A stress-free festive feast

The Batch Lady Suzanne Mulholland shares cooking tips to help you enjoy Christmas Day.

- By Lauren Taylor

SUZANNE Mulholland once declared she “hated” Christmas Day - she was the person who ended up organising the entire event, from presents, to decorations and, of course, the food.

“When the kids were little, I actually didn’t like Christmas,” she admits. “I didn’t feel it was my day. I felt like it was everybody else’s day.

“I look back on it now and think I really did miss some key moments where I would have loved being the one sitting just helping build Lego, or whatever it was, but I felt tied to the kitchen.”

To make a busy life with children easier Suzanne, 49, started batch cooking, and after sharing videos on YouTube and Instagram, social media's 'The Batch Lady' was born.

The mum-of-two was able to transform Christmas so she wasn’t cooking all day.

“I started to change gradually. I would make sure my roast potatoes were done, but I always felt like there was quite a lot that maybe I couldn't do in advance.

“And then over the years, I've actually managed to do it all in advance. Everything.

“If you happen to have a Friday morning or a Tuesday evening in November where you're not doing anything, you can think, actually, I might get four recipes done for Christmas.”

November is the perfect time to start, she says, and buying a lot of your Christmas food in November can help spread the cost.