December 5, 2024 • 18 mins
December is one of the busiest times of the year and I'm here to help make sure you get the most out of your holidays. In this episode, I get into a few systems that help me make sure I have a plan for all the holiday festivities with my family.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi, everybody. I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,
the podcast you listen to when you don't know what
to make for dinner. Today's episode one hundred and nine.
Systems saving me this December. Happy holidays everyone, I hope
you all had the best Thanksgiving, spent with really good
food and connecting with the people you love most. We
(00:25):
had a house full of family that felt like it
was bursting at the scenes at times. It was perfectly chaotic,
extremely delicious, and I'm confident that core memories were made
for my kids, which honestly, that's what was most important
to me. I spent time reflecting personally a little bit
on what I am particularly grateful for this year, and
(00:47):
among other things, I want to pass along a heartfelt
and sincere thank you to all of you as part
of our podcast and recipe club community. This small business
that I run, it helps, you know, It helps overwhelmed
parents get weeknight dinner on the table for their families,
and it's something I'm incredibly passionate about. And while I
love providing the recipes and weekly meal plans and cheat
(01:10):
sheets and things like that, what I truly care about
is supporting you as you establish a ritual to connect
with your people more often, your support. Whether you listen
to this podcast, you follow me on Instagram, you are
members of Recipe Club, you buy our recipe binder. It
just allows me to continue to grow this company and
(01:30):
help more and more people. So thank you, thank you,
thank you. Now that we have officially passed the torch
from November to December, I want to chat a little
bit about the systems that are saving me this December.
But before we do that, let's discuss a few recipes
you can throw on your meal plan for the week.
These are a few of the dishes that I always
(01:53):
rely on during extra busy months. Think of five ingredient
recipes were almost a recipes not required, Like I'm so
comfortable that I can kind of make it without having
to even reference a recipe. They're just really easy, because
easy is what I need during one of the busiest
months of the year. So first up, I love that
it's soup season. We are going to have my Italian
(02:16):
sausage and white bean soup. I just made it for
a church event. I doubled the batch and transferred it
to a slow cooker and took it and everybody was
commenting on how delicious it is, so I made it
for everybody else, but I hadn't made it for a family,
So I thought, you know what, I am going to
make this for my family. So it's on the meal plan.
(02:37):
I'm going to serve it with some really good bread
and call it a day. Next is my bacon wrapped
chicken and veggies. This is where I take like a
chicken cutlet and I wrap it with a simple strip
of bacon, and I do that on one half of
my big sheet pan, and then on the other half
I do whatever veggies, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, potatoes, things like that,
so that I can kind of do an entire dinner
(02:58):
on one sheet pan and it's really good. Sometimes I'll
do like a little creamy mustard sauce to go with it,
but super simple, like it could be five ingredients, but
I usually toss a few other things in there, but
very simple. And then finally we are doing for another
like neighborhood event. We're doing a brunch and we're getting
together with a bunch of our friends, and I'm going
(03:18):
to make my cheddar scallion strata, which is my favorite
recipe for savory brunch. So good, you guys like so
good if I had to kind of forgotten about it.
That happens with recipes sometimes, like they're a hit for
a while and then you forget about them. So anyways,
I'm going to make that this week. And those are
three really simple ideas. You can find and print them
all in Recipe Club individually or in our weekly meal
(03:41):
plan with an easy to follow shopping list broken down
by recipe. You guys know, Recipe Club is an amazing
ad free recipe resource. No banner ads, nothing like that,
no pop ups, but it's got hundreds of recipes developed
specifically for weeknights, and really the magic comes in the
simple dinner system that it provides. You get weekly meal
planning email, a site that's specifically designed to help with
(04:02):
dinner time decision fatigue, recipes that are family tested, clearly written.
