Essential Christmas Planning Guide


By: Judy Davie - The Food Coach

With less than 2 weeks to go before Christmas, if you you're not organised now, this essential planning guide may be a godsend, especially if you're the one who's hosting the party.

1.CLEAN OUT THE FRIDGE AND MAKE SPACE
It's a hellish job but worth it to make space and be able to find things. Trust me, you'll need the space. Nothing more to be said about that one, it's just worth doing.

2.SORT OUT YOUR PLASTIC CONTAINERS
Everyone has a cupboard or drawer full of mismatched plastic containers. Leftovers enable you to roll food from one meal to the next provided it's stored properly. The turkey served on Christmas day can be sliced up and used in sandwiches on Boxing Day, turned into a curry the day after and the carcass is made into stock to put in the freezer and used in soup over winter. You'll need containers for all that stuff so gather it up and be ready.

3.STOCK UP ON COOL BAGS AND ICE BLOCKS, READY FOR THE BIG SHOP
In the heat of summer, particularly when you're spending so much money on food, you'll need to protect it from the heat and the best way to do that is to transfer all your refrigerated foods straight into cool bags with frozen blocks at the bottom. Milk, cheese, butter, meat and fish should all be stored in cool packs along with salad greens and fresh herbs.

4.PLAN YOUR MEALS
With so much Christmas food in the shops It's easy to go mad and buy too much. The best way to avoid that is to plan how many meals you have to make over the holiday period, what you are going to make and for how many people. Check out our Market Fresh Report and plan your fruit, salads, and veggies around what's in season. Doing it like this makes it less overwhelming and you'll waste less.

5.MAKE A LIST
Running out of ingredients on Christmas Eve is a nightmare so whatever you do, make a list and do not wing it. I use a Microsoft to Do list app on my phone which syncs to my partner's phone which helps if someone is near the shops and can pick up some last-minute things you may have missed. make sure you double check your pantry staples. It's easy to assume you have enough when you don't. Olive oil, vinegar, mustard, jams and spreads should all be checked.

6.PRE-ORDER AND ARRANGE A TIME TO PICK UP PROTEIN AND SEAFOOD
Unless you love the seafood scramble on Christmas Eve, you can make life a lot easier for yourself by ordering what you need a week or so in advance from the butcher and fish shop. Schedule a time to pick up and even though you may have to wait in a queue it makes the process much easier for both you and the person serving. Better still get them to deliver it.

7.SHOP FOR ALL THE NON-PERISHABLE ITEMS BEFORE THE RUSH
The last thing you want is to be struggling with bottles of wine, a huge ham and 24 toilet rolls the day you do your food shop. If you can get out this week to the toilet rolls, Christmas crackers, napkins, alcohol, and everything else you need it's one bulky thing out the way.

8.HIT THE SHOPS ON CHRISTMAS EVE
Ideally assign someone else to pick up your meat and/or seafood or, as I mentioned earlier, have it delivered.

9.FRESH PRODUCE
Now the fun bit begins and it's time to take a serious sweep through the greengrocers. It's Christmas so you'll want to festoon the house with bowls of cherries and nuts. A tray of mangoes will always be eaten by the hoards coming into the house. Lemons and limes are an essential as you'll need them for drinks, to cut the flavour in gravy, and use in dressings and fruit salad. Salad greens and asparagus are go-to ingredients for easy summer lunches. You'll need a small handful of greens per person decorated with fennel, small truss tomatoes, cucumber, avocado and a sprinkle of seeds. Buy extra bread you can throw in the freezer and a Pandoro which is great for afternoon tea and to whip up a quick dessert with fresh fruit and yoghurt. If you're going down the road of a traditional roast, you'll need potatoes, Kent pumpkin (my absolute favourite) green beans, and fresh sage for the stuffing. Berries for pavlova is a must and loads of other stone fruit for that killer fruit salad. Leftover turkey turned into curry will work well with eggplant, mushrooms and zucchini.
And finally, if you skip dinner at night after eating a huge lunch, feed hungry guests in the morning with a big breakfast complete with eggs with spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes.

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