More Cheap Rehearsal Dinner Ideas

Count on you, Max dear, to come up with a Rehearsal Dinner menu that didn’t break the bank. Best part, none of us there had a idea that you hadn’t spent hours in the kitchen and received your grocery’s “Shopper of the Week Award” for what you spent. Your frugal German ancestors must have been applauding you from their graves. I don’t know anyone who can put on a fancy dinner for next to nothing like you can.

When we first met, I remember you bragging that you never spent over $15.00 a week on groceries. Boy, was I envious? Happily, some of your penny-pinching ways rubbed off on me.

Here is the entrée Evelyn selected for Rachel’s Rehearsal Dinner, and I thought it was easy and inexpensive? I should have known that you would make me look like a piker.

Parmesan Green Beans would have fit in with Evelyn’s menu, although that would have made two cheese/creamy things on the menu. I think there is some rule against that, isn’t there?

Anyway, we cheated a little on this one. Instead of boiling chicken after chicken to get enough white meat for a crowd, or horrors, buying already cooked and chopped chicken breasts at outrageous prices, we bought two of those 68 cents a pound monster frozen turkeys. Like 20 pounds a piece they were, and we baked them early in the week. We wanted all white meat so we had turkey legs for dinner a couple of nights. So, not only did we spend less than $25.00 for the turkey for Tracy’s Creamy Chicken Casserole, we also had two meals of Baked Turkey Legs. I thought that was pretty thrifty, and worthy of you Max.

Everyone at the Rehearsal Dinner raved over this, and even the men scraped out the last little bit of creamy sauce from the casseroles. If Evelyn had catered this event, there is no telling what they would have charged for this item. And I guarantee it would not have been as tasty as our turkey casserole.

Tracy’s Creamy Chicken Casserole:

1 cup cubed cooked chicken
1/2 can of cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1/2 cup of sour cream
scant 1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1 hard cooked egg
1 celery rib
1 small green onion
1 teaspoon lemon juice
dash pepper
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup crushed corn flakes

Shred the cheese in a food processor. Chop the egg, green onion, and celery in the processor.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan like the KitchenAid 3-Qt Covered Saucepan, and stir in the crushed corn flakes. Set aside.

In a large bowl mix everything but the buttered corn flakes and cheese. Transfer to a greased medium sized casserole like the CorningWare 2.5 Qt. Oval Casserole. Sprinkle with the cheese and top with the corn flakes. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Serves 4 to 5.

Tracy’s Creamy Chicken (or Turkey) Casserole was originally meant for the Ladies Luncheon type event in part because it could be made up the day before, and because it fed a lot of women for very few pennies.