10 Days Until Christmas!

Well, yesterday was 10 days, now there's just 9!

Does anyone else feel like this season has gone by in a blur? Usually at this point I'm completely done with all of my Christmas shopping, but yesterday I was still placing some orders online, and am praying that they arrive before Christmas! And I still have a few things left to get for some very important people - like my roommate Pat, and my parents.

My mission last night was to wrap all of the presents I've bought so far.

First it was time for dinner. I've had a hankering for roasted potatoes, and I had just the potatoes for the job! Organic red potatoes from Trader Joe's.

I like leaving the skin on potatoes, but feel a lot better about it if they are organic, since tons of pesticides are used on non-organic potatoes. 

I preheated my oven to 375 degrees, washed the potatoes, chopped them up, and put them in an oven dish. I think this is about 3 pounds of potatoes.

I added 1 tablespoon of olive oil and mixed it in with the potatoes so it was evenly distributed. I don't like my potatoes to be greasy (like Pat does!) so I wanted to use a minimal amount of oil. This was plenty to coat the potatoes. I then added a variety of spices that looked good (salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Montreal Steak spice) and also minced 2 small gloves of garlic and added it in the pan to roast (roasted garlic is very good for your heart).

I baked these for a total of about 55 minutes, and removed them twice (every 20 minutes) to stir. I took them out when they were cooked and nicely browned on the outside.

While the potatoes cooked, I also made some brussels sprouts. I washed them, trimmed the bottoms, and halved them.

I heated a skillet over medium heat and sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. I then placed all of the brussels sprouts face down in the pan to brown them.

 

I cooked for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until they were nicely browned. 

I then turned the heat down to low and added a mixture of things I made:

I used 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, and 2 tsp maple syrup.

 

I added this mixture to the brussels sprouts and continued to cook on low. I then added some crushed red pepper flakes, so that these would be sweet and spicy.

Continue cooking until done, about 10-15 minutes since adding the sauce (so about 20-25 minutes total).

While my potatoes and brussels sprouts were cooking, I was starving. So as I waited for the rest of my dinner, I had my protein. Spicy chicken sausage (also from Trader Joe's!). These are so good, I like eating them plain (like I did last night) or on pizza, in pasta, or with peppers and onions.

When dinner was finally ready, I enjoyed it with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon by the Christmas tree.

 

Everything was delicious! The roasted potatoes completely hit the spot; I love the way they taste after being cooked with spices and fresh garlic. The brussels sprouts were tangy and sweet with a little kick from the red pepper.

And then I got to work on wrapping presents! I wrapped and I wrapped and I wrapped...until I ran out of tape! So this is the progress I've made so far...

Tonight's mission: more shopping and more wrapping!