Christmas Lunch

At my new job, I often talk about my food blog and the different meals that I like to make when we have down time. This has turned into people asking me what I made for dinner last night and asking to see my blog! What better way to share what I do than to make a Christmas Lunch for everyone!

I Unfortunately do not have pictures because I was in the mode of cooking and forgot to take them! The menu included Caprese Salad, Roasted Asparagus with Mushrooms & Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus,  Spinach and Fontina Flatbread, Eggplant Parmesan, Chicken Parmesan, and a Gingerbread Trifle. This may sounds like a lot but it was very inexpensive to do and only took 2 hours! The caprese salad was the easiest to do, all you do is layer fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and fresh basil. Serve this with balsamic dressing, it looks beautiful and tastes great!

The asparagus I did two ways because of vegetarians that I work with! I roasted asparagus with baby portabella mushrooms seasoned with salt and garlic powder, and the other asparagus I did wrapped in prosciutto seasoned with garlic powder.

The flatbread was really made with whole wheat naan, I bought a creamed spinach packet at the grocery store, placed that on the flatbread, covered it with fontina cheese, and topped that with caramelized onions and broiled until the cheese was bubbly!

For the eggplant and chicken parmesan, I sliced up eggplant and bought the skinny chicken breasts. I made pans of seasoned flower, egg wash, and whole wheat bread crumbs. The eggplant I dipped in flour, put in the egg wash, and the covered with the bread crumbs and sautéed them in olive oil until brown and crispy. This was layered with reduced fat mozzarella cheese, parmesan, and artichoke tomato sauce and baked until the cheese was bubbly.  I followed the same steps with the chicken but used a roasted garlic tomato sauce.  (The eggplant was gone immediately).

Lastly for dessert, I make a trifle. I layered gingerbread cookies (these can be homemade or store bought). My cookies had a hint of cayenne pepper just for a kick of spice… then layer chocolate mousse (can be easily made with chocolate pudding mixed with cool whip), vanilla custard with eggnog flavoring, and then repeat the layers. This was then topped with cool whip, crumbled ginger snap cookies, and mini chocolate chips. I think this was everyone’s favorite part of the meal, including myself!

This was such a fun way to show the new people in my life what I love to do! Everyone seemed to really enjoy the meal  which made me incredibly happy! I was able to do it healthy and for a low cost! It was a great way to end the work week before Christmas and it allowed people to learn about my blog! They really seemed interested and loved what came out of my Newlywed Kitchen! Don’t worry, I made food for Alex too for when he got home from work ;)