Catching up with the Kelnhofers-113

This week on Catching up with the Kelnhofers, I’m cooking with cranberries.  And, as always, sharing the latest posts from the blog and this week, there is one you don’t want to miss if you’re on the hunt for a family Halloween costume.

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This week, I found a random bag of cranberries in my freezer and ended up making some cookies – keep reading to check out the full recipe.  But it got me thinking about all of the delicious things I love to make with cranberries!

• Cranberry walnut crumb dessert bars – a super simple dessert that everyone loves
• Orange cranberry cake – I love the way cranberries and orange pair together
• Steak tacos with cranberry salsa – the tart cranberry salsa pairs perfectly with rich pieces of steak.
• Classic cranberry sauce – file this one away for Thanksgiving
• Chocolate chip cranberry cookies – a great balance of tart and sweet
• 5 ingredient holiday punch – I love this at the holidays, but it’s really great anytime of the year and great for a group
• Instant Pot pork tenderloin with cranberry – only 5 ingredients and a super affordable and delicious dish
• Cranberry gingerbread muffins – a great recipe as we head into the holiday season

Cranberries are a big deal in Wisconsin – I even got to visit a bog a few years ago!

Sharing the latest posts up on Sweetphi.com:

• Parmesan chorizo muffins – made with only 5 ingredients
• Weekly meal plan – don’t forget to create a super easy grocery list right in this post
• Family Halloween Costume DIY – that cost almost $0 and is super easy to make
• Cheesy cornbread dipping sticks – these are the best to dip in soup – YUM!
• Love List – weekly fun finds from around the web.
• Instant Pot chili con carne – perfect for the fall weather

• Potatoes are in season right now (at least I think they are because we’ve been getting a lot of them in our CSA box) and so I’ve been making this baked chicken potatoes and broccoli sheet pan dinner and of course perfectly roasted potatoes. 
• A delicious dinner combo is balsamic glazed pork tenderloin (only 5 ingredients!) and these roasted carrots with honey and quark – I used goat cheese instead of quark and no pesto and then perfectly roasted potatoes again.

• Made an air fryer turkey breast for sandwiches – was only able to find turkey breast at a butcher, but man is this easy recipe delicious!!!

• I had 2 heads of broccoli so I made this chicken broccoli Alfredo freezer meal and put it right in the freezer, perfect for prepping freezer with meals for when baby #4 comes.

• The kids made big chocolate chip cookies with real cranberries because I had a random bag of cranberries in the freezer; is there a better way to use them? I think not lol. 

I mentioned these cookies just above and if you need another reason why you should make them, check out what a reader has to say:

• “Absolutely delicious. Great texture and not too sweet. Will be part of my fall baking repertoire.”

If you’re into football and need a good game day recipe, try some loaded tots – just like the reader re-creation below:

• Bridget (a member on the SweetPhi team) said that, for Kindergarten, her son was required to have his own pair of headphones and she highly recommended these. Plus, they are great if you’re going on a road trip or even just have multiple kids who are fighting over what to watch for their allotted screen time!

• Just finished All Adults Here, it was a very beautiful story!

• • “In All Adults Here, Emma Straub’s unique alchemy of wisdom, humor, and insight come together in a deeply satisfying story about adult siblings, aging parents, high school boyfriends, middle school mean girls, the lifelong effects of birth order, and all the other things that follow us into adulthood, whether we like them to or not.”

• Patiently waiting on my library loan of, Laine Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall and I cannot wait!

• Just started listening to Normal People by Sally Rooney, recommended by a friend!

• Haircuts– The big event that happened this past week was getting the kids haircuts!! Mainly the boys (Freddie REALLY needed one), but Frankie got a “trim” too because she didn’t want to be left out. We went to Halo Hair Design – and had such a good experience! One never knows what to expect with kids’ haircuts, sometimes they freak out, but all the kids did so good and Molly cut their hair so expertly. Freddie was so proud of his new haircut and kept smiling. 

• Then we went home and had a surprise visit with grandpa and enjoyed a little frozen yogurt. 

• Wedding – One of Nick’s friends had a beautiful Armenian wedding, I love weddings. I cried when the groom gave his mom a hug at the end (usually I would cry during the ceremony, funny how things change when you’re a parent).

• Getting ready for Halloween – it was super gloomy out so we drove around looking at “spooky houses” as Freddie calls them (halloween decorations). And then we decorated little pumpkins to hang on our banner we have (it still had balloons on it from the kids’ birthdays in June, oops lol).

Just a reminder, we have an amazing meal plan that we publish weekly, every Saturday.  With each plan, you’ll get 5 days of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and a treat… And, a super easy to create grocery list.

One of my favorite recipes I always forget about is these Air Fryer falafel balls – y’all know how much I love my Air Fryer!

EAT

• We had burgers for dinner and for dessert the kids were having fruit popsicles. Frankie ended up wanting more burger over popsicles!!

WATCH

• SNL is back! The first episode of the season with Owen Wilson was so good!!

PURCHASE

• I saw somewhere that strawberries last 3 times as long if stored in glass vs. the plastic container they come in, so Frankie and Freddie helped me. We used our favorite kid safe knives and stored them in big Weck jars.  We never found out if they last longer because the kids ate the whole container in 1 meal, lol. 

Are you getting ready for Halloween? Just leave a comment below and let me know!