It's an incredible resource. It helps thousands of families get
dinner on the table each week, and we would love
for your families to be one of them. So we
are continuing our holiday savings and our entire site is
fifteen percent off, and if you're a Recipe Club member,
you will get an additional discount at twenty percent off
(04:23):
of everything from memberships to bundles with our recipe binder
great for gifting, so keep that in mind as you
are finalizing your gifting list for the holiday season. All right,
let's jump into the back half of the podcast and
chat about these systems I swear by. We all know
(04:46):
that December is wild and crazy. It seems like there
are enough activities, events and traditions to fill every single
day of the month. And some of you probably do
that and want to do that. But I'm also heading
into this month feeling a bit fatigued. If I'm being honest,
you might even be able to hear it in my voice.
I'm already tired. My brain has already had to make
way too many decisions. My cup feels nearly empty. But
(05:10):
when you are head of magic making at your house,
there is no rest for the weary. So let's talk
about a couple of systems I rely on to keep
me going during such a busy month. We are going
to touch on three areas, gifting, magic making, and food.
Let's start with gifting. This has been top of mind
for me because we are fresh off of Black Friday,
(05:31):
Cyber Monday, and all of that madness. Okay, this can
feel different depending on what chapter of life you find
yourself in, but for me, with kids ages four, eight,
and twelve, we are at peak present season. Because of
the ages of my kids, I'm still doing like the
classic fun toys, like my daughter Who's Penny. She's four,
(05:54):
she has for her gumball machine. Both of my girls
want makeup kids and they each want a doll. And
then I've also got to where I'm having to think
about higher ticket items like electric bikes and scooters and
surfboards and air pods. And if I didn't have systems
in place, or a gifting system in place, I would
spend the whole month worrying about if I had enough
for everybody, how much I've spent, and if everyone will
(06:16):
have about the same amount of gifts to open on
Christmas morning. So this is how I manage that. First,
I love the list making app Google Keep. I use
it for just about everything in my life I need
to make a digital list for whether it's groceries or
gift giving. You could totally do this just in your
notes app as well, but I really like Google Keep.
(06:38):
So I create a note and it's titled Christmas twenty
twenty four or twenty twenty five, like whatever year you're in,
and I list every kid's name underneath with a bulleted
list of what they're asking for. I'll also include like
my husband, my parents in laws, things like that, but
as kids start to say I want this, I just
add it to the list. I'll also include food after
(07:00):
I've purchased it, the price I paid for it, and
whether or not I'm going to wrap it or it'll
be unwrapped. We usually don't wrap Santa gifts, so I'm
just wrapping the gifts that aren't Santa specific. Sometimes I'll
include a link as well, like if I'm still thinking
about something or trying to decide if I'm going to
get it, and as I get each thing, I check
(07:23):
it off the list. I actually finished all of my
kids shopping over this big gifting weekend, and it felt
so so good. Now, some of those gifts started to
arrive already because you know two day shipping. So another
system I swear by is hiding the gifts because I
don't have a ton of storage space where I'm at
(07:44):
right now. I don't have a basement, I don't have
a big empty closet, so and I've also got curious kids,
so I have started putting the gifts into the emptied
storage bins that typically store my holiday decorations, you know,
the black ones with the yellow lids. I have got
sneaky kids and not very much storage, so this is
(08:05):
a perfect solution for me. Finally, when it comes to
wrapping those gifts, I really love this small business called
Mary Market. They sell wrapping kits, and a standard kit
comes with three rolls of wrapping paper, three different spools
of ribbon, and a bunch of beautiful tags. In my mind,
(08:25):
I assign each kid a set wrapping paper, and that's
how I know who is getting what, and that's how
I identify the gifts under the tree. But I love
having like this simple wrapping system, and I'm convinced. I think,
I don't know, it's like forty or fifty dollars for
the kit, but if I were to go to Target
and buy wrapping paper and ribbon, I would spend just
(08:47):
as much. But I liked it. This literally comes in
a dedicated system. So that those are three tips for
systems that save me when it comes to gifting. And
I really if you're not going to do anything. Just
make the list. Make the list first, and thin shop.
