Christmas Eve Brunch

We received a few questions about the Christmas brunch we hosted for my family.

Here are some quick details and if you have more questions, feel free to ask and I can add the answer to the post. 🙂

Since my nephew’s birthday was not too long ago and my parents hosted at their house, we decided to keep things a bit more lowkey than the usual feast that my parents or brother or sister prepares. We said we would host as simple brunch.

Christmas Brunch Menu
(recipes at the end of the post)

• Cheesy Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole
• French Toast
• Bacon
• Cinnamon Rolls
• Fruit
• Trader Joe’s Gingerbread Men Cookies
• Assorted tea or water

This was for 8 adults and 4 kids. I completely miscalculated how much food the kids would eat…3 tweens and 1 baby who is like a teen boy. We had some snacky items which filled anyone else who was still hungry.

For the Cheesy Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole, we used THIS RECIPE. We didn’t add peppers since it’s not something we normally buy and it was fine. We did half regular cheese and half soy cheese. We have some dairy intolerances…not allergies, so we just decided to meet in the middle. We went with our honey mustard instead since we didn’t want to open the dijon just to use a little bit.

We originally wanted to make an overnight French Toast Casserole but forgot some ingredients. (Here’s another overnight one we like.) We ended up making regular French Toast with THIS RECIPE (skip opening this link if you are with kids and don’t want them to repeat certain words) which has become our go-to. We like using brioche bread for our French Toast but any other bread would probably work too.We made most with regular milk and a few slices with the vanilla almond beverage from Trader Joe’s. I’m not sure if anyone else does this but I make the recipe for each serving. I found I’m not good at making a lot at once and dipping them all in. It takes a little longer but mine has turned out better that way.

Bacon was from Trader Joe’s (are you seeing a theme here?). It’s the kind of microwave for like 5 seconds or something because that how we’re rolling right now. We cook enough other thigns on the stove that causes lots of oil in our open kitchen that lingers to the entire house, so we minimize that when we can. The kids are in charge of that so I’m not sure the details.

Pillsbury cinnamon rolls are the way to go. If you want to make your own, that’s fine too. Let me know if you have a great recipe. I attempted a half-homemade one before and it was a major fail and very time consuming. The fruit of the day was blueberries and that was a winner all around. And we had some Trader Joe’s Mini Gingerbread Men cookies, which I forgot is probably made with real ginger pieces and are very, very gingery.

We don’t drink coffee and I feel so bad because I know that’s what everyone serves when guests come over. My dad knew this and brought his own. Everyone else was okay with the options of teas and water. I’ve even had friends bring a coffee pot over and that’s fine too. 🙂

There you have it! I’m sure you’re not thinking about Christmas anymore but you can swap out the fruit and cookies for something seasonal and I’m sure it’ll still be all good.

What’s a recent gathering you’ve hosted? What was on the menu?