Meals on Christmas week

[chardonm]

I am hosting my whole family for a week at Christmas. Christmas lunch is sorted - I will do turkey and the trimmings, with a Christmas pudding (store bought) and cold starter.

Any ideas for other meals during that week? Family will be expecting festive type meals, cheese and crackers and pudding most meals etc. I want to treat but a little worried about finances of hosting meals for 7 days (10 adults to feed, 4 little ones)

About 10 of us go to my aunts on Christmas Day and it’s a hell of a lot of work to cater for that many people on one day, never mind 7! But we bring our own desserts and drinks to lessen the burden for her- she’s never asked us to do this, we just do it out of politeness.

Could you not suggest a take away one night and a meal out another to take the pressure off a bit? They should at least bring their own drinks as well, you can’t surely expect to provide a brewery service too?!

Sorry, last one.
Pre-made meals can be easily bulked out with veg (fresh can too but more work and more visible).

So for a lasagna meat sauce, I start with my loads of onions and garlic - but I use the food processor to chop as I will have lots to chop so its worth the washup.

Mince beef is the main meat, but I also whizz up a couple of packs of Lidl's bacon lardons for flavour.

Veg includes a few carrots, a courgette, a red pepper, a large handful of mushrooms etc - all whizzed up so very fine - no one notices but they add a lot of flavour and goodness as well as bulk!
A glug of red wine, along with my tomatoes (I usually add some passata and some tomato puree so its not too liquidy for lasagna, but less puree and possibly more wine/stock if intended for a spag bol), herbs, and let it simmer for a while.

I do the same idea with shepherd's pie - carrots, mushrooms, courgette etc whizzed up in the fried onion/garlic/meat mix, but I also add frozen peas (left whole) to that.

Veggie chilli and veggie curries are great and veg is better in big chunks in those.

I also like to do roasted Mediterranean veggies a lot - all veg diced to the same size, seasoned well with dried herbs, salt/pepper, olive oil (and a dash of balsamic vinegar) - they can be frozen before or after cooking, served as a side dish to a roast, used as the base with a bottle of passata for chicken or lamb to be laid on top and roasted, made into a ratatouille, or defrosted leftovers work really well in a tomato sauce with pasta (and maybe some bacon lardons, chopped sausages or chopped chicken if meat is needed). And while chopping can take a while when doing enough for a lot of people, it's not that long and can be done a couple of days ahead (store in a large Ziploc bag in the fridge) or weeks (Ziploc in freezer) - so I find it handy to chop while waiting for something else to cook on a quieter day.

I always make Shepherd's (geddit? ) Pie on Christmas Eve followed by a Yule Log. You could buy the latter.
I used to make a proper chestnut roulade but discovered the family prefer one made from choc chip cookies sandwiched with chocolate cream (literally cream and chocolate melted together) and also coated with chocolate. I make it "Yuley" by sticking a piece of holly on the top.
Both freeze well.

I'm considering a change this year though with Chocolate Salami:

www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-salame

but will still cover it with chocolate cream so I can fork in log bark style ridges.

Boxing Day (and New Year's Day) I do a big cooked breakfast/brunch which means people are happy to pick at leftovers for the rest of the day.

Certainly if you're entertaining that many it makes total sense to expect your guests to bring contributions for various meals.

Even my late MiL (excellent cook and loved having a houseful) used to be grateful for that. She certainly expected help with meal preparation and settingtables etc before and clearing up afterwards.

Forgot to say good luck and hope it's a very happy Christmas!

Sounds like you'll have a lovely time together. I'd go with previous posters, ask them to bring drinks and pre make freezer meals. Came on to recommend The Batch Lady. I use her website for bulk cooking and the recipes are absolutely delicious! She also has recipes for freezable cakes and sides. Works out very reasonable in price too

Thank you so much for all the suggestions. Love love love the idea of a whole salmon!

They really aren't CF! We moved far from everyone and because I have a toddler and will be 34 weeks pregnant then, I asked if everyone could come to me. They are all paying to come this way and I asked them.

They will all help with dishes, cleaning up etc. I think asking them to cook a few meals too will be ok.

Again thanks very much everyone.

How about a big ham on Xmas eve with salad and baked potatoes (look up Nigellas Christmas coleslaw- is fantastic), then on Boxing Day you could have a pie with leftover ham and turkey in a white sauce. I always add any leftover stuffing, and any suitable leftover veg chopped up - carrots and sprouts work well, or throw in lots of frozen peas. Ready bought pastry over the top and is a really quick easy meal

Nigella's lentil chillie with cornbread )or rice or flatbread for ease) The meat eaters won't miss the meat though you can make it with mince too.

That is a lot of catering. Unless you are minted, ask for contributions or ask them to bring food.

We fly sometimes to stay with family over Xmas . We buy a takeout one night. We also accompany family to shops and buy food and wine.
It is great fun having family but hard work and expensive. We do the kind of filling cheaper food described by pp as do family.

Every Christmas we have cold meat, chips and pickles and the dc say it's their favourite meal ever 🤦🏻‍♀️

Would they really want huge meals every day?