Holiday Food!

I think maybe deep down I wish I could be a food blogger.  But, alas, it will never be so.  I have chosen WAY too many other priorities to fill my time, plus I just don't know enough about food preparation and/or proper nutrition to keep it up.  So I will resign myself to a few posts about food as a little addition to my regular blogging and call it a side hobby.  And I can't possibly finish up my holiday posts without mentioning some of the amazing food we have enjoyed this season!

Like most of the other experiences of our Christmas this year, our food has suffered from a multiple personality disorder.  That is, while I managed to include lots of high-quality healthy foods in our menu, I also added a lot of special treats and traditional holiday favorites with very little regard to nutrients or calories.  I guess that is the nature of Christmas!  And, I'm pretty sure my family appreciates the heavy dose of both!

So, I will share a few of my favorite creations from this season.  But first, here is a photo of my newest kitchen accessory--a chalkboard menu.  I made this one for me, and four others to send as gifts to family members for Christmas (each in different colors based on kitchen decor).  This was a project we made at our Super Saturday in Relief Society in November.  Isn't it a cute idea?  I love it!  And now, when the kids ask, "What is for dinner?" I just point to the chalkboard.  Ha!

Very crafty!  And it turned out so pretty!

And here are a few of my favorite meals from the week before Christmas, when I was trying very hard to keep things healthy because I knew the treats were coming out in full force soon!

LOVE this!  I mentioned this in a previous post.  This is my spinach, grilled chicken-avocado salad (with sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan) that I serve with a homemade lemon vinaigrette.  Ohhhh, if you like tartness mixed with the mild flavors of chicken and avocado, you will love this!  Even though this is a main dish salad, it doesn't fill up the guys with testosterone in the house; so I served it with a homemade rosemary flax seed baguette.  So delicious!

Okay, am I the last person on earth to discover tilapia?  This was the first time, but definitely not the last time, I have tried it.  Yum!  I served this tilapia with a pesto sauce, on a bed of quinoa mixed with black beans, and topped with a simple tomato bruschetta.  These filets were a little small though, because it left me wanting MORE!

Best. Meal. Ever.  This is what Nathan and I made for dinner on the Sunday before Christmas.  It was amazing.

Here it is:  Nate marinated the flank steak in a raspberry-chipotle sauce and then grilled it outside on the grill.  I added the steamed asparagus and this yummy quinoa salad.  I will provide the link to the recipe below.

I got the recipe for the quinoa salad from a new girl in my ward who posted it on Facebook.  Apparently, she has her own food blog (lucky duck!).  Here is the link for the recipe: Holiday Quinoa Salad.  I made it pretty much as she outlines it in the recipe, but next time I think I will use feta instead of gorgonzola cheese.  The flavor of gorgonzola is a little overpowering and my family prefers the milder feta anyway.  But OH YUM!  So healthy and delicious and gorgeous!

Next we will move on to the big Christmas Eve and Christmas Day food.  Woo-hoo!  Oh, man.  I didn't want to take many shortcuts on this food because I wanted it to be special.  But I found myself sort of regretting that later because we were literally in the kitchen cooking and baking ALL.DAY.LONG!!!! on Christmas Eve.  Lesson learned!  I think it was worth it.  But I may have been too tired to know for sure.

These were the amazing treats we made for friends and neighbors.  Peanut and Almond Clusters!  They were made in the crock pot with almond bark and chocolate almond bark and milk chocolate.  I should probably not mention that my first batch was utterly destroyed and scorched when I left it in the crock pot too long, but I just did.  *Sigh!*  But, this batch was beautiful and yummy.  We put bunches in cute little gift bags and delivered them around the 'hood.  Fun!

Ah!  My people!  It was Christmas Eve and it was All Hands On Deck for all of the cooking and baking we did together.  They really were big helpers.  Thank you, beautiful children of mine!

More cuties! (Nice face, Chase!)

This was the treat we made for Santa this year.  We usually make sugar cookies and decorate them together.  But this year, the kiddos wanted me to make these yummy mint brownies that I had made for the ward Christmas party earlier in the month (and won 3rd prize in the dessert contest...out of 3 entries...haha!).  Thank goodness, because there was no way we had time to roll out sugar cookies.  Plus, I already had all of the ingredients on hand for this recipe.  Look at my cute Coco showing off the finished product, along with goofy Avery peeking up over the counter for a photo bomb! 

