By Debbie Tremblay -
Holidays sure have changed over the past 20 years. Gone are the days we would savor the holiday meals that mom spent weeks preparing. Fast forward to today, we all live extremely busy lifestyles and although we might try to recapture those long lost days, it’s time to get real about our time. Here are four ways to simplify your holiday dinner.
1. Many supermarkets offer fully prepared holiday dinners as well as a variety of side dishes and desserts that you can order in advance. Leave the majority of the cooking to them and focus on cooking just a few of your special main or side dishes. Simply add some holiday flair by serving these items on your own holiday platters and china. Everyone will think you spent days preparing the meal.
2. Ask for help. In these hectic days, no one should have to prepare the holiday meal alone. Believe me your guests will be more than happy to help out knowing that they won’t have to go through all the work to host the meal in their home. Just take a few deep relaxing breaths, pick up the phone and ask each guest to bring something specific such as their favorite dish or dessert. Alternatively, compile a list of what you would like to serve for your dinner and split the lists between family members. It will take the guesswork and time out of shopping.
3. De-clutter you kitchen counters by packing away all appliances and decorations that will not be needed for the holidays. This simple tip will magically free up the extra room need to prepare you meals with ease.
4. Reorganize and dedicate one cabinet in your kitchen to store all holiday snacks including crackers and cookies as well as meal preparation items such as baking supplies, flour, sugar, spices, stuffing, gravy etc. Keeping all like items together will allow you to see at a glance what you need and will make meal preparation a breeze. Just be sure to mark the cabinet as a “Do Not Enter” Zone so that these items will not be opened by accident.
5. Don’t forget the famous holiday cookies. You can actually freeze cookie dough rolls up to two months in advance. Keep a few extra frozen batches on hand for unexpected guests or for those last minute holiday bake sales. Another tip for cookies, don’t spend time baking a variety of cookies, instead gather your friends together and hold a cookie swap.
These five simple steps will help to elevate the stress out of meal preparations and leave you smiling while everyone congratulates you over a scrumptious holiday meal they believe took you days to prepare. Don’t worry your secret is safe with me. Happy Holidays.
And now I would like to invite you to continue your journey towards an organized and stress-free holiday season on my Facebook page @ http://www.facebook.com/organizinggenie where I will share a daily tip to help you simplify and create the holiday of your dreams.
From Debbie Tremblay – The Organizing Genie, Professional Organizer and Clever Container Consultant.
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