I get so overwhelmed and I'm like, oh, I need
(09:07):
something for this person, and I just start looking at everything. No, no, no,
determine what it is. Even if it's a category. I
want to get this person's sweater. Then that just makes
it so much easier. So there you have it. Okay,
let's talk about magic. Making of all of the things
that happen in December, what's most important to me is
the nostalgia and the tradition piece. Because that feels so
(09:30):
important to me, it's worth putting a system in place
to make sure it happens and I'm not constantly stressed
about the month that it's not happening. So using my
same app, Google Keep, I have a note that it's
labeled Christmas Magic. And this doesn't necessarily have a year
attached to it. It's just like an evergreen list. And
on that list, I have written out all of our
family's traditions that we have ever done before, and it
(09:52):
includes traditions from my husband's childhood, it includes traditions from
my childhood, and the one that are non negotiables that
I really want to do every single year. I put
at the top of the list. So it might be
things like watching certain Christmas movies, or adopting a family
at Christmas, or seeing the lights, or making a specific
cookie recipe or like one for us as we always
(10:13):
go to Mexican food in the month of December because
that's something my husband did and it's kind of silly
and it doesn't mean much, but we gotta do it.
We gotta go to Mexican food every December. So then
I determine what I would feel really sad about if
we didn't do it, and then I take those and
I physically put them into our family calendar. It's not
a guarantee that they're going to happen, but it helps
(10:36):
to increase the likelihood that they will happen if I
actually put those activities in our family calendar. It's so
easy to get overwhelmed in your brain, to fill up
so quickly, and so if I just sit down at
the beginning of the month and I put all of
those things in, then I usually fare better. All right, Finally,
let's talk about food in December. Having regular dinners is
(10:59):
always hardest to during the months that are extra busy.
We know this. Of course, as a result, I rely
on a lot of five ingredient recipes and shortcuts, like
using my favorite jarredmyre and arasauce, pesto, rotisserie chicken, things
like that. And I also find that in December, I
this month in particular. We usually always are here through Christmas,
(11:20):
and then we leave the last week to go beat
with family, and so really it's only three solid weeks,
so I almost am never spending the final week here
in my home, and so I will plan meals for
the entire month rather than just one week at a time.
It's almost like there's so much to do that I
just want to literally make all the decisions in sitting
(11:43):
down at one point. So I'll still review my weekly
calendar meal plan, but I like looking at the whole
month first. We also have a couple of classic dinners
we always like to do in December, like our reindeer ribs.
I make this pork loin with cranberry barbecue sauce. We
have an annual Red and Green Day where everything on
the plate is red and green. It's easy to schedule
(12:03):
those in when I'm thinking about it from a monthly standpoint,
rather than a weekly one, so I like to do that.
When it comes to parties and hosting, I swear by
having a signature appetizer, a signature cookie, and a signature
salad that I kind of have on standby and will
plan to bring if I'm asked. So that is my
Italian sausage stuff mushrooms. That is the appetizer. I'm most
(12:26):
famous for my gingerbread cookies, which are my favorite flavors,
but without the hassle of rolling out actual gingerbread men.
And my maple glazed and kale butternut salad that's my
go to for a salad if I'm asked to bring something.
Remember that we also have a whole very nicely organized
section and recipe club dedicated to Christmas recipes, and I
(12:49):
intentionally included enough that it gives you options, but not
too many that your brain's getting explode. So I think
there's twelve classic Christmas recipe in there. Remember, no ads,
so simple, no longer blog posts, no drawn out stories.
It is just the recipes you need so that you
can make those classic Christmas recipes. All right, let's finish
(13:12):
how we always finish with my weekly give me five.
These are five things that made my life easier or
more enjoyable this week. And we have got a bit
of a holiday twist, so let's start with We're going
to talk about gifting from our kitchen really quickly, because
this is something I like to do it, but there
are years it does not happen. When I say gifting
(13:34):
from my kitchen, I mean making something that we take
to neighbors, teachers, friends, things like that. My kids really
want to do it this year, and I want to
do it, but if I don't plan it, then it's
not going to happen. So a couple of these things
are because we are going to do this this weekend.
