Food to prep now for the holiday meals

The holidays will be here before we know it, and for those of us hosting gatherings, this can be a stressful time. My key to less stress for hosting (or attending) holiday gatherings is to prepare those holiday meals in advance.

Holiday meal prep

Our family loves to gather for the holidays. Since my sons were small (flashback photo!), we have hosted Christmas Eve and Christmas Day gatherings, often for both my family and my husband’s. I love having our families with us, and I want to enjoy the day, talking and watching the kids open their gifts, and generally relaxing.

The only way I can take in the joy of the day is a meal plan with many items or at least steps that can be prepared in advance. I’m sharing my real holiday meal plan with you today. Between now and Christmas, I will be following this plan so that on Christmas, I can enjoy the time together.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that my family, especially my mom, mother-in-law, aunt and sister-in-law, pitch in. I am very blessed to have wonderful women in my life. They bring dishes to supplement my meal plan, and they help with the tasks that have to be done at the last minute.

Prep ahead holiday morning breakfast

For breakfast especially, preparing ahead makes the whole day go better. Christmas is the one day the whole year when everyone is up early (they want to open gifts!). Here is my holiday meal prep for a breakfast made easy:

• Savory sausage bread: I bake this several weeks in advance and freeze it. Then pull it out to thaw in the refrigerator on Christmas eve morning. On Christmas morning, heat it in the oven, and serve it hot.
• Cinnamon rolls: These can be prepared up to the point of baking and then frozen. The night before, at bedtime, place the rolls on a greased baking sheet and cover with a piece of parchment or wax paper first, and a towel on top of the paper. The rolls will raise overnight, and bake them in the morning. I use a variation of the recipe I’ve linked – one of these days I’ll share it…
• Hot chocolate: It would not be Christmas at our house without hot chocolate! I’ve tried slow cooker recipes, but they need to be stirred frequently, so it doesn’t work overnight. I landed on making my own powder mix, so that I know what I’m giving my kids.

Some years, I’ll swap biscuits and sausage gravy for the sausage bread and cinnamon rolls. Biscuits are easy to make in advance and bake straight from frozen.

What part of a holiday dinner can be made ahead?

My goal is to prepare one LARGE meal, usually ready about 1pm, and then we eat/graze from the leftovers for the rest of the day.

• Ham: I buy a spiral sliced ham, and put it in the slow cooker when I get up in the morning. I rub the ham with a brown sugar glaze: mix a cup of brown sugar with 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar and just a tiny bit of dijon mustard (no more than a tsp).
• Mashed potatoes: My mom taught me the prep-ahead trick for mashed potatoes. The day beforehand, peel them and cut the potatoes in half. Submerge them in cold water in a pitcher, and store in the refrigerator. Then pull them out to cook just before the meal
• Gravy: Make it easy and use jarred or a mix (organic, like this one, when possible).
  

• Rolls: Make the dough ahead and freeze individual rolls. The night before, place them on a baking sheet, cover with wax paper and a towel. They will raise overnight and you can bake them on Christmas. If your meal is at night, you can remove them from the freezer first thing in the morning. I like to allow 12 hours for thawing and raising. Or, buy frozen rolls, especially if you can find organic options in your stores.
• Green bean casserole: If you make your own cream of mushroom soup, this can be done in advance.
• Pineapple: I buy them fresh and pre-cut, store in a serving dish and just pull them out of the fridge and serve.
• Pie: Make the crusts in advance and freeze. Then thaw in the fridge a couple days before. Roll out on Christmas morning, and fill with canned pie filling and bake. Or bake them on Christmas Eve – they will still be delicious the next day. Or buy pre-made crusts (but my family loves homemade and I love knowing what ingredients were used).

The easiest prep-ahead Christmas Eve holiday meal plan

My husband’s family has a Christmas Eve tradition of ordering pizza. What could be easier than that? I actually prefer to make the pizza at home. And I find it easier than figuring out all the different pizzas to order, placing the order, and then either depending on the delivery to arrive on time or sending someone out to pick it up. Every member of my family has different preferences for toppings. And my two sons prefer my homemade pizza to any take-out pizza they’ve tried so far.

But I do not want to spend all day Christmas Eve making pizza dough. So I make it in advance and freeze it! My pizza dough freezes really well, and thaws and raises like it was just made.

More recipes you may enjoy:

• Lasagna: clean kid-pleaser for easy weeknights
• Make-ahead freezer biscuits
• The healthy popcorn recipe my family begs for
• Simple mango peach fruit leather