Destressing the Holidays: Simple Meals

Baking Christmas cookies, hosting Christmas Eve or Christmas Day meals, holiday parties where you bring a dish or bottle of wine, New Year's parties, extra goodies at work. There is a lot of extra cooking and baking this time of year.

We are now in the less than 2 week mark before Christmas. You may still have Christmas gifts to purchase, hosting plans to arrange, travel plans, you may be behind on your Christmas cards. Wrapping gifts and packing for a trip may be looming over you. There is a lot yet to do over the next couple of weeks. One of the simplest things you can do to reduce your stress the next 9 days is: Make simple meals every day.

Put your cooking and baking energy into the holiday extras. Put your thought and creativity into the extra tasks left to do. Give yourself a break with your everyday meals.

We have talked about in this blog series having limited time and limited money. You also have limited energy. Use the energy you do have for the priorities you wrote down at the beginning of this series and the remaining tasks left to do.

Simplify your everyday to preserve your energy for the extras

Here are some ideas on how to have simple meals for the remaining days before the holidays: - Make a list of the simplest meals you know how to make, and make those for the rest of the year. - Use your crockpot or instant pot (everyday if need be!) - If you are making a meal that is easy to double, make it one night and you have extra for a second night. - Make a big pot of chili, freeze some of it and have left overs. - Add a few more frozen meals to your repertoire over the next couple weeks. This isn't forever, it is for a couple week time frame where you need to simplify. - If you are able to order out, order out on a night that is particularly busy.

We don't need to do it all this holiday and that includes in the kitchen. If it's important to do the extra baking and special food traditions, simplify in an area that doesn't need to be elaborate.