So I've got everything ready to go. So we are
going to make my gingerbread cookies, those cookies I just referenced,
(13:55):
and to take all of the cookies, I found these
real cute gingerbread bags at Target. They're cheap. They're brown
bags that are decorated to look like gingerbread houses. Now
we could buy gingerbread, or we could buy plain brown
paper bags and do this ourselves, but they were, like,
I don't know, fifty cents each and they're so cute.
(14:18):
So I got those bags and those are definitely something
that made my life easier this week. I have, don't
worry about that. I got some cute red and white
striped tissue paper and that's what we're gonna put the
cookies in. I like that. It's a gingerbread themed bag
with gingerbread cookies inside. Will include our family holiday card
and it'll be great, okay next because we're going to
(14:40):
make a ton of cookies. This product has been on
this Gimme five list at least three times this year,
and I'm sorry I had to put it on again
because it's just that helpful. And is the extra large
baking sheets from norder Quare. It's called the Big Sheet,
and it is it basically will It fits in a
standard but you can fit a third more cookies on it,
(15:04):
so you can make more cookies at the same time.
But I don't just use it for cookies. I use
it for all of my sheet pan dinners now, and
you guys know that I'm a huge fan. I'm a
sheet pan dinner. But what I like about it it
has more space, so I get things crispier. I can
feed my family a five a little more easy with
(15:24):
one sheet pan rather than two sheet pans, so it's
a must. I love it so much. It's as of recording.
It's on a really good sale on Target, so I
am going to get two more. But anyways, so great
love those extra large baking sheets. Okay I mentioned this earlier,
but the Merrymarket wrapping kit. If you are looking to
(15:44):
simplify your gift giving or your gift wrapping this holiday season,
take a look at those wrapping kits. I think they've
got three or four. There's like a Santa one, there's
a Gingerbread one. They are so cute and it is
just it just shows up as a little system, which
I just love it. I love it so much. And
then I've also got on here a peppermint lip mask.
(16:06):
So a couple of years ago this brand Linage La
n E I g E. I believe it's outspelled like
I felt like I saw it everywhere. They became famous
for a lip mask, and it's something that you put
on your lips before you go to bed. Now you
could put it on during the day, but I always
understood the lip mask is something you did while you
were sleeping. And they have the cutest it's red whites
(16:28):
World peppermint lip mask and it is the perfect amount
of peppermint that just kind of tingles on your lips
but not too much. Oh my gosh, I'm loving it
so much. It is perfect for holiday, like great for
a favorite things. It's so great I'm going to put
in people's stockings. I love it. Peppermint lip Mask by Linage.
Can't recommend it enough. And then finally, one of the
(16:51):
traditions we have as a family is we always get
a new game, a new family game, every holiday season,
and typically we're doing it the minute and we play
it on Christmas Eve. But this year I thought ahead
and I got a holiday themed game, and I wanted
to get it early so we could play it at
least a few times throughout the month. And so it
is called Santo Cookie Elf and it is from the
(17:13):
same people who make the game that's Taco Cat, Goat
Cheese Pizza. You guys would recognize the box so many reviews.
There's like fifty thousand plush reviews of this game online
and it's a really fun card game. It can be
played by everyone in the family. And this is the
first time I'm seeing this holiday version. So I stagged
(17:34):
that and I'm excited to pull it out this weekend
for my family to play, and we'll play it throughout
the holiday month and then I'll just pack it with
our holiday decorations and it'll be something we can pull
out every year. So there you have it, Five things
in my life easier, more festive this year. I really
appreciate you guys listening today. Make sure you're subscribed to
(17:55):
the podcast so that you never miss an episode. Remember
I created this entire podcast so that you could have
a quick twenty minute listen while you map out your
own meals for the week. Listening to a podcast while
a meal plan has been part of my own simple
dinner system for as long as I can remember, so
I try and put out a perfect fit for that
each week. Thank you so much for listening today. I'm
so glad you're here. Until next time with happy cooking,
(18:15):
happy holidays. I'm Kelsey. I'm forward chatting with you all
next week.
