Christmas dinner menu

Hello!

Was anyone else affected by the bad weather this holiday season? We’re in Nebraska, have to travel through Kansas, and live in Missouri. All three states got quite a storm and it’s definitely affected our traveling. We left to come a day early and we’re staying a day later than planned. It’s actually kind of nice to do nothing for another day.

But we’ve got plenty of delicious Christmas dinner leftovers to polish off as we’re stuck another day!

In case you missed it, Erik and I did most of the cooking this year at my mom’s house just because we felt like it. The menu was as follows:

• An organic turkey. This was my first experience cooking a whole turkey. We ended up cooking it just a little longer than I would have preferred but it was still tasty.

• Cold couscous salad. It contained couscous, sliced almonds, assorted dried berries, feta cheese, olives, sliced grapes, orange juice, agave nectar, apple sauce, onion & herb seasonings, sea salt, and olive oil.

My family didn’t know what couscous was but they didn’t mind it. The feta cheese threw my parents off because they don’t like feta. Erik and I have plenty of leftovers and we don’t mind, ha. Though, we discovered this salad tastes better warm.

• Mashed red potatoes.  The mashed potatoes included our “secret ingredient” of light laughing cow cheese wedges. Yum!!

• Mashed sweet potatoes. Erik was in charge of potatoes and he made the best mashed sweet potatoes I’ve ever tasted. So good!!

• Roasted veggies.  We smoked these on my parents’ Traeger grill and they came out amazing! I was in veggie heaven! It included Brussels, green, yellow, orange, and red bell peppers, sweet onions, zucchini squash and cherry tomatoes.

Along with that, my sister contributed a cold salad and corn, my mom made her famous rolls, my grandma made dressing (no one can make dressing like grandmas can ;), and banana cream pie.

For my dessert contribution, I made “Nikki’s Healthy Cookies Recipe” from 101 Cookbooks.

It was dinner for seven that included my parents, my grandma, my sister and her husband, and Erik and I. Needless to say, we were all stuffed!

Karmon and Erik took a dorky table picture …ironically they both just randomly posed not knowing what the other one was doing. It worked out well ; )

While cleaning up, I fed all five dogs some scraps. It was interesting, ha. But they were all pretty good and took turns very well, considering. We will be thoroughly enjoying our leftovers today and will probably do some juicing on my new juicer! : )

What was the best part of your Christmas meal?

To grandmother’s house we go, change of plans

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas full of family and good food! I stuffed my belly FULL today! Ha, but I stuffed it full of tasty, healthy food so it was happy ; )

But first … a mini recap of Christmas Eve …

To Grandmother’s House We Go

Yesterday, Erik and I went to my grandma’s house to visit her for awhile. While there, we had our own little photo shoot just for fun … mostly of fruit and of ourselves, ha.  

Note: all paintings seen in background were painted by my dad ;)

When evening rolled around, we went to a Christmas Eve candlelight church service with my sister and her husband. (My sister likes to make faces similar to this while having her picture taken). And after church, we ventured off to my other grandma’s house to open presents.

My cousin, Nina, and I …

The most exciting part (as far as presents are concerned) was getting our new juicer … yay!  I already LOVE it and I’m positive you will all hear more about it later!

I can’t seem to stop taking pictures of dogs

Ha, you are probably all sick of seeing dogs on Lesley Lifting Life but with the many cute doggie (and cat) faces around, I can’t resist! Here are some cute ones I couldn’t help but share … I especially love all the action shots!

Change of Plans

Erik and I were planning on going back to Missouri Saturday morning but with all the snowing/ice/bad weather that’s been going on we decided it might be in our best driving interests to stay here another day. I normally don’t like having to go to work right away when getting back from being gone but at least the next work week will be a shorter one also!

I’ll be back later with our Christmas dinner recap that was full of delicious, easy to make, and healthy food!

Blog talk, Juice & chili, Rwanda Baskets

Merry Christmas Eve!

