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2 Meals in 1: Chicken and Potatoes

November 12, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

You will need to add to this meal to make it two in one but it is still so much nicer to have a meal that’s already partially done for you.

Day 1:

Baked chicken
Mashed potatoes
Favorite vegetable

Make 2 extra pieces of chicken, a few extra potatoes, and double the veggie!

After dinner, cut or tear up the chicken and put it in the crockpot.
Throw the mashed potatoes in.
Throw the vegetable in or chop it a little smaller.

If you want the meal ready to go, add –

Chop 1 medium – large onion
Dice 3 cloves garlic
Throw in some fresh or frozen veggies – peas, corn, carrots, celery, beans, green beans, etc.
Add 6 cups water and any seasonings you like.
Stick in the refrigerator overnight or cook overnight on low to reheat tomorrow evening.

Day 2:

Chicken Vegetable Soup

Either cook in the crockpot on low all day or cook through the night and refrigerate for the day.

Serve with a loaf of Italian bread, cornbread, or rolls.

 

Filed Under: Food & Recipes, Home Sweet Home, Reusing and Repurposing Ideas~eliminating wasteful purchasing Tagged With: ,

Re-Purposing Food: 2 Meals into 3

October 31, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Last week with Hurricane Sandy quickly approaching, I decided I would bake and cook in preparation. If for some reason we lost power I wanted food in the house. Obviously I couldn’t make anything that would have to be heated up so I made some pasta to toss with cheese, pepperoni, and balsamic dressing. I also pre-cooked brown rice. At the worst we could have a cold rice salad, tossed with fresh vegetables. We didn’t have a power outage. That is so okay with me. It just means my prep has made my week so much easier.

Over the weekend I had made Broccoli Smoked Cheddar Soup. Use your favorite recipe. There is nothing so special about my recipe or lack there of that will make this not work for you.  Monday we decided to make a hot lunch in case we lost power that afternoon. We baked chicken breast, used some of the pre-cooked rice, and smothered it in mushroom soup. There you have it, two meals.

Last night was a “ugh, what am I making for dinner? I don’t want to cook” kind of night. I went to the fridge to see what was there.

1 chicken breast with approximately 1/2 cup mushroom soup

4-5 cups rice

2 (ish) cups broccoli soup

Mixed them together and heated them through in a 375 degree oven.

chicken and rice

My leftovers are gone but instead of having to make 3 meals from scratch I was able to utilize leftovers to make a stressful day end a bit easier.  This 3 day combo is DEFINITELY going on my meal plan and I am off to see what other meals I can do this with.  This way I can Make meals Monday and Tuesday and have an easy “throw together” on Wednesdays when I work outside the home.

What leftovers would you combine to create a new dish? Feel free to share.

 

 

Filed Under: Food & Recipes, Home Sweet Home, Reusing and Repurposing Ideas~eliminating wasteful purchasing Tagged With: , ,

{recipe} a better green bean casserole + Pinterest blog hop

October 25, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

I’m in the process of starting to think and plan for holiday meals. But, since there is still plenty of time to modify menus and shop, I thought maybe you’d want to share some of your favorite recipes.

Here’s a new one I’m going to try. It’s a different twist on green bean casserole. Yes, the easy side dish that is often served at Thanksgiving and other holiday meals.  I loathe the regular one with the mushroom soup. But both beef tenderloin and ham (things I often serve at Christmas) go well with green beans, so I’m always on the hunt for green bean recipes. I was cleaning out a kitchen drawer today & came across a recipe card with this on it. I swear I’ve been carrying this recipe card around, moving it from house to house, for almost 20 years. I vaguely remember getting this pack of cards in the mail, in the early 1990s!

Holiday Recipe Blog Hop~share yours! New kind of green bean casserole
 

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An easy twist on an old favorite, adds some variety to this classic holiday side dish recipe.
Author:
Recipe type: side dish, vegetable
Cuisine: American, budget friendly
Serves: 8

Ingredients
  • · 1½ tablespoons butter
  • · 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • · 1½ cups milk
  • · 3 to 4 teaspoons dry ranch-style salad dressing mix
  • · ¼ to ½ teaspoon white pepper
  • · 1 cup chopped onion
  • · 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • · 1½ cups sliced fresh mushrooms (I’ll be skipping this part, ironically. I live in the mushroom capital of the world & HATE them!)
  • · 1¼ pounds fresh green beans, cooked until crisp-tender
  • 1 cup fresh bread crumbs, toasted OR
  • French’s fried onions

Instructions
  1. · To make white sauce, melt butter in small saucepan over low heat.
  2. Stir in flour; cook 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
  3. Using wire whisk, stir in milk; bring to a boil.
  4. Cook, whisking constantly, 1 to 2 minutes or until thickened.
  5. Stir in dressing mix and white pepper; set aside.
  6. · Preheat oven to 350F.
  7. Spray medium skillet with nonstick cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; cook and stir 2 to 3 minutes or until tender.
  8. Remove half of onion mixture; set aside.
  9. Add mushrooms to onion mixture remaining in skillet and cook about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.
  10. Combine mushroom mixture, green beans and white sauce in 1½-quart casserole.
  11. Combine bread crumbs with reserved onion mixture; sprinkle over casserole. Bake, uncovered, until heated through, 20 to 30 minutes.

Notes
This is easy to double and triple, and much of the work can be done ahead of time.

 



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{recipe} 2 chickens~5 days, 5 ways, 5 meals for $50

October 17, 2012 by · 2 Comments

5 days pigThis post has been in the works for a while. Six years ago, when I was home on maternity leave, I saw this idea on Rachael Ray. I found it online and did it, and liked it. Then, I lost my printed copy of the recipe collection and have googled my little heart out and she doesn’t have it online anymore. So, I had to reconstruct it in my mind and put it here. It may vary from what she originally had and I’ve tried to add a more budget friendly twist to it. I have done different versions of this over the years and while it is easy and frugal, admittedly by days 4 and 5, you’re growing weary of chicken. You may want to modify it so that you can freeze portions or the meals and eat at a later date.

But, there is a demand for more budget friendly meals out there, so here you go. I also am going on the assumption that you can get whole chickens on a bogo sale. I know that Acme, Giant and Superfresh offer these sales quite often in the cooler months and I usually get two decent sized whole roasters for $10-$15. Even if I add up what I have listed here, it’s just under $40, so you have some wiggle room. Keep in mind I didn’t price things like the milk for mashed potatoes, flour for gravy and stuff like that. I’m wrote it with the assumption that you’d have these basic staples in your kitchen.


5.0 from 1 reviews

{recipe} roast chicken dinner
 

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The first day of your 5 days 5 ways meal adventure. I’d try to do this on a Saturday or Sunday, or when you have more time.
Author:
Recipe type: budget friendly
Cuisine: American

Ingredients
  • 2 whole roaster chickens-$10-$15
  • 5 lb bag of potatoes-$2
  • milk
  • butter
  • flour
  • salt, pepper seasonings
  • side dish veggie-$1

Instructions
  1. Cook both chickens either in your oven or in crock pots.
  2. When chickens are done, get ALL the meat off of them and divide into portions for 5 meals.
  3. If you have a large family, you may need either 3 chickens or skip some of the meals and just do 3-4 days of meals
  4. Your first night’s dinner is roast chicken, mashed potatoes and a veggie for a side dish. Make gravy with the chicken juice and flour and water.
  5. You should have leftover mashed potatoes.

Notes
This will be your longest day in the kitchen because of the roasting time, picking all the chicken off the bone and dicing it or cubing it, and making the mashed potatoes. This is why I suggest a Saturday or Sunday, but then you will be set for the week!

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{recipe} chicken shepherd’s pie
 

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Your second meal of the 5 days 5 ways chicken fest.
Author:
Recipe type: budget friendly
Cuisine: American/British
Serves: 4

Ingredients
  • chicken off bone, broken/cut into bite-sized pieces
  • mashed potatoes
  • gravy from previous night
  • 1 bag of frozen mixed veggies-$1

Instructions
  1. Microwave the frozen vegetables for 3-4 minutes as directed on package.
  2. Drain and mix in a bowl with the chicken and the gravy.
  3. Spread that mixture in a deep pie dish or 8×8 pan.
  4. Spread mashed potatoes over top of that.
  5. Cover with foil, leave space for venting.
  6. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes and serve

5.0 from 1 reviews

{recipe} white chicken chili
 

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Day 3 meal
Author:
Recipe type: easy, budget friendly
Cuisine: Mexican/southwestern
Serves: 4-5

Ingredients
  • chicken, off bone and broken/cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 can of black beans, drained-$1
  • 1 can of hominy, drained, $1
  • 1 packet of taco seasoning-$1
  • 1 can of cream of chicken soup, $1
  • 1 can of small white beans, drained, $1
  • tortilla chips or shredded cheese or sour cream for topping

Instructions
  1. Mix all of this in a crockpot.
  2. Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
  3. At the start, it will feel like you don’t have enough liquid in the pot, but you do.
  4. When done, serve with a topping.

5.0 from 1 reviews

{recipe} baked chicken salad
 

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Day 4 of our chicken meal extravaganza.
Author:
Recipe type: easy, budget friendly
Cuisine: American
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients
  • 2 cups of cubed chicken
  • 1 cup diced celery-$1
  • 1 cup mayo-$1
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar-$1
  • 1 T diced garlic
  • 2 T lemon juice
  • ½ cup chopped nuts-almonds or walnuts-$1
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • crumbled potato chips-$1
  • Pita or iceberg lettuce-$1

Instructions
  1. Mix everything together, except potato chips
  2. Spread in pan.
  3. Crumble chips and spread on top
  4. bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes
  5. serve on pita or on iceberg lettuce, like a lettuce wrap

 

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{recipe} chicken quesadillas or BBQ chicken pizza
 

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Have any chicken left? Then here you go!
Author:
Recipe type: easy, budget friendly
Cuisine: American
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients
  • package of tortillas-$1
  • bag of shredded cheddar-$3
  • green onions, diced-$1
  • diced chicken
  • bottle of BBQ sauce-$1
  • diced tomatoes-$2
  • shredded iceberg lettuce-$1

Instructions
  1. If you have anything left of your chicken, use it to make either Quesadillas with the above ingredients or BBQ chicken pizza. Just assemble and warm in the oven.

 

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