Get Carrie Underwood’s Easy Holiday Recipes: I Want My Guests to ‘Leave Feeling Full and Happy’

“Good food, good company and good wine.” That’s all Carrie Underwood says she needs to make her holiday gatherings memorable.

When guests visit the country superstar and her hockey player husband Mike Fisher, that’s just what they get—even if it isn’t always in the couple’s Nashville home. “Because of how much we travel, we might not be able to get home for the holidays,” Underwood says in People’s new Holiday Recipes edition. Wherever they are, “we invite over good friends and all spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together.” Besides having tight travel schedules, she and Fisher are parents to toddler son Isaiah, so keeping entertaining unfussy is a must. Underwood, a vegetarian cook, shared her tips for overnight guests in this excerpt.

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What are your holiday plans?
We will be spending Christmas with Mike’s family in Canada, and then I’ll probably go to Oklahoma to see my family. Mike’s team’s schedule is very demanding, and there’s just no time to do both. When he retires, we’ll adjust our scheduling, because we owe my family a lot of Christmases!

What gets you in the holiday mood?
Music is very important. Growing up we had a record player, and there was just something about hearing this children’s choir singing “Jesus Loves Me” and “Silent Night” that would always put me in the Christmas spirit. I love standards, Christmas songs and hymns. It makes me feel happy.

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How do you manage hosting and feeding overnight guests?
I won’t make recipes that have 20-plus ingredients. You think of the best foods that your grandma made, and you know she didn’t do that. She didn’t have complicated, strange ingredients or weird spices you’re never going to use again. Just keep it simple. It’s the best-tasting stuff too.

What are your go-to dishes?
I’ll take a lot of holiday favorites and make them vegetarian. I’ll use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth to make the stuffing. I like to make casseroles—sweet potato casserole is a favorite of mine. One of my favorite desserts is, I’ll get apples and cut them up into big chunks. I’ll put cinnamon and apple pie spices on them, pour a little maple syrup and then put them in the oven. Then I’ll put that over coconut ice cream, and it’s supereasy and people really like it. As far as breakfasts go, there’s always things like oatmeal bakes that you can pop in the oven, or overnight oats in the crock pot and have those things ready to serve.

Want to cook like Underwood? Try her Pumpkin Caramel French Toast or homemade blackberry jam.

It sounds like you are very hands-on.
I like to think what I’m going to make, and the night before I’ll get a lot of my prep work done. I’ll have it all measured out. I don’t have to think too much when I’m cooking.

How about when it’s time to clean up?
My guests always offer because I have very polite friends. But I like to do that stuff myself—I know where everything goes. So I tell people, “Go sit down and give me 20 minutes, and I’ll have this spick-and-span.”

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You do allow yourself to indulge, right?
A great meal definitely adds to the holiday experience. You’re laughing, sharing stories, and it’s cold outside but it’s all warm and toasty inside, and your house smells delicious. I want people to come to our house feeling welcome and leave feeling full and happy.

For Underwood’s easy recipes for lasagna, pumpkin-chocolate pudding, slow-cooker French toast and more, pick up “People’s Holiday Recipes: More Than 100 Delicious Dishes and Genius Tips,” now on sale.