5 Time Saving Hacks For Christmas Dinner
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Want to spend less time in the kitchen this festive period? Try these Awesome time saving Hacks for Christmas Dinner.
Christmas Dinner can feel like a huge chore – there’s just so much to do and try and juggle all at once. If you’d like to spend more time with your family this Christmas Day and less time in the kitchen, then this is the post for you.
With preparation and a little bit of knowledge, you can make Christmas Dinner a breeze and spend more of Christmas Day with the people you love and not miss out on a thing.
5 Awesome Time Saving hacks for Christmas dinner
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1. Cook the Joint or Bird the day before
This is one of my favourite time saving hacks for Christmas dinner.
If you plan to serve a large joint of meat, consider cooking it the day before and just reheating it on Christmas day. There’ll be no mad panic that the turkey hasn’t defrosted in time, no worrying about it not being cooked all the way through while everything else burns. Just plenty of lovely tender meat that’s ready to go.
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Once you’ve cooked your joint or bird, leave it to cool a while and then carve. This will save both time and mess on Christmas Day. Pop the meat in an oven-proof dish and cover it with gravy and store it in the fridge overnight. Reheat in the oven while cooking the roasties and beautiful meat without all the fuss.
You could also buy your meat already cooked – many of the big Cash and Carry’s such as bookers sell a large turkey crown already cooked – just defrost, carve and reheat. We used these a lot when I used to work in catering and honestly nobody would know that it hadn’t been freshly cooked.
2. Prep The Veggies In Advance
It always astounds me how many people prep all of their vegetables for Christmas dinner on Christmas morning! I would far rather get this done the night, or even a couple of days before and have that time with my family on Christmas morning.
Once peeled, potatoes will last a few days in a large pan or bucket covered with water. Pop a slice of white bread on top to keep them from going black. They are best kept somewhere cool, a garage or shed would be ideal. Carrots, Sprouts and Parsnips can also be prepared in advance and stored in the same way.
You could even go so far as cooking the majority of vegetables beforehand and just reheating them on Christmas day – either in boiling water or in the microwave.
Time Saving Hacks For Christmas Dinner – Pre-cook the veggies!
Parboiling and freezing is also an option, particularly with hardy vegetables like parsnips and carrots. Just defrost the night before and reheat using your preferred method.
Don’t forget veggies don’t need to be expensive either – most supermarkets have prices down as low as 20p in the days before Christmas. Gravy also freezes well and could be made several weeks ahead of time.
I always like to lay up the dining table on Christmas eve too. One less thing to worry one Christmas morning!
3. Plan ahead And Freeze
There is so much you can actually make ahead for Christmas Dinner and then freeze – so the prep (and mess!) can be dealt with weeks in advance.
Stuffing, gravy and Yorkshire puddings can all be made and then frozen. Defrost on Christmas eve and then reheat while everything else is cooking.
4. Try Something Different
Rather than using loads of different pots and pans to cook every vegetable known to man why not serve up a selection of Roasted Vegetables for Christmas dinner this year? They can be chucked in a tray together along with the roast potatoes and put in the oven to cook with the meat. Less stress and less washing up too!
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5. Use Your Appliances To Your Advantage
Make your kitchen work for you on Christmas day. If the hob is full use the microwave to reheat or cook vegetables. Use a slow cooker to keep things warm, braised red cabbage in particular works well. Or your slow cooker could be used to keep the gravy hot. You could also use a slow cooker with three different pots to keep the various bits warm – see this one on Amazon.
If you have a house full, why not ask one of your guests to bring their slow cooker or microwave so you can use that too.
Do you have any awesome time saving hacks for Christmas Dinner?