So far, we’re having a good time at my family’s in Nebraska. It’s been full of relaxation! Ha. I’m hoping to get a little baking done today … if I do nothing for too long I’ll go stir crazy.

Blog Talk

Yesterday, Andrea picked us up and we went to one of McCook’s hot spots for lunch … Sehnert’s Bieroc Cafe. I really don’t remember what my sandwich was called but it was on rye bread and was topped with veggies and “special sauce”. The taste wasn’t bad but I’m not sure how nutritious it was because to me the sauce tasted like a mix between mayo and Dorothy Lynch.

I took a picture of Andrea, but I don’t think she’d like me if I posted it because it didn’t turn out the greatest. But here is one of Erik instead …  

We had a good time talking food, health, nutrition, fitness, etc and our talk inspired me to want to post more helpful, informative posts that have more of a purpose. Sometimes I feel like my blog is boring and all about ME. However, I’d like to help and inspire others and I’m not sure how to successfully go about that.

Granted, it is hard to have a successful blog when you work full time and have a life outside of the internet … but I have fun blogging. I’m not sure what direction I’d like to go with Lesley Lifting Life or where my niche is but hopefully over time I can find it!

Juice & Chili

After lunch, Erik and I ran some errands and while out, I picked up a Naked juice.  A little birdie told me I’m getting a juicer for Christmas so I’m preparing my taste buds ; )

For dinner, my mom made a big pot of chili … it tasted great and was perfect for a cold winter’s night right before Christmas! Erik and I both went back for seconds a few hours later.

Poor Wilber doesn’t know what to do with all these dogs around who took over her house. She’s finding solace on my mom’s shoulder and in other high places …

Rwanda Baskets

My mom gave me a trivet from Rwanda Baskets and I thought some of you would be interested in hearing about the company. 

As their website says, “The Rwanda Basket Company is a program of Rwanda Partners that is working to change the lives of impoverished weavers in Rwanda. Rwanda Partners is a nonprofit organization that is working to restore and heal the people of Rwanda through reconciliation and poverty reduction programs.”

“The vision of the Rwanda Basket Company is to empower the impoverished women of Rwanda to rise above their subsistence level existence by providing them with the training, tools and support needed to sell their baskets in the west. The Rwanda Basket Company accomplishes this in several ways:

• Providing “Master Weavers” to work with these impoverished women to help them improve and expand their weaving skills
• Paying the weavers directly a premium wage for each of their baskets
• Supplying high quality sisal, dye and other materials needed to ensure a quality product
• Making available to the weavers (many of them genocide widows or wives of imprisoned perpetrators) such life skills training as healing and reconciliation workshops, trauma counseling, and basic medical assistance
• Opening up multiple markets in the west for the weavers’ baskets, thereby ensuring them a much better wage for their products than they could ever hope to receive in Rwanda “

I love companies like this, who are simply in business to help others in need. They are the kind of companies I like to support and promote!

They sell baskets, trivets, fruit bowls, and bread baskets on their online store. Check it out, buy a neat handmade basket or bowl, and know you’ve helped someone in need this holiday season : )

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!!

 

-Lesley

 

Lazy NE morning, Blogger meet-up

Happy almost Christmas everyone!! : )

Thankfully, we made it to Nebraska safe and sound last night. The drive was decent but full of fog, some spitting from the heavens, as well as a near encounter with some deer. Thankfully, Erik had a really fast reaction time and slammed on the brakes just in time!

Our morning started out like this …. oatmeal, computer, and tea … ahhh : ) Lots of animals

I couldn’t help but snap some photos of all the animals around … my mom’s kitty, Wilber…        

My sister’s dogs Charlie …

…and Norm My parents’ dog, Harley (unpictured), and then of course Rocky and Adrian.  We left my father-in-law’s dog, Bubba, at a nice doggie hotel back at home. Traveling would be too hard on the poor old guy!

Needless to say, there’s never a boring moment with all these animals around ; )

And Charlie is VERY good at defending herself, haha.

