Wow your friends and family with this stress-free holiday dinner

For most of us, the holiday season means gathering in our homes with friends and family to enjoy company, conversation, and great food. If you’re planning a holiday gathering at your house, you may be looking forward to it with equal amounts of excitement and fear. I don’t blame you! It’s never a small feat to hold a gathering that involves food, and even small dinner parties can make your palms sweaty; the holidays only add an extra layer of stress! You’re not alone though, because even veteran hosts/hostesses can find it a balancing act to put together a great meal without spending all their time in the kitchen (and neglecting their guests).

The good news is that a holiday dinner party doesn’t have to be stressful, and you can pull it off easily and within budget. How? The secret is to plan ahead and to have an easy but delicious menu. The menu for our $2 Dinners “Stress-Free Holiday Dinner” is full of recipes that are delicious, super-easy and guaranteed to “wow” your guests! The best part is that each one has six ingredients or less (not counting salt and pepper)! For your upcoming holiday meal, try “Heavenly Christmas Ham”, “Scalloped Potatoes”, and “Bacon-y Green Beans”. With rolls and dessert purchased at your local bakery, you will have a delicious, stress-free holiday feast you can be proud of!

$2 Dinners Hints for a Stress-Free Holiday Meal:

- Read and re-read the recipes to make sure you understand the steps and to double-check that you have all the ingredients. Make a grocery list and do your shopping a day or two in advance.
- Set and decorate your table the morning of your party. Set out all your serving bowls and utensils as well. Guests who arrive early will most likely offer to help, so put a piece of paper with the name of the food it will contain beside (or inside) each serving dish. That way, your helpers will know where things go and you won’t be interrupted every 5 minutes to give them instructions.
- To avoid washing all those dishes, consider using paper plates. There are some really gorgeous patterns available and paper makes things so much easier. I love using my great-grandmother’s china, but since it has to be carefully hand-washed, I usually choose paper instead. While I still use my good flatware for the main meal, I do use plastic ware for appetizers and desserts (otherwise I would run out of forks!). I also purchase paper or plastic cups in a coordinating color or pattern for guests to use before and after the meal.


Click on the orange boxes for a printable version of the recipes

Heavenly Citrus Ham (makes 15 servings @ about $2.00 per serving)



Really Easy Scalloped Potatoes (makes 6-8 servings @ about .75 cents per serving)




Bacon-y Green Beans (makes 6 servings @ about .35 cents per serving)

Zero in on savings with zucchini

I don’t know what it is about zucchini, but this scenario happens to me every year, and I know I’m not alone: Early in May or June, you plant “just a couple” of harmless-looking zucchini plants in your garden, figuring you’d grow enough of the tasty green squash to enjoy for a few meals, right? But, little do you know that those small zucchini plants have other ideas...for they proceed to grow enormous and to produce enough zucchini to feed your whole family...and half the neighborhood! As a result, by mid-August you’re knee-deep in zucchini, and your friends, neighbors, and co-workers are running in the other direction when they see you coming with another bag to give away. Sound familiar?

So what can you do with all those zucchini once you can’t even give them away anymore? Here are a couple of easy and economical recipes your family will love that make delicious use of the zucchini bounty from your garden.

Click on the orange boxes for a printable version of the recipes

Zucchini Salad (serves 4 @ about 71 cents per serving- if zucchini is purchased)



Fried Zucchini (serves 6-8 @ about 45 cents per serving- if zucchini is purchased)

This 4th of July picnic that gives you more bang for your buck

Planning a family picnic for the 4th of July? This year, celebrate your independence from out-of-control grocery bills and try our super-easy and delicious $2 Dinners menu. Parmesan-Crusted Oven-Fried Chicken tastes great hot or cold, takes minutes to prep, and “fries” to a delicious golden-brown right in your oven. Our tangy German-Style Potato Salad with Herbs is the perfect savory side dish because it contains no mayonnaise, so you won’t have to be as concerned about food spoilage on a hot day. For dessert, the classic combination of oranges and chocolate come together in a spectacular Chocolate Chip Orange Cake that’s soaked in orange syrup, so it needs no frosting (making it easier to pack and transport to your picnic). Add some raw veggies like carrots, celery, and cherry tomatoes with ranch dip, and sweet tea or lemonade, and you have a perfect, budget-friendly 4th of July picnic that your family will love.

Click on the orange boxes for printable versions of the recipes

Parmesan-crusted oven fried chicken (serves 6 @ about $1.23 per serving)



German-Style Potato Salad with Herbs (serves 6 @ about 47 cents per serving)



Chocolate Chip Orange Cake (serves 9 @ about 23 cents per serving)

Make This Incredible Pulled Pork for Pennies

Here in the Tarheel State, there isn’t much of anything we like to eat better than pulled pork BBQ. In fact, we North Carolinians are so crazy about our barbeque, we’ve been known to engage in passionate and somewhat heated debates about sauce, preparation methods, and which restaurant has the best pulled pork. However, even when we don’t see eye-to-eye, something we can all agree on is that there’s nothing quite like a big ‘ole plate of pork BBQ!

