Menu Monday #27

We had a good weekend at home, especially given that Josh worked from home on Friday and has taken the entire week off this week! We look forward to the time together. On Friday night, we went out for Indian food, to our favorite local place, Sahib. It was delicious as usual, and I enjoyed my favorite - chicken tikka masala. Josh had the lamb tikka masala and the boys had paneer tikka masala. Hmm, can you tell what we like? ;) We came back home and got back to work on our basement. Fun, fun. When we moved into the house in July, all of our boxes from storage were put there and we hadn't really given them a second thought until this weekend. We want to get the basement ready to re-carpet now, which means we first need to get everything organized and unpacked! We put a pretty good dent in the pile Friday evening before heading to bed.

On Saturday morning, I fixed our favorite, whole wheat pumpkin pancakes with cream cheese icing. We went back to work downstairs while the boys played with all their "new" toys. I guess stuff they haven't seen in nearly a year would seem new when you're that young! ;) We took breaks for lunch and dinner, when I made the Margherita pizza I had planned to make on Friday.

Our progress so far!

On Sunday morning, we decided to head out for brunch, and enjoyed a nice big meal at Cracker Barrel. We don't do that very often anymore, but it was a tasty change of pace. I love their French Toast topped with peaches and the boys gobbled up their pancakes (that happen to be as big as their heads!!) and eggs! After some shopping, naps, and fun time outside (the weather has been gorgeous here!), we had dinner and went back to work downstairs. Once the weekend was over, we are left with 7 big boxes of stuff we are throwing out, 5 boxes of stuff to donate and just a few more boxes to sort through now!! Yay!! The picture doesn't really do justice to all the work we did. This room was entirely filled with boxes that needed unpacked and sorted through, so it wasn't quick work. Hopefully we will get everything finished up soon so we can get to work on knocking out part of a wall, then getting new carpet installed! Half of the basement will be the future home of our media room/man cave and play room for the boys. This half will remain as storage and Josh's garage, and will possibly serve as a guest room in the future, if we build a wall to separate it from the garage portion.

Sunday: Take-out pizza

To give us more time to work, it was easier to order in for the evening.

Monday: Thanksgiving feast!

I have a 10-pounder roasting in the oven now, stuffed with some stuffing (using the recipe my Dad has always used)! On the side, I'll make mashed potatoes, corn soufflé, extra stuffing that didn't fit in the turkey, and some gravy made from the turkey juices. Yum! For dessert, instead of the usual pumpkin pie, I am going to make it extra delicious by making pumpkin pie crunch! I'll make the pie the way I normally do (homemade crust is a must for me!), but add the toppings I use when I make pumpkin crunch. Best of both worlds. :) The link above gives some of the details from last year's feast.

Tuesday: Leftovers
With just 4 of us and 10 pounds of turkey, we will have plenty left to eat tomorrow night!

Wednesday: On the road

We'll be headed to Ohio for the holiday, so we'll be eating somewhere up there.

Thursday: Thanksgiving feast - take 2!

We'll enjoy a Thanksgiving meal again, with Josh's family.

Friday: TBD

We'll be headed to my parents' new house (they just moved in this weekend!! Yay!) on Friday, but I'm not sure what we'll do for dinner yet.

Saturday: Thanksgiving feast - take 3!

We'll be having a Thanksgiving meal with my mom's side of the family. I may never want to see turkey again after this week, but I know I will enjoy the time spent with family.

Happy meal planning to you this week if you will be spending time in your kitchen. I hope that you have a wonderful time with your families and/or loved ones.