There's a 9.2-pound spiral ham on the bottom shelf of our fridge, and it has a schedule. I bought it at Aldi on Monday for $2.29 a pound, $21.07, and between Sunday's lunch and the leftovers it's going to show up at five meals. The plan is stuck to the fridge under the Texas magnet, which makes it official.
Sunday: Easter lunch for eleven
We're hosting this year: the five of us, my mom Carol and my stepdad Gary from Denton, and Matt's sister Kristen with Ryan, Cody and Avery from Garland. Kristen is bringing dessert, which she does better than I do and which also takes a good $15 off my list.
The shopping is done except for ice. Here's the menu and what each part cost:
- Spiral ham with a brown sugar and mustard glaze: $22.57
- Mashed potatoes, five pounds, with butter and milk: $8.69
- Green beans, three bags frozen, with bacon and onion: $5.67
- Deviled eggs, a full dozen even at this spring's egg prices: $5.77
- Baked macaroni and cheese, mostly for the kids and Gary: $7.80
- Hawaiian rolls, two packs: $6.98
- Fruit salad with strawberries, pineapple and grapes: $11.40
- Cheese and crackers to hold everybody off: $8.90
- Sweet tea and lemonade: $4.20
- Plates and napkins for the kids' table: $6.00
That's $87.98, call it $88, for eleven people, about $8 a person.
The ham is fully cooked, so this is warming, not cooking. Last Easter I heated one uncovered, and the edges dried out like jerky. This year it goes cut side down in a roasting pan with half a cup of water, wrapped tight in foil, at 275°F for a little under two hours, about 12 minutes a pound, until the middle reads 140°F. Then the foil comes off, the glaze goes on, and it gets 15 minutes at 400°F.
It goes in when we get home from church at 10:45, and lunch is at one. I've written the oven times on the plan like a ticket rail, because the ham and the mac and cheese can't both be in there at 400. The ham rests under foil while the mac and cheese bakes and the rolls warm, and the potatoes and green beans happen on the stovetop.
Then four more dinners
The bone and every scrap that doesn't go home with my mom gets a job. I go by the USDA's three-to-four-day guideline for cooked leftovers in the fridge, so on Monday morning I'll slice what's left, bag about a pound and a half of slices and two cups of diced ham, and freeze both for later. The bone goes straight into Tuesday's soup.
- Monday: ham fried rice. I'm cooking the rice Sunday night so it's cold and dry by Monday, which is the only way fried rice works. Frozen peas and carrots, three eggs, soy sauce and green onions. Extra cost: about $3.40.
- Tuesday (office day): ham bone soup in the Crock-Pot, something like split pea soup with a can of navy beans stirred in. Carrots, onion, the bone and whatever meat is still on it, eight hours on low. Extra cost: about $3.15.
- Wednesday through Friday: our second HelloFresh box arrives Tuesday, so its three recipes take these nights. I'll write about the meal kits once I've seen a couple of boxes.
- Next Sunday: ham and cheese sliders on Hawaiian rolls with a butter and mustard top, from the frozen sliced ham, and a bag salad on the side. Extra cost: about $6.10.
- Next Monday: breakfast casserole for supper with the frozen diced ham, ten eggs, day-old bread and cheddar, assembled Sunday night. Extra cost: about $7.20, more than half of it eggs.
That's $19.85 on top of the ham for four dinners for five. Even if I charge those dinners half the ham, they come in around $1.50 a plate, which is a lot better than our usual $2.75.
What could go sideways
Eli, mainly. He'll eat plain ham all day as long as it isn't touching the pineapple, but fried rice with peas in it is a coin flip. I'm frying his portion before the peas go in. The soup is for the rest of us. He'll get a ham and cheese roll-up and some Goldfish, and I've made my peace with that.
The other risk is Cody. He's a high school sophomore who plays offensive line, and if he eats like one on Sunday, the leftover plan could be down to a bone and a few slices by two o'clock. I bought the biggest ham Aldi had for that reason.
Tomorrow is Good Friday, the last meatless Friday of Lent, so it's fish tacos one more time. Then ham for a week. Nobody is complaining yet.