Hi, everybody. I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,
the podcast you listen to when you don't know what
to make for dinner. Today's episode one hundred and nine.
Systems saving me this December. Happy holidays everyone, I hope
you all had the best Thanksgiving, spent with really good
food and connecting with the people you love most. We
(00:25):
had a house full of family that felt like it
was bursting at the scenes at times. It was perfectly chaotic,
extremely delicious, and I'm confident that core memories were made
for my kids, which honestly, that's what was most important
to me. I spent time reflecting personally a little bit
on what I am particularly grateful for this year, and
(00:47):
among other things, I want to pass along a heartfelt
and sincere thank you to all of you as part
of our podcast and recipe club community. This small business
that I run, it helps, you know, It helps overwhelmed
parents get weeknight dinner on the table for their families,
and it's something I'm incredibly passionate about. And while I
love providing the recipes and weekly meal plans and cheat
(01:10):
sheets and things like that, what I truly care about
is supporting you as you establish a ritual to connect
with your people more often, your support. Whether you listen
to this podcast, you follow me on Instagram, you are
members of Recipe Club, you buy our recipe binder. It
just allows me to continue to grow this company and
(01:30):
help more and more people. So thank you, thank you,
thank you. Now that we have officially passed the torch
from November to December, I want to chat a little
bit about the systems that are saving me this December.
But before we do that, let's discuss a few recipes
you can throw on your meal plan for the week.
These are a few of the dishes that I always
(01:53):
rely on during extra busy months. Think of five ingredient
recipes were almost a recipes not required, Like I'm so
comfortable that I can kind of make it without having
to even reference a recipe. They're just really easy, because
easy is what I need during one of the busiest
months of the year. So first up, I love that
it's soup season. We are going to have my Italian
(02:16):
sausage and white bean soup. I just made it for
a church event. I doubled the batch and transferred it
to a slow cooker and took it and everybody was
commenting on how delicious it is, so I made it
for everybody else, but I hadn't made it for a family,
So I thought, you know what, I am going to
make this for my family. So it's on the meal plan.
(02:37):
I'm going to serve it with some really good bread
and call it a day. Next is my bacon wrapped
chicken and veggies. This is where I take like a
chicken cutlet and I wrap it with a simple strip
of bacon, and I do that on one half of
my big sheet pan, and then on the other half
I do whatever veggies, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, potatoes, things like that,
so that I can kind of do an entire dinner
(02:58):
on one sheet pan and it's really good. Sometimes I'll
do like a little creamy mustard sauce to go with it,
but super simple, like it could be five ingredients, but
I usually toss a few other things in there, but
very simple. And then finally we are doing for another
like neighborhood event. We're doing a brunch and we're getting
together with a bunch of our friends, and I'm going
(03:18):
to make my cheddar scallion strata, which is my favorite
recipe for savory brunch. So good, you guys like so
good if I had to kind of forgotten about it.
That happens with recipes sometimes, like they're a hit for
a while and then you forget about them. So anyways,
I'm going to make that this week. And those are
three really simple ideas. You can find and print them
all in Recipe Club individually or in our weekly meal
(03:41):
plan with an easy to follow shopping list broken down
by recipe. You guys know, Recipe Club is an amazing
ad free recipe resource. No banner ads, nothing like that,
no pop ups, but it's got hundreds of recipes developed
specifically for weeknights, and really the magic comes in the
simple dinner system that it provides. You get weekly meal
planning email, a site that's specifically designed to help with
(04:02):
dinner time decision fatigue, recipes that are family tested, clearly written.
