Menu plan for the week of December 10

Have you ever peeled a pomegranate?  Is that even what it's called?  Maybe I should ask: have you ever extracted the seeds (which are actually arils) from a pomegranate?  I have.  Twice now.  The first time?  Didn't go so well.  Mostly because I did not consult the all-knowing YouTube.  The second time went much better.  And now I'm wondering why I ever found pomegranates intimidating.  I opened this one to include in a yogurt parfait bar last week.  So easy!  So good!  So festive!  You should try it!  But be sure to consult the YouTube first.  And wear dark clothing, because that's the first (and only common) piece of advice that each one of the five videos I watched gave.  Apparently the juice is prone to suddenly escaping with velocity, and that stuff stains.

Minor meal plan breakdown occurred this week, partly because Hubby is super busy at work right now, and partly because I forgot about a scheduled date night.  Not to worry, friends--I just put those meals right back into the meal plan, although they're not in the "correct" slots.  It's OK.  The assigned meal types are to help me, so if I have previously scheduled, but uneaten, meals, I can slot them wherever I choose.  It's actually a good thing I had to reschedule at least one of the meals, because I ended up not buying one of the ingredients last week--wasn't sure what I was going to do to substitute today.

Can you believe how fast December is going?  Just a few short weeks until Christmas, friends!

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Supper:

• Sheet pan meal Soup: Minestrone, rolls
• Tacos: Burritoes, salad
• Fend for yourself
• Casserole Sheet pan meal: One pan baked chicken with butternut squash and Parmesan asparagus
• Pizza
• Grill: Hamburgers, with or without buns, chips, green beans
• Soup: Long Soup (from the cookbook my aunt and uncle gave me at least 23 years ago--it's basically fancy ramen noodles, so I think the kids might actually like it)

Other:  

• I've been making cookies here and there--I even finally made the rest of the Santa's Snickers Surprises that have been in my freezer for almost a year.  This week, I think I'm going to try making sugar cookies and decorating them using royal icing.  I always just use buttercream icing, because it tastes better, but the royal icing looks so pretty, and I'm not eating the sugar cookies anyway, so why should I care how they taste?  And also, Steph says her mission is to rescue the reputation of royal icing.  So I guess we'll see how she did.
• Almond Butter Chocolate Keto Fat Bombs--I finally made the almond butter, so now I'm all set to make these.  I'm hoping they taste a heck of a lot better than the last fat bomb recipe I tried.
• I'm sure I'll make other stuff, too.  Just can't think of any of it right now.