The menu for our Christmas Eve Dinner at home!

Hello.  Don't mock me for being stuck in the 1990's because I LOVE spinach-artichoke dip!  This is one of my less healthy creations this holiday, and one that requires a Lactaid pill before eating, because it is made mostly of CHEESE!  Oh my!  So, I did add fresh spinach and some artichoke hearts, and the pita wedges were made from whole wheat pita bread.  I guess that was a nod to nutrition, but mostly it was just mmmmmmmm...cheeeeeese!

Oh, my Famous Rolls!  I originally got this recipe from a ward cookbook from the Frontenac ward in St. Louis (is there any better kind of cookbook in the whole wide world than a ward cookbook?).  But, I have adapted it to add a few high-quality nutrients, and my family likes it just as much as ever!  I use 2/3 white whole wheat flour, and I substitute milled flax seed for two of the eggs.  These are award-winners, according to my crew!

A Greek Salad from the Pioneer Woman.  Is that a funny choice for Christmas Eve?  Well, if you think so, go ahead and keep it to yourself.  Haha!  Because we loved it!  It was scrumptious and went beautifully with our meal.  I will provide the link to the recipe below.

 Here is the link to the recipe for the Greek Salad: Pioneer Woman Greek Salad

Getting ready to eat dinner.  The table was so very pretty!

But, of course, the table is no match for my pretty girl!

I included this picture just to illustrate what else was going on the entire time we were in the kitchen on Christmas Eve preparing all of this food: The Norad Santa Tracker!  Here is Avery checking out how close Santa was to North America just before dinner.  So fun!

Here is a picture of the main meal (after appetizer and before dessert).  It was a simple spiral sliced ham with a bacon-brown sugar glaze, adorned by my Famous Rolls and some Greek Salad.  Seriously, that is a beautiful meal!

And La Piece de Resistance!  Key Lime Pie.  Another funny choice for Christmas Eve, you say?  What's wrong with a Greek Salad and a Mexican dessert on a holiday celebrated worldwide?  Haha!  Honestly, I just thought it sounded so good, so I had to make it.  It was another Pioneer Woman recipe, and this one came from my brand new autographed cookbook!  But, she does have a similar recipe on her blog, so I will provide the link.

 Here is the link for the Key Lime Pie recipe: Pioneer Woman Key Lime Pie Sorta

Serving up the pie with homemade whipped cream, which is a perfect addition to sweeten up the tart flavor of this pie.

Okay, this was just about the funniest thing that happened on Christmas Eve.  Although, looking back, Trey's reaction to it was probably one of the signals I should have noticed that he was starting to get terribly sick (more on that in a future blog post).  I served him some of the key lime pie and he sat at the table to eat it while I continued serving pie for everyone else.  A few minutes later, he walked up to me and said, very matter-of-factly, "I just got a little pie on my shirt, Mommy."  And, when I looked at him, I couldn't help but laugh out loud because that "little" pie on his shirt looked like the entire slice!  Haha!  I begged him to let me take a picture, and that's when he became upset and began to cry about it.  I didn't intend to be a mean Mommy; it was just so darn funny!  I love family life!

And finally...I almost forgot to get a picture of this before we ate them all up!  Here are the homemade Christmas Breakfast Cinnamon Rolls that we made and enjoyed immensely (at least those of us who weren't sick--more on that in a future blog post).  In order to have these ready for breakfast on Christmas morning, we had to make the dough and let it rise early on Christmas Eve, then shape them and freeze them.  Then, just before bed on Christmas Eve, I took them out of the freezer to thaw and rise and become perfect for baking as soon as we woke up on Christmas morning.  These were amazing and delicious and so worth the effort.  YUM!!!!

Oh, boy.  Now I'm tired all over again just remembering all of the work involved in putting this food together!  However, later on it was a very good thing we had all of the leftover food on hand, because unbeknownst to us as we were preparing our food, a mean old stomach flu was about to take over the planet (or at least most of our family members).  More on that in another blog post.  And, incidentally, this blog post doesn't nearly describe every bit of food that was available for the snacking around our house over the holiday.  Thanks to Santa and lots of friends, the treats were certainly abundant.  For now, I will just say that the food we prepared was most of the fun and most of the work for Christmas this year.  And I loved every bit of it!