Recap and Meal Plans

We had some changes in our plans this weekend. We'd originally planned to just stick around the ranch and get some things done around the place. Instead, yesterday morning, we took a trip down to Ikea in hopes of picking up a dining room table they had on a great sale. We ended up getting it and were able to get some more Christmas shopping done while we were there. After we got home, we went over to my grandparents' house to visit and to pick up a trailer they were giving to us. We had dinner over there and had a good visit with my parents and grandparents.

Today I canned a load of sweet potatoes. I also froze some sweet potato chunks. I'll be doing more of them throughout the week. I never did get the apple pie filling done since we were gone all day yesterday.

This week I'm off on Tuesday for Veteran's day and Friday is my flex day. And we're taking it kind of easy this week and next weekend since I'll be gone Monday-Thursday next week to Toronto.

I picked up the new Rachael Ray cookbook that was released last week - The Big Orange Book. There are so many recipes that I've already flagged to make in the book - I think this will probably end up being my favorite RR cookbook so far. Many of the recipes in this book, I've seen her make on her 30-Minute Meals show, or have seen in her magazine, but there are tons of additional recipes that I've never seen. So I figured I'd give a few new ones a try from her new cookbook this week.

Sunday ~ creamy parsley and pistachio fettuccine
Monday ~ leftover salsa chicken in the form of tacos
Tuesday ~ steak pizzaiola burgers
Wednesday ~ sweet and sour stir-fry
Thursday ~ chili in the crockpot Kevin brought pizza home
Friday ~ chicken with brown rice in the crockpot leftovers
Saturday ~ maybe applesauce chicken in the crockpot with baked potatoes and peas roasted turkey, stuffing, and cornbread

I'm going to make some more applesauce this week and I'd really like to do a second batch of apple butter, but we'll see how much applesauce I get done first. And since I didn't get the apple pie filling done, that's on the list again this week. More sweet potatoes, as well.