Need Easy, Christmas Meal Ideas

[tarheelmjfan]

My wife and daughter today informed me I am making Macaroni and Cheese for Christmas dinner. While it is from scratch, it is easy to fix.

Sounds good.

 

[DVCjj]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Christmas Eve:
Baked Ziti
This recipe looks about right
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/18031/baked-ziti-ii/

Christmas Morning:
Make the day before for a quick Christmas Morning, let the bread soak up the batter - really I just make a french toast batter and pour it over chunky torn up loaf of bread
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/240502/easy-french-toast-casserole/

Christmas Day:
Roast beef, pork roast, pork loin or chicken, whatever your budget permits.
Bag of potatoes, use mini guys cut in half or reg size peeled and cut into chunks
Toss in Lipton onion soup mix with oil & bake the last hour of the roast
Some pillsbury rolls

How nice of you to make a possible menu and suggestions for the OP. Sounds good!

 

[NYCgrrl]

Some great ideas overhead so I know you’ve lots to think of.

Just want to point out that it’s not necessary to grill a steak outdoors.
A good job of reverse searing can be done in the oven. Take a look at the serious eats website for dead simple how tos. A porterhouse steak can readily feed 3 as long as it’s the right thickness. Your butcher is your friend on that level. Add a pat of pre frozen compound butter ( favorite herbs/ minced shallots, maybe a little cognac) atop the steak and life is good.
Easy veggie side dish could be roasted vegetables. Generally a 400 degree oven will do the job in 20 to 30 minutes with more exact cooking decreed by type of veggie. Again a google search will make life simple.
Simple starch could be oven roasted gnocchi or that kitchen stalwart, the potato.
A mesclun salad mix from the local market only needs washing and drying to be ready. Add your favorite salad dressing and serve.

If my SO was on KP duty for an extended period I’d consider buying a qt or two of hot soup from the prepared food section. Would take care of lunch with ease.
Of course a box of chicken broth, some pasta and one of those Birdeyes veggie medley could make a soup just as well. Egg noodles cook faster than many pastas. Want meat in it? Buy 1/4 to 1/2 of a rotisserie chicken and shred. Add a few drops of lemon juice to taste. Want it to taste like chicken tortilla soup? add some enchilada sauce.

Breakfast options: plain or vanilla yogurt with fruit (many markets have a fruit with berry salad already made) and granola or toasted oats. Spoon honey atop and eat.
More traditional fare: a make ahead breakfast casserole. Great way to make use of leftover ingredients and easy to reheat the leftover casserole:

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/easy-make-ahead-breakfast-casserole/

Feel your best and keep your mom’s memories dear.

 

[leebee]

One of the easiest Christmas dinners I ever did was baked stuffed shells, at the request of the now-7 year old. I bought frozen stuffed shells, sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, bread, salad-in-a-bag. Put some sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, arrange the shells on top, cover with more sauce, cover the pan, and bake at 350 (probably, don't really remember but there should be directions on the bag of shells). Knowing me, I'd probably cover it with foil for half the time, uncover for the rest (maybe 30mins and 30mins?). At the end of the baking time I put the shredded mozzarella on top (probably the whole 8oz bag, we love cheese here) and put the pan and the bread into the oven for about 10 minutes. Throw the salad in a bowl (you can make one with additional veggies or get a ready-prepped salad- we like these, they come with interesting ingredients and dressing to add) and as soon as the cheese is melted, dinner is ready.

Another option is a good rotisserie chicken. We like the ones from Sam's best. You'd have to buy it the day before, but you could cut it up into pieces so it's quicker/easier to reheat. SOme form of instant potato (mashed, or one of the au gratin box mixes or something like that) or a NoodleRoni side (we like shells and cheddar best) and a veg that everyone likes (I'm partial to canned green beans with a squirt of lemon to dress it up- not very fancy here, hahaha), or if you do rice for the starch you could do a green bean casserole as a side.

Not sure if you are dessert people or not, but we are making a pan of brownies, buying some ice cream and sauce, and having brownie sundaes for Christmas dessert!

