Last minute Christmas meal ideas

December 21st, 2015

Appliance Talk DIY Ovens & Cooking

Have you STILL not done your Christmas food shopping? If so, you may be a contender for the world’s greatest procrastinator (I’d fight you for the title, but can’t be bothered).

Unfortunately, shoppers tend to get increasingly competitive in the leadup to Christmas, frantically clearing the supermarket shelves as if needing to stock up their fallout shelters in preparation for the bat-winged-space-lizard apocalypse. This means that by the time you DO drag yourself down to the supermarket, the ingredients you need for that fancy recipe may be out of stock.

So if you need to bring a plate to Christmas lunch, or found yourself volunteered to host the occasion at the last minute, here are a few Christmas recipe ideas to give you some inspiration and get the old imagination revved up…

Cake

If you can’t source the fruit and nuts required to bake a tradtional Christmas Cake, a simpler cake is a perfectly acceptable alternative.

Basic cakes are so simple that Chef Appliances include a recipe in their instruction manuals to test their oven performance!

Pasta

Pasta’s always a great way to feed a lot of people, not to mention tasty. While buying a big packet of pasta is the fastest option (and can be quickly heated on an induction cooktop), making it yourself gives your meal a much more personal touch.

Even if you don’t have an awesome pasta maker available, you can still make pasta the old fashioned way – just mix everything by hand (it does take a bit of work), stretch it out and cut it up into the shapes of your choice.

Salad

To quote masterful chef and prolific Twitterer, Adam Liaw:

“…we’ve done away with the heavy, stodgy sides to the turkeys and hams of the European tradition and replaced them with more seasonally appropriate salads. And we’ve added mountains of prawns, bowls of cherries and pavlovas to the mix.”

You heard the man – get your salads (and prawns, cherries and pavlovas) ready to go, even if it’s simple lettuce and tomato drizzled in olive oil!

But if you know that one or more of your guests will complain that salad is the food their food eats, whip out the Quinoa and Sirloin Salad to cool their jets.

Ice cream and chocolate

Another idea mentioned by Adam Liaw, rather than having a hot baked dessert like pudding on Christmas, something cool like ice cream is a much more refreshing experience.

Ice cream is another ingredient you don’t necessarily have to buy – you can make your own flavours with the help of an ice cream maker, or by freezing cream and churning the heck out of it.

Meats

While massive hams and turkeys are the traditional order of the day come Christmas time, cranking up the oven for a roast can quickly transform your kitchen into a walk-in furnace, especially in the middle of an Aussie summer.

This is why the barbeque was invented!

But you’re not restricted just to grilling up steaks, sausages and other, more unusual fare. Any barbeque with a cover can effectively be used for roasting. Models featuring a built in thermometer are probably best, as these will help keep you from overheating things.

Even with the thermometer, you probably won’t get super-precise roasting results unless you’re able to call on a LOT of barbequing experience, so even if you’re able to snap up a last-minute ham or turkey, you may be better off sticking to something slightly smaller and simpler.

Peppermint bark

It’s good! Don’t listen to the haters.

source: Ann on Flickr

Melt chocolate (white or dark) on the cooktop or in the microwave. Smash up candy canes. Combine. Stick in the fridge. Easy.

Home made dip!

Guacamole (good with chips and crispbreads) is basically just smashed-up avocado, plus some other stuff – usually lemon juice and onion, but sometimes a bit of tomato, garlic and other ingredients are added.

source: Nikodem Nijaki on Wikimedia Commons

Whatever recipe you’re following, rather than chopping and dicing your ingredients by hand, it’s usually easier to use a food processor to bring them to the fine consistency you require.

Bruschetta

Time to nitpick: it’s pronounced broo-sketta, and it’s actually the name of the bread, not the traditional tomato/onion/garlic/basil topping.

source: Takeaway at Wikimedia Commons

Still, it’s easy to make, and classy. Just run said ingredients through the food processor or get busy choppin’. Use the mixture to top bread that’s been rubbed wth garlic and olive oil, then toasted.

Chocolate-coated strawberries

Christmas is one of those occasions where it is not only acceptable but encouraged for you to fire up the chocolate fountain or fondue pot.

source: stu_spivack on Flickr

But if you don’t have one of these, you can still melt yourself some chocolate using the cooktop or the microwave, dip in a selection of strawberries or similar fruits, and stick the coated fruit in the fridge to enjoy later.

Decadent simplicity!

Pancakes!

Make them from scratch like a BADASS PRO!

Then add some BACON! And sing a SONG about it!

Hope you’re feeling inspired – now stop reading this and go get cooking!