Christmas Week 2012

 

 

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday week.  We had a very nice Christmas and are looking forward to New Year's Eve!

 

We live in the great Northeast, so we were not surprised to have a snowstorm today.  That doesn't mean I had to like it!  ;-)

 

I spent the day cleaning up the Christmas presents from under the tree and doing laundry.  I didn't venture out on the slick roads.

 

Dinners this week have been mostly comfort food and quick, easy meals.

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------

 

Meal Plan for the week of 12/24/12 - 12/30/12.

 

Monday - 12/24 - Christmas Eve Dinner.  Roast Pork Loin, Baked White and Sweet Potatoes, Asparagus. 

 

Tuesday - 12/25 - Christmas Day.  Snicky-Snacky pickup meal at the relatives.

 

Wednesday - 12/26 - Left over Roast Pork Loin, Simply Potatoes Hash Browns, Green Beans.

 

Thursday - 12/27 - Crock Pot Sloppy Joes, Baked French Fries.

 

Friday - 12/28 - Pizza Night.  Take out for family.  Pasta sauce with Daiya Cheese on Udi's Crust for me.

 

Saturday - 12/29 - Make your own Nacho night.

 

Sunday - 12/230 - Breakfast for Dinner or out to dinner.

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

 

Have you been checking out our Daily Reviews and Giveaways at www.stephanieodea.com?

 

We are currently giving away Fusion Brands products, Stephanie's "Totally Together" organizers and Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Muesli!

 

We will be wrapping up our giveaways for a while, but stay tuned for many exciting things to come in 2013!

-----------------------------------------------------

 

 

Do you like my gluten-free gingerbread house?  A&J Bakery has great gluten-free gingerbread house kits.  You may want to bookmark their page for next year!

 

 

 

 

Have a great week!

 



Halloween is tomorrow.  Are you dressing up?  I used to love Halloween, but I have to admit, now that our daughter is older and doesn't really care to go trick-or-treating, I am just as happy to stay home and watch a movie!  Lame, I know, but true.  I do love a good horror flick though.  "The Shining", "American Werewolf in London", "Misery", "The Birds", "Psycho".  I don't really care for slasher-type movies like "Halloween" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" and the only one that really, really freaks me out is "The Exorcist", which I absolutely won't watch alone!

What I really wanted to talk about today is meal planning.  I've been planning our meals for quite some time now and find it makes getting a home-cooked dinner on the table at night so much easier!  It also really helps to reign-in my grocery shopping addiction.  I try to only buy what I need for the week ahead.  Even if that box of cookies on the shelf are calling my name.  Because they do that, you know.

This week's meal plan is working well so far, although it's only Tuesday!  I thought I was going to get a little thrown off by Hurricane Sandy, so I boiled eggs and potatoes, just in case the power went out, but it didn't happen.  My meal plans typically run from Thursday to Wednesday because I shop on Thursday.  I recently started having my groceries delivered (Yay!) from ShopRite.  It is awesome!  Saves me so much time and energy!  So for this week, my meal plan is from Sunday - Saturday.

********************************************************************************


Sunday - P.F. Chang's for lunch, so just snick-snacky foods for dinner

Monday - Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches with gravy and oven french fries

Tuesday - Gluten-Free Pasta with Roasted Vegetables and Smoked Mozzarella (Elizabeth Barbone's recipe from "How to Cook Gluten-Free")

Wednesday - Halloween!  Ghoul-ash!  Made the way my mom made it, only with gluten-free elbows.  (Ground beef, onion, green pepper, can of chopped tomatoes, bit of tomato paste, elbows) Pumpkin pudding with whipped cream ghosts on top!

Thursday - Leftovers.  Ghoulash or Crockpot White Chicken Chili from last week.

Friday - Pizza night.  Take-out for family.  Homemade gluten-free for me.

Saturday - Kid's Party at  Chuck E. Cheese.  Wonder if they have gf pizza at this location?  Will have to investigate!

*********************************************************************************

Don't forget to enter the great giveaways we are doing on StephanieOdea.com!

Currently we are giving away a Mediflow Waterbase Pillow, a Crock-Pot Cook and Carry Slow Cooker,  "The Picky Palate" by Jenny Flake and the Spatula by GIR!


Have a safe and happy Halloween!

It's been about a year and a half since I posted last!  Boy!  Where does time go anyway?

Several readers have sent in comments wondering how I am doing.  Thank you so much and I really do appreciate it!  I guess the answer is that I am still here, still fighting some health issues, but all in all doing well.

As far as my diet is concerned, well, it needs work.  I find that I'm just not disciplined enough to stay on any kind of "plan" for very long.  I eat really healthy for a few weeks and then, before you know it, I'm right back to eating foods that I know are not good for me.  I know that I'm not the only one who goes through this.

I also know that I eat way too much sugar.  Sugar causes inflammation.  I have a lot of inflammation.  I know that when I eat a better diet, I feel better.  I know better!  But.  Those. Cravings. Keep. Coming. Back.  I wish they didn't, but they do!  I guess I'm just a work in progress.  Aren't we all?

As far as what I've been up to?  I've been busy with my family, keeping the household running and trying to take some "me time" out whenever possible!

The best news is that since the end of August, I have been working with Stephanie O'Dea, running daily reviews and giveaways on her website!  My official title is "Chief Giveaway Wrangler".  Isn't that great???  I'm so excited to be working with Steph!  She is awesome!  If you are looking for delicious, easy, gluten-free slow-cooker recipes or help organizing your life, she is the go-to gal!  You should definitely stop by her site and see the great products we are giving away!  Writing for Steph has definitely gotten my fingers back at typing and my brain busy thinking up posts for not only our giveaways, but for my blog as well.

In other news, we took our annual trip to Cape Cod in July and it was spectacular as usual!  We hung out at the beach, avoided getting eaten by sharks, shopped, played mini golf and ate in many great restaurants.

I shared some of these great celiac-friendly restaurants in this post from our trip in 2010.  We visited all of those restaurants again this summer and more.

Of course, we went back to The Chatham Fish And Lobster Company!  I can't live without my gluten-free fried clam strips and onion rings!

We also added The Hearth 'n Kettle to our list for dinner this year.  We have always gone there for breakfast in the past.  I've had good luck ordering eggs, bacon and hash browns without getting sick.  The great news is that this year, they added an actual  gluten-free menu!  There are great breakfast, lunch and dinner items!  My favorite is "Harvest Hash and Eggs" and I had it twice while we were there.  I didn't get a picture of my plate, but it was excellent!

I did get a picture of the wonderful sand sculpture outside of the restaurant!  There's a fish trying to get out of that pot!  ;-)

I hope that you will check back with me soon.  I have been cooking up some ideas in my head and plan on writing more often.  I promise!

Thanks for visiting and have a great, gluten-free day!