Before I get started with today’s post, I wanted to show you my new, early Christmas present!
It’s an insulated, stainless steel 34-ounce double wall French Press and I LOVE IT! It came from Ecooe, a site that has me drooling. My favorite feature of this French Press is that it keeps the hot beverage hot during our entire breakfast while it rests on the table. And of course, it’s stainless steel which makes it safe to use and beautiful to look at. The price is right, so put it on your list, or grab it early so you can use it to entertain this Christmas!
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Now let’s talk about how to save the Christmas season!
Never am I more tempted to buy Take-and-Bake Pizzas like I am during the busy holiday season. Sometimes (shh) I even consider buying Velveeta to make Rotel Dip. I know!!!! I think it’s a childhood memory thing. But also, no matter how simple I keep our holidays, there is still always more to do than a normal day in the life. Therefore, compromising in the kitchen is something I’m always more likely to do while we’re putting up the tree, wrapping gifts, or rummaging through our piles of junk to find yet one more thing to take to a White Elephant Gift Exchange.
Let us all pause for a moment to acknowledge how many white elephant gifts my family has to come up with every Christmas season now that I have a houseful of teenagers going to parties of their own. The parties are many; the need for white elephant gifts is abundant. You would think by now we’d have nothing useless or weird left in our house. Somehow we keep coming up with items to wrap and get rid of. Although at one point last year we got so desperate to figure out what to send with our oldest son to his White Elephant Gift Exchange on the college campus that we put a bow on our then 10-year old and sent them both on their way.
You thought I was kidding.
Not to worry though. After all the college students fought over this special gift, they delivered him back home safe and sound. Somehow we also accumulated a fish in a tank that night. We named him Finley and managed to keep him alive for exactly a day and a half.
So back to making food compromises and trying to survive the busy holiday season.
My solution to avoiding Velveeta? Make this dip instead. Ever since I invented this dip, I don’t even want Velveeta any more. Guaranteed, I will be making this for my family to enjoy some evening while we’re sitting around the Christmas tree playing a game. We all love this.
I will probably buy a few Take-and-Bake Pizzas sometime during the month to give myself a night off. The kids will eat more sugar than normal at all of their White Elephant parties and sure, probably even at our house. I’m not terribly worried about any of this because stress over food is, in my opinion, less healthy than the junk food itself. So bring on the fudge, but first please eat a carrot.
How we’re going to save the Christmas season for you
Seeing as I can’t fall back on compromise foods every single night from now until January 2 when things supposedly settle down, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to make Simple Meals planning packets even simpler than normal. This is saying something, my friends!
From now until the end of the year, every meal suggestion in your Simple Meals packets will be extra easy, extra brainless, and even extra festive! This is going to help us all survive the holidays without having to stress over how we’re still going to put a good meal on the table while we’re trying to put together goody bags for the neighbors and rummage through the toy box for yet another (non broken) something or other to wrap for a White Elephant gift exchange.
Simple Meals Members? Look forward to refreshingly easy plans and ideas to simplify your holiday season! If you’re not a member yet, now is the time to get on board with us so you can enjoy this too!
Get all the details about Simple Meals here.
Do you find yourself coming and going during the holiday season? What compromise foods do you find yourself falling back on? What have been your best scores at a White Elephant Gift Exchange?
Look forward to some amazingly fun and easy Simple Meals Planning Packets this month!!!
Well, we do come and go a little more during the holidays, but mostly I find myself busier trying to get everything done at home. I admit I may have purchased a couple of “frozen, ready-made” foods when I shopped at our wholesale club store (frozen pot pies – I like these WAY too much for the amount of sodium and other unknown ingredients they contain; and individual frozen pizzas, mostly for my guys – I don’t like them enough to resort to this, since I love to make my own homemade pizza). One “fast-food” we only feel half-bad getting is subs (as in submarine sandwiches; I know they go by so many different names everywhere else). We can get a pretty good deal on them around here, we have options of choosing bread that at least has some grains in it, and we tend to load them up with vegetable toppings. I agree 100% that stressing over eating healthy is not healthy!
Sorry about your goldfish. It kind of reminds me of how my son’s last beta fish “disappeared” when we got our new, big, boy kittens…..(but that’s another story).
Thanks for always giving us great, healthy suggestions, along with a good dose of “humor” medicine!
My husband has wanted a french press for a while. Do you have to buy special coffee for it?
Any coffee will work!
Twelve-ish years ago, I received a singing and dancing poinsettia as a white elephant gift. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. It was off-key when I got it and I’ve never had to change the battery. Each year it gets a little more off-key. It sings “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”. I will never give it away… :)
Do you have a recipe for broccoli cheese soup?
I’ve made it before, but our family didn’t love it so I don’t have a recipe to share! :)
One more quick recipe request.
Do you have a recipe for mushroom soup?
This one I have! https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/homemade-cream-of-mushroom-soup