It's an incredible resource. It helps thousands of families get
dinner on the table each week, and we would love
for your families to be one of them. So we
are continuing our holiday savings and our entire site is
fifteen percent off, and if you're a Recipe Club member,
you will get an additional discount at twenty percent off
(04:23):
of everything from memberships to bundles with our recipe binder
great for gifting, so keep that in mind as you
are finalizing your gifting list for the holiday season. All right,
let's jump into the back half of the podcast and
chat about these systems I swear by. We all know
(04:46):
that December is wild and crazy. It seems like there
are enough activities, events and traditions to fill every single
day of the month. And some of you probably do
that and want to do that. But I'm also heading
into this month feeling a bit fatigued. If I'm being honest,
you might even be able to hear it in my voice.
I'm already tired. My brain has already had to make
way too many decisions. My cup feels nearly empty. But
(05:10):
when you are head of magic making at your house,
there is no rest for the weary. So let's talk
about a couple of systems I rely on to keep
me going during such a busy month. We are going
to touch on three areas, gifting, magic making, and food.
Let's start with gifting. This has been top of mind
for me because we are fresh off of Black Friday,
(05:31):
Cyber Monday, and all of that madness. Okay, this can
feel different depending on what chapter of life you find
yourself in, but for me, with kids ages four, eight,
and twelve, we are at peak present season. Because of
the ages of my kids, I'm still doing like the
classic fun toys, like my daughter Who's Penny. She's four,
(05:54):
she has for her gumball machine. Both of my girls
want makeup kids and they each want a doll. And
then I've also got to where I'm having to think
about higher ticket items like electric bikes and scooters and
surfboards and air pods. And if I didn't have systems
in place, or a gifting system in place, I would
spend the whole month worrying about if I had enough
for everybody, how much I've spent, and if everyone will
(06:16):
have about the same amount of gifts to open on
Christmas morning. So this is how I manage that. First,
I love the list making app Google Keep. I use
it for just about everything in my life I need
to make a digital list for whether it's groceries or
gift giving. You could totally do this just in your
notes app as well, but I really like Google Keep.
(06:38):
So I create a note and it's titled Christmas twenty
twenty four or twenty twenty five, like whatever year you're in,
and I list every kid's name underneath with a bulleted
list of what they're asking for. I'll also include like
my husband, my parents in laws, things like that, but
as kids start to say I want this, I just
add it to the list. I'll also include food after
(07:00):
I've purchased it, the price I paid for it, and
whether or not I'm going to wrap it or it'll
be unwrapped. We usually don't wrap Santa gifts, so I'm
just wrapping the gifts that aren't Santa specific. Sometimes I'll
include a link as well, like if I'm still thinking
about something or trying to decide if I'm going to
get it, and as I get each thing, I check
(07:23):
it off the list. I actually finished all of my
kids shopping over this big gifting weekend, and it felt
so so good. Now, some of those gifts started to
arrive already because you know two day shipping. So another
system I swear by is hiding the gifts because I
don't have a ton of storage space where I'm at
(07:44):
right now. I don't have a basement, I don't have
a big empty closet, so and I've also got curious kids,
so I have started putting the gifts into the emptied
storage bins that typically store my holiday decorations, you know,
the black ones with the yellow lids. I have got
sneaky kids and not very much storage, so this is
(08:05):
a perfect solution for me. Finally, when it comes to
wrapping those gifts, I really love this small business called
Mary Market. They sell wrapping kits, and a standard kit
comes with three rolls of wrapping paper, three different spools
of ribbon, and a bunch of beautiful tags. In my mind,
(08:25):
I assign each kid a set wrapping paper, and that's
how I know who is getting what, and that's how
I identify the gifts under the tree. But I love
having like this simple wrapping system, and I'm convinced. I think,
I don't know, it's like forty or fifty dollars for
the kit, but if I were to go to Target
and buy wrapping paper and ribbon, I would spend just
(08:47):
as much. But I liked it. This literally comes in
a dedicated system. So that those are three tips for
systems that save me when it comes to gifting. And
I really if you're not going to do anything. Just
make the list. Make the list first, and thin shop.
