holiday breakfast cookies loaded with goodies and an easy breakfast casserole
2 new recipes to please any house guest this holiday season + a plan for what to make ahead this weekend for a crowd!
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We had a lively discussion this week in chat about the realization that for many of us, Thanksgiving week is more than just the main meal with turkey and all the trimmings. For many of us, this week involves house guests and many, many meals!
This post is all about making this holiday week a little easier for you. (I will keep the “meat” of this post free for all, and just the 2 new breakfast recipes below the paywall.)
Think casseroles, soups, stews, and make ahead meals that can feed many mouths. If your family is anything like mine, we are also accommodating different eating styles.
While we all eat gluten-free, most of my family can tolerate cow dairy (unlike me, I stick to goat or sheep dairy). I have one daughter who is a pescetarian (since age 12), and my son eats no birds. Nolan’s love of birds drives his avoidance of all poultry, and this is a choice he made when he was just 8 years old and still abides by today as an almost 16-year-old!
I always keep these special accommodations in mind when I write my recipe swaps and notes sections- to give you lots of customization options and ideas!
This weekend, I plan to make ahead:
Two loaves of triple chocolate banana bread for easy breakfasts and snacks
Two loaves of flax bread (one to eat with today’s new creamy egg casserole recipe and one to use to make my traditional “cornbread” dressing for Thanksgiving (recipe in the Thanksgiving menu for paid subscribers).
Creamy egg casserole (new recipe below!)
Holiday breakfast cookies (3 batches!) new recipe below
A meat lasagna and a vegetarian lasagna (same veggie loaded recipe, I just leave out the meat) Lasagna makes an easy lunch option or will also make a terrific dinner served with this focaccia bread and an easy green salad with a simple vinaigrette.
A double batch of Thai chicken meatball soup I will use bison or lamb for the meatballs and not add them to the soup; I will make steamed salmon fillets for the soup for anyone not eating the meatballs. So, I will end up with 3 containers: soup base, meatballs, and steamed salmon fillets. At mealtime, I will warm the soup base and proteins, and everyone can assemble their own soup!
This week we will have:
Miso salmon and veggies over blood sugar-friendly konjac noodles
Taco night with pork carnitas and white fish or salmon as our proteins with all of the fixings: store-bought guacamole, salsa, homemade pickled onions, shredded cabbage, pepitas, sprouted corn tortillas, cassava tortillas, and lettuce wraps too. Everyone assembles their own tacos or taco salad and it makes for a very social, fun dinner party!
When my older daughters come home, they usually want to have pizza night, so it may not fall on a Friday (our usual pizza night), but I will make sure it happens while they are home. This is our family favorite pizza recipe. I will make the dough, shape the pizzas and then we play music and everyone stands around the kitchen island socializing, and assembling their pizzas! Toppings we love:
anchovies
italian sausage
squid
pepperoni
mushrooms
manchego or mozzarella
sliced olives
red pepper
onions
fresh basil and mircrogreens for topping finished pizzas
Other free recipes for make-ahead meal inspo:
the Nest Wellness gift guide:
something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read
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Now for holiday breakfast cookies and a creamy high-protein egg casserole for a crowd! All of my recipes are gluten-free, refined sugar-free, low-carb, and blood-sugar-friendly. I have included substitutions for many ingredients, including ways to make this casserole dairy-free and vegetarian. Feel free to download and print both PDFs below🧡
holiday breakfast cookies loaded with goodies!
By Beth Bollinger of Nest Wellness
Gluten-free, grain-free, low-carb, refined sugar-free, keto, dairy-free
makes 12 - 3 inch cookies
This holiday version will seem familiar if you have made my keto breakfast cookies! I have added gingerbread spice, dried cranberries, and nuts to the basic recipe to make a festive holiday version of this popular breakfast cookie.
If you aim for 25-30 grams of protein at breakfast, 2 of these cookies will give you 16.5 grams of protein and almost 12 g of fiber - a scoop of collagen in your coffee or tea will make up the remainder of your protein requirement for breakfast!
Make this recipe into 12 cookies or bake in an 8 x 8 pan and cut into bars to use as whole-food protein bars.
Equipment
Optional: bake in an 8 x 8 pan to make these into bars instead of cookies
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