Thanksgiving Meal on a Tight Budget

Wednesday, November 26, 2014 by Carin Diaz 0 Comments A ⁺ a ^-

W
ith my tight budget (burdened more by my teens’ legal fees lately), I have less money to spend on extras like holiday meals. Lavish Thanksgiving will not be served for Diaz’s meal this year. However, we can still—and should—feast a little bit. We just had to play scavenger hunt in our pantry. The menu I came up with help us have at least six servings of food with plenty of leftovers.

Making Thanksgiving Meal on a Tight Budget

Cook what you have. The dishes I picked are according to what I already had in hand. They cover some flavor of a Thanksgiving spread. I have mashed potatoes from scratch, pumpkin spice cake, butternut squash soup, and beef-stuffing meat loaf. For the side, I prepared an untraditional Korean dish—mung bean sprouts with sesame.
Cut corners. I used some recipes I found online. I do not have all the ingredients but I tweaked to accommodate for what I lack as I learned not to be a slave to a recipe. I cut corners when I have to.
Skip the wine. Wine will not be served this holiday because the last time (was it Christmas 2013?) the leftover wine “evaporated” overnight. I am still not sure who witnessed the speedy evaporation—my teen son or daughter. Anyway, with no wine, I spend even less this holiday. We will have water to drink. It does not cost and it does not evaporate as fast.

As I have my teens who are literally physically stronger than I am, I asked for their help. My daughter baked the cake, and my son, well, maybe he will help clean up. Maybe.

Here's what we made. There are "teen-tested, mom-Carin approved," except for the soup. It is still slow cooking.