So how do you satisfy your cravings for pulled pork at home without getting takeout? Make it in your slow cooker! This delicious and amazingly easy pulled pork recipe is the creation of my friend and co-worker Anita. She came up with this recipe a couple of months ago and brought it to work for some of us to try. I have to say it was love at first bite, and I knew she had a real winner. When I got the recipe from her, I realized that she had created a recipe that was not only delicious; it’s easy and economical too. The onion soup gives this pork a little something extra that takes the flavor over-the-top, so if you’re a pulled pork lover, you have got to try this, and don't forget the coleslaw (thanks Anita)!

Click on the orange boxes for a printable version of the recipes

Anita’s Incredible Slow Cooker Pulled Pork (makes 7-8 cups. Serves: 8 for BBQ plates @ about $1.00 per serving, or 12 for sandwiches @ about 90 cents per serving (includes bun)

Easy Coleslaw (serves 8 @ about 50 cents per serving)

Make an Easter feast for your family that costs less than $2 per person

On a tight budget and wondering how you can afford a big family meal this Easter? Relax! Even if your budget is tighter than ever, you can still prepare an incredible Easter feast for your family without sacrificing the flavors you love. The secret? A $2 Dinners menu that’s super-easy and chock-full of thrifty recipes for all your Easter favorites. In fact, this $2 Dinners menu is so budget-friendly, it will only cost you about $1.68 per person! With this great menu, you’ll have enough money left over to make a $2 Dinners Chocolate Mudpie Cake for dessert and still come in under $2 per person!

Click on the orange boxes for a printable version of the recipes

Ham with apples (serves 8 @ about $1.01 per serving)


Roasted Green Beans (serves 8 @ about 25 cents per serving)


Mashed Potatoes (serves 8 @ about 25 cents per serving)



Herb Bread (serves 16 @ about 17 cents per serving)

Dried beans: budget-friendly and delicious (part 3)

Today is the last installment of our 3-part series on a favorite ingredient here at $2 Dinners: budget-friendly dried beans. As with the previous two articles, my hope is to inspire you to add these nutritious little bargains to the menu at your house by showing you how easy they are to cook, and then by giving you a recipe that shows you how you can use them in a flavorful and budget-friendly way.


This week’s first recipe shows you a simple and flavorful way to cook dried Great Northern beans, and then in the second recipe, we’ll use them to make Italian Sausage with Beans and Tomato, an Italian-inspired dish that your family will ask for again and again. This hearty, one-pot meal takes almost prep time because the beans were cooked in advance, and the 30-minute simmer time leaves you free to pack lunches, help with homework, or sit and relax while dinner practically cooks itself!

Click on the orange boxes for a printable version of the recipes

Easy Great Northern Beans (makes 6 servings @ about 48 cents per serving)



Italian Sausage with Beans and Tomato (serves 4 to 6 @ about $1.47 per serving)

Dried beans are budget-friendly and delicious, too (part 2)

Today we continue our 3-part series on a favorite ingredient here at $2 Dinners: budget-friendly dried beans. One of the best food bargains around, beans not only pack a healthy punch, they’re also easy to prepare. This week’s first recipe shows you a simple and flavorful way to cook dried kidney beans, and then in the second recipe, we’ll use those perfectly-prepared beans to make Red Beans and Rice, a comfort food favorite from New Orleans. This hearty, savory, and filling recipe is perfect for a frosty January day!

Click on the orange boxes for printable versions of the recipes

Easy Red Beans (makes 6 servings @ about 79 cents per serving)



Red Beans and Rice (makes 6 servings @ about $1.89 per serving)

Beans: budget-friendly and delicious (part 1)

Dried beans are a great food bargain and one of my favorite ingredients for cooking the $2 Dinners way. A budget-friendly deal at about one third of what you would pay for canned beans, dried beans also lend themselves to a wide variety of flavors and cuisines, and they are super-easy to prepare. The best part however, is that not only are they a great value, beans also pack a healthy punch. Fiber-rich and full of protein, several studies suggest that beans help prevent cancer and reduce cholesterol as well. With all these benefits, it’s easy to see why beans are a favorite ingredient here at $2 Dinners, and why I am featuring them in a 3-part series!

In this 3-part series on beans, I’ll give you a basic recipe for cooking a specific type of dried bean, and then a second recipe that shows you just one of the many ways you can use it. In part 1 of the series, we’ll look at an easy way to cook black-eyed peas (contrary to what the name says they are beans- not peas), and then we’ll use them in Hoppin’ John, a traditional dish served on New Year’s Day here in the south. Are you ready? Let’s cook some beans!

Click on the orange boxes for printable versions of the recipes
Easy Black-Eyed Peas (makes 6 servings @ about 89 cents per serving)


Hoppin’ John (makes 4-6 servings @ about $1.35 per serving)