Cheap Christmas Dinner?

InfamyInfamy

We get a really large Turkey from Bookers & it's not too dear. Also Lidl do turkeys for about £8.

Confuzzled

InfamyInfamy wrote: »

We get a really large Turkey from Bookers & it's not too dear. Also Lidl do turkeys for about £8.

aldi does duck for a fair price

lidl also do goose, lobster and crab etc around christmas time and for very reasonable prices, if i remember correctly they have their lobsters for 4.99 right now so if you were willing to do something a little different for christmas maybe you could make a lobster/crab salad as the main course with all the tradional and cheaper holiday accompaniments on the side

for those that balk at that remember, a lot of the things we pile our plates with at christmas we wouldn't eat at the same meal during the rest of the year so what goes with what is more a matter of behavioural patterns vs taste in many cases!



it's a shame turkey is so expensive here in the UK (in the states it's cheaper than chicken) because you can cook one up then eat off it for some time, in fact a large part of the holiday excitement in the US is coming up with ways to use up your leftover turkey

Kay_Peel

I've been "road-testing", or should I say "tasting" some of the supermarket specials.

First up: Aldi's Duck with Apple and Garlic Stuffing, £4.99

Wow! This looked the business when I took it out of the box. It is beautifully presented, boned, rolled, strung and garnished with lemon slices. Cooked from frozen, it needed to be covered in foil and put in the oven at 200c for ...... gulp.......... one hour and 35 minutes covered, followed by another 40 minutes with the foil taken off. Ouch, that was a lot of electricity for such a small little bird. It still looked impressive as I took it out of the oven and gave it 10 minutes rest before carving. Total time: 2 hours and 25 minutes, I think, from box to table.

It smelt absolutely divine. The carving knife went through it like butter - it was juicy, moist and perfectly cooked. There was loads of stuffing, which tasted fantastic, but disappointingly there was very little meat - just enough for two people, or one person with some leftovers. (There were two small legs and a thin wedge of breast - but then you don't get much meat on a Duck, do you? Loads of fat fell from the duck - but that's what you'd expect, too.)

Followed by: Aldi's Luxury Christmas Pud, two for £1.49

Pop in the microwave for a minute and ......... gorgeous, with lashings of pouring cream. Good value, without any of the faff

With a little taste of: Aldi's Panetonne Christmas Pud, two for £1.49

This went down very well. It seemed lighter than the Luxury Pud, but I couldn't really get the pannetone taste. I think my taste buds had been smothered by that point.

Verdict: Very good value for the Puddings - if the people round your table just want a single helping. The duck will not feature on my shopping list again, for the simple reason that there was insufficient meat for all that cooking time.

maman

Kay_Peel wrote: »

I've been "road-testing", or should I say "tasting" some of the supermarket specials.

First up: Aldi's Duck with Apple and Garlic Stuffing, £4.99

Wow! This looked the business when I took it out of the box. It is beautifully presented, boned, rolled, strung and garnished with lemon slices. Cooked from frozen, it needed to be covered in foil and put in the oven at 200c for ...... gulp.......... one hour and 35 minutes covered, followed by another 40 minutes with the foil taken off. Ouch, that was a lot of electricity for such a small little bird. It still looked impressive as I took it out of the oven and gave it 10 minutes rest before carving. Total time: 2 hours and 25 minutes, I think, from box to table.

It smelt absolutely divine. The carving knife went through it like butter - it was juicy, moist and perfectly cooked. There was loads of stuffing, which tasted fantastic, but disappointingly there was very little meat - just enough for two people, or one person with some leftovers. (There were two small legs and a thin wedge of breast - but then you don't get much meat on a Duck, do you? Loads of fat fell from the duck - but that's what you'd expect, too.)

Followed by: Aldi's Luxury Christmas Pud, two for £1.49

Pop in the microwave for a minute and ......... gorgeous, with lashings of pouring cream. Good value, without any of the faff

With a little taste of: Aldi's Panetonne Christmas Pud, two for £1.49

This went down very well. It seemed lighter than the Luxury Pud, but I couldn't really get the pannetone taste. I think my taste buds had been smothered by that point.

Verdict: Very good value for the Puddings - if the people round your table just want a single helping. The duck will not feature on my shopping list again, for the simple reason that there was insufficient meat for all that cooking time.

Thank you so much KP, I did laugh at the idea of you nobly trying out the dishes on our behalf! :rotfl:

Shame about the duck. It's so delicious but not much meat. We buy tins of duck confit when in France: a large tin has 4/5 leg portions and loads of fat for roast potatoes. Never seen it on sale here unfortnately.

