It’s sad in Texas lately, and by sad, I mean cloudy. Seriously. How do people live without the sun? Granted, we have over 300 sunny days per year, but still. Usually if it’s cloudy it’ll be sunny in a few hours. Lately, it’s just been cloudy. All. Day. Long. A little melodramatic? Maybe.
And to top it off, I just don’t feel like running. Sitting on my couch, sipping coffee and looking at pretty pictures of food is sufficient for me. However, we have a half marathon to run in just a month, so yeah. Better get my bootylicious self out the door.
As I wait for my breakfast to digest so I can go run it off (I’m thinking 7-9 miles?? Maybe?) I’m making my grocery list for the next couple weeks.
Prepare. To. DROOL:
In the crockpot:
— Jambalaya. Smoked turkey sausage, chicken, rice, spices… yum. I might do shrimp instead of chicken… this pic is from the almighty Pinterest. Aaron will love me forever times two with this meal.
— Corn chowder.
I don’t have a picture of this. But I use parts of my mom’s recipe. To cook it in the crockpot, I use evaporated milk. FYI: fat free just doesn’t do it. It’s too soupy. You want a chowder. I cook hot Italian sausage on the stove, drain and rinse it, and put it in the crockpot with a couple cans of evaporated milk, an onion, some potatoes, canned or frozen corn (creamed works too).
— Pulled pork.
Okay, so no picture of this either. I get a shoulder pork roast, put it in the crockpot with some BBQ sauce, onion, and spices and let it cook all day on low. Then, I pull it off the bone, shred it, and put it back in the crockpot with more BBQ sauce. I love it served on whole wheat sandwich thins with cheese. Deeeelicious.
— Honey chicken. This sounds delicious and easy. I love honey, and I love chicken. So there ya go. Again, Pinterest to the rescue. I get the big box of 1-minute brown rice and use it for all kinds of things. (Even the peas in this picture look good!)
In the oven:
— Enchiladas. Darn it, no picture yet again. My Hispanic friends here laugh when I tell them how I make my enchiladas… but they’re still so good. I cook up some ground beef, simmer it with black beans, tomatoes, peppers, onion, and taco seasoning and sauce. I heat up some corn tortillas and roll the mixture into about eight tortillas and put them seam side down in a glass pan. I put the rest of the mixture over the top with some cheese and bake them covered with foil. The last few minutes I take the foil off so the cheese can melt all the way. This is how my mom’s always made them (well, mostly… we Little women kind of do our own thing). I have Ortega taco sauce (the BEST, in my opinion) and sour cream on hand.
For Christmas Day:
This is our first Christmas, just the two of us, so I actually have to prepare an entire dinner. Oh darn. 😉 So far I know I want to make ham… what else do you cook for your traditional (or not so traditional) Christmas dinner? Christmas Eve growing up we always had chili and then my grandma brought a shrimp ring. Sounds funny, right? Totally normal for us. Hahaha.
Anyway. I’m going a little traditional with some sticky caramel rolls and wassail (a traditional English holiday drink made with apple juice or cider, oranges, cinnamon sticks and spices). Picture from Betty Crocker.
I might also make this breakfast braid. It has jalapeños, so hubby will be happy! Image from myrecipes.com.
When meal planning, I’m all about making things that are easy to throw into the crockpot, do well as leftovers, and have almost every food group in the dish. I rarely make side dishes, just because of time’s sake. We’ll have a piece of fruit or bread & butter.
I also will be making some chocolate crinkles, some more peanut butter kiss cookies, and sugar cookies. I usually buy whole wheat or white whole wheat flour, but I think this time around I’ll just get white flour. I think it has a better consistency for Christmas cookies. I’m going to bake these next week when I have more time during the day.
I usually spend about $100 every two weeks, and we rarely have to run to the store to pick things up during the two weeks until we shop again.
Happy baking and cooking for the holidays!
mercies per mile 