December-palooza

And we're officially off to the races! December is an insane month for our little family. We have the pleasure of observing both Christmas and Hanukkah - with multiple family celebrations, of course - and last year, we were blessed with the addition of a sweet little girl mid-December. Holy craziness, Batman! And of course, for you lucky blog readers, this means you might just get a few extra posts thrown in... you are very welcome for that.

Today we kicked off the month-long festivities by putting up the tree and other holiday-y accessories. This always involves the boys doing all of the grunt work while I point and gently critique, and me baking something for a mid-grunt-work break. The baby added all sorts of fun and games, with ample box climbing, ornament grabbing and overall mischievousness.

White Chip Brownies
Source: Very Best Baking

I am not going to type this in. Look it up - that's what I did. I only made this because I mysteriously had some white chocolate chips on hand.

Stray white chip

I also made soup today, because I felt like it.
Black Bean Pumpkin Soup
Source: Taste of Home Heartwarming Soups, Fall 2011

I am also not going to type this in - because I don't feel like it. Yes - I'm being lazy tonight. Yes, I'm tired from the ample amount of celebration running around I did this weekend. OH I love this season so much.

A nutritional powerhouse!

Finally, for dinner we had:
Quesadilla Casserole
Source: Clean Eating Classic Comfort Foods, Fall 2011

A little extra cheese... just because

Reviews:
First - the brownies. The hubs may have said, "I could eat this entire pan in one sitting," so I guess he liked them. I, on the other hand, thought they were OK. But, this is because I had an a-ha moment today: I do not like white chocolate. I thought the actual brownie part was delish, but the white chocolate chips brought them down a notch for me. Blech.

Next - the soup. The soup has an OK flavor - kind of bland and not as thick as I had hoped, but I like the idea of all of the nutrients in the soup (pumpkin! black beans! diced tomatoes!), so I will continue to eat it all week for lunch. The hubs actually ate it for lunch as well and seemed to enjoy it. And don't despair, I made it all no-salt added, just in case you were wondering.

Finally - dinner. This was a four fork day for the hubs. He loved the dinner. I thought it was OK - nothing special. The recipe calls for corn, which I picked out because corn and I are not besties. The kid ate the chicken, and picked out everything else. It was good - just not my usual Clean Eating good.

Rankings:
Brownies: Three Forks
Soup: Two Forks
Dinner: Two Forks