Rebekah24

We will be having a big brekkie and missing all the turkey business

Taking some bits to friends in the evenings, share the load

The Aldi stuff sounds awesome, might have to take a trip!

foxgloves

We like the traditional turkey & all the works so prepared to pay out for a big one, but I then make loads of stuff for the freezer with the leftovers which takes care of lots of meals in the new year. Also use the giblets to make the gravy & then chop them up for our cat's Christmas dinner. For keeping the rest of the spending in check, I find the best thing is to start buying the bargains as you see them. We collected a big bag of chestnuts from a local park which are now cooked & in the freezer waiting for some premium sausages to be reduced big time, then that'll do the stuffing. There were bags of fresh cranberries on the market a couple of weeks ago for about a £1 so with stuff I already had in, there's plenty of cranberry sauce in the freezer. I've also got a tub of white breadcrumbs which I keep adding to from stray crusts, etc, & that'll be the basis of the bread sauce. Christmas cakes & puddings can be expensive to make, but for the last couple of months, every time we've done the weekly shop, we've bought just an ingredient or two for the Christmas baking & so now it's nearly time to make the cake, I need just one thing. I've even found a couple of ingredients where if you get the most distant best before date that you can find, it'll still be OK to use for next year's cake. I love crackers, but they really are expensive when you think how much of it is tat or goes straight in the bin, so this year, I'm making my own. They might not look as flash as everything will be recycled or re-used because I plan to spend no money on them whatsoever. Am hoping to be able to find jokes to match each family member, so should be a laugh if nothing else. Found myself looking at big tins of biscuits in the shops the other day, but have decided to make Twink's Hobnobs with dried cranberries in, instead, as have got nearly everything in for those.

zippychick

Read this thread with a lot of interest! For years and years I made our christmas dinner. Then i hadn't been so well so Mum said I could have a year off (brillliant, total heaven). I thought i was also getting this year off but it's not to be..... I have been instructed I am cooking the dinner!

Thing with my Mum is she is so damn carefree with her spending, and bless her, she doesn't have the money! She usually buys a turkey so massive, it barely fits in my oven and there is only 4 of us. We do have 2 dinners, but still....... So I am going to try and save as much as possible this year.

I figure i can make cheese straws, Garlic dip, and maybe some fancy cookies to present in little xmas gift bags i salvaged

I am wondering if Mum would go for two chickens instead of a massive turkey - and I don't think she will. I can but try though. My Mum would even be disgusted at a turkey being pre frozen - for years she drilled into me that stuff like that wasn't fresh .......

Trying to also do damage limitation with the dinner - as I always end up spending most of the day in the kitchen (and my Mum screaming Laura its 6pm and you still have presents to open) . Then when I ask for help Mum would question what I'm doing a lot (when in fact I'm a better cook than her, not being arrogant) so I figure the less time I spend in the kitchen the better.

Plan for me

Have roasties made up and covered in oil etc - ready to go in the oven (anyone know if this is ok? Providing the oil is hot when it goes on the spuds - and will they blacken overnight?)

Have carrot and parsnip mash made up for reheating

Have potatoes peeled for mash - prefer fresh mash

Have sprouts cut and ready to cook

Have yorkie batter in fridge overnight from xmas eve

Pudding will be possibly sticky toffee pudding so I will make that all on xmas eve too.. Gosh im going to be busy on xmas eve.

Now, ill text Mother, see if I can persuade her into chicken instead of turkey

Really love the idead of making crackers - off to investigate that now!

Winged_one

We got 8 mini crackers in Lidl last week for €4 - have the hat, snap and motto which is all that is needed.

Use the heels, crusts etc of bread over the next few weeks that would otherwise get thrown out - make into breadcrumbs and freeze for the stuffing.

Buy veggies when you see them on special - prepare and freeze.

Lidl have some very good wines (€5.50 - so prob about £5 a bottle). I like the Australian Shiraz, Cab Sauv and Merlot (all yellow labels) and there are a few nice whites as well.

Grab the soft drinks when you see them on special and hide in the wardrobe - you prbably don't need too many but maybe 2-3 bottles for kiddies and non-drinkers. Or you could even have some orange squash made up with own brand sparkling water in a jug with some ice and a slice of orange.

Tap water in a nice jug with a couple of slices of lime/lemon and a handful of ice cubes works fine - no need for fancy waters then, unless you have someone needing sparkles (and then get the cheapie own brand bottle and decant into a nice jug just before calling everyone to table).

Soup to start - make day before and reheat. And can be very cheap also.

Don't buy a whole tin of biccies for afterwards - buy maybe 3 packs of nice ones and put a selection on a nice plate/basket/serving dish instead.

Do have something to nibble beforehand, so that delays don't frustrate you and have everyone hanging with hunger. Something small like nibble sized pieces of brown bread with smoked salmon or pate, or even just a couple of bowls of nice crisps (don't need to be posh ones, just interesting flavours) or tortilla chips (with a dip if wanted).

Do you fancy making pate yourself? Or mince pies?

Don't bother with "turkey gravy" - get ordinary bisto type mix (could be plain or chicken), use the water from boiling the carrots for flavour rather than tap water, and add the turkey juices to it as well. (Perhaps a dollop of wine if feeling generous). But perfect turkey gravy that way without having to boil giblets (although you can do that as well if you want).

Just a few ideas. Hope they help a little.

timmmers

tori.k wrote: »

Reading the food shopping thread they raved about Lidls turkey crown's, i cant comment as im veggie and to my shame always brought a pre cooked chicken christmas eve to do for the kids.

I like those too, less waste and really tasty. Farmfoods also do crowns and I think they were cheaper last year but I'd just bought one next door at Lidl

Next year Xmas dinner will hopefully include some home grown vegs too.
Slugs stopped play this year :rolleyes:

t

PS If you buy an Xmas pud in a plastic pot...save it because they are awesome in the microwave, nothing sticks to them and they are easy to wash up.

hardpressed

I've seen Aldi's TV ad for the chicken, turkey and duck 3 bird roast, but there no Aldi near me. Anyone know if Tesco, Sainsbury or M&S do anything similar, searched Tescos yesterday but perhas it's too early.