My Holiday Menu

Except for exchanging gifts with my parents who are coming in a few days, Christmas is now over and while part of me is depressed another part is a bit relieved. It is nice to take a breather from the shopping, gift wrapping, baking and cleaning. And since we had Christmas Eve dinner with my sister and her family and Christmas day dinner with my in laws I hadn’t planned on preparing a big meal. However, since I didn’t have my traditional Christmas ham dinner I decided to make my own holiday menu at the last minute the day after Christmas which turned into dinner for 12.

My holiday menu was full of variety but surprisingly frugal. I haven’t figured up the cost but I think you will agree that it was a very economical meal. I started with semi boneless brown sugar ham which was on sale for $1.49 a pound.  I actually picked up a few at that price, since I will be preparing another one on New Years Eve at my brother’s.

My main side dish was crock pot macaroni and Cheese, which can be a bit expensive to make. However, I always try to buy pasta and soup when I have coupons (this one calls for Campbell’s cheddar cheese soup) and I saved a lot of money by using brick cheese (on sale) instead of the pre-shredded that the recipe calls for and cut it into cubes. I could have taken the time to shred it myself but cutting into cubes was quicker and worked just as well.

Other side dishes included baked corn pudding, buttered brussel sprouts, pickled eggs and beets (a Pennsylvania Dutch favorite, if you like eggs and beets you will love these and they are so easy to make), coleslaw, pickles and olives, crescent rolls (store brand, on sale) and Christmas cookies for dessert.

All in all my last minute holiday menu came out great and went together very quickly. In fact I have plenty of leftovers for dinner tomorrow as well as enough ham on the bone to make my husband a big pot of his favorite, ham and bean soup (recipe coming soon).