Organize Your Christmas Recipes

Organizing your Christmas recipes is the best way to get ready for all that Christmas cooking. With a little planning, you can be sure that:

1. You have all of the ingredients you need.

2. Nothing gets forgotten on Christmas Day.

3. You do as much prep work ahead of time, allowing yourself as much free time on Christmas Day as possible.

How many times have you started preparing a dish only to discover you forgot to purchase one ingredient?

Have you ever woken up the day after Christmas and opened the refrigerator to discover that you never served the sweet potatoes?

Have you ever spent what seemed like the entire day in the kitchen preparing Christmas dinner when the rest of the family were relaxing and enjoying their new gifts?

Put an end to these problems by getting organized. How? There are three steps. First you will need to choose your Christmas recipes and create a menu. Second you will need to create a shopping list based upon your menu and finally you will need to create a game plan to make sure all dishes get prepared and make it to the table.

Now would be a great time to pick up Tips to Organize Events. It is the perfect planner for holidays or any occasion. It contains planner pages and instructions for creating your menu, shopping list, game plan and much more.

Your Christmas Menu

To create your Christmas menu you will want to make a list of every dish you will be serving throughout the day. This includes:

• Breakfast
• Snacks
• Appetizers
• Main meal
• Side dishes
• Dessert
• Beverages

If you like to set out bowls of mixed nuts,holiday candies or any other snack, add them to your menu.

Remember, any time you are entertaining it is always a good idea to make dishes that can be prepared in advance.

Any time that you can save yourself on the day of the party, or in this case, Christmas Day, means less time that you have to spend in the kitchen and more time that you can spend with your family, friends and guests.

Christmas Recipes

If you are looking for Christmas recipes to help get you started, here are some of my family's favorites.

Breakfast

• Breakfast Casserole

• Ham and Cheese Muffins

• Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Appetizers

• Savory Dunk

• Chipped Beef Cheese Ball

Main Meal

As an alternative to the traditional ham or turkey, try Beef Tenderloin.

Side Dishes

• Corn Pudding

• Maple Whipped Sweet Potatoes

• Spinach Gratin

Dessert

• Pumpkin Cream Crunch Pie

• Tiramisu

Leftovers

Use that leftover ham for Ham and Corn Chowder.

Your Christmas Grocery Shopping

Once you have your menu created, use it to make a grocery shopping list. Read through your Christmas recipes and make a list of the ingredients needed to prepare each one. Make a notation of how much of each ingredient the recipe calls for so you won't find yourself wondering how much to buy when you are at the supermarket. If recipes share common ingredients, be sure to add up all of the measurements to be sure you get enough to go around.

Start shopping now. Each week when you go to the grocery store, add a few items from your Christmas shopping list and cross those items off your list. Start with non-perishable items and work your way up from there, saving the most perishable items for just before the holiday. This will save you a lot of time and your Christmas grocery shopping will get done without an extra trip to the store.

Your Christmas Day Game Plan

Now that you have your menu and your shopping list under control, it is time to come up with a game plan. Take a look at your menu and familiarize yourself with the instructions for preparing each dish.

Now, decide what can be done ahead of time.

Can you make an entire day one or two days ahead?

Can you cook certain ingredients from a dish to be combined later?

Does anything need to be defrosted?

Can you wash, chop or otherwise prepare any ingredients?

The more you can do ahead of time the more free time you will have on Christmas Day.

Create a calendar of events leading up to and including Christmas Day. Write down exactly what preparations you will do on each day to make sure everything is prepared in the most efficient and organized way. It is also a good idea to write down what time you plan to put each dish in the oven on Christmas Day, what temperature is has to be at, and how long it should cook for. This will help with timing to make sure everything makes it to the table at the same time.