Happy Christmukkah!

Breakfast
Today is the day my family comes over to celebrate "Christmuakkah." For those who are unfamiliar with this holiday, I am not surprised...it is totally made up. You see, Christmukkah happens when you grow up with half of your family celebrating Hanukkah and the other half celebrating Christmas. Put the two together, and they are equal to Christmukkah. For us, Christmukkah is just a day to get together, eat, and exchange gifts. Since my older sister moved to Chicago a few years ago, it has become my responsibility to host our get-together. Until last year, our tradition has been to serve corned beef sandwiches and potato pancakes (latkes for those savvy with traditional Jewish foods) just like my Grandmother used to make. Because this is very far from a healthy meal that I feel good about serving to my family, I decided that Grandma would forgive me for breaking tradition and began to make some changes in the menu. I eliminated the corned beef completely and made a "heart healthy" version of potato pancakes. Unfortunately, the only person who liked them was my Dad, and I think he was just being nice. This year, I didn't even bother with the pancakes and went for an entirely new type of menu, described in detail below.
I knew I was going to be in the kitchen all day long prepping the food for tonight. I have learned through my experience over the past several years that one of the best ways to be a good host is to plan ahead and get the timing right. There is nothing worse than being in the kitchen running around like a chicken with its head cut off when guests arrive. It's very stressful, especially when they come in and try to help out-but you have no idea what to ask for help with because you have no idea what you're doing (believe me, I've been there!).
With all of this ahead of me, I had a very simple breakfast today-a cup of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal with 3/4 cup of skim milk, and a glass of orange juice. Quick, easy, and no cooking required...perfect because I knew I'd be really sick of the kitchen by the end of the day.

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 2 oz whole (cereal)
Fruits: 1 cup (orange juice)
Vegetables: 0
Milk: 3/4 cup (skim milk)
Meats & beans: 0
Oils: 0

The cost of this meal was approximately: $0.81

Lunch
I was so busy in the kitchen all morning that I almost forgot to have lunch. I baked banana bread and chocolate malt cookies for dessert, started the marinara sauce in the slow cooker, and prepped the meatballs and garlic cheese bread. When I realized it was almost 2:00, I decided that I'd better eat something so I made half a grilled cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread with mozzarella cheese. I also had about an ounce of baked potato chips (what was left in the bottom of the bag, so they were pretty broken up) and 1/4 cup of dried apricots. By that time, it was almost time to start getting ready since everyone would be over in just a few hours.

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 1 oz whole (bread)
Fruits: 1/2 cup (apricots)
Vegetables: 1/2 cup (baked potato chips)
Milk: 3/4 cup (mozzarella cheese)
Meats & beans: 0
Oils: 1 tsp (Smart Balance on bread)

The cost of this meal was approximately: $1.04

Dinner
Dinner was a big success. I made linguine pasta with homemade marinara sauce and meatballs. I served a spinach salad with dried cranberries, pecans, walnuts, feta cheese and light raspberry vinaigrette dressing. For sides, I made cheese garlic bread and green beans, which I roasted in the oven with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. I decided to make the marinara sauce in a slow cooker, because that way it practically makes itself plus it freed up space in the oven and on the stove top. I just dumped everything in and turned it on! I found the recipe on CookingLight.com. I followed it exactly, using only "no salt added" tomato products. It tasted great-lots of compliments and accolades for making it myself. I also made meatballs for the first time-another recipe found on Cooking Light. I just love that website-it is an excellent source for finding great tasting and healthy recipes. The only changes I made in the meatball recipe were using extra lean (90%) ground beef, Bettern'eggs instead of a real egg, and I made the meatballs a little bigger-I only got about 30 out of the recipe. They went wonderfully with the sauce!
Marinara sauce:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1855796

Meatballs:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=259024

My portion was about 1 cup of pasta (not whole grain-I couldn't find linguine pasta that was whole wheat), 2 meatballs (about 3 oz total), 1/2 cup of sauce, 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese, 1 cup of green beans, 2 cups of salad with a tablespoon of dressing, and one slice of cheese garlic bread. Everything was great, but as usual I made enough to feed an army. I have a feeling I will be eating leftovers for a few days!

All together, this meal provided:
Grains: 3 oz-1 whole (pasta and garlic bread)
Fruits: 1/2 cup (dried cranberries in salad)
Vegetables: 2 cups (spinach salad and green beans)
Milk: 1 cup (Parmesan cheese, mozzarella on garlic bread, and feta in salad)
Meats & beans: 4 oz (meatballs and nuts in salad)
Oils: 3 tsp (olive oil on green beans, nuts and salad dressing)

The cost of this meal was approximately: $3.30

Dessert
I made another batch of banana bread (recipe in an earlier post) and chocolate malt cookies. I had a few cookies, but these don't count toward any food group and the cost is minimal, so I am not including them at part of my requirements. This recipe is also from cooking light. As usual, I substiuted whole wheat flour, Smart Balance (not the light variety-only regular for baking) and Bettern'eggs substitute for real egg. They were very yummy!

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1054850

How did I do today?
Grains: 6 oz out of 6 oz (4 were whole)
Fruits: 2 cups out of 2 cups
Vegetables: 2 1/2 cups out of 2 1/2 cups
Milk: 2 1/2 cups out of 3 cups
Meats & beans: 4 oz out of 5 1/2 oz
Oils: 4 tsp out of 6 tsp
Total cost for the day: $5.14