December Holiday Menus

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, I need to start thinking about the December holiday menu.  I'd love to hear what your menu plans are for your winter holiday!  

My family does a pretty traditional Thanksgiving, but we do a non-traditional Christmas.  I'll be helping my mom plan meals, so I'm hopeful to get some good ideas from you all :)

Christmas Eve - Spaghetti!  I'll just be eating the meaty sauce, no pasta.  
Christmas Day Breakfast - coffee cake, grapefruit, scrambled eggs, bacon (I'll just be eating the eggs and bacon, with a bite of coffee cake.  The other breakfasts during the holiday I'll stick to my standard protein shake.)
Christmas Day Dinner - grilled filet mignon, salmon, and portabello mushroom caps, green bean casserole, french onion casserole

We normally pick a theme for Christmas Eve Eve dinner - last year it was rustic Italian and the year before it was Lebanese.  I'm really looking forward to cooking with my family.  We always have a blast every year!  Being involved in the meal planning also means that I know there will be foods I can eat.

We generally have a normal Christmas Eve dinner. Eggs and sausage (turkey this year) for Christmas breakfast and a standing rib roast for dinner. We cook it Paula Dean style to medium rare. We will accompany with green bean casserole, potatoes and a salad. I plan to skip the potatoes. 

My hubby is a full Italian and I am half and half German

and the Italian side wins out every time..which is fine with me LOL

although since my hubs grandma passed we no longer do the feast of the 7 fishes

on Christmas Eve

I do always make him calamari and lobster tail w/ linguine

(usually the weekend before since we spend the Eve with my BFF..)

it's just a lot less LOL!!

she makes a bunch of what we call pickies..all types of Stromboli, buffalo chicken dip, antipasti,

artichoke pie, ETC.. She's also making a couple tray of baked ziti..

and whatever else the crowd that will be there will bring..

forget about deserts...unbelievable amount..

 

Christmas day is big breakfast for my boys which could be pancakes,waffles,French toast 

or monkey bread with bacon or sausage 

Christmas dinner will probably be eggplant parm or lasagna w/ meatballs..

 

We also do Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve .. although a scaled down version now that the grand folks have passed :(

I miss my grandfather's  eel .. no one can make it like he did.  

clams casino, king crab legs, shrimp, lobster tails and mussels with linguine are on the menu for Christmas Eve .. the leftovers along with some cod will be used for a seafood stew.

Breakfast for Christmas Day is a french toast type casserole set up the night before.

We don't have a structured lunch .. just some snack type foods: spin/artichoke dip with crackers, sausage balls  and stuffed mushrooms.

Christmas Day dinner is prime rib with sauteed squash and either baked or mashed potatoes 

 

 

Your lunches sound like our holiday lunches.  "Whatever is around."  

This feast of the seven fishes thing sounds pretty amazing.  I've never heard of it before!  Lots of protein :D  

It is pretty amazing.. well, except for the one year my brother decided to help out by cooking the calamari, overcooked it and we had crispy rubber rings.. heh  :)

 

 

My family decided to have lasagna this year for Christmas, so I will just make myself some ricotta bake, but for Christmas Eve we might go with braised rabbit and roasted vegetables.

I usually make a vegetable-bacon quiche for Christmas morning breakfast, and make a couple of minis without crust for me.

Well, for the last five years, my family has gone to Puerto Rico for Christmas and New Years. My parents stay for two weeks, and we usually make it down for just one (sigh...). It's amazing. I am a little sad about giving up so many of my favorites (coquito, flan, pastelillos, pina coladas) but I will console myself with PERNIL! OMG I love Pernil. There's also lots of good fish to be had.

For Christmas dinner, we always have a corn cob smoked ham and usually Hasselback potatoes and green beans. Bacon and eggs and Bloody Mary's for breakfast (it just occurs to me that I might like a virgin Bloody Mary). 

My family has a tradition of having a huge mexican food feast on Christmas Eve! We are talking tamales, enchiladas(red and green), tacos, tostadas, chilacas, rice, beans, and so many other yummy things. I'll probably just be picking out the meat in the enchiladas, eat some beans and maybe some taco meat. I do admit I don't really stick closely to my diet on holidays, I work my butt off all the time to lose weight so if I want a little slice of pie or a little peice of a tortilla on Christmas, damnit I will lol. But thanks to my sleeve luckily that's all the damage I can do!

 

Your holiday meals sound awesome! Yum! 

 

The feast of the 7 fishes sounds great! Wish my family would go for something like that, although I would be sad not to have mexican food. My whole life we have always done mexican on Christmas Eve! 

I love the Mexican feast for Christmas Eve :D