Menu: December 3-30

Life gets super busy around our house between Thanksgiving and New Years Day. We have all sorts of Christmas get togethers, decorating, baking, and gift making. We also have several house projects to be completed (since Jared usually takes a week off between Christmas and New Years). All of these activities combined have kept me from actually writing out and posting the menu on time, which is why I will be keeping things a little more simple.

December 3-9

• Comfort Food - Chicken Noodle soup and garlic parmesan bread sticks
• Soup/Sandwich - Sub sandwiches, veggie tray, and chips with salsa
• Crockpot - Lemon pepper pork loin, "baked" sweet potatoes, green beans, and dinner rolls
• Spicy (Tex-Mex, Cajun, etc.) - Louisiana red beans and rice
• Miscellaneous - Sweet potato waffles or pancakes with homemade mixed berry syrup
• Italian - Lasagna roll-ups, mixed veggies, side salad, and bread sticks 

Still working on these and will post shortly...
I am finally finished writing this out after an insanely busy week at our house. I spent 5 out of the last 7 days patching, priming, and painting walls, doors, and trim in the kids' rooms and our living/dining room. Glad to be almost done with that task!

December 10-16 - We have Christmas Parties or dinner with friends every night from Friday-Sunday so I only have four meals planned.

• Spicy - Mexican Gumbo - this is my Qdoba copycat recipe (I'm working at getting it posted and will include a link as soon as I do)
• Misc. - Fish Sticks, potato wedges, and mixed veggies 
• Comfort food - Rosemary Chicken with White Beans
• Soup/Sandwich - Sloppy Joes, fruit salad, and french fries.

December 17-23 - We have 2 more Christmas parties and a homeschool field trip this week so it's another 4 meal menu.

• Spicy - Tacos with black beans and rice
• Comfort food - Chili and Cornbread
• Misc. - Breakfast Grilled Cheese - either the eggs and bacon or the blueberry and cream cheese...
• Soup/Sandwich - Peppery Beef Sandwiches and several appetizers/desserts - This is for our church's college/career group's Christmas Party. We really enjoy spoiling them with good food as Jared and I can remember how college food can be.

December 24-30 - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

• Italian - Spaghetti, mixed veggies, side salad, and bread
• Misc. - Steak... still deciding on sides
• Spicy - Quesadillas (at the request of Mr. R)
• Comfort food - Chicken Not Pie
• Grilled Chicken Salad - I figure that we will need this after all the high calorie foods during Christmas

Baking List for the Month
Sugar Cookie Mini Apple Pies (for a ladies' Christmas party)
Pumpkin Spice Bread Bites - but trying them as pull apart bread this time
Chocolate Pumpkin Oat Cookies
GF Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bites
GF Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
GF Banana Blueberry Muffins