Two days until Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone!! : )

 

Blogger Meet-up

Now I’m off to get rid of my lazy bed head and meet up with Andrea from Boulder Bite. We grew up together in our lovely small town in Nebraska and we both happen to be back home at the same time : )  I’ll be sure to include some pictures later …

Hope your Christmas week is a joyous one :D

 

-Lesley

Cold and colorful couscous salad

What a crazy night!

I talked to my mom this morning and she told us that if we leave to head to NE at our scheduled time (Wednesday when I get off work around 3) that we probably wouldn’t be able to make it due to an impending blizzard/snow storm.

So last minute asked my boss for Wednesday off and we decided to do our traveling tomorrow (Tuesday) at 3 instead. Therefore, that meant I had to do all the laundry, figure out what I needed to bring for Christmas dinner, pack and get everything ready tonight.

I feel rather scatterbrained after all that but I’m still smiling ….

… and I needed another picture for this post since I didn’t have time to think about blogging today and this is one is the only I had to use ; )

I thought tonight would be a good night to post my couscous salad recipe.

Cold & Colorful Couscous Salad

 

Ingredients: (all as desired)

• 10 oz box of couscous (I used Hodgson Mill’s whole wheat couscous with milled flax and soy)
• yellow zucchini
• green zucchini
• red bell pepper
• yellow bell pepper
• red onion
• lemon
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• sea salt
• pepper
• Mrs. Dash’s garlic and herb seasoning

Directions:

1. Follow directions for cooking couscous, let cool and place in fridge
2. Chop all veggies into desired size (I like them small)
3. Place chopped veggies, seasonings, olive oil and balsamic vinegar into bowl together and place in fridge to allow flavors to permeate.
4. Thirty minutes to an hour prior to serving, fluff couscous with a fork, stir in veggie mixture, and serve.

Enjoy!

Time for Christmas

Thank you all for still reading even though I haven’t been very involved in the “community” lately apart from posting … life will slow down soon and I’ll be around more ; )

I may not see you all tomorrow as we’ll be on the road and pulling into Nebraska late in the evening.  Say a prayer and cross your fingers that we beat the storm!

And guess what ….. CHRISTMAS IS ON FRIDAY!  Ha, are you ready? I am!

 

-Lesley

Whole Foods & early Christmas

Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend!!

I don’t even mind that tomorrow is Monday since it’s only a three day work week for me … yay!

Today we had and early Christmas at my MIL’s house since we’re going to be at my family’s in NE on Christmas day. My MIL got me a nice flash for my new camera and I love it! (Thanks, Linda!!) We tried it out inside when we got home …. this will definitely come in handy! Erik and I volunteered to cook Christmas dinner “lunch” at my parent’s house so this afternoon we went to Whole Foods for supplies. Namely, we went there to get an organic, free range turkey but picked up some others things as well.

Our lovely little cart of groceries.

Before we left, we sat down and ate some wraps that we bought. I went for the grilled veggie with hummus wrap.

I love that cold grilled veggie taste!   

And we couldn’t forget our Whole Foods shopping tradition … ice cream on the way home!

Today we opted for Living Harvest tempt’s Coffee Biscotti made with hemp milk.

It was really good and included the perfect amount of “biscotti” chunks … mmm!!

And nutritionally sound as well!  Living Harvest’s tempt frozen desserts made with hemp milk is one of our favorite ice cream brands for sure.

We’re headed to good old Nebraska on Wednesday evening (and I’m praying it doesn’t snow on our drive!). I sort of feel like I have a lot to accomplish between now and then so if I’m not around a lot these next few days, that’s why ; ) 

However, I’ll be sure to share our Christmas dinner “lunch” menu with you all! Some of you asked for my couscous recipe too and you should be seeing that later this week as well. Until then ….

Don’t forget to enjoy the wonder of the season!!! : )  I’ll leave you with a quote I read earlier this week …

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” 

–hamilton wright mabie

-Lesley