Discover how you can make Easter dinner for $30.00. Includes a Easter dinner meal plan with recipe links and a Ham with Mustard Sauce recipe.
Jump to Recipe
Once I was challenged to make an Easter Dinner for under $50.00. I said, “Where is the challenge in that?” I knew various stores to shop at to find inexpensive vegetables that I could use in my side dishes and dessert.
I was positive that I could make Easter Dinner for less than $50.00, and I planned on donating the unused portion to a local food bank. Then I set a new challenge for myself: Create an early Easter dinner for $30.00 for my retired neighbors who regularly serve as my “official taste testers.” I decided to serve Ham with Mustard Sauce, Peas with Basil, Glazed Carrots, Twice Baked Potatoes and a Carrot Bundt Cake for dessert.
I chose recipes that primarily used whole foods. To make the glazed carrots, peas, and potatoes I only needed to add butter and a few spices that I already had in my pantry. The mustard sauce and carrot cake used standard pantry items. If my pantry wasn’t already stocked with baking ingredients, it would have been more cost-effective to buy a cake mix or perhaps a pre-made dessert rather than buy everything from scratch. My total came to $30.67*, so I missed my goal by .67 cents, but I came in well under $50.00 and donated $20.00 to a church food pantry.
Frugal Dinner Party Tips:
- Plan recipes around items that you already have in your pantry.
- Plan a little extra in case you have a last-minute addition, but resist the urge to over-buy.
- If you are serving your guests lots of delicious side dishes, you don’t need to serve bread and salad too.
- Cook food you like! Don’t waste food and money creating “traditional” holiday recipes that you don’t like.
- Make use of linens and decorations that you already own or borrow them.
- Pick flowers from your yard or buy cut flowers and arrange them yourself.
- If you serve wine, research good, inexpensive wines. They do exist. I drink sparkling cider. It tastes way better than wine and costs ~ $2.00 a bottle.
The ham was the most expensive item I purchased. When buying a ham with a bone in it, you should plan on buying about a 1/2 pound per person. I bought the smallest ham available which was a little over 7 pounds. More than enough for the 8 guests at our dinner party, plus extra so I could send our single neighbors home with leftovers.
I have listed all of the recipes below. The ham, peas, carrots, and trifle recipes will all serve 10 – 12 people. The twice-baked potatoes can easily be adjusted to serve more guests.
Make Easter Dinner for $30.00
I bought a spiral-sliced ham that included a spice packet. If your ham doesn’t have a spice packet, you can use this recipe to make a Honey Glazed Ham. If you are short on oven space you can cook your ham in a slow cooker, but make sure your ham fits prior to Easter day!
Ham with Mustard Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
- Ham
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon flour (or 1½ teaspoon corn starch)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons Mustard (or gluten-free mustard)
Directions:
- Cook ham according to package directions.
- Melt butter; stir in flour, salt, and pepper.
- Cook over low heat until mixture is smooth and bubbly.
- Remove from heat; stir in milk. Reheat to boiling, stirring constantly.
- Stir in mustard.
- Spoon mustard sauce over pork chops.
Ham serving tip: Don’t put out all of the ham. Cut enough for your guests, but keep the rest covered so it doesn’t dry out. You can put more ham out as needed.
You can make Peas with Basil with fresh peas or frozen peas. There was a great sale on frozen peas, so I decided that it was not only the more frugal decision but also the easier decision. To quickly thaw frozen peas, place them in a colander and run hot water over them. Pat them dry and use them as called for in the recipe. If you use fresh peas, steam them for 2 minutes before using them in the recipe.
Glazed Carrots are popular with kids and adults. I strongly urge you to buy your carrots unpeeled and unprocessed. Yes, they are more frugal, but more importantly, they are much more flavorful! So take the time to peel the carrots and cut them into “coins”.
Everything was going according to my plan, but I had a cake disaster. My daughter convinced me to use white chips in place of walnuts in the carrot cake recipe. I thought that was a brilliant idea, but the white chips stuck to the cake pan and the cake came out in chucks. I didn’t have enough time to make another cake, so I grabbed a few things from my pantry and the cake disaster became the most awesome trifle we have ever had. The trifle was so good that my daughter asked me to ruin more cakes. 🙂 You can find the Carrot Cake Trifle recipe here.
Successful Dinner Party Tips
1. Keep the table decorations under control!
The most important element is interacting with your friends and family! I put my tall flower arrangement behind the food on the buffet instead of on the table. Table decorations do not need to be expensive! I just used figurines that I picked up a Dollar Tree years ago, because I thought the kids would enjoy them.
2. Plan ahead.
- Clean the house a couple of days ahead of time, so you aren’t trying to clean and cook.
- Shop ahead of time and double-check that you have everything you need the day before.
- Set the table the night before and pull out your serving dishes.
- Prep ingredients ahead of time or make a dish or two in advance.
3. Prep your kitchen before you cook.
Unload the dishwasher before you start cooking, then you can place dirty dishes in as you dirty them rather than letting them accumulate in the sink.
4. Don’t stress!
A relaxed hostess is essential to a successful dinner party. Put on fun music while you cook, chat with guests, laugh, and improvise when disasters happen.
*Hams will be on sale the week before Easter, so you can now make this meal for less than $30.00!
Printable Recipe for Ham with Mustard Sauce
Ham with Mustard Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- Ham
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon flour or 1½ teaspoon corn starch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons Mustard or gluten-free mustard
Instructions
- Cook ham according to package directions.
- Melt butter; stir in flour, salt, and pepper.
- Cook over low heat until mixture is smooth and bubbly.
- Remove from heat; stir in milk. Reheat to boiling, stirring constantly.
- Stir in mustard.
- Spoon mustard sauce over pork chops.
More Easter Recipes
Easter Egg Rice Krispie Treats Recipe
Easter White Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods
Quick and Easy Resurrection Rolls Recipe
Would you like to save this article?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
April @ The 21st Century Housewife says
The produce at Smart & Final looks just wonderful! What a delicious meal! I like the mustard sauce on the ham, and your carrot cake trifle looks absolutely amazing. Great entertaining tips as well. Happy Easter!
Sara Pirate (@CleverPirate) says
This is a great post, I love how you kept prices down by using fresh vegetables for side dishes. I love your tips too!
'Becca says
Looks delicious! I love carrot cake but have never had that variation before…. I’ll have to try it next time organic carrots go on sale.
This is a really helpful post and a great response to the “challenge”. I added a link to it at the bottom of my post about the idea that eating on a food-stamp budget is so difficult you couldn’t even do it for all of Lent. Sometimes I wonder how other people manage to spend so much on food….
Laura @ Stealthy Mom says
Carrot Cake Trifle? Really? I’m grinning from ear to ear just thinking about it. Yummy!
Pauline Wiles says
Lucky, lucky neighbors. Love all the fresh veggies you included. And what an inspired ‘save’ of the cake disaster!