How to make a holiday meal for 6 under $100

Food, friends and family, three of the holiday cornerstones. Though, with the rising costs in the grocery store, one of those cornerstones is getting a bit pricey.

A report from the University of Dalhousie predicts overall food prices will rise between three to five per cent in 2025.

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"Although there was a downward trend in inflation, Canadians are still pinching pennies," according to the report. "In April, Statistics Canada reported that in 2023, 22.9% of people in the ten provinces lived in a food-insecure household.

"That means 8.7 million people, including 2.1 million children, struggle to afford the food they need."

The price of meat is expected to rise even higher, with an anticipated increase of four to six per cent in cost.

"There's not a lot of costs that you can often control, your mortgage or your rent stays the same, it's set, insurance is set, lots of things are set." said Jodie Kachkar, a professional home economist and teacher at Ross Sheppard High School.

"Food costs you can manage, that's something that you and your family can control."

Kachkar and Justin Gabinet- also a professional home economist and a teacher at Ohpaho Secondary School - visited CTV News Edmonton and showed us how to make a tasty meal to feed six people for less than $100.

"Maintaining a budget, especially around the holidays, is something that is going to become more and more important as time goes on," Gabinet said.

The meal consists of:

• vegetable wellington;
• stuffed acorn squash;
• duchess potatoes;
• roasted glazed carrots;
• green bean casserole;
• cranberry sauce;
• mushroom gravy;
• rum caramel sauce;
• bread pudding;
• crème anglaise;
• mulled wine; and
• spiced cranberry mocktail.

"A vegetable wellington is a vegetarian take on a usually meat-filled meal," said Gabinet. "Right now, we all know protein and meats are incredibly expensive, so we have the portobello mushrooms, we have carrots, we have other herbaceous and very unctuous foods that are in there.

"Quite honestly, if you cook them long enough and roast them long enough, you won't be able to tell the difference."

Both are seeing an increase in the vegetarian "mentality," since it is often more cost-effective.

"Do people, specifically in Alberta, still want to eat their meat? Of course, and if it's within your budget range, do that," Gabinet said.

"But this is just under a severe budget of less than $100. This is what we opted for, so we could have more of a spread, rather than just focus on one meat dish."

While turkey and ham might be the dish most people think of for this time of year, there are also lower-cost options.

"The current most cost-effective meat still is, of course, pork, but you can also go to different angles," Gabinet said. "You could do roaster chickens, you could do utility birds, you could also do things like getting a goose from specialty markets."

Holiday meal cooked by Jodi Kachkar and Justin Gabinet on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (Cam Wiebe/CTV News Edmonton)

The acorn squash for the side dish is in season now, so it should be a little cheaper. If the quinoa in the recipe is too expensive, cheaper options like rice or couscous can be used too, Gabinet added.

"The other side that I prepared was the potatoes duchess, which is, quite literally, mashed potatoes," Gabinet said. "I used russet potatoes, traditionally, you want to use a yellow, waxy potato, because they're more buttery and creamy on the palate.

"They're really good, not only on Christmas evening or the holiday dinner table, but you can also have it in the morning. It makes a really good hash brown and conversely, you can put it on for leftovers as well."

For the glazed carrots and green bean casserole, both can use inexpensive ingredients, including frozen vegetables.

Most of the dishes Gabinet and Kachkar showcased can be made ahead of time and reheated, except for the crème anglaise and green bean casserole, which they said don't reheat as well as the other dishes.

Plan ahead

This meal had a $100 budget, but this mentality can be applied to any budget.

"Once you've got your budget set, create your menu plan and then start searching for groceries, and you'll need to probably go to multiple locations in order to get the best costs," Kachkar said.

"I would start setting your meal plan now … and start watching for sales, because there are sales to be had."

She also advises being flexible with the plan if you happen upon a particularly good deal for a different dish.

Kachkar and Gabinet also want to remind people that a Christmas meal isn't about how much you spend on it, it's about the memories you make with the people you eat it with.

"I'm really invested in how my family feels throughout the Christmas season, and it's no fun if I'm a stressed mess … that's not what I want my family to remember," Kachkar said.

"I want them to remember that I was relaxed and I had time to sit down and play and I had time to stop and make cookies or whatever in that time period."

"We need to just really decide what's important to us, and it maybe isn't the Instagramable meal, maybe that's not what you want," she added.

"Maybe you want your kid to remember that you had a really nice time and you stayed in your pajamas all day because that seems like a really great Christmas."

Timing wise, if you've got a hectic Christmas day and don't have time to cook a festive feast, do it on another day, or have a potluck to spread around the cost and time that cooking takes.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Lampa