Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the week of Christmas

Friday

• fully-loaded baked potato soup
• bread
• orange juice-cranberry sauce smoothies
• pumpkin pie

Saturday (Christmas Eve)

• spaghetti and meatballs in marinara sauce
• canned green beans
• leftover pumpkin pie

Midnight snack

• hot cocoa, sitting by the tree, after the late Christmas Eve church service

Sunday (Christmas Day)

I served 2 meals on Christmas Day, brunch and dinner. I've included the menus for both of those meals.

Brunch

• turkey bacon (on clearance for $1.39/12 oz package earlier in the week)
• canned pineapple chunks
• the almond-filled pastry that I made, in this link
• saved pineapple juice from canned pineapple, blended with orange juice, as mentioned in this link
• copious amounts of coffee

Dinner

The inspiration for our casual, snacky Christmas dinner was a frozen package of marked down Lil' Smokies, the tangerines that I bought for putting in stockings and a gift card to Jack-in-the-box. We split 1 order of chicken strips, 1 order of egg rolls and 2 orders of onion rings. With everything else we had, it was enough.

I required everyone to participate in putting this dinner together, as I did for our Thanksgiving dinner. My 2 daughters made the pie, I made the dip and washed/peeled the carrots and celery, my husband cut the celery and carrots into sticks, and my son and his girlfriend simmered the cocktail sausages in the bbq sauce while I ran out to get the Jack-in-the-Box. No one person carried the entire burden of a holiday meal on the holiday.

• Lil Smokies cocktail sausage in bbq sauce
• tangerines
• carrots and celery sticks, with Ranch dip
• Jack-in-the-Box snacks -- chicken strips, onion rings, egg rolls
• pecan-chocolate chip pie
• hot tea and milk

Monday

• homemade cheese and olive pizza, using the leftover marinara sauce from Saturday's spaghetti and meatballs combined with leftover bbq sauce from Sunday's cocktail sausages, as the pizza sauce
• cole slaw
• last of the pecan-chocolate chip pie

Tuesday

• baked acorn squash
• baked potatoes, topped with cheese, Ranch dip, butter and Lemon-Rosemary finishing salt
• applesauce
• Christmas cookies

Wednesday

We were invited to friends for a Christmas tree candle lighting (real candles on their tree). There were lovely appetizers and desserts, enough to completely fill us. So no need to make any dinner tonight.

I don't know if you remember one of my shopping trips at Kohl's over the summer, with a $10 off coupon. I brought this box of candles, tied up with a red ribbon, as a hostess gift. I paid 38 cents at Kohl's, after coupon. (Oh and by the way, my 32 cent "holiday" entry mat, in the background, has been making merry at our front door, all season!)

Thursday

I still have 3 more get-togethers with family/friends, in the next couple of weeks. This afternoon, I was baking 2 pumpkin cake rolls, and assembling and wrapping the last couple of gifts. Whew! Dinner was fast and easy. 

• corn tortilla, black bean, salsa, olive and cheese thing (no other word than "thing")
• leftover baked squash
• Christmas cookies

I hope your week was jolly. Just a few more days and then it's back to routine, which will be welcome. Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy New Year!