Money Matters
strickland8052
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
MM Meals for Entertaining Company
Every time we have people over for dinner (which I love doing), I spend our entire week's grocery budget on one meal! I don't think it is the meal itself, but the wine and appetizer, and salad, and dessert, plus the fact that you are feeding 2-6 more people than you usually feed... . Does anyone else have this problem? What are some cheap meals that are good enough for company? I might as well be eating out at the price I spend!
Re: MM Meals for Entertaining Company
I am mostly a lurker, but I will jump in. Do people usually offer to bring something? Typically when I entertain, people offer to bring some wine, appetizer, dessert or salad, which I take them up on. I used to try to do everything myself but I've started accepting a lot more help!
Also, are they reciprocating? It theoretically should even out somewhat over time if you are going to their house for dinner at times. These are just some things I think of to sort of justify spending a little more to entertain.
But I definitely agree, it is a lot of money to host! I typically will spend more on the main course (steaks or a roast), and save on everything else. Easy/inexpensive appetizers are cream-cheese based dips (spinach & artichoke is my go-to), deviled eggs, or just chips & salsa. For dessert, we've done make-your-own-sundaes, brownies a la mode, or a simple trifle (just make a box of brownies or angel food cake and layer with some pudding and cool whip). Sides can be a simple bag of steamed frozen veggies, rice, etc. You can always do a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs - it's easy to make a big serving that way!
Here is an idea for a less expensive but fancy looking dessert. Pudding, yes that sounds boring but here's how to fancy it up. Insteady of just pudding try to find a chocolate mousse mix. Then take either a wine or martini glass. But the mousse into the glass. Top with a bit of whip cream. Then take some chocolate, preferabbly dark chocolate. You can even get a single bar of Hershey's Special Dark from the drug store and then run it over your grader so you have shavings. Sprinkle the shavings over the whip creme. If fruit is in season, you can even top it with a raspberry. You can pull this dessert off for around $5.00 not counting fruit.
For the meat, I think trying to plan around meat that you can get on sale, or if you have room in your freezer to buy things in advance when they are on sale may help. Like if they have a BOGO deal on roasts one week. One for you guys, one for the party.
For apps, I don't like people filling up so we just go with these
Cheese and crackers (small amount, can be filling)
Carrots, celery and dip
Desserts:
You can buy a cake/pie from the bakery at any grocery store, pretty cheap
I have some cheap pie recipes that I use with already made pie crusts- Key lime pie, choc creme pie, cherry pie. i think most of the are betty crocker receipes
Dinner:
If its summer, we will grill chicken, cube steaks, hot dogs/burgers/kielbasa. We serve with corn on the cob, or different squashes on the kabob and a cold potato or tuna salad
Winter: Homemade lasagna or stuffed shells (all you need is sauce, ricotta cheese, shredded cheese, and the boxed shells or lasagna pasta) served with salad and a loaf of bread
Pork tenderloin already seasoned with mashed regular or sweet potatoes, plus a veggie, bread
Pork chops with same sides as above
Chicken- You can pretty much do anything with that, served with a side, and some veggies
Eggplant parm is good and easy too
Ask them to bring dessert that way you only have to worry about cheap veggies for apps and dinner.
Hope this helps!
One of our favorites for a low key dinner is something we toss on the grill. You let everybody make their own, and wrap them in squares of reynolds wrap. Meatballs, shrimp, potatoes, corn, green peppers, pineapple, onions, really you can add whatever you want to it. Add a little marinade and butter so it doesn't burn. Put it over medium heat for like 6 minutes each side- really once the meat is done, your good. We usually use canned whatever we have and add in some fresh veggies from the fridge. We've done this once or twice and it was a winner because everybody had a meal they loved. Because you use a lot of canned stuff this is still pretty cheap, but it wouldn't go over well at a fancy dinner party, but more of a low key thing.
Other things we will do is whatever meat has been 99 cents (I can get brisket, pork roasts, chicken.... depending upon the time of year and cheap sales) and slow cook it/ grill it/ smoke it for a dinner party. I don't really throw fancy dinner parties though, just casual things. And generally my friends bring stuff, so that helps too.
I don't think we go quite as all out as you, and we always accept offers from people to bring things like drinks, apps, dessert, whatever. We are also vegetarian, which probably helps with the cost. We typically make something like this: http://www.eatliverun.com/thai-red-curry-with-kabocha-squash/. It is fancier than what we normally eat (meaning a bit more complicated to make and less healthy), and it looks really pretty on a plate. One of my favorite company desserts is chocolate covered strawberries. It is one of those things that is really easy to make but still seems special. Depending on the season and sales, it can be relatively inexpensive too. For appetizers, we usually go with something simple like hummus with veggies and/or crackers/bread, apple slices with cheese, chips and salsa or guacamole.