Holiday dinners can be hard on you because you are hosting people, trying to clean the house, and hoping to get all the groceries ready before it is time to cook this big meal. You need to be sure that you have found something that is simple to cook, and there are several ways that you can make this happen. No one expects you to cook a meal worth three Michelin stars. They expect to eat well, and you can make that happen using the tips listed below.
- You Can Cook Many Things At The Same Time
You can cook much of the meal all at once. You can start with your lamb shanks recipe at the same time as your green beans. You can slide the mac and cheese into the oven while you are resting the turkey, and you can slice the game while you want for the gravy to cook down. Never be afraid to do it all at once.
- You Must Make More Than One Vegetable
The beauty of vegetables is that they can be cooked in a short period of time. You can have creamed corn and green beans on the stove at the same time. You can have peas cooking in a skillet while you are roasting sweet potatoes. You must try to season some beans with a little oil and mix cream into your fresh corn for creamed corn. You can cook these dishes in under 10 minutes, and you can turn to the proteins that make the meal so nice.
- Ham And Turkey
You can buy ham and turkey pre cooked, but you need to do something fun with it while you are in the kitchen. Ham can be fried under the grill, or you could fry it in a skillet with some onions. You could do the same with turkey, and you might even roast the turkey with the gravy. You can use the ham and turkey as a cold option to your hot foods, and you can make a ham casserole that will be easy to bake in the oven while other things are cooking.
- You Can Make Easy Mashed Potatoes
Boil your potatoes for at least 15 minutes so that they can get soft in some slated water. You can bring them out and mash them in a pot with some milk and butter. You are making the simplest mashed potatoes while all the other things are going on, and you can add herbs and spices to the mashed potatoes as you like. Thyme and rosemary makes a very interesting pot of mashed potatoes, or you could add more butter and a little pepper before serving. These are simple things for you to make, and they can be made while all your other recipes are going.
- Salad
You can make a salad that offsets the meal with some dried cranberries, sliced oranges, and soft vinaigrette. You can make the salad first so that people can graze before they get to the bigger meal. This is a fairly simple thing for you to do, and it allows you to save time because you can mix up a salad in a couple minutes.
- Dessert
Dessert can be hard because you have spent all this time making the food, but you can turn to cookies as a part of your dessert that everyone will love. You can use the cookies as a way to start baking so that you can have a nice dessert that will be easy to lay out when everyone is done eating. You might even start the cookies last so that you can bring them out of the oven not long after the first wave of people is done eating.
- Conclusion
You should make a lovely holiday dinner for the family, but you should not spend days and days cooking. You can use these simple recipes to make the whole thing in just a couple hours, and you even have time to make dessert for the end of the meal. You can entertain the whole family and still enjoy the food you made because these are the quickest recipes you can use this winter.