Tis the season for shopping, baking, wrapping, and leftovers! I always try to plan ahead for leftovesr when it comes to mapping out my menu for Christmas dinner. The ham is probably where I have the most wiggle room where what type of ham I buy could make a big difference as far as recycling leftovers are concerned. It is very tempting to buy the spiral sliced ham for its ease and lack of carving. Not only is it not a very frugal choice but then I am limited to sliced ham for my leftovers. I don’t know about your favorite recipes for using up those leftovers, but most of mine work best with chunk ham. This just is not an option when the ham is pre-sliced.

I also make sure to avoid falling into the pitfall of buying a boneless ham. This is a very expensive option and such a waste of money as far as I am concerned. Every winter my family looks forward to my home made soups. The main ingredient in these soups? A ham bone! The bone of the ham is almost as important as the ham itself when it comes to planning ahead for leftovers. I have even trained my neighbors to save their ham bones for me. There are so many different types of soup that I can make with it.

So my advice this Christmas is to buy a bone-in unsliced ham, make the hubby slice it, and please be sure to enjoy your holidays and have a safe and happy new year!

I’m a fairly decent cook, usually. Maybe not a gourmet cook but my family doesn’t refuse to eat my experiments too often. But one thing that I am not good at are gravy and sauces. Corn starch hates me. I just cannot figure out how to not end up with lumps. Last Thanksgiving a good friend had invited me to join them for dinner. I had offered to help out as I had arrived before dinner was served. She asked, “You know how to make gravy, right?” I replied, “Sure, open a jar and heat it up”. She decided I’d be better company than actual help in the kitchen.

I make up for my inability for making gravy by stocking up on jars and cans of it while it is on sale. Unfortunately, this week I was completely out of it and it still was not on sale. Out of desperation I bought a couple of those seasoning packets which were 3/$1 and hoped that lumpy was better than none. It actually turned out great, not lumpy at all! I was amazed! I was impressed and it was definitely a lot cheaper and tastier than the canned stuff. If you have issues with gravy too, I strongly suggest you give those packaged ones a try!

Soup up your menu with Chunky soups. They can be expensive, but like all things at the grocery store, they do eventually go on sale. Keep an eye out for when they do go on sale and stock up. Not only do chunky soups make great comfort food lunches on cold winter days but they also make for an excellent dinner base on days when you forgot to take meat out of the freezer for dinner.

Rice
Any chunky soup that contains rice can be used to create an easy one pan dish. By adding 2 cups of water, a bullion cube, and 2 cups of rice you can easily feed a family of four a quick and nutritional meal that contains both meat and vegetables without much hassle.

Noodles
Any chunky soup that contains noodles is also simple to turn into a meal. You can add an extra cup of water and a package of ramen noodles to bulk up the servings to feed a family of 3. You can also add regular macaroni or egg noodles etc, instead of ramen noodles, and boil until the noodles are done. You can either serve as a soup or thicken the broth to make it more of a casserole type dish.
[Read more...]