M&S Christmas Food To Go

lvm

Well, I know this is waaaaay too early but I've been thinking about next year's dinner.

Dinner has always been at Mum and Dad's and Mum does all the cooking from scratch. It's getting a bit too much work for her so I volunteered to do next year.

So...I want to do it the easy way and get everything from M&S just to shove in the oven. Does anyone have a PDF copy of the M&S Christmas Food brochure they could email me? Just want to check how much I should be saving or everything!! (Being good and forward planning).

Any recommendations from anyone who bought there this year also appreciated!!

Thanks! X

notanewuser

I chucked mine, but it was about £60 for dinner for 4, meat and veg etc but no pudding or booze (IIRC).

officeguru

lvm wrote: »

Well, I know this is waaaaay too early but I've been thinking about next year's dinner.

Dinner has always been at Mum and Dad's and Mum does all the cooking from scratch. It's getting a bit too much work for her so I volunteered to do next year.

So...I want to do it the easy way and get everything from M&S just to shove in the oven. Does anyone have a PDF copy of the M&S Christmas Food brochure they could email me? Just want to check how much I should be saving or everything!! (Being good and forward planning).

Any recommendations from anyone who bought there this year also appreciated!!

Thanks! X

You wouldn't have to do everything from scratch... You could mix and match... For example, I'm getting a bit old to be doing everything... so what I did this year was a bit of forward planning... eg I bought a bag of mixed lettuce that I would just have to pour out of a bag... I bought some fresh prawns and all you do is melt some butter mix in the prawns, put into ramekin dishes to cool and top with a little clarified butter with a piece of lemon on top to garnish... That could be done the day before... sorted.. The last course, I decided to make Eton mess... which entailed whipping up some cream and setting it aside, along with some frozen raspberries and bought mini meringues... Then all that entailed was to get some pretty glasses and put in some raspberries, then meringue and then cream and repeat until the top of the glass is reached... Unfortunately you can't do that in advance as the meringue melts.. For the main course, I tried the 4 bird out of Aldi's, which made life easy as it is a lot more moist than a turkey breast... You could then buy frozen roast potatoes and frozen veggies to go with it... so there you go... If you were prepared to use fresh veggies... Peel and cook the brussel sprouts and carrots or whatever until almost cooked and then pop into an oven proof bag with some butter and tie the top... and then put it in the oven for the last half hour to warm through..I also used instant potato this year... I used a quality one and then mixed it with philly and chives and then popped it in the oven at the same time as the veggies to warm through... I used oven to table dishes so that I didn't have too much washing up...

I hope this helps and it won't cost you £60+..... you could also suggest to your family to bring the starter or the dessert as I think they would still love to be involved in the cooking....

I hope this helps...

lvm

Thanks for this!

To be honest, cost really isn't the issue. I was expecting it to be around £150+ for everything, alcohol included.

I'm not bad at cooking when I want to but would rather not have to do much work. Just want to switch the timer on and relax! Boring, I know!!

Like the Eton Mess idea though...might start practicing now!!

scaredy_cat

waitrose do everything for a christmas dinner, if i could afford it, i'd get it from there.

[Deleted User]

scaredy_cat wrote: »

waitrose do everything for a christmas dinner, if i could afford it, i'd get it from there.

Don`t count on their home delivery. I did just that last christmas and it snowed!! The delivery man rang to say he couldn`t get to us

motherhen2234

Go for mix and match and prepare in advance.

For starters I usually do a melon or soup. Easy to prep in advance and minimum cooking required, dessert I make a cheesecake the day before which is again is easy to do and home made touches always impress the parents!

Although for from M&S i do like the honey and mustard parsnips and the roast spuds in duck fat. Had them this year and they were great. Also liked sainsburies sprouts in bacon. Also got their onion gravy (in the jar) and improved it with roasting juices . Got my lamb from the butchers and made the spiced cabbage, carrots etc myself.

suki1964

Mix and match really is the way

I buy the turkey boned and stuffed from m&s as well as stuffings, prawns , yummy bits etc

Salads and veggies - anywhere

Gammon I cook myself as I like to make soup as well

Puddings and cakes I buy as we eat so little it's a waste making

As to m&s food to order - to be honest I prefer to go in store and see and judge what it is I need.

Nan63

We decided to go down the M&S route last year for our entire Christmas dinner. It was such a success I doubt if we will ever go back to peeling spuds again for Christmas dinner! We did the same this year.

There is no stress, it's just about timings and taking the stuff out of the packet!

I think we started it as my son in law is a chef in one of the top restaurants around our area and he was off, miracles of miracles, on christmas day last year so I wasn't going to put myself under the stress of cooking a meal for him!

For reference, we cook for 4 adults and 2 children.

Mrs_Bones

How many will it be for? If cost isn't an issue have you thought of booking and just going out for Christmas lunch? Then just get some bits like ham in etc for a buffet style tea in case anyone gets peckish later.

scrooze247

We sat down to Christmas lunch at my eldest son's house which was entirely from the M and S prepared take away range.Thinking that that was clever (all prepared for you) I was looking forward to it.Apart from the turkey crown (£9 in Lidl) it was all disappointing.The biggest problem seemed to be lack of oven space.My daughter in law had 8 different trays of food that needed to be finished off in her ovens each with different timings.It didn't work at all and she has 2 ovens.Some things were undercooked,others overcooked.And don't rely on the M and S guidelines neither they are wrong.So £125 later.......:(