 

[Christine]

I don't know if you have a Honeybaked Ham store near you but that's one of the easiest things you can do. They often offer a "bundle" with a ham, or a ham/turkey, and sides. Honestly, their sides are pretty good. I think their baked beans are fantastic. It can be pricey so I don't know if money is an object but you can count on the food being good.

 

[cabanafrau]

Pretty simple to pop a turkey breast in the oven. Mashed potatoes, your favorite veg and a nice salad get the job done pretty easily. A few years ago I decided to switch up the salad with spinach, mandarin sections, pomegranate and sesame sticks with poppyseed dressing. Sometimes I've tossed in a bit of pear or granny smith apple or avacado. Usually have some pecans or walnuts on the side also.

 

[QueenIsabella]

You could see if a local grocery store does to-go holiday meals. Publix has several options, including a turkey breast with sides for 4 people (and they go up in size from there). They also have various platters--fruit, meat/cheese, dessert, that could be picked at. Note that Publix is closed Christmas Day, but you could pick it up the day before, and just re-heat. You could even order sides, and just do the main protein (ham, turkey, whatever)--Publix has standing rib roasts on sale until 12/24, $6.99/lb. And their cakes are delicious!

Harris Teeter also does full meals, as does Lowe's Foods. Food Lion doesn't.

Heck, even Walmart makes platters--I can't speak for their other stuff, but their wing platters are darn good--and a staple at our Super Bowl parties.

I don't know what part of North Carolina you're in, but these are all local to me (Wilmington).

P.S. Don't apologize for not being able to go all-out. It's your holiday, too, you don't have to run yourself ragged.

 

[pweyl36]

You could get a ham and cook it beforehand. We do fried dippy eggs with toast for breakfast after opening our presents. We have done lasagna for dinner. You could do waffles or pancakes for breakfast, maybe just put out some cheese and crackers, veggies tray for lunch.

you must be from Pennsylvania Dippy eggs haha.

 

[Skippyboo]

you must be from Pennsylvania Dippy eggs haha.

Grew up in Pittsburgh area.

 

[georgina]

One of the easiest Christmas dinners I ever did was baked stuffed shells, at the request of the now-7 year old. I bought frozen stuffed shells, sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, bread, salad-in-a-bag. Put some sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, arrange the shells on top, cover with more sauce, cover the pan, and bake at 350 (probably, don't really remember but there should be directions on the bag of shells). Knowing me, I'd probably cover it with foil for half the time, uncover for the rest (maybe 30mins and 30mins?). At the end of the baking time I put the shredded mozzarella on top (probably the whole 8oz bag, we love cheese here) and put the pan and the bread into the oven for about 10 minutes. Throw the salad in a bowl (you can make one with additional veggies or get a ready-prepped salad- we like these, they come with interesting ingredients and dressing to add) and as soon as the cheese is melted, dinner is ready.

Another option is a good rotisserie chicken. We like the ones from Sam's best. You'd have to buy it the day before, but you could cut it up into pieces so it's quicker/easier to reheat. SOme form of instant potato (mashed, or one of the au gratin box mixes or something like that) or a NoodleRoni side (we like shells and cheddar best) and a veg that everyone likes (I'm partial to canned green beans with a squirt of lemon to dress it up- not very fancy here, hahaha), or if you do rice for the starch you could do a green bean casserole as a side.

Not sure if you are dessert people or not, but we are making a pan of brownies, buying some ice cream and sauce, and having brownie sundaes for Christmas dessert!

Good ideas. I am doing stuffed shells (stuffing them myself with spinach & ricotta filling) for a family Christmas Eve dinner. Besides being fairly easy, it is something everyone can eat since we have a vegetarian in the family.

While I could never bring myself to do instant mashed potatoes (my Irish mother would come back to haunt me!), someone recently recommended Bob Evans frozen mashed potatoes to me. I have used the boxed au gratin potatoes, learned that from my MIL, as my mom only did mashed (every day). Rather off topic, but when my mom was in assisted living her last year of life, the kitchen made her mashed potatoes every day even when they weren't serving them for dinner. I suspect they may have been instant, but at 95 she probably couldn't tell.

