Perhaps your family is re thinking their Christmas dinner plans this year. You may be traveling, you may be eating a meal at several family s homes, or you simply want to cut costs this year by eliminating a big sit down dinner. Planning to share a Christmas brunch may suit your plans this year for any or all of those reasons.
If you are considering your family s budget, big sit down dinners tend to be more expensive than even the nicest brunch. The menu for a big dinner will normally include a large meat main course, numerous side dishes, and many fancy desserts and candies. The beverages served during a formal sit down dinner in the evening will typically include fancy drinks, wine, and after dinner drinks. In other words, a big dinner can add up to a lot of money.
For a family who needs to travel, eat at more than one household, or cut back on expenses, a Christmas brunch could solve many of those problems. Let s see how we could put together a brunch that would be festive, fun, and have food that is filling, but inexpensive.
Skillet Dish A skillet meal is very easy to prepare quickly and with relatively little fuss. There are many recipes to choose from, like this familiar favorite, a Frittata. This is typically a skillet of fried rice or potatoes with a variety of meats and vegetables added. Then eggs are poured over and the Frittata is cooked without stirring until the eggs firm up. Cut into wedges right in the skillet and serve just as it sits. Use a nice cast iron pan for a pretty and homey appeal.
Brunch Casserole Probably one of the most familiar and popular dishes for brunch, there are countless recipes from which to choose. Most begin with some sort of potato like hash browns, or bread. To that you add your layers of anything like sausage, ham, green pepper, cheese, and egg. This assemblage is refrigerated overnight, then baked in the morning and served hot. You can make this as simple or as complicated as you choose.
Omelets I hesitate to mention omelets only because they require a lot of work while your guests are there. You can t make omelets ahead of time. You can, however, prepare all the filling ingredients, you know, the mushrooms, green pepper, ham, onions, or anything else that you like inside your omelet. The deciding factor should be whether or not you want to be cooking while you have guests. If you have a kitchen dining room combination where you can visit with your guests while you re in the kitchen, that may work out for you. However, if you are going to be isolated from everyone while you re whipping up omelets, you may want to consider a different menu.
Muffin Tin Meal Picture mini pot pies full of your favorite breakfast foods. You can start with some simple biscuits in a tube, roll them out flat, and line the muffin tin just like a pie pan. Then fill with sausage, a little hash browns, and crack an egg on top. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top and pop them in the oven until they are nice and golden brown and the egg is done. Or you can make up a batch of muffin mix and throw in some ham bits, or bacon, and cheese and turn a regular muffin into a whole meal.
A wide variety of food should be planned for your brunch in order for your guests to walk around and sample a little bit here, a little bit there. Brunches are meant to be casual with a lot of mingling and mixing.
Don t forget to get the coffee started early. Have a choice of coffee and tea, as well as nice pitchers filled with milk, juice, and water on the table. You can forget about the fancy desserts, but a few cookies would certainly be nice.
With just a few ideas for a simple brunch menu, you can put together a nice meal for Christmas. It s all about spending time with the people you love and not spending your hard earned money on a big fancy dinner. Enjoy your brunch!
Author Resource:
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