I get so overwhelmed and I'm like, oh, I need
(09:07):
something for this person, and I just start looking at everything. No, no, no,
determine what it is. Even if it's a category. I
want to get this person's sweater. Then that just makes
it so much easier. So there you have it. Okay,
let's talk about magic. Making of all of the things
that happen in December, what's most important to me is
the nostalgia and the tradition piece. Because that feels so
(09:30):
important to me, it's worth putting a system in place
to make sure it happens and I'm not constantly stressed
about the month that it's not happening. So using my
same app, Google Keep, I have a note that it's
labeled Christmas Magic. And this doesn't necessarily have a year
attached to it. It's just like an evergreen list. And
on that list, I have written out all of our
family's traditions that we have ever done before, and it
(09:52):
includes traditions from my husband's childhood, it includes traditions from
my childhood, and the one that are non negotiables that
I really want to do every single year. I put
at the top of the list. So it might be
things like watching certain Christmas movies, or adopting a family
at Christmas, or seeing the lights, or making a specific
cookie recipe or like one for us as we always
(10:13):
go to Mexican food in the month of December because
that's something my husband did and it's kind of silly
and it doesn't mean much, but we gotta do it.
We gotta go to Mexican food every December. So then
I determine what I would feel really sad about if
we didn't do it, and then I take those and
I physically put them into our family calendar. It's not
a guarantee that they're going to happen, but it helps
(10:36):
to increase the likelihood that they will happen if I
actually put those activities in our family calendar. It's so
easy to get overwhelmed in your brain, to fill up
so quickly, and so if I just sit down at
the beginning of the month and I put all of
those things in, then I usually fare better. All right, Finally,
let's talk about food in December. Having regular dinners is
(10:59):
always hardest to during the months that are extra busy.
We know this. Of course, as a result, I rely
on a lot of five ingredient recipes and shortcuts, like
using my favorite jarredmyre and arasauce, pesto, rotisserie chicken, things
like that. And I also find that in December, I
this month in particular. We usually always are here through Christmas,
(11:20):
and then we leave the last week to go beat
with family, and so really it's only three solid weeks,
so I almost am never spending the final week here
in my home, and so I will plan meals for
the entire month rather than just one week at a time.
It's almost like there's so much to do that I
just want to literally make all the decisions in sitting
(11:43):
down at one point. So I'll still review my weekly
calendar meal plan, but I like looking at the whole
month first. We also have a couple of classic dinners
we always like to do in December, like our reindeer ribs.
I make this pork loin with cranberry barbecue sauce. We
have an annual Red and Green Day where everything on
the plate is red and green. It's easy to schedule
(12:03):
those in when I'm thinking about it from a monthly standpoint,
rather than a weekly one, so I like to do that.
When it comes to parties and hosting, I swear by
having a signature appetizer, a signature cookie, and a signature
salad that I kind of have on standby and will
plan to bring if I'm asked. So that is my
Italian sausage stuff mushrooms. That is the appetizer. I'm most
(12:26):
famous for my gingerbread cookies, which are my favorite flavors,
but without the hassle of rolling out actual gingerbread men.
And my maple glazed and kale butternut salad that's my
go to for a salad if I'm asked to bring something.
Remember that we also have a whole very nicely organized
section and recipe club dedicated to Christmas recipes, and I
(12:49):
intentionally included enough that it gives you options, but not
too many that your brain's getting explode. So I think
there's twelve classic Christmas recipe in there. Remember, no ads,
so simple, no longer blog posts, no drawn out stories.
It is just the recipes you need so that you
can make those classic Christmas recipes. All right, let's finish
(13:12):
how we always finish with my weekly give me five.
These are five things that made my life easier or
more enjoyable this week. And we have got a bit
of a holiday twist, so let's start with We're going
to talk about gifting from our kitchen really quickly, because
this is something I like to do it, but there
are years it does not happen. When I say gifting
(13:34):
from my kitchen, I mean making something that we take
to neighbors, teachers, friends, things like that. My kids really
want to do it this year, and I want to
do it, but if I don't plan it, then it's
not going to happen. So a couple of these things
are because we are going to do this this weekend.
