Skip to main content

Our Favorite Holiday Recipes

From Nana’s Famous Egg Dish to Spiced Sangria and Bourbon Pecan Pie, these are our favorite holiday recipes that we enjoy every Christmas!

‘Tis the season for all of the festive eats and drinks. We’ve been enjoying this cozy week at home cooking our favorite holiday recipes and getting ready for the Christmas weekend

While most of the time I aim to eat nourishing recipes with greens and protein and fresh wholesome ingredients (like these spa cuisine recipes), I like to live by the 80/20 perspective, allowing plenty of space for special treats. I’m also a big believer of enjoying holidays, special food, and time spent together.

We have several traditional-to-us recipes that make an appearance on our table during the holiday season year after year; like it’s tradition to have Alton Brown’s Overnight Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas morning while opening presents. From brunch casseroles to spiced sangria and Ina’s rib roast, I’m sharing our favorite holiday recipes – enjoy!

Our Favorite Holiday Recipes

Nana’s Famous Egg Dish

This egg casserole is perfect for any brunch or holiday celebrations. It freezes beautifully to make ahead, and tastes amazing with pico de gallo salsa.

Greens Beans with Goat Cheese, Almonds & Cranberries

These green beans are bright and fresh, with creamy goat cheese, orange zest, crunchy slivered almonds and sweet cranberries. The recipe is gluten-free and only takes 15 minutes from start to finish.

The Ultimate Fall & Winter Salad

This salad is a fall dream come true. It has butternut squash, spicy arugula, a tangy vinaigrette, chicken, pumpkin seeds, goat cheese. It’s perfect for any holiday gatherings or parties and makes a veggie-packed side dish. My vegetarian friends can easily omit the chicken and it’s just as delicious without it.

The Best Raw Chocolate Tart

This raw chocolate tart, made with cashews and cocoa and an almond coconut crust is a decadent gluten-free dessert that doesn’t require any cooking!

Holiday Spice Sangria

Holiday spice sangria! It’s made in advance of any holiday soirees, and the flavors just get better over the span of a few days. It’s perfect to take to parties, as it’s a fun switch-up from the usual bottle of vino.

Ina Garten’s Mulled Wine

Warm up with a pot of Ina Garten’s Mulled Wine recipe, a mix of apple cider and red wine infused with cinnamon, cloves and orange.

Ina’s Sunday Rib Roast

Ina’s Sunday Rib Roast with mustard horseradish is often our centerpiece at a holiday party. It’s a crowd favorite.

Ina’s Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

Another favorite from Ina. Chocolate, bourbon and pecans—what’s not to love? I’ve made this twice this year already and plan to make it again on Saturday.

Here’s what our menu looks like this year:

Christmas Eve: dinner at my dad’s house (Mexican food buffet + my Aunt’s famous egg nog and all the desserts)

Christmas Brunch:

  • Nana’s egg casserole
  • Alton Brown’s cinnamon rolls
  • Bacon or ham (I haven’t decided yet)
  • Tamales and beans (from madre!)

Christmas Day dinner:

  • Cheese board and artichoke dip with crackers
  • Mediterranean chopped salad
  • Smoked turkey on the Traeger
  • Stuffing and gravy
  • Beef tenderloin with horseradish sauce
  • Cheesy potatoes (madre)
  • Fresh sourdough
  • Bourbon pecan pie + dessert platter (tons of different cookies and candies)
  • Mulled wine, egg nog, and champagne

It should be a very good, and very tasty, weekend ahead 😉

See you tomorrow with a new podcast episode!

xo

Gina

You may also enjoy:

 

The post Our Favorite Holiday Recipes appeared first on The Fitnessista.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Discover The World’s Smallest “Mountain” – The Mount Paltry

Discover The World’s Smallest “Mountain” – The Mount Paltry Move over Everest, there’s a new headline-grabber in town and it’s barely taller than you are. Mount Paltry has exploded on social media as the world’s smallest mountain , a tiny bump in Australia that has become internet-famous precisely because it looks… well, not very mountain-like at all. In a world obsessed with extreme hikes and record-breaking peaks, this modest mound has captured global attention by doing the exact opposite: being proudly underwhelming. Where on Earth Is Mount Paltry? Mount Paltry is described in viral posts as a miniature mountain in Australia, rising only a few metres above the surrounding land. It’s usually shown as a small, rounded rise in an otherwise flat landscape the kind of bump you might expect to call a hill, or even “just a bit of ground,” rather than a mountain. That’s exactly why people love it: the contrast between the dramatic title “world’s smallest mountain” and the very ordinar...

Glamorous Plus-Size Wedding Guest Dresses in Beautiful Styles

Glamorous Plus-Size Wedding Guest Dresses in Beautiful Styles Did you know that over 67% of women in the U.S. wear a size 14 or larger? Yet, despite the demand, the fashion industry has been slow to provide elegant, well-fitting, and on-trend plus- size wedding guest dresses. Many women face limited choices, ill-fitting designs, and outdated silhouettes that fail to highlight their curves. Shopping for the perfect dress can feel like navigating a minefield either the options lack style, the fit is off, or the available dresses don’t align with the formality of the event. For years, plus-size women have been told to “hide” their curves instead of celebrating them. Traditional formalwear often lacks the structure, comfort, or aesthetic appeal needed to make plus-size wedding guests feel just as glamorous as their straight-size counterparts. The frustration of sifting through uninspiring racks, struggling with restrictive fabrics, or settling for ill- proportioned designs is all too fami...

Dr. Cabral 7-day detox review + recipes

Dr. Cabral 7-day detox review + recipes  Sharing my thoughts on the Dr. Stephen Cabral 7-day detox , and sharing the recipes I enjoyed while I was on this Functional Medicine detox.  Hi friends! How are you? I hope you’re having a lovely day so far. I’m re-sharing this post today because we’re heading into spring, which is the perfect time for a detox. Hundreds of you have done this functional medicine detox with me and have experienced amazing results. For this one, we’ll be joining the giant IHP community with our group detox; last time over 50,000 people joined in!! You can order your detox kit here (use code FITNESSISTA10 if it’s your first time) and then join our private (new) Facebook group here.  Here is a recap of one of my experiences with this detox! In this post, I also wanted to share some of the recipes and meals I enjoyed for my friends out there who are considering doing this functional medicine detox on their own time. It can be helpful to have meal i...