Christmas dinner - what are you making?

ccmccoy09

I love that Christmas is less than a week away!

For those of you cooking dinner or helping, are you planning to cook your traditional (high fat, high calorie, high carb...) favorites, or are you sticking to your personal meal plan? Or something in between?

I'm hosting, and I'm sticking on plan with respect to menu items with the exception of dessert: no added sugar, no fruit, no wheat (allergy), moderate carbs. It's pretty high calorie though so I will personally have to exercise portion control and probably run 4 miles on Christmas morning. I'm hoping my guests don't miss good-ol' mashed potatoes and candied yams too much.

What are you guys cooking? I have a tentative menu but am always open to new ideas:

Starter:
Confit duck legs on baby arugula with citrus vinaigrette (this is my splurge item!)

Main Course:
Braised boneless short ribs
Mashed acorn squash
Roasted veggies: sweet potato, butternut squash, red potatoes, onion, Brussels sprouts, garlic, dried cranberries
Roasted Asparagus
Swiss chard
Rosemary bread <-- Specifically for guests and on special request. I can't eat it.

Dessert:
Flourless chocolate cake
Pumpkin-sweet potato pie

Signature cocktail:
Brut champagne with St. Germain or grenadine, to guest's taste

Dessert cocktail:
"Russian Princess": vodka, Kahlua, Godiva white chocolate and milk

TeaBea

Lutefisk! mmmm ... low calorie but the melted butter on top is a killer

it_be_asin

For the Aussie Christmas I'll be having at my Aunt's place, I will be having salad, bread and hopefully not too many chips and minties! I am planning on taking a vegetarian lasagne as well. Everyone else will also eat cold meats (and my sister and aunt will probably go through over a kg of prawns between them).

And we will eat the leftovers from lunch for dinner, cause Christmas is a social occasion, and no one could be f*****d cooking twice. In fact, it's often so hot on Christmas day that no one could be f*****d cooking the first time! But it looks like it will be a cool wet Christmas day here this year.

nickssweetheart

We are combining traditional favorites with healthier options.

Not changing:

Prime rib roast
Carrot pudding with hard sauce (our traditional dessert: kind of like a super dense and spicy carrot cake topped with a cream and rum sauce--just heavenly and about a million calories a serving)
Green beans with toasted pine nuts and a lemon butter sauce

Changing:

Mashed potatoes and yorkshire pudding with gravy into simple baked potatoes that each person can top as he wishes.
Spinach salad with warm Bacon dressing into lettuce salad with lots of vegs and a light vinaigrette.
Dinner rolls are going away entirely, and I don't think anyone will miss them.
We are rounding out the meal with roasted balsamic onions and baby carrots with cumin.

ccmccoy09

Carrot pudding with hard sauce (our traditional dessert: kind of like a super dense and spicy carrot cake topped with a cream and rum sauce--just heavenly and about a million calories a serving)

Um...
Can I please borrow the recipe for your carrot pudding? That sounds AMAZING.

amycal

OP I want to come to dinner at your house - sounds heavenly! I will be making a similar vegetable dish. Probably some kind of fancy chicken, salad, fruit and potatoes. Need to get serious about gluten free after Christmas but for this year have our regulars - toffee bars, assorted cookies and brownies.

shakybabe

I go to brothers house and we have a traditional dinner. They usually do a soup or garlic mushrooms for starter.

Main is turkey or course and they do an ham too, mini sausages wrapped in bcaon, with loads of veggies ...sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower cheese, carrots, peas, roast potatoes cooked in goose fat and mash. (I'll just have a few roasties with mainly veg and meat) and gravy of course plus some sauces apple, cranberry, bread sauce. I don't bother with the sauces.

Pudding is trifle cos 2 of us have nut allergies and 2 are diabetic but my brother does a mean trifle with couvoisier brandy cream, and port, sherry and god knows what else in it..but it's divine!!

I dread to think how many calories are in it I think maintenance calories of 1630 should cover it, if I only eat small portion of trifle, and just a couple of roasties if rest of plate is veg and meat. (our meats are roasted in oven rather than deep fried) I might skip breakfast as we have our diner around 1-2pm.

