A Christmas Holidays Meal Planner can really help make the festive period a more relaxed time. Having a meal plan for each day can keep control of costs and help reduce your food waste.
I've devised this Christmas Meal Planner so you can shop for food on Christmas Eve, then not have to return to the shops until at least January 2nd. Winter vegetables store well so you can still enjoy plenty of fresh vegetables.
Remember, you can change the number of servings for all the recipes shown here, making it easy to calculate exactly how much you need.
Over the nine days, I’ve included three meat, three fish and three vegetarian dishes for variety and also to make sure to use up all those leftovers.
24th December. Christmas Eve is an exciting time. I like to serve Salmon En Croute with Cream Cheese and Spinach as it makes a really colourful dish. The other big attraction is it can be prepared in advance leaving you time to relax and be with your family. You could even decorate the parcels to make them extra festive. Use some of the pastry off cuts to make little holly leaves or even mini Santas!
25th December. Christmas Day. The main event and everyone has their own take on this. Shops will try to sell us ‘Turkey with all the trimmings’, but ALL the trimmings can be way over the top. If no one in your family likes sprouts, don’t buy them! According to research, one in five of us buys food we don’t even like at Christmas. Also, try not to over cater. It would take the average family four days to eat the food bought for Christmas Day alone. A good measure is 3 x 75g of vegetables per person. Check out my recipe for Vegetable Soup as a good way to use up all the leftover cooked veg. If you are cooking Christmas Dinner for Two, this recipe is just what you need.
26th December. Boxing Day. There is bound to be some leftover turkey and maybe even some ham. These can make fantastic meals and there is so much you can do with them. These dishes are easy to incorporate into your Christmas Meal Planner. Leftover turkey will keep in the fridge for 3 - 4 days. Deciding in advance and planning which leftover turkey recipes you are going to use will help you minimise your food waste. Most dishes that can be cooked with chicken, work well with turkey, so whether you like a good curry or are more of a pasta person, there’s a delicious leftover turkey dish out there for you. My Best Leftover Christmas Turkey Recipes has lots of ideas
27th December. After a few days of meat, it's good to have a change. A lovely Winter Fish Pie goes down a treat. I've included it here in the Christmas Meal Planner as it's a great dish if you’re still feeding a crowd. Fresh fish usually only last 2 – 3 days. Buy the fish in advance and freeze it. Defrost it the night before in the fridge.
28th December. A Vegetarian Chilli made with Sweet Potatoes is a delicious healthy dish and probably just what you need right now to counter balance all those mince pies!
29th December. Winter Vegetable Stew with Cheesy Dumplings is a great one pot dish. Root vegetables which are in season over autumn and winter, go really well in a stew as they benefit from slightly longer cooking. You can make the stew in advance and leave it to cook in the oven.
30th December. Cullen Skink . Another great fish dish that the whole family can enjoy and perfect for cold days. You can cook it using fish that has been frozen so again perfect for our Christmas Meal Planner. The vegetables store well so even if you bought them a week ago, they are still good. I buy some part baked loaves to cook from frozen to go with this so we have some ‘fresh bread’.
31st December. New Year’s Eve. Chicken Balti is always a winner. You can prepare it in advance and it's good for feeding a crown. Serve with rice, naan bread and poppadoms.
1st January. New Year’s Day. Bean Goulash with Jacket Potato. After all the festivities of New Year’s Eve, a Bean Goulash is a great start to the year. Full of flavour and healthy too. Plus, it can be cooked from store cupboard ingredients which is what you need on New Years Day. Jacket potatoes store well so these can be bought before xmas. If you don’t want to use soured cream, just sprinkle with grated cheese.
2nd January. You may need to visit food shops today! Hopefully you’ll feel confident that a little bit of planning can go a long way and help you spend less, waste less and have more time for other things. If you still don't want to visit the shops, you could check out my handy Storecupboard Recipes
Happy New Year! Come back for more easy family friendly recipe inspiration.
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