Fa La La! The holidays are here! Christmas is about 1 week away. What does your meal plan look like? “What meal plan?” you say? As your time gets busier, menu planning can help you be more efficient with your time and help you enjoy this festive time. No fly by the drive-thru or frozen pizzas for me! This week’s meal plan is packed with new recipes and exciting flavors. If you just haven’t made meal planning a priority, then check out this great resource.

Monday

Baked Southwest Chicken Egg Rolls with Salsa and Fruit.

Baked Southwest Chicken Egg Rolls
All you need:
1 chicken breast
1 tsp taco seasoning
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 (15 oz.) can no salt added black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chiles, drained
4 green onions, chopped
2 tbsp minced red bell pepper
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 package egg roll wrappers

All you do:
1. In a medium skillet, cook chicken breast on medium high until internal temperature reaches 165˚F. Shred and season with taco seasoning.
2. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients with the exception of the egg roll wrappers. Stir in cooked chicken mixture. Mix well to blend.
3. Lay an egg roll wrapper out on a work surface so that one of the corners is pointing toward you and place ¼ cup of the filling in the center. Fold the tip closest to you up over the filling, roll a bit, then take the points pointing outward and fold them in toward the center. Continue rolling into an egg roll shape until a small part of the remaining point is still free. Dip a finger in water lightly brush on the edges of the top corner. Finish rolling and press to seal closed. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.
4. Preheat the oven to 425˚ F. Lightly oil a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place the sealed egg rolls on the baking sheet seam side down and spray the tops of the egg rolls with cooking spray. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly brown, turning halfway through baking.

**Note, I have also found that broiling for 1-2 minutes after cooking really helps to crisp up the edges. Be sure to check ever 30 seconds to avoid burning them.
Adapted from Annie Eats

Tuesday

Chicken Pasta with Yogurt Sauce and Salad

Wednesday

Chili and Homemade Bread

Thursday

Crab Cakes, Roasted Squash and Frozen Vegetables

The rest of this week through Wednesday of next week will be spent celebrating Christmas with family in Iowa. I am planning on bringing two AMAZING recipes to share. One is a Wild Rice Pomegranate Salad and a Bloody Mary Shrimp appetizer dip (recipes to come later this week). And of course, no Christmas celebration is complete without wine. My two favorites are Montebuena and Menage a Trois wines.

Montebuena

Menage a Trois

In true holiday form, we have another kitchen appliance down. Our microwave went down a couple weeks ago and last night the dishwasher finally quit. Actually it still runs, it is just the handle that is broken. Thankfully it is an easy (and inexpensive) fix. However, this means that while we wait for our part to arrive, we are without a dishwasher. Boooo…

For most of my childhood we didn’t have a dishwasher, but since about middle school I have been blessed to always have a machine to wash the majority of my dishes. Even through college (with the exception of my freshman year in the dorms) I had a dishwasher. I will tell you that with 4 people in the house, two being kids, there are ALWAYS dishes.  It seems that as soon as the dishwater has been drained, a dirty dish magically appears on the counter.

This is not a new phenomenon,it is just that with a working dishwasher you can simple slip the dirty dish right inside and poof, it magically disappears! It has only been a day since our dishwasher broke and I am already tired of the prepetual supply of dirty bowls and cups sitting on the counter. Next week can’t come fast enough!