Chicken week!

I forgot to mention a couple of things in my last long and drawn-out post. ;)

I think I've mentioned before that we are really trying to start pinching our budget. I have been able to get all our shopping done weekly for under $100/week for a while now, but it's not always easy. That's not just food, it includes household supplies like TP, laundry soap, and toiletries too.

This week, we had to pinch a bit tighter, and I had to try to get it all in under $80. Fortunately, we didn't need any big ticket items this week, so I managed to only go a few dollars over budget.

I went searching for healthy cheap meals, and I ran across this page and decided to give it a shot!

5 dinners (with leftovers), 1 chicken.

We have a family of four to serve instead of two, so I bought one whole chicken and three HUGE breasts that were on sale for $1.00/pound.

First night - roasting the chicken.

My husband roasts a damn fine chicken, so I left this task to him. He was home and I was in class yesterday afternoon, so it worked out well on that front too. However, he completely missed the part where I told him to roast it with potatoes and carrots and onions. He remembered having a conversation about all of that, but apparently thought I'd said NOT to cook them. Spouses (spice?) and their selective hearing, sigh.

We ate all the dark meat and a little of the white meat. Lots and lots of leftover chicken.

Tonight, night 2 - Chicken Picadillo

OMG YUM! I wish I had run across this recipe when I was coming off mushies, it would have been great for a transition food. I was able to eat WAY too much, though. I stopped myself at about 2 cups of food. Oops. The kids and my spouse loved it too. :)

I added a little garam masala to our black beans too. Very tasty.



Tomorrow, White Chicken Chili

I think I will modify it a bit to use green chiles instead of the jalapeño so the kids will scarf it down too. Or maybe a bit of both. I forgot to tell the spouse not to eat the cheese in the fridge, so he and the smallest one ate it today. I will have to use a bit of the change in my purse to pick up some more. :|

Maybe tomorrow I'll take a pic of the meal. Maybe not. heh

I am going to be exploring more frugal healthy cooking options like this plan. The key is keeping the spouse out of the leftover chicken. He eats more than I used to, which is saying something. So basically I have to make sure any meal serves a true 4 - 6 people. 1.5 servings for me and the girls combined, and the rest for him. Fortunately he likes healthy food too, so getting him to eat my cooking isn't a hardship. :)