Make Ahead Meals for the Holidays

The holidays are coming up and cooking a lot of food takes so much time. Anything you can do to make ahead meals for the holidays, the better. From prepping individual ingredients to fully cooking entire dishes days ahead of time can make the day-of go so much easier. You can trust that you have everything ready and you have enough. Relieve the stress of cooking on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and every holiday throughout the year.

Meal prep and make ahead meals can save you a ton of time on main courses or side dishes. If you don’t know the basics you can find yourself having to remake a lot of food though. Some dishes and ingredients work and others simply don’t. Follow these fundamental rules and you should do great.

Foods that can be frozen entirely cooked are a great option for saving time especially when you’re expecting to feed a lot of people. Meals that focus on a meat, grain or veggie generally freeze well. 

• Casseroles: Creamy casseroles freeze very well. Although cream doesn’t freeze well on its own, as part of a dish it works. You can entirely cook dishes like mac n cheese, pot pies, and casseroles ahead of time and freeze them days in advance. Take it out the morning-of and reheat in the oven.
• Soups & stews: Soups and stews freeze and reheat fantastically. The moisture from the broth keeps everything sealed and prevents the other ingredients from drying out in the freezer. We covered this before on this post: Tips For Freezing Meals. Soups make a great addition to holiday meals but they take so long to cook and develop flavor. Make ahead meals for the holidays, like soups, is an efficient and easy way to prepare. Even if you don’t want to cook the entire soup ahead, even just preparing the broth can save hours to build flavors. (depending on the soup)
• Dough: Pie, bread, and cookie dough all freeze well. Dough can take a lot of effort and time to prepare. Make ahead meals like pot pies, dessert pies, or breads will make holiday dishes possible that would ordinarily not be an option.
• Desserts: So many desserts do well in the freezer or in the fridge. Cookies, cakes, other pastries, you can even get away with prepping them and leaving them unbaked until the day of. Make ahead desserts is definitely a time saver and game changer.

Don’t feel limited though. Tons of make ahead meals can be frozen. A good rule to follow is don’t freeze foods that are

• Crunchy
• Mayonnaise based meals
• Hard boiled eggs
• Salads
• Custards

Any meal that requires an emulsion is likely to split or become grainy. Foods release moisture as they’re freezing so crunchy foods lose their crunch.

Reheating make ahead meals for the holidays

Most frozen meals can be cooked or reheated from frozen. Adjust the cooking times and use a food thermometer to check internal temps. 

Leftovers from the holidays

According to the USDA, if you thawed the meal in the refrigerator, yes, you can refreeze foods after cooking or reheating them. Make sure to freeze food again within 3 days however the earlier you get it frozen the better it tends to upkeep. 

Make ahead meals a day before

Preparing vegetables the day before is a great way to save time, peel potatoes, cut off the ends of string beans, chop onions, and roast beets. Thaw the turkey, marinate or brine the meat, and make any dips. All of this prep not only makes things easier but also helps develop flavors.

Use separate meal containers to avoid flavors leaching from each other. See our blog post on meal prep containers. Learn more with our post on the Best Meal Prepping Containers.

Want help on cooking the perfect turkey for Thanksgiving, check out our article on How to Cook Turkey for more information!

Need some help with some ideas for make ahead meals for holiday appetizers, sides, and entrees then start here: