How to stop over-catering at Christmas

[shapesandnoise]

I know this should be a simple "buy less" and I am generally a frugal-minded, concious shopper. I hate food waste and try my best to avoid it. All our left-overs will get eaten and we will graze through all the goodies but the management of this stresses me out. Every year I say I will try and manage the quantities better and every year I fail! So looking for tips from those of you who manage it. I cooked for 7 and did 5 small roasts each, still loads left! A carrot each, still loads left, 2 turkey joints (to serve 4 each) definitely more than one portion left.

So those of you who are experts at hosting and with minimal left at the end of your festive time, please post your quantity/general tips here.

The trick is to actually plan out what can fit on one person's plate and only buy enough for that amount.

So most people are likely to have 3-4 potatoes, 3-4 sprouts, 1/4 of a carrot/ a spoon of peas, a couple of bits of brocolli or cault, whatever meat you generally have [I'm veggie so don't know], a stuffing ball, and one yorkshire and some gravy. So times that by 7 and just do that. The more variety the less of each you need.

Do you mean 5 whole potatoes per person? If so that’s a lot. My family eat like horses and I only cater for 2 large potatoes (which are cut up into smaller ones for roast potatoes each).

So make a note of what you did this year and do a bit less next year .....

We want leftovers and make a large pan of soup for boxing day dinner.

No, 5 pieces of potato each ... so a normal/large cut into 4 usually.

I am definitely going to do that.

I think this is true. I also laid it out like a buffet on a separate table so less temptation to pick at extras in front of them.

4kg cockerel did us for 3 afuktsxmas day, some on Boxing Day buffet and made a chicken and mushroom stroganoff on rice last night all gone now- I have sent my adult son back today ( as we are going away) with some satsumas, 2 bananas, 2 mince pies, some cheese , some proper Greek tarasmalata, and a pack of black olive crackers - and that’s it - veg on the day I did very very slightly over but that was it - I think if doing a lot of different veg it’s easy to do your usual amount of each which if you aren’t using it next day will often be too much

To be honest, OP, I don’t think it sounds like you overcatered. The nice thing about having some leftovers on Christmas Day is surely that you don’t need to buy, cook and think about different food on Boxing Day and the 27th. If you didn’t have this food to eat over those second couple of days wouldn’t you have just had to buy more of something different to eat then?

I’d understand if you had an entire gammon you hadn’t even been able to cook before it went off. But if it’s all eaten within three days, hasn’t it just saved you effort over the following days with no waste?

Especially nice warmed up with any leftover gravy!

I agree. Really only one day that the shops are closed here.

I do this, it works up to a point. I get to November, review the notes and find I've written things like "buy less cheese!" and think, "that can't be right..." and then buy too much cheese again.

That’s why I have little notes in there. Like - yes really - only this much!!! 🤣🤣

A carrot each 😂
I just cook as I do on a daily basis, enough for the people I’m feeding, maybe a small wastage to either have for lunch the next day or to bin. Just because it’s Christmas doesn’t mean everyone will suddenly eat triple the amount.

presumably they're not served "just" potatoes?

On a plate full of food, 5 potatoes is more than most people would eat.
Most people eat one half or one jacket potato if they have a big appetite - and nothing else than a bit of salad.

Only on MN would someone jump in trying to be hilarious and pretending they eat 5 jacket potatos as a starter before a full mean 😂

Yes I do this too! Actually most of the things I have too much of this year are things people have brought along. My friends are currently cooking tonight's evening meal, with the idea that it would give me a night of ease, but it's stressing me out because they are not experienced cooks and as I suspected they are massively overcatering, and using every bloody pan and utensil. And I will have to clean and get the kitchen back to normal, as well as find more space for leftovers.

I tried to warn them that the recipes they were looking at would feed twenty (we are a group of five), but they insisted it would be fine. I should have put my foot down but I didn't want to be a control freak...

My husband insists on going mad with multiple cheeses. He loves them but no one really eats much of them. Hence we now have loads left. By which time he’s sick of them.

I shall grate and freeze the hard ones - really useful for cheese sauces - but the soft and blue are going to hang around until I bin them.

And they’re SO expensive. It really pisses me off.

Same here OP, I started a thread about it

Dont have the fridge and freezer space really, so even though this year we bought less we still had left overs and OH doesnt really like that

So boxing day morning I had a mini roast dinner with chicken, sprouts and stuffing.
Last night we had another mini roast dinner with potatoes, carrot sprouts chicken, stuffing, pigs in blankets, stuffing and yorkshire

We still have frozen chicken, cold stuffing and cold pigs, frozen yorkshires and one big fresh one to cook

This morning I made 'roast dinner soup' and we had a portion of that and now have left over soup that Ive got to get through.

Then that doesnt take account of yule log, cream, stollen, mince pies, black forest gateaux. Frozen chocolate melting pots whatever they are. More stuffing

Pate, cheeses.

We actually dont eat a lot but I still buy like we do.

However I freeze everything. Pate, cream, milk, cheese, hoummous, meats (cooked and raw)

We’ve actually got £200 of our normal monthly budget left this month as we’re determined not to go crazy , DH buys his own beers so that helps but things like advocaat for snowballs not purchased , modest amount of cheese and one lot of biscuits plus some Parmesan shortbread DH made and froze raw a while ago. We will use the remaining budget for a special meal out in the next few weeks

I bought a small box of assorted crackers from Aldi and already had cheddar in the fridge. That was all I needed. Last year, I had leftover fancy cheeses and said I wouldn't bother this year.

I wouldnt worry about cheese, I eat it months and months past the use by date

In fact in the weeks before xmas I was still using last years posh cheeses, use by dates were in June.

Look at what you have left, make a note and make less next year.

plan what you’ll do with any leftovers - for instance I always buy a very big chicken (we hate turkey…) on purpose so I can have enough left over to make a couple of other meals, left overs get frozen straight away. Left over Veg can be made into a quick soup for Boxing Day.

For all the various cakes chocolates cheese etc - my method is not to buy them in excess, pick a couple of favourites that will get eaten and stick to that.

I think the waste comes from the image of Christmas being a time of absolute excess - it doesn’t need to be and you’ll still have a lovely time (before someone tells me it’s miserable not to have 11,000 boxes of quality streets lying around!!£

I always overdo the number of potatoes!! I’m incapable of getting it right, I swear potatoes disproportionately increase in volume when cut into pieces.

That's your problem

most people are more polite at buffets and load less on a plate

load plates next time and plonk 4/5 tats and veg on

tho you can’t have that many spare from 35 (7x5)

5 roast potatoes is too many with all the sides, i think people have forgotten basic portion control. I look at what i normally cook and just increase to accomodate each additional person. I went to a buffet at my SIL yesterday and there were 12 of us, enough food to feed us all 3 times over, it was all left out for hours and chucked in the bin.

I just couldn't chuck anything away. I would usually have three potatos (small), my husband and kids probably 5 or 6. But with a usual roast, not with all the extras which is where I have clearly gone wrong.