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Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Mother's Day Was Just One of Those Times That We Chose to Spend More

Since we talked a bit about where we spend our money and when we choose to spend more, I thought I'd mention my family's Mother's Day celebration.

My daughters take over the cooking for me on Mother's Day as their gift to me. Like many young adults, they're both very busy people. So, when I did the grocery shopping this past week, I chose foods for Mother's Day that would be easy for them to prepare. This means that I bought foods that were more expensive than I would normally buy.

For breakfast, I had bought refrigerated, canned cinnamon rolls. That and coffee are plenty for me for breakfast. And these were so easy for my daughters to bake. We had a late lunch/early dinner as our main meal, with my son and daughter-in-law to share it with. I had bought frozen chicken Cordon Bleu (that only needed to be baked), a couple of bags of frozen roasting vegetables (Brussel sprouts, butternut squash cubes, and onions) that were easily roasted in the oven, dinner rolls from the bakery, a cantaloupe (to cube), a bag of broccoli slaw (to be dressed), a frozen peach pie (to be baked), and some chocolates. My son and daughter-in-law brought strawberries. Everything was delicious. But most of all, it was all easy for my daughters to make and have ready at the same time.

In total, I spent about $30 for our  Mother's day foods. And we had leftovers to pull together an easy dinner on Monday. Yes, we could have spent less by cooking everything from scratch. But sometimes it's worth it to spend more so the whole occasion can be enjoyed by everyone. I should also point out, that if we were to have eaten in a restaurant, a meal might have cost around $50-$70 for 6 of us.

The bonuses -- my daughters weren't too exhausted to enjoy time with the rest of us, and this taught them how to incorporate a few prepared foods in cooking a celebratory meal.

That was our Mother's Day. What did you do for the occasion?

11 comments:

  1. We had a quiet Mother's Day with just three of us (me, hubby, and daughter). My MIL almost always comes over for dinner but another son invited her over on Sunday. I made a rotisserie chicken in our own rotisserie, mashed potatoes, brown gravy,corn, beans and pretzel raspberry dessert. I don't mind cooking my own Mother's Day dinner but my husband cleaned up.

    It was a relaxing day and all my children texted me and even my son-in-law who said I was his favorite mother in law! Ha ha! We had taken my MIL out for breakfast Saturday morning and then gave her a hanging basket. Later that morning, we stopped by my parents and gave my mom a hanging basket too. It really was a nice weekend!

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    1. I haven't had pretzel raspberry dessert in forever. Yum.

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    2. Alice,
      that sounds like a lovely Mother's Day! I'm glad it was relaxing for you!

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  2. Your meal sound delicious and practical, Lili. And to feed 5 people all of that food for only $30 is a very good price-around here any way. We had a very simple meal here prepared by my husband and son, but it was just what I requested-grilled hot dogs, potato salad, and a green salad with chocolates for dessert.

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    1. How nice that your husband and son prepared your Mother's Day meal, Live and Learn. And your menu sounds delicious!

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  3. I love it that your daughters do that for you for Mother's Day. A break from our mundane chores is a great gift. $30 to feed six people seems reasonable to me, and yes, spending a little more to reduce the workload is occasionally worth the price. I do have to say, Lili .... I must have a much bigger appetite than you do--there's no way I could go from a cinnamon roll in the morning to mid-afternoon to eat and not be ravenous. I get hangry, haha.

    My husband usually does the evening meal on weekends and Sunday was no different--but he made carnitas, which always seem festive to me. I think L&L asked about the recipe in her blog yesterday but I honestly have no idea how he did it. It's probably a *little* bit better tasting when done on the grill (all those toasty bits!) but I sure wasn't complaining!

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    1. Ha ha, Kris! I don't eat much first thing in the morning, but by 10, I'm snacking my way to lunch. So, I did eat more between the cinnamon roll and the late lunch, lots more!

      Carnitas sounds yummy! What a tasty Mother's Day dinner!

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  4. Where I live, there s absolutely nowhere you could take six people and have a meal like that with dessert for $70....and that's before tip! I think you did a wonderful job of keeping it quite reasonable while special.

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    1. Hi Linda,
      I think I was thinking about the last time the 6 of us went out for lunch at Olive Garden, all choosing off of the lunchtime special menu. But I think we ate better than what we had that last time at Olive Garden, at least I loved the variety of flavors and textures that we had on Mother's Day.
      I hope you had a lovely Mother's day, Linda!

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  5. That sounded like a yummy lunch and one where more time could be spent together than in the kitchen. I agree that that was a great price point and certainly not one to be replicated in my resort area!

    I've gotten those frozen Chicken Cordon Bleu entrees before and they are definitely good. I graduated to making them from scratch, but they can be a lot of work what with pounding the breasts,stuffing and rolling them etc. Recently I have found a chicken cordon bleu casserole that has the elements of the original recipe but not as much work. It's become my go-to for my husband and me. If serving for others, I might not do the casserole necessarily (but then again I might!), but if anyone else wants a short cut for this good meal, google the recipe. Plus, you can use leftover chicken and ham.

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    1. Hi Lynn,
      I've made chicken Cordon Bleu before, but you're right, they're a lot of work. I absolutely love the idea for a Cordon Bleu casserole. I think that could be just as tasty as the individual stuffed chicken breasts. I'm going to have to make that for another nice occasion meal. I think you could definitely serve that to company. At least you could serve that to me, if I was your company! Thank you for the suggestion!

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