Good Morning everyone! I had a friend asking how I make and save my meals and use leftovers. Though I do this for our family on a weekly basis, I have yet to write down the steps and recipes! BUT it is a GREAT time and Money Saver for everyone!
In this series, I will show you how to cook up 5 delicious meals with one meat. This week, we will be using Chicken. Meat is the least expensive when you purchase it in whole form. On sale, I can get a whole chicken for as low as 0.89 cents a lb! Whole Chickens are easily frozen until a couple of days before you need them, so when I see them on sale, I purchase about 3 of them and freeze them. For a 6 lb Chicken (enough for an entire 5 days for a family of 4) that is less than 6 dollars for the week!
Ingredients for the week
Spices: Celery Salt, Rosemary, Salt, Black Pepper, Bay Leaves
- 5 lb bag of potatoes (These go on sale in my area for .99 cents a bag! every 3 months)
- Corn Starch
- Bag of Egg Noodles (I use these instead of Pasta to reduce carb intake)
- 2 lb bag of baby carrots
- Pepper Jack Cheese
- Pita Pockets
- 1 lb of Bacon (I get these for usually 2.50 a lb on sale - another item I freeze until I need them)
- Frozen Broccoli
- Honey
- Brown Sugar
- Mustard
- 8 large tortillas
- Bag of Knorr or Lipton Spanish Rice
- Bag of Knorr or Lipton Chicken and Broccoli rice
- At least 6 lb Whole Chicken
- 1 Can of Black Beans
- Sour Cream
First Meal: I start on Sundays, as I have more time to cook on Sundays, and the first day is the most time consuming)
Roasted Whole Chicken
Mashed Potatoes
Honey Glazed Carrots
Chicken: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare Chicken - pluck out any feathers, take out innards (save these). Coat Chicken in 1/4 Cup Butter, 1 teaspoon dried (or 2 teaspoons Fresh) Rosemary, 1 teaspoon Celery Salt, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon Black Pepper.
Start on Mashed Potatoes and Honey Glazed Carrots during last 45 minutes of chicken cooking time.
Place Chicken in a roasting pan and in pre-heated oven with Aluminum foil resting loosely on top (keeps tops from burning). Cooking time for a 6 - 6.5 lb chicken is 2 hours 25 minutes. Take the aluminum foil off the top for the last 25 minutes. I rely heavily on my Oven Timer. Check internal temp of chicken using a Meat Thermometer before removing as cooking times vary by altitude and oven. Once the internal temp of the Chicken has reached 165 degrees you can take it out. Let rest 10 minutes before carving.
Carrots: Place 1 lb of Carrots in a pot of boiling water. Cook until tender (about 30 - 40 minutes). Drain. Place in a serving bowl. While still hot, add in 1/2 stick of butter, 1 TBL Honey and 1/4 C of Brown Sugar. The heat from the carrots will melt the butter and dissolve the honey and sugar. If necessary place in the microwave for 1 minute right before serving.
Mashed potatoes: (You will be making extra potoatos for tomorrow) Place large pot of water and 1 teaspoon of salt on to a rapid boil. Peel 2 - 2.5 lbs of potatoes and cut up and place in boiling water. Turn heat down to a light boil and cook until tender. Drain, mash, add in Salt, Pepper, butter and Garlic Salt to taste (To make creamy, I add Ranch Dressing instead of Gravy). Place 1/2 in fridge for tomorrows meal.
Serve!
This is where I start for the following day. Carve up remaining meat separating Light and Dark meat. Get as much off of the bones as possible. Do not throw anything away (While Separating place a large pot of water on to boil. ) Start placing the bones, skin and meat into the boiling water (as well as the innards saved from earlier). Put Rosemary, Bay Leaves, Salt, Celery salt, 1 lb of carrots, and black pepper into the pot and mix. Turn down heat to a light boil until meat is falling off bones and Carrots are tender. Turn off heat. Once cooled, place in fridge overnight.
Here are the rest of the meals for this week. As it is a lot of information, I will be doing separate posts for each recipe.
Chicken and Noodle
Chicken Cheesy Rice Casserole
Chicken and Pepper Jack Cheese Pitas
Chicken Mexican Casserole
If you LOVE this series! Let me know and I can include more posts like this!! I SOOO Hope you will try this for your families! They will LOVE it!