So I've got everything ready to go. So we are
going to make my gingerbread cookies, those cookies I just referenced,
(13:55):
and to take all of the cookies, I found these
real cute gingerbread bags at Target. They're cheap. They're brown
bags that are decorated to look like gingerbread houses. Now
we could buy gingerbread, or we could buy plain brown
paper bags and do this ourselves, but they were, like,
I don't know, fifty cents each and they're so cute.
(14:18):
So I got those bags and those are definitely something
that made my life easier this week. I have, don't
worry about that. I got some cute red and white
striped tissue paper and that's what we're gonna put the
cookies in. I like that. It's a gingerbread themed bag
with gingerbread cookies inside. Will include our family holiday card
and it'll be great, okay next because we're going to
(14:40):
make a ton of cookies. This product has been on
this Gimme five list at least three times this year,
and I'm sorry I had to put it on again
because it's just that helpful. And is the extra large
baking sheets from norder Quare. It's called the Big Sheet,
and it is it basically will It fits in a
standard but you can fit a third more cookies on it,
(15:04):
so you can make more cookies at the same time.
But I don't just use it for cookies. I use
it for all of my sheet pan dinners now, and
you guys know that I'm a huge fan. I'm a
sheet pan dinner. But what I like about it it
has more space, so I get things crispier. I can
feed my family a five a little more easy with
(15:24):
one sheet pan rather than two sheet pans, so it's
a must. I love it so much. It's as of recording.
It's on a really good sale on Target, so I
am going to get two more. But anyways, so great
love those extra large baking sheets. Okay I mentioned this earlier,
but the Merrymarket wrapping kit. If you are looking to
(15:44):
simplify your gift giving or your gift wrapping this holiday season,
take a look at those wrapping kits. I think they've
got three or four. There's like a Santa one, there's
a Gingerbread one. They are so cute and it is
just it just shows up as a little system, which
I just love it. I love it so much. And
then I've also got on here a peppermint lip mask.
(16:06):
So a couple of years ago this brand Linage La
n E I g E. I believe it's outspelled like
I felt like I saw it everywhere. They became famous
for a lip mask, and it's something that you put
on your lips before you go to bed. Now you
could put it on during the day, but I always
understood the lip mask is something you did while you
were sleeping. And they have the cutest it's red whites
(16:28):
World peppermint lip mask and it is the perfect amount
of peppermint that just kind of tingles on your lips
but not too much. Oh my gosh, I'm loving it
so much. It is perfect for holiday, like great for
a favorite things. It's so great I'm going to put
in people's stockings. I love it. Peppermint lip Mask by Linage.
Can't recommend it enough. And then finally, one of the
(16:51):
traditions we have as a family is we always get
a new game, a new family game, every holiday season,
and typically we're doing it the minute and we play
it on Christmas Eve. But this year I thought ahead
and I got a holiday themed game, and I wanted
to get it early so we could play it at
least a few times throughout the month. And so it
is called Santo Cookie Elf and it is from the
(17:13):
same people who make the game that's Taco Cat, Goat
Cheese Pizza. You guys would recognize the box so many reviews.
There's like fifty thousand plush reviews of this game online
and it's a really fun card game. It can be
played by everyone in the family. And this is the
first time I'm seeing this holiday version. So I stagged
(17:34):
that and I'm excited to pull it out this weekend
for my family to play, and we'll play it throughout
the holiday month and then I'll just pack it with
our holiday decorations and it'll be something we can pull
out every year. So there you have it, Five things
in my life easier, more festive this year. I really
appreciate you guys listening today. Make sure you're subscribed to
(17:55):
the podcast so that you never miss an episode. Remember
I created this entire podcast so that you could have
a quick twenty minute listen while you map out your
own meals for the week. Listening to a podcast while
a meal plan has been part of my own simple
dinner system for as long as I can remember, so
I try and put out a perfect fit for that
each week. Thank you so much for listening today. I'm
so glad you're here. Until next time with happy cooking,
(18:15):
happy holidays. I'm Kelsey. I'm forward chatting with you all
next week.
Host
Kelsey Nixon
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com