Unique Holiday Cooking Time Savers: Slow Cookers, Chex Mix and Other Tips

What do you want to do at Christmas time? Do you want to spend wonderful, quality hours with your family? Do you want to feed them wholesome, homemade quality food? It's very difficult to do both! Producing all those holiday favorites your family loves takes a lot of time in the kitchen. But if you think outside the box and plan ahead, you can minimize the time in the kitchen and maximize the time you can spend with your family.

Here are few ideas I try to implement each year. Some ideas reduce the total time spent in preparation, while others simply have you doing the preparation ahead of the holiday crunch to save time later. Implementing even only a few of these ideas will leave you with more time to enjoy your friends and family, while still enjoying real homemade holiday goodness.

HANDY CUP OR BOWL OR TUREEN OF HOMEMADE SOUP: Make a big batch of your favorite, cozy, homemade soup or stew ahead of time and freeze portions of it individually in a muffin tin. Portioning it out in this way makes it easy to grab a cup or bowl of soup quickly, or to heat up an entire batch more quickly than if the whole amount was frozen solid. Just spray the muffin tin with cooking spray and add the soup, leaving a little room for expansion during freezing. Once it is fully frozen, pop the individual portions out and place into a freezer bag. Remove one portion and cook in the microwave for a cup of soup. Remove two portions and cook in the microwave for a bowl of soup. Or place a little bit of water in a pan and add all of the portions. Slowly bring up to just boiling, and you have a nice pot of homemade goodness for your family after an evening of decorating, wrapping, caroling, etc.

KITCHEN IMPLEMENTS: Take stock of kitchen implements you may need during the holidays but don't usually use year round. Does your candy thermometer work properly? Is your turkey baster missing? Have your pastry bags seen better days? These are all things which are better learned well before the moment you go to use the item in question. Take stock of them ahead of time, and add them to your shopping list immediately. You will be very glad to have these things on hand, and in working order, when you go to use them during the holidays. A separate trip to the store later to buy a turkey baster, while you should be enjoying time with your family, is NOT time well-spent!

PRE-MEASURE AND MIX DRY INGREDIENTS: If you want to bake bread during the holidays, or a cake or non-drop cookies (something you won't be freezing, in other words), you can still take steps to save time. Most recipes call for dry ingredients to be mixed separately. You can do this ahead of time by measuring out and mixing the flour, baking soda, salt, etc. Then just seal it in a plastic zipper bag or other airtight container, and label it. Then when you go to bake the item fresh, that much of the job is already done for you.

STOCK UP ON INGREDIENTS BEFOREHAND: Running to the store at the last minute is no fun and can be a thief of quality family time, especially during the congested holiday shopping frenzy. Take stock of your cupboards and make a list of items you are out of or need to replace. Watch for things you might not usually use throughout the year but use for holiday baking. Some of these items might be peppermint extract, certain kinds of nuts, candied fruit, etc.

UTILIZE LINERS AND PARCHMENT PAPER: It can be expensive to use liners and parchment paper every time you bake throughout the year. But the time it can save is a valid trade-off during the holidays, in my opinion. To minimize cleanup, I like to use parchment paper for baking cookies, slow-cooker liners for slow cooking and foil to line baking sheets when baking other items. The quick clean-up this kind of preventive preparation affords you is a bountiful payoff for a small monetary investment.

HOMEMADE COOKIES IN A FLASH: Make several batches of drop cookies. Spray a pan (or other suitable flat surface that will fit into your freezer) with cooking spray, and drop the dough onto it as if you were about to bake the cookies. But instead of baking the cookies, place the pan into your freezer. Once each cookie is individually frozen, remove from the pan and put into a freezer bag or other suitable container. Since you froze them individually, it should be easy to pull only as many from the container as you need at one time. Now you have homemade cookies ready to bake them as you need them, without a lot of time investment when you'd rather be enjoying your family.

CHEX MIX MADE EASIER: I like to make a batch of this several times throughout the holiday season. The most time-consuming part is measuring all the spices. What I like to do is measure out all the spices and Worcestershire sauce, and mix it with the melted butter. Then pour it into a small freezer bag and freeze it. Then when I want to make a batch, I can just place the pre-mixed, frozen mixture into a bowl and melt it in the microwave. Then pour it into a glass pan and add the cereal, pretzels and whatever else I want to add and bake it according to the directions. Super easy and quick!

MASHED POTATOES DON'T HAVE TO SOAK UP ALL YOUR TIME ON FEAST-DAY: Mashed potatoes don't seem to lose anything at all in the freezing process. And since they are a major time-consumer, what with peeling, boiling, mashing, etc., I like to make them ahead and freeze them. Simply make them according to your favorite recipe and freeze. Take them out a day or two before you want to use them, and put them in the refrigerator to begin thawing them. Then heat them very slowly in a pan on the stove (so as not to burn them, since they are already cooked) or just put them in a bowl in the microwave. They're still delicious, and by making ahead, one of your biggest time commitments in the kitchen is already complete.

BREAKFAST CASSEROLE IN ONE-TIME-USE PAN: This is a good breakfast on Christmas morning, and the best part is that it can be made weeks in advance and frozen. The best way to do this is to purchase a "one time use" aluminum pan to use for this. Just spray it with cooking spray and fill it two-thirds full (to allow for expansion when freezing) with your favorite breakfast casserole recipe. Once frozen, lay a piece of waxed paper over the top surface (to prevent freezer burn) and wrap it up tightly. Freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw it for a day or two in the refrigerator before use for ease of cooking. Give it a good stir just before going into the oven, and bake as directed. A lot of good and varying recipes can be found for this online or in cookbooks. Many families have their favorites they pass around. Preparing this well ahead of time assures even more time with your family during the Christmas festivities.

USE YOUR SLOW-COOKER FOR THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT USUALLY USE IT FOR: Planning an easy spaghetti dinner? Make it even easier if you are under a major time crunch in the evening, by planning for it in the morning. Put a liner in your slow cooker in the morning and use it to heat through two (or more) jars of pre-made spaghetti sauce. All you have to do when you get home is throw on the pasta and the sauce is ready to go. One less thing. This also affords you the opportunity to get creative and add a little bit of extra garlic, oregano or whatever you like to the sauce in the morning, since it's just going to cook all day. You can also use it for large batches of soup, even if the soup is premade. Letting it cook in the slow cooker all day not only allows people access if they need to sup at varying times, but it can give it a more homemade flavor. If you're planning a get-together, you can make apple cider ahead of time in the slow cooker. Just add all your ingredients early in the day and let it warm-through on low. It will be fabulous, warm, toasty - and one less thing you have to do come party time.

The key to maximizing time with your family and friends during the holidays is to think, plan and get creative. Happy holidays, everyone!