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Christmas, New Year’s, and Tons of Cats

Wow, I really haven’t had the motivation to blog lately, but here we are! I’m going to dive in with a succinct recap of the holidays, featuring lots and lots (and lots) of cats. Spoiler: We had 6 cats at my house on NYE.

The night before Christmas Eve, I made my pumpkin gingerbread, and enjoyed that with wine while watching Home Alone 2 (we watched the original last year).

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I started Christmas Eve with a festive spin class, of entirely Christmas songs.

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On Christmas Eve night, my whole family went to Benihana’s per our tradition. I just got beer, a salad, and their amazing fried rice, and then stole bites of my family’s food.

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Before we knew it, it was Jackson’s first Christmas!

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Kitten’s first stocking!

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^This was after I caught him looking extremely guilty with a little tree in his mouth.

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For breakfast, we had gingerbread (for me)/croissants (my parents), plus scrambled eggs and turkey bacon.

After breakfast, my mom and I headed to the bay to take Chloe for a little Christmas walk.

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Around lunchtime, my sister, her husband, and their two kitties came over (5 cats total in the house!)

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We ate an easy lunch of soup, and then opened presents.

My sister made us all homemade gelato! Mine was salted caramel.

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^This was my present to my sis! Lava and Ash, her kitties!

My sister and I were tasked with cooking Christmas dinner, which is a first for us. We poured champagne with pomegranate juice, and mulled wine to sip on while we cooked.

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My sister made homemade pasta, pumpkin soup, and brussels sprouts. I made cranberry sauce (with maple syrup) and cranberry citrus relish, and then ended up sort of roasted a turkey. I wanted to buy some slices from Whole Foods like we did a few years ago, but when I went on Christmas Eve, they didn’t have that. So I ended up buying a whole (pre-cooked) Diestel turkey. Apparently I looked clueless enough at the store, and the store worker was super helpful and told me how to heat it up: 350 for 1.5 hours, with the first .5 hour covered. It came out super well (and we had a ton of leftovers which were enjoyed all week).

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My sister’s husband is Jewish, and the two of them have perfected the latke. These are lemon truffle latkes with homemade apple sauce that my aunt sent us!

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Highlights from between the two holidays:

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Leftover turkey-cranberry opened faced sandwiches with laughing cow.

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AMAZING turkey and rice soup. My mom made turkey broth from the carcass, and the flavor was incredible. Served with Brazilian cheese balls.

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Beer flight during the Alamo bowl. This was a fun flight because we picked out the individual beers from Trader Joe’s, so it was all good things! Sadly the game didn’t go as planned…

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For our football food, we did BBQ turkey sweet potato nachos. Roasted sweet potato slices topped with BBQ sauce, 2% Mexican cheese, leftover turkey, and green onions.

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I made my weirdo salad with leftover roasted turkey instead of deli turkey and it was insanely good.

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Friday night, my parents and I finally made it out to the local brewery. They have a beer called “Beer Kitty,” so naturally I had to get that.

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They also had food trucks out. I had a kale salad with chicken, and french fries.

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On the way home, we stopped for frozen yogurt. I had chocolate mint and  eggnog. Both were super good!

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Saturday, I actually worked all day at the vet. It was good to be back, and we had lots of kitties that day—my favorite! I went out for dinner and beer with coworkers after as well. When I got home, it was madness. My family was gone, and my sister’s 2 kitties were staying with us as well. I got home to 5 kitties! Thankfully they all got along, and there were kitties EVERYWHERE!

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^All 5 in one shot!

My NYE consisted of a spin class, lots and lots of cat time, Jackson’s first kitten playdate at my friend’s house, then my friend bring her kitten to my house to make it 6 cats, and finally game night at a different friend’s house while our kitties played. The rest of the post will be exclusively cat pictures! I got a new phone, so the cat pictures are higher quality and I have more memory to store them! Happy New Year!

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WIAW-Meal Prep Edition

Happy WIAW! As always, a giant thanks to Jenn for hosting this weekly party!

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Since starting 12 Days of Christmas, I haven’t gotten to talk about my day to day eats in a while, so let’s dive in, shall we?

The most exciting thing I did before returning to college? Meal prep! I wanted something veggie packed and easy to grab and go, so I made a TON of egg cups-they’re filled with egg, chopped kale or spinach, and cheese-some gouda, some parmesan. 

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Pre-oven

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Post oven.

I also made one with cranberry sauce and turkey, if you’re wondering. 

I wanted quick grab and go sweet breakfasts as well, so I made mini versions with egg and blueberries, plus a little cinnamon. The most genius thing I did though was mix up some of my pumpkin starter with egg, and top with cinnamon cream cheese. YUM.

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I also made a few with fig balsamic and goat cheese (the bottom ones).

I made an extra batch to freeze as well, since everything was already out! I used the pumpkin starter again but added blueberries.

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I’ve also been eating a lot of leftover butternut squash soup, from Thanksgiving. SO GOOD. I top it with cranberry relish and creme fraiche.

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Another use of leftovers? On my last night home, we used turkey to make quesadillas with jack cheese, spinach, and mushrooms.

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My roommate is seriously the best. She brought back an entire crate of fruit from her trees at home, and it’s like 3 layers deep in persimmons. 

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Obviously, those have been kind of a staple in my diet lately.

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Additionally, the giant plate of asparagus at lunch has returned-I topped them with a fresh herb seasoning mixture, and then nutritional yeast. Plus my turkey egg cup.

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And because I have to show you our holiday decorations:

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This candy was outside our door, but it’s currently all gone!

And because I already miss him:

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Have a great day!

Favorite holiday food?