 

[wide awake]

A beef tenderloin is very easy to cook as are homemade scalloped potatoes…for every pound of sliced russet potatoes one cup cream, 1/2 T thyme leaves, shake of nutmeg, salt, pepper, maybe some chopped garlic to taste? Bake at 350 till browned on top and tender, for two pounds about an hour. A roasted green veg and dinner is done. Dessert whatever your family likes.
We always have chorizo scrambled with eggs, tortillas, and baked pineapple for breakfast, easy and good.
If your family likes macaroni and cheese Ina Garten has an overnight one that is extremely excellent and low effort…no more making a white sauce!

 

[ElevationNotice]

Fix a Turkey.

 

[barkley]

our christmas eve tradition comes from my late mom wanting something easy to prepare that could be equally enjoyed by all my older sibs since they arrived home at different hours of the day christmas eve-

french dip sandwiches (it's easy to roast and slice a beef roast), au juice can be bought premade in a bottle or the dry mix (just add water), get some cheese of your choice at the deli (i like horseradish cheddar) and some french rolls. we like to saute some onions and mushrooms as well. serve with boxed potatos augratin, some store bought spinach artichoke dip (though this year i'm making olive garden's hot version).

christmas day-we get a honey baked ham which we serve with homemade mac and cheese (box stuff works just fine as well) and boxed latkes. subsequent days we have packaged hollendase sauce and english muffins on hand to do eggs benedict (just cook the eggs sunny side up if you don't want to deal with poaching).

nice thing about the honey baked ham is keep the ham bone and the scraps to use for a nice pot of soup later in the winter (just did up some split pea last week).

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Some great ideas overhead so I know you’ve lots to think of.

Just want to point out that it’s not necessary to grill a steak outdoors.
A good job of reverse searing can be done in the oven. Take a look at the serious eats website for dead simple how tos. A porterhouse steak can readily feed 3 as long as it’s the right thickness. Your butcher is your friend on that level. Add a pat of pre frozen compound butter ( favorite herbs/ minced shallots, maybe a little cognac) atop the steak and life is good.
Easy veggie side dish could be roasted vegetables. Generally a 400 degree oven will do the job in 20 to 30 minutes with more exact cooking decreed by type of veggie. Again a google search will make life simple.
Simple starch could be oven roasted gnocchi or that kitchen stalwart, the potato.
A mesclun salad mix from the local market only needs washing and drying to be ready. Add your favorite salad dressing and serve.

If my SO was on KP duty for an extended period I’d consider buying a qt or two of hot soup from the prepared food section. Would take care of lunch with ease.
Of course a box of chicken broth, some pasta and one of those Birdeyes veggie medley could make a soup just as well. Egg noodles cook faster than many pastas. Want meat in it? Buy 1/4 to 1/2 of a rotisserie chicken and shred. Add a few drops of lemon juice to taste. Want it to taste like chicken tortilla soup? add some enchilada sauce.

Breakfast options: plain or vanilla yogurt with fruit (many markets have a fruit with berry salad already made) and granola or toasted oats. Spoon honey atop and eat.
More traditional fare: a make ahead breakfast casserole. Great way to make use of leftover ingredients and easy to reheat the leftover casserole:

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/easy-make-ahead-breakfast-casserole/

Feel your best and keep your mom’s memories dear.

Thanks for the suggestions. We're going to have to give an oven prepared steak a try. We normally grill, but sometimes it's just too cold. I like the idea of adding a parfait to our breakfast.

One of the easiest Christmas dinners I ever did was baked stuffed shells, at the request of the now-7 year old. I bought frozen stuffed shells, sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, bread, salad-in-a-bag. Put some sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, arrange the shells on top, cover with more sauce, cover the pan, and bake at 350 (probably, don't really remember but there should be directions on the bag of shells). Knowing me, I'd probably cover it with foil for half the time, uncover for the rest (maybe 30mins and 30mins?). At the end of the baking time I put the shredded mozzarella on top (probably the whole 8oz bag, we love cheese here) and put the pan and the bread into the oven for about 10 minutes. Throw the salad in a bowl (you can make one with additional veggies or get a ready-prepped salad- we like these, they come with interesting ingredients and dressing to add) and as soon as the cheese is melted, dinner is ready.

