Can it really be the end of December already? This month flew by and I can’t believe Christmas has come and gone for another year. I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. For me I had another episode of what I like to refer to as Laura’s Holiday Meal Gong Show. Seriously no matter how organized for a big meal I am something still always goes awry. This year the turkey decided to take an extra two hours to cook, almost seven hours in total (it was one huge bird but our oven is very finicky as well). So we were a little late sitting down for dinner and then on top of it I forgot to serve my squash casserole which I’d spent time making the day before. Oh well these things happen and because they happen so often for me I just laugh about it now and carry on. When we did finally sit down to eat it was delicious and we are still eating the leftovers.
Did anyone else have any dinner mishaps last week?
So this week I’d really like to clean out my freezer a little bit. There is just something about starting the new year off fresh and I like to carry that through to my cupboards and freezer as well.
Monday: Bringing Shredded Potato Casserole to a potluck dinner
Tuesday: Turkey Tetrazzini (didn’t make last week)
Wednesday: Taking homemade quick and easy pizza (awesome pizza dough!) to a friend’s house (we each make one) and I’ll also be bringing my favorite appetizer (recipe below)
Thursday: Happy New Year! Spaghetti Squash Casserole and perogies
Friday: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Saturday: Feta Stuffed Chicken
Sunday: Leftover buffet
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Surprise Spread
1 pkg (250 g) cream cheese light
1 cup miracle whip light
2 cans (120 g each) crab or shrimp drained
Seafood cocktail sauce
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
1 diced tomato
1 diced yellow pepper
Beat the cream cheese and miracle whip together and spread in a 12 inch plate. Mix shrimp and enough cocktail sauce so that they are well coated. Arrange mixture over cream cheese. Cover with grated cheese. Sprinkle with the diced tomatoes and yellow pepper. Chill. Serve with tortilla chips or crackers. Yummy!
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WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?
Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banner selections here.
Don’t miss these excellent organizing resources to help you start the year off right.
Tamy ~ 3 Sides Crazy says
So hoe did it get the name Surprise spread? Looks pretty straight forward.
Lisa Hetherington says
Could the Shredded Potato Casserole be made with hash browns? Not the shredded potatoes?
It sounds yummy!
Laura says
Tamy, that is a great question LOL!
Lisa I don’t think you could make this particular recipe with the hashbrowns only because you have to mix it all up.
Lisa Hetherington says
Could the Turkey Tetrazzini be made with ham? My m,om sent me home from Christmas dinner with some leftover ham. YUMMY!!
Laura says
Lisa, yes definitely!
Lisa Hetherington says
Thanks Laura for the answers to my questions!
Jill Scott says
Is there going to be an organizing round-up for January? I didn’t see a room listed in your round-up for January.
Laura says
Hi Jill, there will definitely be something similar…I’m just changing it up a little bit. Details soon.
Cathy | Mommy Motiva says
OH!! That dip is my Christmas Eve Tradition! I adore it way too much for any other time of year. *wink*
Amy says
A turkey suggestion for you: If you don’t carve the bird on the dinner table (this is a little embarrassing, but I honest to goodness didn’t know people actually DID that except in movies until I was an adult…)bake it a few days ahead. Take the meat off the bone and arrange it in a nice baking dish. Pour in some bird juices, add a few pats of butter and some salt and pepper. Cover and let it mellow in your fridge for a day or two. Heat it in a lowish oven before dinner. NO waiting and NO mess on dinner day! AND the turkey tastes fabulous since the juices have had time to infuse the bird!
That’s the way my mom has always done it. I’ll never cook a bird any other way. (But I’m also not a big fan of looking at a partially carved bird while eating…)
Melonie (Momma & Mor says
Can’t wait to try this spread out – it sounds like a great one to put on the coffee table for Super Bowl Sunday or UFC fight nights. Perfect for the “buffet of snackies” I like to have out. (Okay, so it’s mostly for myself. Shhhhh.)
Can’t wait to see how the organizing round-up, ah, rounds out….I’ve got stuff to get done around here now that we’ve gotten all of our shipments. Woohoo!
amy says
I’ve always wanted to try something with spaghetti squash (other than just butter and salt). Thanks for the recipe!
kiy says
I completely forgot the muffins until I was setting the table! Also, for Thanksgiving I forgot to put the cranberries on the table. Yep, you just have to laugh!
Thanks for sharing the link to the feta chicken, oh my does that look good!
Cheers, Kiy
mjpuzzlemom says
Thanks for hosting MPM! Have a great week!
The Happy Housewife says
Yum! The crab spread sounds yummy! My oven was funny on Christmas too! It totally shut off in the middle of cooking. Thankfully we noticed fairly soon or we would have been eating dough instead of rolls for dinner. Do you have a roaster? Those things are awesome for cooking turkey, ham, roast, etc… we just got one and I love it!
Toni
kat says
We’re lucky so far all the holiday meals have gone great, we still have a few more to go though
Rona says
No meal planning mishaps here. We actually enjoyed dinner at a local diner.
The place was packed with others that didn’t want to cook and deal with the clean up.
