What things will you save time on at Christmas food wise and what times will you make as homemade? For lunch and dinner

[LardLizard]

Will have to make homemade Yorkshire, roast potatoes, gravy
Maybe save time on prepared veg

Evening will want homemade sausage rolls
Chicken wings with my special sauce,

Trying to decide if I should save time by not doing home made bread and cola ham

I'm getting pre prepared everything
Everything

Minimal cooking, minimal cleaning, plenty of eating!

I used to cook everything from scratch but I found that I actually prefer the taste of ready made as do my kids 🙈

Also what are you doing in advance ?
I will do the Yorkshire in advance
And also peel the potatoes the night before

I don’t fond the ham as good unless it’s fresh on the day

Also puddings argh !!

Thinking cheese cake and brownies
Cheese cake fine in advance
Brownies also Better on the day
Although could I perhaps make the batter then just cook fresh on the day ?

Wish my kids did
They are asking for it all homemade
But I need to prioritise and cut a few corners

Any tips anyone ! What are you doing ?

Sometime next week I'll blanch and freeze some sprouts and make some stuffing balls to go in the freezer. I'll buy an individual Christmas pudding for DH.

On the day I'll make everything else for Christmas dinner from scratch apart from the pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce. We don't have bread sauce, Yorkshire puddings or red cabbage. There will be some sort of chocolate pudding that I'll probably make on Christmas Eve.

I'm going to make some sausage rolls and mince pies and freeze them over the next ten days or so. Anything else that we eat for tea will be bought.

Same as Bumblebee, I'll get everything pre-prepared. I don't enjoy cooking, though I still try to do it regularly and I'd rather spend Christmas watching the kids excitement, playing with them, or relaxing. To me, Christmas is definitely not a time for cooking, not since having kids anyway.

I will make the stuffing, onion sauce, Champagne jellies a few days before.i will cook the ham and dh will make a baked cheesecake on Christmas Eve and peel the veg.

Everything else is done from scratch on the day.

DH does most of the cooking in our house but I love making Christmas dinner so it's me and a bottle of nice wine in the kitchen.

Everything from scratch due to allergies but we have a late lunch and just crackers and cheese etc in the evening. As much as possible will be done in advance - gravy base, stuffing, cranberry sauce, veg peeled, potatoes peeled and parboiled.

TheWoollybacksWife cranberry sauce is one of the few things I do make. Take 5 minutes and be frozen and homemade is amazing.

Off to parenting this year but I will be taking homemade cranberry sauce and stuffing.

My husband makes the roast dinner in this house. And he will not let anyone help ever. I try to get him to prep the day before. But he likes to do it all himself.

He makes the best roast dinner ever. We normally have it about 1pm. And not much else during the day as the roast comes with lots of puddings that he makes and crackers and cheese.

I’ll make it all from scratch. I do Sunday lunch every week so Christmas lunch is no different.

You can freeze stuffing balls?? Tell me more!

Also make your red cabbage in advance as you can freeze that as well.

Yes I’d like to know about freezing the stuffing balls too
How long to reheat once frozen ?

Perhaps should have a trial run roast

Going to make the sausage rolls
Then freeze them raw
To be cooked fresh on Xmas day am for the evening

Goign to cut corners and have part pal baked bread too

Never had red cabbage at Christmas before. Around Christmas yes but not on the day. May make some and freeze so might not be premade everything after all!

How can I save time on roast potatoes without them turning black once boiled?

Pc peel the potatoes
Then leave in water overnight
)whole) otherwise they go mushy ...

Then just chop Nd par boil in the am

Dessets will be ready made everything else will be homemade.

The mashed potatoes and cauliflower cheese(we have that along side the other 101 things I cook for Christmas dinner) I will make a week before and freeze them then all I have to do is take it out of the freezer the night before and then just warm it through in the afternoon.

OP I wouldn't do the brownie batter in advance if I were you, it'll lose the air you've beaten into it.
I'll peel and chop the root veg the night before and leave in water. The red cabbage will be done in advance because I think that's nicer when it's 'sat' for a while.
Everything else will be done on the day, except possibly pudding but I have decided what that will be yet.

*haven't decided

I get everything prepped the day before:

• potatoes peeled, chopped and in water, ready for par-boil
• Broccoli/cauliflower cheese ready with cheese sauce to be put in oven
• Rutabaga chopped and ready to go on the boil
• Sprouts in freezer
• Yorkshire puddings in an aunt Bessie's bag
• pigs in blankets ready
• Paxo stuffing

I'm newly plant based diet wise, so this year I'm going to be experimenting with some kind of roasted portobello mushroom with sage lentil stuffing or similar.

I'm off from 14 December though so plenty of time to fuck the menu up...