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Planning Your Holiday Feast
Fall is finally here and the holidays are mere weeks away. It’s time to start thinking about how to make the season festive and delicious.
The First Course
Grace at meals
In a lot of cultures and countries around the world, Advent is a time of fasting and preparation for the true joy of the season.
For those of us who grew up seeing Christmastime as a festival of excess, it helps to take a moment to give thanks for family, friends and fellowship.
The bright decorations, the lavish gifts, the never-ending calendar of parties leave us little time to listen for the still, quiet grace of Christmas.
Even so, it’s important to put God first and show our appreciation for all the things we have, the people we love and the many blessings of our modern life.
We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all eternity… But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me. ~Meister Eckhart
Hearty Repast
10 Christmas Main and Side Dishes
Holiday Dinner Recipes | Allrecipes.com
As much as we associate holiday feasts with excess, we actually prefer to keep our meals balanced for a jolly holiday as we do on any other day of the year.
Another thing we like to take into consideration is that there are so many special diets. Some of our loved ones may have diets based on medical needs, personal ethics, religion or are simply trying to stick to a training regimen.
Whether it’s keto or Kosher, hypertension control or Halal, diabetic or Taoist, there are so many ways that our guests may need to have their food presented.
Fruits
When we think of fruit at the dinner table around the holidays, we typically think of cranberries. Whether whole or jellied, cranberry sauce is a classic holiday fruit.
The fact is that the Mediterranean Diet can introduce a lot of delicious and nutritious fruits to the dinner table. Fruit salads, cherry tomatoes, olives, wedges of sliced apples and so many other wonderful fruits can bring a lot of color and flavor to your dinner table.
Don’t forget the many wonderful varieties of squash that are available in late Autumn. While people typically think of squash as vegetables, they are technically fruit and definitely count as a serving of fruit for your well-balanced holiday meal.
Grains
What’s dinnertime without some warm rolls, straight from the oven? A crescent roll that the butter just melts into, a hearty slice of homemade whole grain bread or a richly topped focaccia really kicks off any meal.
As a seasonal side, you can’t go far wrong when you introduce rice into the mix. A zesty serving of Dirty Rice, sumptuous Rice Pilaf or something as exotic as a wonderful Biryani can bring this versatile grain to center stage.
You can’t go wrong introducing nutritious grain sides like Quinoa, Polenta, Buckwheat or Grits. These versatile grains will absorb the flavors of vegetables, herbs and meat when you cook them together.
And let’s not forget about the pasta. From homey Mac & Cheese to decadent Lasagna, there are so many ways to include pasta as entrees or tasty sides.
Vegetables
You really can’t picture Christmas dinner without a heaping helping of all the vegetables that typically grace our tables. Steamed, roasted or raw, you simply cannot get away from holiday classics such as broccoli, corn, green beans, spinach, garbanzos and so many more.
Everybody has their favorites but one of the sure to please portions will feature potatoes. Mashed, baked, french fried, au gratin and so many other ways to present this humble root.
And don’t forget some other family-favorite roots such as turnips, carrots, yams and radishes. There are so many ways to incorporate vegetables into hearty holiday meals.
Protein
This is the first thing people think of when they ponder Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners. Turkey, beef, goose, ham, fish, lamb all dance through our imaginations.
Whether it’s a traditional Feast of Seven Fishes, a stuffed turkey with all the trimmings or a melt in your mouth Prime Rib, there are so many varieties of meat that absolutely demand to be presented on your holiday table.
If you’re catering to vegetarians, there are so many recipes featuring tofu, quinoa, edamame, chick peas and the wonderous varieties of nuts that are available this time of year.
Dairy
From fettuccine alfredo to heavily buttered kernels of corn, dairy provides a variety of flavors that add a lot of zing. Whether you’re making a cheese sauce to drizzle over your asparagus, fondue for dipping your bread or dollops of sour cream for your baked potatoes, dairy plays an important part of your nutritional profile.
There are so many savory cheeses that can be incorporated into your holiday dinners. Robust, rustic cheddars and smooth, seductive mozzarella each add their own notes to a seasonal meal. Crumbly feta and blue cheeses added in just the right proportion to a leafy green salad bring a touch of class to even the most basic ingredients.
The ultimate Christmas dinner tutorial from Lovely Appetite blog
Something Sweet For Afters
10 Holiday Desserts to Eat While Waiting for Santa!!
Yummy Holiday Cakes, Cupcakes and More!
Let’s admit it. We all love dessert, particularly at Christmastime.
There are special desserts that we wait all year for. Plum pudding, fruitcake, mince pies, gingerbread, yule logs, petit fours, panettone and so many more sweet treats are just waiting to be enjoyed.
However, if you’re diabetic as I am, a lot of these seasonal favorites feel like they’re right off the menu. Not so, friends. Thanks to monkfruit and stevia based sweeteners, nut flours and the ingenuity of chefs and bakers the world over, we don’t need to entirely go without our sweet treats for the holidays.
That being said, desserts should be the final accent to any holiday meal. As much as we want to dive headfirst into the dessert table and sample every single spice, chocolate and dusting of confectioner’s sugar, we need to be a bit more circumspect.
There’s plenty of holiday to go around. If you start on Thanksgiving and keep sampling throughout the holiday season, you can enjoy all of the wonderful treats we all look forward to at a more responsible pace. Rather than gorging yourself at any given festivity, divide your holiday favorites out so you can have a little bit every day to keep the winter blues away a while longer.
Every meal should end with something sweet. Maybe it’s jelly on toast at breakfast, or a small piece of chocolate at dinner – but it always helps my brain bring a close to the meal. ~Robert Irvine
The greatest thing about holiday meals is the joy of sharing time with the people you love. Whether it’s just you and your someone special or all of your family and friends gathered around a banquet hall, the real joy is found in togetherness.