One Chicken, Four Meals

This week's menu plan incorporates one five pound young chicken (bought on sale for $4) stretched into 4 meals.

Here's how:

Cook up the chicken
Eat chicken as is along with veggies for that evening's dinner (it's that good!)
Debone and save leftover chicken
Make Chicken Stock
Use leftover chicken for meal #2 and meal #3
Use Chicken Stock to make soup for meal #4 (in my case, I'm making the Cheeseburger Soup that we are trying this week, which does call for some additional meat, but you get the picture.)

Easy and frugal!

My chicken stock, waiting to have the fat skimmed

Now, keep in mind that I am only feeding (on average) two adults per meal...if you are feeding a family of four, my guess is that you could stretch the chicken for three meals, but not four. Or, you could just cook two chickens. :)

Here's my exact menu plan:

Breakfasts: Homemade Yogurt, Granola, Oatmeal, Cold Cereal

Lunches: Leftovers, Salads

Dinners by Weeknight:

Monday--Cowboy Calzones (trying a new PW recipe!) and salad
Tuesday--Sticky Chicken with spinach and carrots {Chicken Meal #1}
Wednesday--Chicken and Bean Tacos with fresh guacamole {Chicken Meal #2}
Thursday--Dinner at home group
Friday--Hamburgers on the grill
Saturday--Cheeseburger Soup and biscuits {Chicken Meal #3 using broth}
Sunday--Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli {Chicken Meal #4}

Just a little peak into one of the ways I feed our family for $50/week...:)

Do you have any meat-stretching strategies to share with the rest of us?



Linked to Menu Plan Monday.

One Chicken, Four Meals