Another option is a good rotisserie chicken. We like the ones from Sam's best. You'd have to buy it the day before, but you could cut it up into pieces so it's quicker/easier to reheat. SOme form of instant potato (mashed, or one of the au gratin box mixes or something like that) or a NoodleRoni side (we like shells and cheddar best) and a veg that everyone likes (I'm partial to canned green beans with a squirt of lemon to dress it up- not very fancy here, hahaha), or if you do rice for the starch you could do a green bean casserole as a side.

Not sure if you are dessert people or not, but we are making a pan of brownies, buying some ice cream and sauce, and having brownie sundaes for Christmas dessert!

Thanks. The baked, stuffed shells sound delicious. We're definitely going to have that someday soon.

I don't know if you have a Honeybaked Ham store near you but that's one of the easiest things you can do. They often offer a "bundle" with a ham, or a ham/turkey, and sides. Honestly, their sides are pretty good. I think their baked beans are fantastic. It can be pricey so I don't know if money is an object but you can count on the food being good.

Unfortunately, there isn't a Honeybaked Ham here. We've ordered from them on previous holidays, when I wasn't feeling up to cooking. That's a great choice.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Pretty simple to pop a turkey breast in the oven. Mashed potatoes, your favorite veg and a nice salad get the job done pretty easily. A few years ago I decided to switch up the salad with spinach, mandarin sections, pomegranate and sesame sticks with poppyseed dressing. Sometimes I've tossed in a bit of pear or granny smith apple or avacado. Usually have some pecans or walnuts on the side also.

Your salad sounds great. I'm going to give that a try. Thanks

You could see if a local grocery store does to-go holiday meals. Publix has several options, including a turkey breast with sides for 4 people (and they go up in size from there). They also have various platters--fruit, meat/cheese, dessert, that could be picked at. Note that Publix is closed Christmas Day, but you could pick it up the day before, and just re-heat. You could even order sides, and just do the main protein (ham, turkey, whatever)--Publix has standing rib roasts on sale until 12/24, $6.99/lb. And their cakes are delicious!

Harris Teeter also does full meals, as does Lowe's Foods. Food Lion doesn't.

Heck, even Walmart makes platters--I can't speak for their other stuff, but their wing platters are darn good--and a staple at our Super Bowl parties.

I don't know what part of North Carolina you're in, but these are all local to me (Wilmington).

P.S. Don't apologize for not being able to go all-out. It's your holiday, too, you don't have to run yourself ragged.

Publix cakes are the best.

Ingles is the best grocery store here. It's very comparable to Public. I haven't tried their bakery, but they do appear to have good prepared foods.

We're in the mountains of NC, so on totally opposite sides of the state from you.

Good ideas. I am doing stuffed shells (stuffing them myself with spinach & ricotta filling) for a family Christmas Eve dinner. Besides being fairly easy, it is something everyone can eat since we have a vegetarian in the family.

While I could never bring myself to do instant mashed potatoes (my Irish mother would come back to haunt me!), someone recently recommended Bob Evans frozen mashed potatoes to me. I have used the boxed au gratin potatoes, learned that from my MIL, as my mom only did mashed (every day). Rather off topic, but when my mom was in assisted living her last year of life, the kitchen made her mashed potatoes every day even when they weren't serving them for dinner. I suspect they may have been instant, but at 95 she probably couldn't tell.

Your shells sound right up our alley.

Bob Evans mashed potatoes are our go-to, when I need something low effort.

A beef tenderloin is very easy to cook as are homemade scalloped potatoes…for every pound of sliced russet potatoes one cup cream, 1/2 T thyme leaves, shake of nutmeg, salt, pepper, maybe some chopped garlic to taste? Bake at 350 till browned on top and tender, for two pounds about an hour. A roasted green veg and dinner is done. Dessert whatever your family likes.
We always have chorizo scrambled with eggs, tortillas, and baked pineapple for breakfast, easy and good.
If your family likes macaroni and cheese Ina Garten has an overnight one that is extremely excellent and low effort…no more making a white sauce!

