Wow, what a whirlwind of a weekend. It was seriously jam-packed, but a blast. This weekend I slaved away in the kitchen to get ready for 2 big events this weekend, a cookie exchange and bookclub and getting our place set-up for Christmas. We listened to Christmas songs all weekend long, especially while we worked and cleaned up the place to get it ready for company.
Here’s the weekend Recap….
Friday -
Workout: 4 miles busted out in 41 mins. This is the most I’ve done in such a long time. I started off slow and then tried to speed it up at the last mile. I didn’t run outside because I woke up late and wanted to make sure I was home in time to get ready for work.
After work the hubby and I headed to a friend’s graduation party. She just finished up her Master’s program!
They had a great spread – little chicken salad and egg salad sandwich halves, fruit and veggie trays, brownies, cheesecake bars, carmel bars, chips and punch. I had a lot of veggies since I was kind of lacking that in the food department today.
It was really cold and rainy on Friday, so after her little part, the hubby and I headed home. I stopped off to get some ingredients for the many things I made this weekend.
Friday night I made Chex Muddy Buddies – Recipe from the box of Chex Cereal.
Muddy Buddies Close-up
Ingredients:
9 cups Combination of Chex Corn, Rice, and Wheat Cereal squares
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 1-gallon ziplock bags
Directions:
Place cereal in a large bowl and set aside. In a medium microwavable bowl, add chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Microwave on High for 1 minute and stir. Microwave 30 seconds longer and stir mixture until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour sauce over cereal and stir until evenly coated. Spoon half of the mixture in each 1-gallon resealable ziplock bag. Add 3/4 cup powdered sugar to each bag, and seal. Shake the bag until everything is coated. Spread on waxed/parchment paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.
*Notes: I used 6 cups of the rice chex and 3 cups of the wheat chex, whole foods vegan chocolate chips, smucker’s natural creamy peanut butter,
This stuff rocks. It looks like moldy food, but is awesome. I think I will definitely be make some more very soon!
I had planned on starting on my cookies for the cookie exchange, but then realized I forgot to buy the nuts! Awww Nutz!
Saturday:
Workout: I got up early on Saturday to get my workout in – I did 20 mins on the treadmill starting off at 6 and bumping up to 7 and then 7.5 at the very end. I was a sweaty mess at the end, but it was a good and quick workout.
After coming back from the gym, the hubby fixed us some breakfast and I headed back out to the store to go on the weekly shopping extravaganza and get all of the other ingredients to make delicious treats.
Breakfast: 2 egg whites, goat cheese crumbles, salsa, and some avocado
Breakfast
For the cookie exchange, I made “Snowballs” – 4+ Dozen of them!
Snowballs
“Snowballs” – Adapted from 2002 Taste of Home Annual Recipes (Cream Cheese Finger Cookies) – makes approximately 2 dozen
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Butter (no substitutions), softened
4 oz Cream Cheese, softened
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Sugar
Dash of Salt
1 cup Finely Chopped Walnuts
Confectioners’ Sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In mixing bowl, cream butter and cream cheese. Beat in vanilla extract. Combine flour, sugar, and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in pecans (dough will be crumbly). Shape tablespoon-sized dough into round balls. Place onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 mins or until lightly browned. Let rest until cooled slightly. Roll the warm cookies in the confectioners’ sugar, cool on wire racks. Once completely cooled, dust again with Confectioners’ sugar.
*Notes: I call them snowballs because I just take the dough and shape them into round balls
After those were all finished and set aside, I got started on making homemade Samosas
Finished Samosas
For dough:
Make well in the flour.
Add oil, salt and little water.Mix well till crumbly.
Add more water little by little, kneading into soft pliable dough.
Cover with moist cloth, keep aside for 15-20 minutes.
Beat dough on worksurface and knead again. Re-cover.
Heat 3 tbsp. oil, add ginger, green chilli, garlic, coriander seeds.
Stir fry for a minute, add onion, saute till light brown.
Add coriander, lemon, turmeric, salt, red chilli, garam masala.
Stir fry for 2 minutes, add potatoes. Stir further 2 minutes.
Cool. Keep aside.
Potato Filling
Make a thin 5″ diam. round with some dough.
Cut into two halves. Run a moist finger along diameter.
Join and press together to make a cone.
Place a tbsp. of filling in the cone and seal third side as above.
Make five to six.
Samosas before frying
Do not fry on high, or the samosas will turn out oily and soggy.
Drain on rack or kitchen paper.
Serve hot with green and tamarind chutneys or tomato sauce.
Yummy Banana Bread
Finished tree
Other Christmas Decorations
After I finished up the baking/cooking for the day, the hubby and I just hung out, had some wine and listened to Christmas songs on the couch for a good way – just the two of us chilling out and enjoying the moment. It was awesome.
Sunday:
Workout: No workout today – today I rested
Breakfast: I sliced up the banana bread for me and the hubby from the night before while I got ready for church.
Lunch: After church I hurriend home to get everything ready for the cookie exchange and while I was doing that, the hubby made me the best pita sandwich! 1/2 whole wheat pita, 2 egg whites, some avocado, goat cheese crumbles, and spinach. Man it was awesome!!
Then I headed to the cookie exchange. There were so many delicious treats: Chocolate No-Bake Cookies, Nieman Marcus cookies, Snowballs, Russian Wedding Cookies, Scotch-a-roos, Sugar cookies, Chai-Spiced cookies, chocolate chip cookies w/ rice krispies, cranberry, white chocolate and chocolate chip cookies, chocolate dipped espresso cookies!
A lot of people made extras and gave some of theirs for care packages a lady at our church is serves in the military is organizing. I hope they make it there without being crushed into a million pieces.
I wrapped the majority of mine up to take to the office. We don’t need these in our home and the hubby is not a sweets person, so I wanted to take them to a place I knew they wouldn’t be wasted.
Cookies from the Cookie Exchange
After the cookie exchange, I rushed home to finish preparations on for the bookclub I was in charge of hosting this month – here’s the book we read. I loved it, I even read it a second time and I NEVER do that.
The Namesake + Indian Cookbook
Here’s what was on the menu:
- Samosas w/ Cilantro-Mint Chutney and hot sauce
- A Bengali Snack Mix – this had rice krispies, chickpeas, chilis, cucumbers, seeded tomatoes, cumin and mustard seeds, a little bit of olive oil
- Sliced Grapefruit
- Muddy Buddies
- Banana Bread
- Red and White Wine
Yeah, I guess it was a little random, but oh well, that’s how I roll. After everyone snacked a bit, we all sat around and discussed the book and other topics. It was a great time with great people.
Bookclub started at 7:00pm and everyone headed out a little before 9:30 since it was a work/school night. I cleaned up and the hubby and I headed to bed. I was exhausted!
What a wonderful weekend though. I’m glad that we were able to get Christmas set-up in our home. This is my favorite time of year.
The tree rocks!! I should call you the enegizer bunny!!! So glad everything went great at your bookclub!! The perfect hostess I know!!!
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