Enjoy your potluck and have a Happy New Year!
SheilaG says
I’m busy trying to figure out what to do with all the leftovers from Birdzilla, my 30 lb. turkey. I think I’m making some headway! Come on by To Love, Honor and Vacuum and read about some of it, and then share your turkey leftover recipes!
Rita says
Love your menu plan this week. Thanks!
Melissa says
My Christmas was filled with dinner mishaps! First, we were expecting barbeque to be shipped in for Christmas Eve dinner, but it arrived completely frozen! I ended up making meatball hoagies for my boys with leftovers for the rest of us. Then on Christmas dinner, the honey baked ham my dad brought up had been lost in shipment for several days and had gone bad. We discovered it when I started preparing dinner. Fortunately, he brought up another ham, but I had to heat it and glaze it, which meant dinner was two hours later than I planned. Aghhhh!! But we managed.
Creative Triplet Mom says
I did have some problems with the items I made for the holidays. I was only supposed to bring desserts. So silly me decided to do 3 new recipes. Cinnamon pie, and 2 brownie type dishes. Of course, all 3 were flops! Maybe I should stick with the stuff I normally make? Why didn’t I make my mississippi mud pie? Live and learn!
Oh, thanks for the surprise dip recipe. I have a board meeting next week that I plan on making it for as we have to bring a dip.
Lolli says
Well, I had our Christmas dinner all planned out….except for the timing part of it. We went out for an early movie with the kids, and when we came back home I realized we’d either be eating at 8:15 or we’d have to make other plans. We had Chinese food out on Christmas, and ate Christmas dinner on Friday.
Wendy says
Wendy’s gluten-free menu-NEW
Steph says
We are having a bit of a freezer clean out this week too. Had pizzas planned for Friday, will definitely try out your recipe!
Have a great week,
Steph
Denise says
The spread recipe sounds great and I’ll try that this week. I make a very easy one with a little mayo, a little cream cheese, artichoke hearts, and seasoning. I can whip it up in just a couple of minutes and its great on just about anything!
Ginger says
You have some scrumptious looking recipes this week! I can’t wait to try them after my household gets over our stomach flu…. Have a great week!
Sandy says
having a big party wed. night – so lite dinner next two nights! always love seeing what you are up to! oh, and i bought a spaghetti squash today at the store! YUM!
Jes-ka says
I got really lucky with the turkey I cooked. After about 3 1/2 hours it was looking pretty done. The council (my mom and older sisters) agreed that we should let it sit in the oven turned way down while we opened gifts.
When we ate it was just perfect! They all congratulated me but all I did was put it in the oven. =P
The Roost says
I am looking forward to Dec. being only a sweet memory!!! AND to some more wonderful meal plans from you 😉
Mikki says
Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve joined you over here. Hoping this year will be one filled with many Menu Mondays!
Thanks so much for keeping this going and sharing all that you do!
Rebecca says
The feta-stuffed chicken sounds really good, I think I will add that to my to-try list!
Luckily, no major cooking mishaps here. My biggest mishap was trying my new on-stove (non-electric) waffle iron and accidentally getting waffle batter on the burner. Not really a big deal, it cleaned up just fine.
Rachelle S. says
Well my family always does breakfast instead of dinner & then we go to my in-laws for dinner. My dad decided it would be a good idea for the men to do the cooking & the women to relax & visit. Well I didn’t trust them to be able to mix up the waffles so I did the mixing & let them cook. It turned out great, except we forgot the syrup & my sister didn’t have enough for the whole large family. So we had to run to Walgreen’s, which was the only store open. They had syrup but it was very pricey for the amount so we ended up making some from scratch! We had a yummy breakfast regardless!
Angie says
The Feta Stuffed Chicken sounds yummy. We are not organized this week so don’t really have a menu plan but I posted anyway LOL
Have a great week!
Laura says
I love the idea of exchanging (well, sort of) pizzas on New Years Eve! I’m trying to clean out my freezer, too. It’s a little scary what I can find.
Karen says
Love your site. I spend lots of time here perusing other people’s great recipes!
Niki says
Funny you unercooked the turkey, we have the opposite problem. Our turkey always ends up like the Griswolds. We managed to avoid that this year but that is not the norm.
Trish says
Thanks for posting the pizza crust recipe, I am planning to make it this week.
Last week I was going to try the Golden Honey Pan Rolls, but I realized after I printed it out that you need a bread machine to make it – mine died a few years ago and I never got a replacement. If you ever come across this recipe using the traditional method, please post it!
Stacee says
The shredded potato casserole sounds yummy! I’ll have to remember to add that to my menu next week!
Donetta says
Wow look at those people you have inspired . What a gift you offer your community!
Thank You
Amber @ Classic Housewife says
Wow – that surprise spread sounds good!! 🙂
Allie says
I’ve gone through the forever-cooking turkey! I think we sat down at 9 or 10 PM one year!
Have a fabulous New Year!
Allie
Learningtobefrugal.com
Joelle says
I’ll be a first time participant on Monday, but I thought I’d stop by and say that I love your blog!