Holiday Tradition Recipes: Christmas Breakfast & Dinner Ideas

We’re all suckers for holiday traditions…lots of mine happen to revolve around food.  Every year, we have the same special (easy!) Christmas Breakfast, and last year we started a new dinner tradition.

What do I like best about these two dishes (other than the fact that they taste good)?  You can prepare them the day before so your time on Christmas can be spent playing with & loving on your family!

For Breakfast, my family loves my Tater Tot Casserole.  Sausage, Velveeta, tater tots…it’s super yummy!  You assemble the casserole the night before, so all you need to do Christmas morning is throw it in the oven.  An hour later, you have a warm, filling breakfast to eat in the midst of all the chocolate & cookies!

Tater Tot Casserole

1 lb. breakfast sausage

2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 lbs tater tots

Velveeta cheese, cut into thin slices

Directions:

1.      Brown sausage.
2.     Place cooked sausage in 9×13 baking dish. Sprinkle cheese over top of sausage, and   cover with layer of sliced Velveeta
3.     In a large bowl, beat together milk & eggs.  Pour milk mixture over cheese.
4.    Dish can be refrigerated overnight at this point.
5.     Heat oven to 350 degrees. 
6.    Top casserole with tater tots.  Bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until tots on top are browned. 
7.     Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Last year, we started a new Christmas Dinner tradition & it made my life much easier!  My husband suggested a spaghetti bar for dinner & it worked perfectly.  I offered two sauces and two pastas, along with garlic bread & shred-your-own Parm cheese.

My Holiday Bolognese Sauce should be made at least a day ahead of time so the flavors can develop, so this is another dish you can just heat on Christmas day.  Less work is a plus in my book!

A quick side note…this sauce has a little kick thanks to the black pepper, so if you have little ones that you want to feed this to please keep this in mind.

Holiday Bolognese Sauce

1 lg. onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

½ lb. lean ground beef

½ lb. ground pork

4 oz tomato paste

1 (15oz) can tomato paste

1 Tbsp sugar

¾ cup red wine

1 tsp salt

2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

Directions:

1.      In large saucepan, sauté onion in olive oil and butter until soft but not brown.  Add crushed garlic. Cook briefly. Do not let garlic brown.
2.     Stir in meats, salt, & pepper and brown well.
3.     Add tomato paste, tomato sauce, & sugar.
4.     Add wine.
5.     Add about 8-12 cups of water, based on the size of your pot.
6.    Add seasonings and stir well. 
7.     Cook, uncovered on simmer, stirring occasionally for 1 hour or more until almost desired consistency.  Cover & continue to cook for hour.

So here’s to new holiday traditions…may yours be as stress-free as possible!