Meals of the Week, December 22nd to 28th, 2024

 

Hi everyone.  Welcome to my Meals of the Week post.  This will be the last one for 2024 (hard to believe). My next one will be including the last few days of this year and the first few days of next year! This year sure has flown by. It's been a really delicious year, once again!  At least I think it has been.

Every Sunday this year I have shared with you my Meals of the Week. Everything delicious that I have cooked, eaten and enjoyed over the previous seven days for my main meals. This is something which I have really enjoyed sharing with you and you seem to also enjoy reading.

As a Senior Citizen, living on a fixed income, and living all by myself, cooking and eating nutritious meals can be somewhat of a challenge at times.  I find that keeping a record of what I have eaten helps to keep me on track, and being able to share it with you inspires me to keep cooking and sharing.  I see it as a win/win situation.

I have struggled a lot with my GERD this past week. (Isn't getting older a joy at times!)  I will have to take it easy over the next few weeks and get it back under control. I am planning a family dinner for New Years Day but I have plans to keep things really simple for the rest of the week. Fingers crossed.

I am going to be purging my home of all the sugary and fatty snacks that have accumulated over the holidays this week in an effort to help bring things under control digestion-wise.

In the meantime, here are the meals I enjoyed last week.  For breakfast most days I will have a protein smoothie or some cereal or fruit.   I do like to make my own granola which I will often enjoy with some plain yogurt and date syrup.  

My main meal is usually enjoyed around mid-day/early afternoon so that I don't have anything heavy or spicy laying in my stomach later in the day.  I will have some toast or a salad, sometimes cereal as my last meal of the day and I try to have that before 7 P.M.  This week I was really naughty and enjoyed far too much in the way of mince tarts, Christmas Cake and cookies, not to mention chocolate and I am paying for it now! NO more snacking or treats for a while!

SUNDAY, December 22nd - Oven Hash

Usually on Sundays I will go to my sister's place for a family dinner.  We had a bad snow storm on Sunday this week and so I stayed home. I had some ground beef in the freezer and ground beef is one thing which is fairly easy to cook from frozen and so I made Oven Hash.  

I browned it all up and then used two thirds of it to make this delicious casserole and saved a third to enjoy in a couple of days' time. 

Economical and honest ingredients combined to make a delicious meal that your family will love. Not a hash with potatoes, but a delicious mixture of spiced minced beef, baked with tomatoes, onions and noodles. Comfort food. Family food. Simple, maybe but never plain. This made for a delicious comfort food meal on a day that was cold and snowy, and I had some to pop into the freezer for another time.

MONDAY, December 23rd - Delectable Mustard Baked Chicken

I had taken a chicken leg out of the freezer on Sunday night as I knew I would be busy all-day Monday doing some last-minute shopping while the roads were still clear as we were expecting more snow on Christmas Eve. (I like to buy my chicken's whole when they are on offer and then I section them and freeze the portions individually.  I will pop them into zip lock baggies and then into a larger zip lock baggie or even a large plastic freezer container, depending on how many pieces I have.  This is a most practical way to have bone in chicken pieces on hand and at the ready.)

I made Delectable Mustard Baked Chicken with the chicken leg. (It was a leg and thigh quarter and was plenty for me.)  For this recipe chicken pieces (I used only one) are beautifully flavored by marinating them in a spicy marinade.  I like to use a sharp knife and cut slashes into the chicken pieces so that those delicious flavors really penetrate the meat.  You can take all day to marinate them (in the refrigerator) as I did, or you can marinate them for a half hour to an hour. Obviously the longer you marinate them the more flavor they have. 

The marinade itself is very simple. Sweet paprika (not hot or smoked), dry mustard powder, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and olive oil.  Simple.  The chicken is baked for about an hour or so in the oven until the meat is juicy and tender and falling from the bone and the skin is sticky and delicious.  I enjoyed on this occasion with a baked potato and some mixed vegetables, easy and quick to cook from frozen. The potato baked in the oven alongside of the chicken.

