Ideas for an easy freezable Boxing Day meal instead of Christmas dinner

[Ishehe]

Boxing Day!
I always host Boxing Day and I’m finding doing a Christmas dinner on Boxing Day difficult as we also do Christmas Day with the other half of the family.

Has anyone got any ideas of what I could make that’s simple and easy and preferably freezable? I’m thinking of making something before and saving all the time in the kitchen.
all I can think of is lasagna and garlic bread!

thank you ☺️

Some great ideas above.

I made this last year

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a46101953/turkey-ham-crumble/

It was lovely!

Lasagne.

You than then do salad, chips, crusty bread and/or garlic bread on the day for people to add extras and control over how much they eat.

Tbh with you by Boxing Day I’m at the point of just wanting veggie soup or something!

My fav Boxing Day meal is Turkey, ham and leek pie. It’s so easy. Just cut up and bung the meat and veggies (I add onion, carrot and parsnip or whatever I’ve got left over) into a put with stock, seasoning and at the end add crème freche. You can prepare it Xmas day (as you’re cooking/ cleaning up) put in fridge, add the pre made puff pastry and bung in oven.

I’d probably go with a slow cooker rather than defrosting. There’s a Nigella recipe that involves basically tipping a couple of packs of (Waitrose!) boneless chicken thighs and a bottle of wine into a casserole dish. It works just fine in a slow cooker. Chuck them in there in the morning and serve with crusty bread or couscous.

Go to Cook. Buy frozen boeuf bourgignon or their duck confit with lentils. Then all you have to do is stick it in the oven on the day, straight from the freezer. You could do a slow cooked red cabbage in advance to accompany it. Or buy some of their side vegetable selections.

I did that last year and went from feeling overworked and stressed to really happy and able to relax and host.

Does it need to be a sit down meal? I'd probably get in some party food bits or serve something like deli meats/left over turkey and cheeses with crusty bread.

Lasagne
Beef stew or chicken casserole
A few packets of baked loaves or baguettes
Apple crumble freezes well

If you want a super easy option, we bought a load of Cook stuff last year and it was really good. Salmon en croute, dauphinoise potatoes, and peas and leaks. I think we made some extra roast potatoes to go with it. Felt like appropriately festive food and was pretty good value.

If you have traditional Christmas Dinner on the 25th do you want a turkey/chicken based meal for the 26th or something completely different ?

Any food allergies ir dietry preferences ?

Thanks everyone some brilliant suggestions. I think it’s good to know I’m not far off on the lasagna and it’s a good option. Trying to avoid needing a supermarket in the run up to Christmas 🎄

We always have the same boxing day dinner: leftover cold meats, cheeses, big crispy salad on a massive plate looking all pretty with e.g. radishes cut all fancy, pickles/condiments galore, nice bread and huge amounts of mash. My mum's mash has lumps in... and they're CHEESE 😋 choice of drink tho often a chilled Frascati or a nice cab sauvignon. You can freeze the mash and just reheat and otherwise just need to slice the meat and make the salad. I look forward to this as much as Christmas day lunch!

I echo all the PP who say lasagne is a great option. I think homemade lasagne is a real treat. It’s Indulgent and cosy, but different from the Christmas meal the day before.

A large harm and baked potatoes could be another choice? Like a baked potato per person with options to put on: ham, leftover turkey, any leftover pigs in blankets + stuffing, fresh veg etc, cheese (people can decide what they fancy).

Also someone up thread said duck confit which is a great option if you want to go posh (but potentially pricy). You can do it with mash and green beans/peas.

I’ve tried doing a Boxing Day brunch before - I don’t recommend it. Quite a faff as a “special” brunch includes so many elements eggs, bacon, toasting bread etc etc)! I got hot and bothered plating up so many things for a large bunch

Lasagna with salad and garlic bread works well.

a good hearty stew/casserole with mash and crusty bread

a curry feast - which I would prep for by doing double or triple batches of 2-3 favourite curries over the autumn and freeze what isn’t eaten for Boxing Day. Serve with Bombay potatoes (simple to do if you use baby potatoes halved), bowl of salad and some rice (plain boiled/steamed is fine but pilau is relatively easy by rinse the rice, fry the spices (whole peppercorns, whole cloves, whole cardimom pods, saffron strands) then add the rice for 1 minute, cover with 2.5 times the volume of water as volume of rice (so 5 cups of water for 2 cups of rice) and some salt, cover and allow to cook for 12 minutes.

chilli con carne and a veggie chilli (both freeze well) with rice, salsa, guacamole and salad.

Fajitas or tacos with all the trimmings also works well at these sort of things, but give me a big hunk of lasagne any day!

Beef brisket chilli

Do people even WANT a second Christmas dinner?

I did Boxing Day last year and we just had a nice buffet spread, as is what I have had at other people’s on Boxing Day. All the cheese, pate, nibbles etc that you don’t otherwise get round to eating Xmas day because you’re too stuffed.

If you have to do a proper meal I would do a salmon en croute, it’s easy but feels fancy and can be prepped in advanced and then just shoved in the oven.

It was tradition that we'd do a buffet, or cold cuts as my FiL used to call it Always salmon,prawns, ham deli meats from a posh deli.,cheeses from the same deli, salads, tzatziki, melitzanasalata. Crisps, grissini, other savoury snacks. My MiL would usually turn up with something extra like soup . Unfortunately those days are gone now and I'll probably just be a normal days eating for me as I have dialysis scheduled.

We usually have leftover turkey, ham etc with pickles and homemade chips for lunch and then usually make up a lasagne or Nigella’s Rudolph pie for tea!

Cottage pie or Shepherd's pie would work well.

Depending on your tastes any of these would cook and freeze well:

• chilli
• curry
• casserole or stew
• bolognese or lasagne
• chicken/veggie pasta sauces
• pies

Or you could prep and freezer marinated meat to throw together fajitas or burritos or similar.

Tray baked chicken and/or halloumi fajitas could be done fresh but with much lower levels of faff than another roast.