Food Budget - Day 1

Time for an update on yesterday's meal! The menu did in fact go as planned, but baking time did not. Oh well. Reality. It was good, though!

Dun-dun-da-duh! (Drum roll)

The main dish was ham! The first I'd ever made, so I forgive myself for it being done an hour later than I was hoping. We had been given a 10lb ham several weeks ago and I'm rather excited about the mileage we'll be able to get from it. I can think of several ways to use the leftovers, and hubby chimed in with a few more as he helped me put away the leftovers last night. Ham is a rare thing here. (I mean, I did say it was my first time cooking one.) Pork is not our meat of choice, but both my man and I agree there is an exception for bacon, ham, and sausage. So basically anything that doesn't taste like plain pork. 

What I served with the ham? I made homemade baked beans, also a first. I pulled out my recipe book *for the first time* and compared all (five) of the bean recipes I had with each other. Most of them said to bake for 5-7 hours, but it was 3pm when I got started, so.... I used ingredients from some of those recipes, but followed the baking time a little closer for the one that said two hours. haha! The ham took an extra hour to bake, so my beans did too. It ended up being more like four hours then. A happy medium, I call it! 

A potato salad also accompanied the meal. It was a rather chilly cloudy day and I was beginning to wish the ham was done the day before so it could be soup day. Potato salad? I know I've been waiting for non-winter weather so it's season for it, but couldn't I have done baked or mashed potato? But... when my man walked in the door for supper and saw the bowl on the table from across the room, he asked if it was what he thought it was. He LOVES potato salad! It was a housewife-helpmeet win. Maybe not ideal for a cold day, but it was perfect to please the husband, and that is important when planning your menus, budget or not. In this case it was an inexpensive way to make him happy, but I recommend even spending a little extra to get him some food he really likes. Your job isn't just feeding your man, but making him happy, which is basically the same thing. 

Food tip #1: Make sure husband is happy. Even if it costs a little bit extra.