Sun. 12/7 - Sat. 12/13

Well, we did pretty good this past week with sticking to our menu. However, yesterday, we ate at our favorite burger joint, The Last Call Bar and Grill. We switched our chili to Friday night...so we missed out on the pork chops. They've been added to this week's menu, though. This is going to be a busy week for me, ut we choose things that are pretty easy..as long as I can make it to the commissaryby Tuesday, we should be good. I hope to go today, actually, but it is yucky out..lots of snow falling down out there.

Sun. ~ Herb rubbed grilled chicken breasts (I love my George Foreman grill!), roasted potatoes and a tossed salad

Mon. ~ Quiche

Tues. ~ Double Chicken Dumpling "Stoup" Also, I'll be baking cookies and making truffles for our cookie swap

Wed. ~ Hot dogs, shoe string french fries and baked beans (or some other viggie) ** Gene is in charge of dinner b/c I have to be at the shop for our cookie & recipe swap

Thurs. ~ Yo- yo night (I am teaching a class at the shop, so Kate and Gene our on their own)

Fri. ~ Shake & Bake pork chops and some sort of sides (it is crop night at the shop, but I should be home long enough to cook and eat dinner)

Sat. ~ Rouladen, spatzel and red cabbage ** This is one of Gene's specialties, so as long as we're not at his office Christmas party too long, he'll be making dinner for us. It's a German dish that we all just love!

Sometime between Wed. and Friday I have to bake between 5 - 10 batches of cookies for Gene's office Christmas party. If it were any other week, I would be fine with that..but this week is going to be NUTS....oh well..I've been volunteered and will complete my mission without whining (ok, I may whine a little..but I'll try real hard not to do it a lot. LOL)


Double Chicken Dumpling Stoup (I coppied this from Erin's blog...thanks friend!)
This is a Rachael Ray recipe. She calls it stoup because it is thicker than soup, but not as thick as a stew!

2 tbsp olive oil,4 ribs celery, chopped 2 onions, chopped 4 carrots, shredded 1 bay leaf salt & pepper 6 c. chicken broth 1 lb ground chicken 1 egg 1/2 c. Italian bread crumbs 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped dash nutmeg one 1lb package gnocchi 1 c. frozen peas flat leaf parsley, finely chopped (a couple handfuls) crusty bread, for dunking

1. In a soup pot, heat the olive oil over med-high heat. Add the celery, onions, carrots and bay leaf. Season with salt & pepper & cook for 5 minutes. Stir in broth, cover the pot and bring to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, in a bowl, season the chicken with salt & pepper. Stir in the egg, bread crumbs, cheese, garlic & nutmeg. Roll the mixture into walnut sized meatballs (about 40) and add to the stoup. Simmer for about 10 minutes while you wash up. Add the gnocchi to the stoup and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the peas and parsley and cook for 2 more minutes., Remove the stoup from the heat, discard the bay leaf and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve with the bread.