Meal Plan: Week 51, 2024 – Candlelight concert, 3rd Sunday of Advent, Last Week of School, and Meal Prep

We are officially only a week away from Christmas! A year has flown by. It is nerve-wracking to think that time flies when we have fun, especially as I crave spending more time with my family here and in Denmark. It seems we are getting old too fast!

Our daughter is coming home from Florida on Friday evening, so we are super excited.

My wife has, unbeknown to me, been listening to a British piano solo artist called Alexis Ffrench for some time and recently discovered that he would play in the New York City area. As a surprise, I bought tickets for the event.

The vicinity of New York City is a broad area, given the size of the city and the five boroughs, as well as the vast surrounding suburbs and neighboring states.

Any trip to New York City can take anything from 1hr 15min to 3hr 30min. It all depends on traffic, events along the route, and the time of day.

The Alexis Ffrench event was in a small church in Brooklyn and started around 6.30pm on a Friday evening – just in the middle of rush hour traffic. The trusted GPS calculated the trip to take almost 2.5 hrs.

Being Danish and punctual, I forced the family to leave the house at 3.30pm to ensure we would arrive on time. Also, the event clearly stated that we would not be let in after the concert had started.

I located a parking lot near the venue, punched it in the GPS, and booked an oversized vehicle. Upon arriving at the parking location, I had to collapse my side mirrors to get into the garage, and it was a tight fit driving down the ramp. I even sucked in my stomach, believing it made a difference.

It was a beautiful setup with candles all over the church and a fantastic piano concert. My wife recorded every song, and I spotted tears of joy rolling down her face.

3rd Sunday of Advent

We are rejoicing for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, filling our hearts with love as we prepare for the arrival of God’s Kingdom with the coming of Jesus. We no longer expect his coming but rejoice for his imminent arrival.

The sheppards were informed of Christ’s birth by the angels and made their way to celebrate his arrival.

The candle we light on the 3rd Sunday of Adnvet is pink and represents joy.

Week Fifty-One Meals

What did you get yourself for Black Friday? Any exciting lightning deals such as 85″ TV, Xbox, garage tools, pots, pans, and other cool gifts?

I bought myself an awesome King Arthur box with a selection of flour for pasta and pizza, dog treat mixes, a panettone mix, and a baking book.

Some years ago, I would’ve frowned upon a boring household gift, but these days, it’s rather exciting and helps me with meal planning and prep.

We’ll use the dog treat mixtures to make Christmas unique for our furry family members.

Since we had kids, my wife has been organizing Christmas baking weekends where we bake 5-6 different cookies and buns. We eat the treats while drinking milk and watching Christmas movies.

School Lunches

Our school announced a two-hour delay on Monday morning. When we woke up, and I had cleared 3 inches of snow from the walk and driveways, the school announced full closure due to road conditions. As such, I did not prepare lunch on Monday.

And our son has an event on Friday with lunch and a cinema visit, so no homemade lunch.

I also simplified the lunch prep this week and will use some of the dinners for lunches instead of a delicious (and unhealthy) ham and cheese sandwich.

Dinner Time

We start the week with a healthy Greek chicken bowl filled with cucumber, tomato, red onion, lettuce, homemade tzatziki, and quinoa.

I prepared rice and shrimp for the stuffed peppers, and we will likely reuse the tzatziki but will bake the peppers on the Traeger on the day of.

Lastly, I’m baking a chicken roll using pizza dough stuffed with olives, chicken, cheese, and bacon.

Meal Plan

	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	… Snow Day – no school	Chicken bake with pasta and corn salad
Tuesday	Breakfast Sandwich with pork patties	Stuffed peppers with rice and shrimp
Wednesday	Chicken bake	Greek chicken bowls
Thursday	Ham and cheese melt	Conservation Commission Dinner
Friday	End of year school party	Super Duper Grill Dinner

One day, I might get so organized that I will link the meals below to my recipes. We can only live in hope!

Have a fantastic week, my friends. I hope you enjoy these meal plans. It is much easier to make food in advance, although you must invest several hours preparing meals during the weekend.