Can’t afford fancy shabbos foods

jeg

Fri, Aug 16 2024, 6:06 pm

I've made very fancy looking shabboses on a shoestring budget. Radish and cucumber, if arranged right, can look elegant. Or try a new ingredient, like a spice, that feels special and new to you. Most spices you can find for like $2. You can also make challah into fancy shapes or even fold napkins into cool origami. I promise that when I make homemade pickled onions (very cheap) guests are impressed and don't even realize we have only the tiniest bit of meat.

amother

Dustypink

Fri, Aug 16 2024, 6:19 pm

I can’t either buy all that prepared stuff

I make homemade challah and freeze
My chicken soup and challah is bH delicious and I made a pot roast lekovod Shabbos this week, otherwise we have tasty chicken

I made roasted veggies, cucumber salad, and I even made a peach crisp and chocolate mousse.

Simple but delicious

I also made a cinnamon crumb cake this week that is delicious. Another hack is chocolate chip biscotti- it presents so beautifully and is so easy to make.

amother

Pewter

Sat, Aug 17 2024, 7:24 pm

scintilla wrote:

I'm on food stamps and cholent meat is a special treat. Plenty of shabbosim we have grilled chicken or something with ground meat for shabbos day instead, and I make all our dips - most are really easy and can be frozen in big quantities.

Shabbos can definitely be special and delicious on a budget!!

We can afford more but noone is hungry on summer shabbos plus I am expecting and can’t stand many meats.

amother

Oxfordblue

Sat, Aug 17 2024, 8:03 pm

We have for Friday night: homemade challah, homemade garlic confit, homemade onion dip, salmon and chicken soup.
Shabbos day: challah, onion dip, homemade liver, potatoe kugel and cholent (has meat in it).
We used to make more food for Friday night but no one ate it…. My kids fill up on challah and I find that one protein is enough…

amother

Milk

Sat, Aug 17 2024, 8:52 pm

scintilla wrote:

Can you please write your recipes for dips and about how long they last? If anyone else does this I would love to hear. Thanks!

amother

Freesia ↓

Sat, Aug 17 2024, 9:25 pm

For me it's worth buying most of the food for Friday night and having less cleaning help.
We don't eat loads each so I get variety and my big boys love it. I can't keep up with them otherwise because they want fancy.
I buy 2 small containers of different protein, a stir fry and sesame chicken poppers for example, onion pargiyot etc or just regular breaded schnitzel for one and another one that my kids aren't so keen on. A big kugel every week, often a container of veg but I'll sometimes throw a frozen bag of something in the oven and that's fine too.

I make roast potatoes every week to go with all the above, a couple of my kids will only have that and not kugel, and now my spoilt family expects both every week! We have a bit of everything. I don't need leftovers for Sunday.

I make a dessert (usually lasts us a few weeks) and brownies every week or other cake/cookies

Gefilta fish, I make every few weeks and freeze in separate slices, only 2 have that. I make a big batch of soup every so often on a Sunday and delicious homemade challas I usually make every other week.

I make eggs and cholent for Shabbos day. I buy a couple of dips. Sometimes a potato or yeruahalmi kugel as well.

This is what works for our family. We can afford to do this and everyone is happy!

Hardly have any cleaning help. We do go on vacations .

When we have guests I don't buy the above for Friday night! We usually have guests shab day if we have so then I'll serve extra. Breaded schnitzel as well. Oh and we always have cold cuts (deli meat?) at every meal. My kids love it with challa.

amother

Mistyrose

Sat, Aug 17 2024, 9:32 pm

We don’t do dips. Challah and dessert is homemade in bulk. I made London broil for Shabbos lunch this week. 1 $16 piece (I buy on sale and freeze) served with plenty of cheap sides (rice, lettuce-less salad, Costco chummus, roast potato, techina mixed from the big jar, corn on the cob).

Chulent meat here is stew meat and bones, but if I make it, there’s no other meat.

If I do a lettuce salad then it’s the central part of the meal and I make less other food.

amother

Peachpuff

Sun, Aug 18 2024, 12:40 am

We don’t have food stamps and are on a tight budget but we buy 2 or 3 rolls of sushi for Shabbos. We both really like it (and homemade doesn’t compare), so for us that’s how we make shabbos special. DH feels like it would be wearing to buy it during the week for a treat, if it’s a treat we should get it for shabbos. So that’s what we do. Point is, everyone budgets according to what’s important to them.

amother

Aquamarine

Sun, Aug 18 2024, 3:59 am

It's probably best to ignore what others are buying or doing. You need to do what you can afford and what you enjoy. When we were younger I couldn't understand how much people spent on shabbat good it was all way out of my budget. As we got older and began to earn more money we somewhat changed our habits. But now that I live in Israel, we've changed again. We can afford basically whatever food we want for shabbat. But I still like to keep it simple and to make extra so we have one dinner during the week already covered. I choose to spend my money on vacations. Just knowing that I can afford the food is good enough for me.

Take a look at your budget and ideals and figure out what you want.

Oh, we have always bought a variety of sugar cereals that are only for shabbat. That's our treat for the kids (who are not really kids anymore).

amother

Burntblack

Sun, Aug 18 2024, 4:08 am

I used 3 chicken bottoms this week for my family of 11 kah. One piece for the soup, two pieces baked (most people were full before that course). I used one loaf of Pesach fish I had left over and made fish balls which was enough for both meals.

I made two kugels, challah, salads, roasted veggies, cake, and got storebought chumus. I check my own lettuce if I'm making a lettuce salad. When I make cholent it's pareve unless I found bones on sale.

My Shabbos treats are sugar cereal (under $2), a vegetable platter (cucumbers, carrots, sometimes celery and grape tomatoes, with dip) and a fruit platter (melon, grapes, sometimes strawberries). For Shabbos party I buy one pack of some kind of candy (usually under $3).

It's not very fancy but everyone seems happy.

renslet

Sun, Aug 18 2024, 3:50 pm

When I got married I started copying what I had seen, three courses, fish soup and chicken, salads etc.
And slowly I started really looking at what was eaten and what my kids enjoyed. And it's constantly changing.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Look at your shabbos meal, what would bring more honor, simcha and respect for shabbos? What is there for your family and what do they enjoy? And start from there

amother

Glitter ↓

Sun, Aug 18 2024, 4:00 pm

I find it interesting that so many people consider buying prepared foods for shabbos as something good. I’m glad people are enjoying but to me there’s no comparison to homemade challah, dips, soup, kugel etc and store bought. I’ve tried many different takeout/catered foods for shabbos over the years whether at catered events or for other reasons and it’s never good. The food always tastes bland to me. Like yerushalmi kugel will just taste oily but no flavor, chicken soup will be salty but no flavor etc. And you can’t compare bakery challah to homemade. I just don’t get the appeal of buying all this other than convenience.

amother

↑ OP

Sun, Aug 18 2024, 4:05 pm

renslet wrote:

I love this line!

amother

↑ Freesia

Sun, Aug 18 2024, 4:33 pm

amother Glitter wrote:

The kugels we buy are absolutely delicious 🤷‍♀️
You have to know where to get from. I live in England, maybe we have tastier store bought food here Wink

amother

↑ Glitter

Sun, Aug 18 2024, 9:17 pm

amother Freesia wrote:

The kugels we buy are absolutely delicious 🤷‍♀️
You have to know where to get from. I live in England, maybe we have tastier store bought food here Wink

Maybe! I live in the US but have tried from many different places here and in Israel