Bentley2718

Right now we're leaning towards going to 99 Ranch (an Asian grocery store) buying a ton of leafy greens, then consulting the cook books/the internet for recipes for all of them. Oh, and asparagus, it's not a holiday without asparagus. For breakfast one morning, orange cinnamon rolls, my husband has brought them up 4 times in the past two weeks, it's his way of not being subtle.

tuffytuffy1

We are having a rib roast, vodka penne, carrots with lemon, butter, and parsley, steamed green beans, and mashed potato casserole. All of it is incredibly fattening and delicious:drinker: Moderation is key for me, I don't trade my holiday dishes for healthy dishes, I just eat normal portion sizes.

ltlemermaid

Christmas dinner is always at my parents house on christmas eve and a very traditional Polish meal, the only "meat" allowed is fish.

Typically we start with soup: borsch with mushroom uszka (beet soup with mini mushroom pierogi/dumplings)

Fish prepared in various ways: fried carp, herring in oil, pickled herring (sledzie)

Sides: cabbage and mushroom pierogi, Sauerkraut with mushrooms, and/or red cabbage. vegetable/apple/mayo salad, boiled potatos

Beverage: dried fruit compote



Dessert: makowiec (poppyseed roll or strudel ), sugar cookies,

FitnessBarbie99

I am hosting Christmas Eve dinner.

I'm making a lasagna with whole wheat noodles and a combination of ground beef and ground venison and going easy on the cheese.
A huge garden salad to encourage seconds of that food. Also a large bowl of cooked Italian vegetables in marinara sauce.

Christmas Day lunch is a deli tray with salads and sides.

Meggles63

Prime Rib with Baked potatoes, salad and strawberry pie! Yummo!

livinginwoods

Orange glazed Ham, either homemade scalloped or homemade mac n cheese, a sausage/apple/cranberry dressing on the side, no dinner rolls, and then a green salad or green beans. There are only two of us but we will eat on left overs for days. Also a pumpkin pie.

livinginwoods

Orange glazed Ham, either homemade scalloped or homemade mac n cheese, a sausage/apple/cranberry dressing on the side, no dinner rolls, and then a green salad or green beans. There are only two of us but we will eat on left overs for days. Also a pumpkin pie.

krazyforyou

We are having ribeye steaks, creamed spinach with parm, baked potatos and for desert apple crumb pie. Yum yum.

stevwil41

We're doing the traditional ham/turkey/mashed potatoes thing at my dad's. I'll be bring snacks for before dinner since we always end up eating about an hour and a half late because my step sister is never on time. I think I'll be making sausage balls and either a cheeseball or some sort of dip.

I'm not planning on showing a whole lot of restraint but I'll be back on track the following day.

jennabellaxoxo

italian..its a small affair so I dont need to go overboard.

lasagna
italian mashed potatoes twice baked
broccoli rabe with bacon and roasted pine nuts
ceasar salad
garlic bread

idk...more stuff but I havent put much thought into it yet...what elese goes with this meal?

honor82

I am bringing:

Green bean casserole
Salad

I'm probably going to go and help before the dinner also with cooking, cause my sister has a lot to do that day and she needs me.

cramernh

BARBEQUE/SMOKE AT THE CRAMERS!!!!

BBQ: Prime Rib, Chicken Wings with sauces on the side, Vegetable kebabs, marinated portabella mushroom caps, courgettes and tomatoes

SMOKE: Full rack of pork ribs, halved roaster chickens, whole salmon for the neighbors

Homemade slaw with two types of cabbage, broccoli/carrot matchsticks, grannysmith apple matchsticks, homemade slaw dressing

Duchess mashed potatoes

Whole wheat braided garlic bread

Usual appetizers of deviled eggs, pickle-olive tray, cheese-meat tray for hubby (all his!)

Dessert for him: Grasshopper brownies
Dessert for me: Cherry Almond Cheesecake (low-carb)

ccmccoy09

OP I want to come to dinner at your house - sounds heavenly! I will be making a similar vegetable dish. Probably some kind of fancy chicken, salad, fruit and potatoes. Need to get serious about gluten free after Christmas but for this year have our regulars - toffee bars, assorted cookies and brownies.

Do you have a gluten sensitivity or allergy? If so YES you need to get serious! One of the common side effects of a gluten allergy is GI distress and weight gain. Which are both gross and counterproductive to your weight loss efforts. (If you're not actually allergic or sensitive, talk to your doc about cutting it out of your diet first; eliminating it if there's not a problem can trigger an insensitivity later.)

I'm not GF, just wheat free. Mostly. Usually. Ok I still eat it every now and then but it makes me SO sick.