Cheap, festive eats. (Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times)The budget-conscious dinner party is getting a lot of attention these days as home cooks search for affordable foods to serve holiday guests.
Healthy Holidays
30 Days of Holiday Eating
A series of daily tips, tidbits and insights about holiday food.
The Boston Globe offers a particularly interesting meal for less than $8.50 per person. Health-conscious revelers will like the gingered mashed sweet potatoes and the interesting cabbage and pomegranate slaw. The glazed braised pork shoulder looks delicious and will be a hit with low-carb eaters.
The personal finance site Kiplinger.com offers several tips to keep holiday dining within budget. One fun idea is a wine-tasting and fondue party — ask guests to bring favorite wines and provide marinated meat, chicken or shrimp that can be cooked in hot broth. Serve fruits and cake bites that can be dipped in chocolate.
Collene Eller, director of catering operations at Blue Collar Gourmet restaurants in Flint, Mich., suggests an Italian pasta buffet or a fajita/taco bar to create an affordable but festive mood.
The Associated Press offers sausage, olive and dried cherry empanadas that have Champagne appeal but cost just 20 cents each to make.
The Hartford Courant talks to local caterers about their ideas for affordable dining. Pork tenderloin is an affordable alternative for the meat dish, it turns out, but the paper also suggests main courses of chicken penne with sundried tomatoes and peas, or finger sandwiches made with roast beef, carmelized onions and Boursin cheese. The caterers also provide recipes for turkey burgers, pumpkin-pie bars and marinated flank steak.
While the downsized holiday meal offered by Times writer Alex Williams is heavy on the butter, cream and calories (it includes twice-stuffed potatoes and a cream-based chestnut soup), he also talks to celebrated event planner David Monn about glamorous yet affordable holiday decor.
“The thing about the recession is, it takes the pressure off,” said Mr. Monn. “It allows you to strip away all the stuff that’s not important and focus on what is: friends, family, togetherness.”
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21 Comments
I especially like the ideas derivative of ethnic cuisines (the empanadas, for example).
As New York city dwellers, we have made a hobby out of finding the best authentic ethnic restaurants, which we call “cheap-but-good.” Of course, some of these cuisines are based on filling up on carbohydrates and fat (tastes great, but not so healthy for frequent consumption), but it is actually possible to eat pretty well, without so many calories or so much fat, by making the right choices.
I’m getting hungry, just thinking about it!
— WesleySo, I’m really not a militant vegetarian, or a vegetarian at all, but the cheapest menus don’t include meat. Samosas, anyone? I’m talking potatoes, frozen peas, flour, and butter… or you could spring for the ghee. Sushi with cucumber, avocado, and egg? Deviled eggs? 24 for under $2.
— estyeI will not be cooking on Christmas - My mother (age 84) is planning a feast for 15. Yes, of course my father, sister, sister-in-law and I will help, but Mom is the top chef and will do most of the prep herself. If I were to plan a feast for 15, I would buy two whole pork loins on sale at my local supermarket, butterfly and flatten them, then stuff them with a dried fruit and nut mixture, and finally roll and tie them. I picked up this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated a few years ago, and it has been a success for me. On sale the whole pork loin is something like $1.99 per lb and is always great quality, while the dried fruit and nuts provide lots of flavor and texture in small volume. The gingered mashed potatoes described above sound great and would be quite economical to prepare, and I would pick up whatever vegetables are on sale and roast them with some pungent flavored vinegar and herbs. Much of the prep can be carried out in advance, the pork roasts fairly quickly, and nothing is very heavy. Merry Christmas, everyone!
— MacKayFor Christmas Eve dinner my family decided to have delicious cheese tamales. They’re inexpensive and wonderful in every way. I’m seriously counting down the days.
— RunningOK, this may not be traditional holiday fare, but I’m making it for my holiday houseguests & taking it to a pot luck this Friday night.
It’s the quintessential comfort food–and it can feed 8 people for probably $2.00.
Everyone I’ve shared this recipe with has LOVED IT.
Here’s the Recipe:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Palestinian-Lentils-and-Rice-with-Crispy-Onions-81339
If the link fails–just Google Palestinian Lentils & Rice with Crispy Onions. -from Reipezaar–
Here are the notes I have on it from my blog post:
“I’m about to cook a new recipe because I want to: Palestinian Lentils and Rice with Crispy Onions. It’s supposed to be amazing! Click here for the recipe.
Update: This is fantastic! The gym buddy who recommended it to me said her son stuffs it into a whole wheat pita & tops it with some feta. She often mixes up a tzatziki sauce with Greek yoghurt, cucumber & dill.
Double the cumin (& that’s Ground Cumin); cut the onions very thin. You may want to lower the salt. If you can figure out a way to cut the oil, let me know. Use canola oil instead of olive oil–drops the sat fat from 2.7 grams to 1.3 grams.
Best to use Jasmine rice & do all the soaking of lentils & rice that the recipe suggests.
Enjoy!
— The Healthy Librarianhttp://www.happyhealthylonglife.com
My ex- always said the cheap cuts of meat have the most flavor–they sure did the way he cooked them. And I love pot luck–not that anyone is lucky to get my offerings. I still remember a salad I had at one–every field green you could think of–I had never SEEN some of this stuff–like from a dream garden or something.
— StarI am in the process of converting to Judaism and have discovered a heretofore undiscovered benefit: much of traditional Jewish cooking is quite inexpensive. This year, instead of the holiday roast I normally do for my annual holiday dinner party with friends, I am making latkes (potato pancakes) and fresh homemade doughnuts for a Hanukkah celebration! Everything will taste delcious and it will be inexpensive to prepare, everyone wins!
