought the chili was amazeballs. 🙂

I also roasted some chickpeas but they didn’t turn out very picture worthy. I may or may not have been lulled into a brief nap by the warmth of the fire and a snuggly lap cat. They’re a little on the burnt side. #dontjudgeme

Talk to me: What’s on your menu for Thanksgiving? Are you going to food prep in advance?

– jennifer