Christmas Week Menu Plan & My Cheap MealsTo Do List

I don't know about you but it has finally snowed, the relatives have descended upon our house for the holidays and I am trying to cook for an army. On top of that, we've abruptly decided to buy the bare minimum and dig into our freezer because it is FULL with waaaaay too much food. It's not frugal to freezer burn chicken.

So the goal is to feed everyone from our food stash on short notice and not end up with dessicated turkey a la the Christmas Vacation movie (remember the scene where Beverly pretends to eat the turkey but actually flings it to the floor with a quick flick of her fork?).

My head is spinning! Too much to do! Too many mouths to feed!

Here's the meal plan thus far:

Breakfast: Pretty much self-serve; yogurt, cottage cheese, oatmeal, toast, fruit, juice, coffee etc... I will make some eggs and sausage here and there for everyone a few times and I think I promised my husband some pancakes.

Lunch: Salad with cottage cheese or chicken salad and selection of leftovers. Hubby will get chicken enchiladas to take to work.

Dinner:
Pasta w/ Italian sausage and sauce
Christmas Eve Dinner
Christmas Day Ham and leftovers from the night before
Split Pea soup (will probably feed the freezer or go into next week)
Asian meatball soup (a new recipe)
Pizza

So here's the cheap meals to do list: The Asian meatball soup requires a lot of chicken stock and the chicken enchiladas as well as the chicken salad both require chicken. I can throw some chicken in the crockpot and be working on three meals at the same time. That will be Sunday. From a cost perspective, I'm using buy-one-get-one bone-in chicken breasts from the freezer. Cost about $3.

Monday I will actually make the Asian meatball soup and call to reserve the Christmas ham.

Tuesday dinner will be pasta with Italian sausage.

We do a traditional Eastern European Christmas Eve dinner which uses a lot of beans. Those need to soak on Wednesday and I need to run out and pick up the Christmas ham. Wednesday night will be day 2 of the Asian meatball soup. I have hamburgers on hand if we run out of soup or the recipe is a dud.

Thursday my husband is the cook and makes food from the homeland. I call it fish 'n' beans. It's a bit of a strange combination for my American palate, but actually quite tasty and a great Christmas tradition.I also hope to make an egg and sausage casserole for Christmas morning. Maybe some cinnamon rolls, but we'll see.

Friday we have a Honeybaked ham (via gift certificate) along with leftovers from the night before.

Saturday I will use the hambone to make split pea soup. Some will go into the freezer and some we'll eat that day.

Sunday I'll probably end up making pizza and maybe throwing some kielbasa and kraut into the slow cooker/crockpot.

And I think that's our Christmas week menu plan. I'm tired just thinking about it! How are you holding up in the kitchen this holiday season?

Now I'm off to watch some Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation. Happy Holidays!