— LPThis is ridiculous. You’re skimping on food for christmas? This is supposed to be a holiday. AMERICANS ARE NOT THAT POOR. YOU CAN AFFORD TO HAVE A NICE MEAL ON CHRISTMAS. Perhaps skimp on, I don’t know, eating out? Or perhaps not buy each child a 72″ HDTV as a Christmas gift?
Even poor people in America can afford to have one nice dinner a year.
Skimping on a holiday dinner? It’s supposed to be the most sumptuous dinner of the year. It’s a feast! Don’t you understand? Have you been so brainwashed by the moronic idiocy espoused by newspapers because you can’t think for yourself?
— jI love good food but remember memorable meals are more than food, it’s the people you’re with and the spirit that comes with the food.
Some of my best holiday meals were as a poor grad student when I could not afford to go home. My friends and I would round up a group of us and we would have a potluck; sure the dishes were humble but it was a real party.
We had a lot of international friends and each would bring a dish or bottle of wine/ whiskey from his/her country and we would pass around the guitar sharing folk songs from different countries.
And, #8, there are indeed people in America who cannot afford a nice dinner, even once a year. There were people in my neighborhood who could not.
— LCI really appreciate the remarks about health conscious eaters. The holidays can be such hard times to feel good about what we put in our bodies. If anyone inquires about this at myonlykitchen.com I will referr them here. Thanks again.
— TonyLP, #7, the reason why traditional Jewish cuisine is so inexpensive is that traditionally, Jews were really poor! The majority of them, anyway. The notion of the money-savvy banker is just an anti-Semitic stereotype.
So call it a benefit if you like, but do you think Jews would have been stuffing turkey necks back in Eastern Europe if they could have afforded the better parts of the bird?
— SusannaOnion soup is a family tradition for X-mas eve. With some small nibbles of fancy cheese and pate (you could make chicken liver pate) and flavor up the cream cheese. Maybe fruit salad for a refresher course and some X-mas cookies. Even eggnog doesn’t have to be pricey– if you leave out the booze.
By eating sensibly, you will also avoid the 10 pound holiday gain.
Christmas ham at 1.39 a pound, tends to last forever. Mashed potatoes, apples, and veggies are cheap enough.
And a Buche de Noel, is eggs, some butter, flour, sugar,
and confectioner’s sugar for garnish. Just think of what you are doing which is making a jelly roll — not at all that hard - except for pouring the sugar syrup into the eggs.
Christmas dinner can cost a lot less than many a fancy dinner party…. even with the classics. It is not as expensive as say anything with filet mignon.
Serve a shrub instead of wine –
— “Hetty Green”Even poor people can afford to have one *nicer than usual* home-cooked meal per year. We have food assistance in this country. Meat is pretty cheap. Americans can afford to buy a chicken or a pork loin and roast it, and serve it with side dishes.
— jI’ve been to some of the poorest regions of the world. Unless there’s some sort of crisis, people tend to try to dress up and bring out their best clothing, best food, etc. for special occasions.
It’s one of the most human things there is.
— jI think in most of the world’s cuisines, there is an element of frugality, of making the most of scant amounts or poorer cuts of meat, but supplemented with an abundance of grains and vegetables. It seems to only be in the western (American?) culture that there is such an emphasis on making meat the centerpiece of the meal, like the turkey during Thanksgiving. Absolutely, the holiday meal should be special, but it doesn’t have to revolve around a huge roast!
— A.L.Could someone get No 8 a couple of lobsters or something–he is about to blow…
— StarThank you, J, but I can think for myself just fine, which is why I haven’t been brainwashed into thinking that holiday meals have to be a table-load of stuff that takes days to prepare and that would feed an army. If I want Domino’s and beer for Christmas dinner . . . so be it. There are things I like to do with my family other than cook.
We’ve NEVER done “Christmas dinner”. Mom hates cooking so “Christmas dinner” at our house meant getting nice rolls and some special sandwich stuff and making our own sandwiches. (Not hugely fancy, but a change from PB & J.) Christmas morning, after the presents were opened, Dad made pancakes.
— EmmyWhat made ALL my holiday feasts so grand was the PEOPLE not the food.
— lyrazelItalian peasant food ~ inexpensive but delicious. Time consuming to prepare from scratch as our family used to do in preparation of xmas, tortellini in chicken broth, beef/pork/veal ravioili, crositini w/a kind of italian chicken liver pate, antipasto, pork roast.
— mariaWe didn’t really do Christmas dinner when I was a kid. We were a Catholic family, so the holiday did have meaning. More like we had Christmas lunch, or Chriistmas brunch, which was put together from food gifts we’d received. Things we never had the rest of the year. This was the only time we ever had bacon or ham. There were weird things only grown-ups liked, there was cake in a can, things from other countries, Welsh Rabbit, fancy cookies made by Mom’s friends from work, samplings of the food fads of the year, things our parents would never let us have usually, like Pringles. Every year something different.
One year my aunt was shopping for this and at the supermarket checkout the clerk wished her a “Happy….? Merry…. ? uhh….?” The poor young lady wasn’t sure what holiday my aunt was shopping for!
— Lady BirdI have found that a simple meal served on china, with a fancy tablecloth & a nice centerpiece & wine, of course…people dont seem to mind what they are eating…it is the comraderie & the idea behind the celebration that is important…and that makes all the difference in the world!
— Mel