Are You Over-Booked, Over-Stressed & Out of Christmas JOY? The Christmas Coach is Here to Help!
Express - Holiday Baking and Cooking (Steps 11 to 15)
Grocery Shopping
The Cupboards Are Bare - What Do You Need?
Once you have gathered all your Christmas recipes you will be using, now is the time to make your grocery list.
Make a list of all your items make a mark next to things you already have as staples in your cabinet that you will not likely need to purchase (things like milk, spices, etc.). As you are making your list divide it into two columns: Long Term and Short Term.
Items under the Long Term section should include items you can begin purchasing NOW. These items will be things that do not go bad by storing them. This includes items that can be placed in the freezer such as butter, items in cans, and items that have a long shelf life.
Items under the Short Term section should include items that must be purchased near the time they are used, such as fresh fruit, buttermilk, etc.
Now that you have, your items separated out - lets go shopping!
Christmas Meals
There are 3 main steps to helping your stress in the kitchen during December: gathering of recipes, narrowing food items down and simplifying your meals/work.
The first step is to gather up all the recipes that you want to use for your Christmas baking. Most people have recipes in lots of different nooks and crannies in their kitchens and December is not the time to start trying to find that one special recipe you just have to have! Make copies of these recipes or put them into a cookbook program on the computer like Mastercook and place them in your notebook. (Hint - here is a great gift too - a collection of favorite family holiday recipes!)
Food to Go - Christmas Organizing Express Step 15
It seems like everytime you turn around you need to take another item to one more place! Keep in mind that some of the easiest things are the best crowd pleasers. Here are some ideas:
¨ Deviled Eggs - they usually disappear before you can turn around and if you have one of those wonderful egg cookers it makes it all that much easier to make them.
¨ Chex Mix - buy the cereal, peanuts, pretzels and spices and do it in the microwave! It only takes around 15 minutes from start to finish doing it this way and is just as good as doing it in the oven!
¨ Make a chocolate cake in a bunt pan, use canned whipped frosting to frost it and then crush candy canes up and sprinkle all over the cake! Easy, festive and tastes great!
¨ Mom's Favorite - the recipe for this is below and I know my mom got the idea from someone else but I have no idea who! All it is is canned crab meat, cocktail sauce, cream cheese, and crackers! It is a great crowd pleaser and is so easy to make!
December Dinners
Whether you choose to eat out a different restaurant every night in December, a sit down meal each night or something in between, it is important to plan. During this holiday season, you will need to come up with between 30 and 37 different meals. It does not mean it has to be meals that you cook yourself but you do need to fill in on your calendar what is for dinner each night or where you are eating. Personally, I like to do freezer or batch cooking in order to prepare myself for the holiday season.
Baking for the Holidays
Some people love to bake and cook all throughout the holiday season while others would love to have someone bake and cook for them. Either way it is very important to plan. If you are one of those who love to cook and bake then consider giving someone on your list whom doesn't several gifts of food during the month of December.
One of my favorite things to do every year is to bake things for other people and to have as a treat at home but sometimes the time it takes to make these goodies can be overwhelming. One of my secrets along with planning out my baking items is to do freezer baking. Many cookie dough's, cakes, pies and even some candies can be made ahead and froze. Even if you do not want to freeze some items you can mix up the dry ingredients ahead of time and they will be ready for you to mix with the wet ingredients and bake. There are definite time savers that you can put into action for your holiday baking with just a little planning and work before December rolls around!
While there are many baking items you can give it is important to think about and plan the following:
Creating Menu Cards and Meals
For years I tried to pull out recipes and organize them for my weekly meals and it never worked for me. Also what was I supposed to do about things I did not need a recipe for - like hamburgers? It was too confusing for me and I needed something that was reusable like a recipe card. One day it came to me! Who says we have to just put recipes on recipe cards - why not meal cards?
Starting out I just used index cards and then I got tired of writing all the same basic line information over so I created Menu Planning Cards which are offered through the Christmas Organizing site. (All of the products offered through Christmas Organizing have been designed by me because of a need I had.) Whichever method you choose is fine with me. On the card there should be a place to put down the main dish, ingredients needed and additional comments. Make sure you have around 50 cards.
Christmas Organizing on Facebook