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to have to try that mac & cheese.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Fix a Turkey.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think preparing a good one may be beyond my DH's cooking abilities. He said he could throw one in a bag & put a stick of butter in it. I think I'll pass. I'm the difficult one who only likes dark meat turkey, so we don't normally bake breasts.

our christmas eve tradition comes from my late mom wanting something easy to prepare that could be equally enjoyed by all my older sibs since they arrived home at different hours of the day christmas eve-

french dip sandwiches (it's easy to roast and slice a beef roast), au juice can be bought premade in a bottle or the dry mix (just add water), get some cheese of your choice at the deli (i like horseradish cheddar) and some french rolls. we like to saute some onions and mushrooms as well. serve with boxed potatos augratin, some store bought spinach artichoke dip (though this year i'm making olive garden's hot version).

christmas day-we get a honey baked ham which we serve with homemade mac and cheese (box stuff works just fine as well) and boxed latkes. subsequent days we have packaged hollendase sauce and english muffins on hand to do eggs benedict (just cook the eggs sunny side up if you don't want to deal with poaching).

nice thing about the honey baked ham is keep the ham bone and the scraps to use for a nice pot of soup later in the winter (just did up some split pea last week).

The French dip sandwiches sound really good. That's a great tradition.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Thanks again to everyone who offered suggestions. I'm going to share them with DH & DS to see what sounds good to them. More importantly, they'll have to decide what they think they can prepare.

This morning we decided to order quiche for breakfast & cheesecake for dessert from a local restaurant. I'm going to add a parfait to the quiche & see if they want anything else to go with that. The other meals are undecided, until they read the suggestions here to get an idea of what they want.

I'm really glad I asked, because I also have some new things to try, when I feel better. We can never think of anything we want to have for dinner. I'm looking forward to trying the suggestions here.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

This is a simple meal I make :
Baked Ham and Cheese sliders. I buy a 12 pack of hawaiian rolls, good deli ham about 8 to 12 slices, your favorite cheese slices, precooked packaged bacon and one green apple sliced. I will pull apart 6 of the rolls and gently cut in half and then do the same for the other half of 6. I then spread on some type of mustard- this would all depend on your liking, Start with the ham, cut up accordingly to roll size for "each roll", add some small pre cooked bacon slices and then the sliced cheese then top it off with a green apple slice. You want to melt butter and cover the bottom of a 13x9 cake pan with the melted butter, then put your (2) 6roll halves in the pan and brush them off with some more melted butter. If you have Everything seasoning or toasted sesame seeds in the house, sprinkle on top of the rolls. Cover and "bake" until warm/hot 20-25 minutes or so. Add a tossed green salad or buy some deli salads, even a premade side dish of mac and cheese or mashed potatoes goes well. I'm a fan of Bob Evans - in the micro and done!!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

This is a simple meal I make :
Baked Ham and Cheese sliders. I buy a 12 pack of hawaiian rolls, good deli ham about 8 to 12 slices, your favorite cheese slices, precooked packaged bacon and one green apple sliced. I will pull apart 6 of the rolls and gently cut in half and then do the same for the other half of 6. I then spread on some type of mustard- this would all depend on your liking, Start with the ham, cut up accordingly to roll size for "each roll", add some small pre cooked bacon slices and then the sliced cheese then top it off with a green apple slice. You want to melt butter and cover the bottom of a 13x9 cake pan with the melted butter, then put your (2) 6roll halves in the pan and brush them off with some more melted butter. If you have Everything seasoning or toasted sesame seeds in the house, sprinkle on top of the rolls. Cover and "bake" until warm/hot 20-25 minutes or so. Add a tossed green salad or buy some deli salads, even a premade side dish of mac and cheese or mashed potatoes goes well. I'm a fan of Bob Evans - in the micro and done!!

Sounds great! I'm definitely trying this sometime.

 

[EllieJedi]

So sorry for your loss.

For the last several years, I have switched to making our Christmas ham in the slow cooker. Really easy and it comes out great.

https://www.recipegirl.com/slow-cooker-cider-ham/