Good Meals Cheap

Everyone’s on a budget these days. Good Meals Cheap {dot}com © is the place to find recipes that make the most out of your precious food dollars, using photos and videos to show you how to prepare them.

Here is an example using my recent Christmas supper. Cost breakdown, preparation times and observations follow the description. Please, do not drool on your keyboard; you may short it out.

- one full can of Del Monte pineapple rings pinned to the ham with wooden toothpicks

- notice the honey, hunny

- that is half a tub of clover honey smeared all over the ham

- foil wrap with the shiny side out

- just before closing the ham with foil, empty all the pineapple juice into it, then wrap tightly

- add 1/2″ of water to the broiler pan and keep at this level during cooking by adding more from time to time

- place in pre-heated oven at 425 – 450F and leave there for approximately 5 hours

- roughly 1.25 – 1.5 hours per kilogram

- one 5 KG bag of Idaho spuds, with skin, cubed and in the pot, ready to start about 1 hour prior to completion of the ham

- add water to completely cover the spuds, add a “tad” of salt to the water and bring to a boil

- reduce to about 50% heat and let boil with lid just partially off the pot

- continue until spuds are tender when prodded with a fork

- drain completely (otherwise you will have “watery” spuds … YUCK!) then …

- add about 1/8 pound butter! … yummy! and begin mashing

- continue until well blended as this will give you a better idea of how much milk to add

- add 2% milk (minimum! … remember, this is NOT fat-conscious food ) while mashing and just enough to get the texture that you desire

- an easy little snack while waiting for the ham and spuds

- jumbo peanuts with honey roasted cashews, mozzarella and mild cheddar cheese with some salted tops crackers

- ah, what it was all about!

- 7 lettuce salad with fresh, sliced mushrooms

- garlic croutons

- peas and carrots with butter and pepper

- creamed corn

- cranberries in sauce

- ranch dressing

- red wine, of course

- simulated bacon bits

- Parmesan cheese (salad and spuds)

- my own salad dressing (low fat Kraft Miracle Whip, Dijon mustard and a drizzle of ‘Real Lemon’ juice

- the ‘perfect’ ham

- mashed spuds

- butter croissants

Not pictured: IMMEDIATE sleep afterwards! Not a chance that we could even THINK about dessert!

So then, the next morning, with some home-brewed Tim Horton’s coffee …

- Elijah, my guest for the feast (he cooked last Christmas, so it was my turn this year ) about to dig into pecan pie with whipped cream and cocktail cherries

Preparation Times:

Not long at all

- ham: 15 minutes

- spuds: 10 minutes (see, besides being way more nutritious, leaving the skins on saves a whole lot of time and effort!)

- the rest: 20 minutes

Cost breakdown:

The part that was concerning me the most about this whole endeavor was the ham. I had looked around earlier on for suitable candidates, but none were apparent. Then, on a whim, I went to one of my ‘usual’ places, just to check. Well lo and behold, they had the exact “model” I was in search of: smoked picnic shoulder with the bone … and ON SALE! 50 % OFF! OK, what’s the catch? Checked the ‘Best Before Date’ and that was in order, although it was cutting it fine (26 DEC 2008). But hey, it’s cured already so this was not even a real factor. Found one that suited the size and overall appearance I was looking for and then proceeded to get the rest of the items on my list. Now, the thing that really ‘throttled’ me was the price: this was an almost 5KG ham and the sticker price was 8.00 and change. I naturally thought that this was the discounted price. Wrong! Upon inspection of the receipt when I got home, I realized that they took off 4.26 from that!!! So this succulent ham was not even 4.50!!! Some may be thinking that well, yeah, but it was all bone and fat. Wrong! After the initial meal and a couple of solo ‘pig-outs’ over the next two days, there was still a large platter heaped with lean, tender, juicy, fat-free meat. Truly remarkable. The complete supper cost will be provided within a few days, but I just had to add that this was not “over” yet