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Unique Holiday Dinners
By Jeffrey Meier

Are you ready to eat for the holidays? I know I sure am! But sometimes it's hard to know what to make when you're tired of eating the traditional foods that have been passed down for generations. If nothing else, it's nice to add a bit of splash to the meal. That splash might be a unique pizza or even a bucket of chicken. Food items that make the meal a little less traditional can sometimes be inviting. Since I know there are families out there that absolutely do not celebrate the holidays in a traditional sense, I thought I would see what unique holiday dinners there are to make that might add some flair to your next holiday dining experience.

Vegan Dinners

We have now entered a new stage in our evolution as a society. Many people are not willing to embrace ham and turkey as they used to because they are now vegetarians or full-fledged vegans. Since you are almost promised to have at least one vegan at your dinner table in this day and age, it is a good idea to learn to incorporate some tasty vegan treats into your meal.

Some unique holiday dinners for the vegan diet can be found on a great website called BryannaClarkGrogran.com. She is a vegan who has taken the liberty of sharing some of her great recipes for others to enjoy. She shares her recipes for maple baked beans, green onion mashed potatoes, succotash, cornbread stuffing and rich brown yeast gravy to name a few.

Also she shares some incredible holiday recipes, including vegan Christmas quiche, poppy seed spiral bread, chicken pot pie, Christmas biscotti, raw cranberry relish, classic seitan wellington, and soy and seitan "chicken" roulades with vegan "chevre" and sundried tomato filling with vegan bernaise sauce. Also, she has desert recipes including a gingerbread cake roll with lemon crème filling and caramel sauce, and New Year cranberry-orange-chocolate scones. These unique options, and many more from her site, give you a variety of additional choices will make the vegetarian or vegan at your dinner table feel more than welcome.

Casseroles: Quick, Easy and Filling

While many associate the holidays with being able to kick back and enjoy family, unfortunately, many people don't have that option - much of the world has to move forward regardless of the holiday season. However, the people who make the world move during this time still have to eat. It is for this reason that many chefs and people who enjoy cooking came up with some quick and easy recipes that provide those too busy to sit down and make a full holiday meal the option of enjoying a wonderful holiday dinner.

One of the unique holiday dinners that fit into the "quick and easy" category are casseroles. There are so many options that fall under the realm of the casserole that you can almost combine any two to three items and create a great meal with that requires little preparation. The website Familyfun.go.com is a great place to find many of these casserole recipes, some of which include vegetarian cheesy baked ziti, butternut squash soufflé, burrito casserole, Mexicali pie, fruited sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, southwest corn spoon bread, Italian chicken and rice, and pepperoni-pasta bake. There are many more casseroles to add to the list of unique holiday dinners, but these should help get you started.

Mexican Holiday Dinner Recipes

You don't have to be of Latin descent to enjoy some great Mexican food for the holidays, so I am adding some great Mexican dishes to the list of unique holiday dinners. Whether you're making these dishes to add zest to your meal, or creating them to be the centerpiece, you won't be disappointed with these choices.

One great option is to try roasted corn and lobster dip, which has a light and sweet flavor perfect for dipping cooked shrimp. You can also try some tasty tomato green beans, which use a mixture of green beans and wax beans that are topped with chopped cashews. If you're in the mood for a salad and dessert, you can try a strawberry melon salad and peanut parfait, both very tasty and unique. And the centerpiece of the meal - a wonderful compliment to the aforementioned sides - is the Mexican peacock, a combination of tender chicken breasts wrapped around a garlic and avocado filling, coated with breaded crumbs. Mouth watering!

More Unique Holiday Dinners

The holiday dinners I was not able to fit nicely into a category fall under "more" - but they are just as unique. One list of recipes I ran across that sound incredible comes from Somdthisisliving.somd.com. They give a great assortment of dining ideas that come together to make a nice alternative to the traditional holiday meal.

The recipes begin with the shrimp with beer bouillon, a great meal that of course includes shrimp and beer (what else do we need for the holidays, right?). The remaining items in the recipe, including carrots, celery, onion, parsley and thyme, make for a very healthy starting dish. The next item on the menu is the mesquite pork tenderloin with homemade BBQ demi sauce, which sounds very appetizing. It is followed by the risotto and Italian sausage stuffing, roasted garlic mashed potatoes with sweet potato swirl and harvest vegetable medley. The meal is rounded out with cranberry shortcakes. Not bad for a holiday meal, right?

This holiday season, when you sit in the kitchen thumbing through recipe books for the next great meal to "wow" your family members, remember, you can go the traditional route, or our can surprise yourself, and them, by going the "unique" route. Unique holiday dinners can add a splash of fun to your meal, or even change the scope of your family tradition. So why not try one or two? The worst that can happen is your family dislikes the change and chooses not to eat the food. But since most people cannot resist having their nostrils tickled by an inviting aroma, it is likely that your unique holiday dinners will be a big hit!

Jeffrey Meier of Jam727 Enterprises at http://www.Jam727.com offers information articles on a wide variety of subjects including Holiday Recipes at http://www.jam727.com/recipe/baking_recipes_for_that.htm

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