Need to feed 5 adults and two children on Boxing Day, what should I do?

[mummytowillow]

I've got to feed 5 adults and 2 children on Boxing Day, I won't have any leftovers from Chrimbo day as I'm going to my parents.

They don't want another roast dinner, so inspire me please!! I can cook so thats not a problem, but haven't got a huge budget, but can afford something in the middle?

PS:

One person is a meat and two veg man and won't eat curry or any 'foreign food' as he calls it!

Toad in the whole with sausages and veg?

Hearty beef casserole with crusty bread/potatoes?

do a great big lasagne and a side salad

one person will ahve to get over himself and eat it anyway

you can't have the whole meal dictated by one person

Try this gammon

You can usually find gammon on special offer in one of the supermarkets and it has a long fridge life, so you can buy it and not have to try and cram it in the freezer.

I don't normally bother with the blackened crackling - just roast the gammon as I normally would, but the sauce turns it into a really Christmassy dish. My kids quite like the sauce, but you can just serve it up fro the kids sans sauce. I usually serve it with roasted baby new potatoes - I toss them in oil, paprika, dried oregano and salt, you just bung them in the oven or 40 mins.

I'm having family round Boxing day (6 adults & 5 children)and am planning on making "made from scratch" bubble & squeak....Jamie style, cold ham (cooked in cider) will cook Christmas Eve. Braised red cabbage (already prepared & in the freezer). Sausages in onion gravy (veggie & meat). will probably open a tin of baked beans for the children. Pudding will be raspberry trifle or I may do an easy creme brulee...as seen in the Daily Mail. Followed by cheese & bisquits.

I'm doing a ham, potato salad and various other salads.

I would do a ham with honey and mustard glaze, a quiche and salads and a nice dessert.

Big soup, oven baked potatoes, a nice pudding and cheese (mmmm).

Salmon en-croute - easy and so tasty.

Use frozen pastry. serve with baby spuds and selection of veg. Nice cheese/white sauce on side

Puddings - cheese cake (make in advance keep for good 7 days) selection of cheeses.

For boxing day I would go for something that's NOT meat as everyone will be a bit meated-out (what a word).

So either a pasta dish or a fish dish? And then a special dessert.

We recently made Nigella's penne alla vodka which is great & vaguely celebratory. Not sure though if it would be a good choice for your meat & veg man and it's also Italian, so might count for a 'foreign food'.

For dessert how about a lovely chocolate mousse?

It's a genuine revelation that anyone has anything other than cold turkey and bubble & squeak. I didn't think it was legal to eat things like casseroles and lasagne on Boxing Day.

We will be having salmon, green beans, new potatoes(can bake these which is nice) and then eton mess(because it's just an assembly pudding). I will probably just put the salmon in foil packets with some wine/lemon/herbs. No one wants heavy stuff and I don't want complicated cooking.

Defineme, that sounds great. Actually I think poached salmon with a nice potato salad & perhaps a cucumber salad sounds great. And then a nice dessert.

Although I'd go for a warm dessert after salmon, eg a chocolate pudding

On principle though I agree with Georgimama that Boxing day is Christmas leftovers day.

I share your pain!My father comes for days and won't eat any "foreign" food. This includes pasta and rice, so I end up peeling millions of potatoes.

On boxing day I'm doing:

Winter salad
Steak and kidney pie with mash and broccoli
apricot mousse

I'm going for soup, bread, a great selection of cheese and fruit and will probably make a nice dessert with one of the four million packets of pastry I accidentally purchased! .

If there's a strong requirement for meat, I'd roast a chicken and just serve it at room temperature alongside the soup, cheese etc.

Pointissima (and others) I know what you mean - my mother won't eat anything that's not very plain and basically exactly what she could get 50 years ago as a child. So when she's around we eat endless amounts of cold chicken and salad, ham and cheese sandwiches and plain roast dinners.

I have the same amount of people boxing day and am doing a marmalade Gammon (cheating from M&S) roasted garlic new potatoes, coleslaw, sticky barbeque chicken, the usual dips, chutneys etc.

I would go for soup and homemade bread and a cheeseboard with lots of different chutneys.

Fruit and a hot pudding for dessert.

We are having poached salmon, watercress sauce, new potatoes, carrots and green beans.
Pudding will be zabaglione.

Nice and light after the excesses of Christmas Day.

You may mock me but on Boxing Day I am doing jacket pots with various fillings and salads followed by either pavlova or apple crumble. I am cooking Christmas Day and cannot be arsed to do 2 big cooking events.

I want easy-peasy.

I think that sounds great, Pancake.

TBH, I'd buy a big pile of baguettes, some nice cheeses, some salads and some pickles and just let everyone pig out at the table.