TUESDAY, December 24th - Curried Beef Fried Rice

I spent the day doing some last-minute Christmas Baking and then made myself a quick and easy Curried Beef Fried Rice for my supper using the cooked beef that I had reserved from the other day. I adore fried rice of any kind.  This is such a simple dish to make.  You can use whatever bits of veggies you have in the refrigerator.  

You can make the curry as spicy or as mild as you wish. Fried Rice always makes for a quick and easy supper for those nights when you have a lot on.  I love it!  I had a cheeky spring roll on the side with some plum sauce. Okay. I had two.  😁

WEDNESDAY, December 25th - Christmas Dinner

Wednesday was Christmas Day.  I went over to my sister's for gifts at 9 a.m. and then came home and prepared a simple lunch of picky bits for my daughter and her husband, who were coming over for the day. We just had cheese and crackers, crudites and some sausage rolls that I had made previously for one of my videos. We didn't want to fill up on too much as we were going to my sister's for Christmas Dinner.

We did not do a turkey this year for Christmas. Instead, we did a Roast Chicken.  We had a really large one that we had bought up the mountain at Pelton's. It was free range and almost as big as a small turkey.  We of course enjoyed it with all of our favorite sides.  Stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots and brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes and gravy. Plus there was plenty of goodies for dessert. Mince pies. Christmas Cake. Shortbreads.  Date Squares, etc. Nobody left hungry!

I am sharing my recipe for Roast Chicken with Lemon & Herb Stuffing in its place. It is delicious and what you see in the photograph above.  Tender and juicy chicken, with a delicious stuffing that you might want to double, it's so good!

THURSDAY, December 26th - Boxing Day

I had my daughter and her husband over again for Boxing Day.  We spent the whole day together. I cooked a Small Batch Classic Lasagna. We enjoyed this along with salad, and I also made a small Hawaiin Pizza and some wiener wrap rolls (Pillsbury) just in case. My son in law is somewhat fussy when it comes to eating so I wasn't sure if he would like the lasagna or not.

We enjoyed Christmas cake and mince pies and pumpkin pie for after's (with whipped cream) while we played a few games together.  I sent them home with all of the leftovers.  They were most appreciative.  We did have a lovely day together with lots of laughs. Family times really are the best of times.

FRIDAY, December 27th - Pot Pie

My sister had given me some leftovers to bring home after the Christmas dinner and so on Friday I made a small Pot Pie using some of the chicken/turkey and stuffing and leftover veg and gravy.  I am sharing my recipe on how to make a pot pie out of just about any leftovers recipe with you for this day. 

One thing we always loved when we were children were my mom's pot pies. Any time we had a roast dinner my mother would make pot pies afterwards with the leftovers.  She made the best pot pies and they were essentially just made with the leftover gravy, meat and veg from the dinner, encased in pastry. 

On this occasion I topped it with a puff pastry lid. You can use any kind of meat, gravy or vegetables for these simple to make delicious pies!

SATURDAY, December 28th - Lemon and Chicken Soup

After all of the excess of the previous week's celebrations I kept it simple on Saturday with a very simple soup, which I enjoyed with some soda crackers and fresh fruit for dessert.

Soups like this fabulous Lemon & Chicken Soup are not only delicious but also simple and quick to put together. This is a fabulously tasty chicken soup, with fresh flavors!  It uses chicken stock along with lemon juice, carrots, cubed chicken, some broken pasta, etc.  It went down a real treat!  I only made a very small batch of it for myself.  It doesn't freeze well because of the pasta in it. You also don't want to make it too far ahead of time for that reason. You don't want the pasta to overcook and get too soft.   This was quite simply a delicious supper that I really enjoyed.

And there you have it, my meals of the week for the past seven days!   I hope that there was something here that you enjoyed seeing and are inspired to want to cook for yourself as well!

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