Friday, December 12, 2008

Dinner For 6 Nights - Leftovers Stretch the Budget


This was our menu this week and it was delicious:


  1. Chili with beans, cheese, onions and sour cream with saltine crackers

  2. Chicken and Dumplings

  3. Leftover Chili with beans over rice with cornbread muffins

  4. Leftover Chicken and Dumplings [so better the second time around!]

  5. Roast Chicken with rice and broccoli

  6. Chicken and rice soup and french bread

Grocery List:



  • 1 lb hamburger meat $4.00

  • 1 large can of kidney beans $1.59

  • 1 large can of diced tomatoes $1.00

  • 1 pack of chili seasoning $1.00

  • 1 lb bag of white rice $1.59

  • 2 roaster chickens* $7.00

  • 1 can chicken broth $1.00

  • 1 5 lb bag of potatoes $3.00

  • 1 lb frozen broccoli $2.50

  • 1 bag of large carrots $1.60

  • 1 pkg. celery $2.00

  • 1 white onion $0.50

  • 8 oz. of sour cream $2.00

  • 1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix $0.50

  • TOTAL: $28.29

*chickens are sold two to a pack at our local grocery store for about $3.50 each


I had eggs, Jiffy dumpling mix, crackers and shredded cheddar cheese on hand plus additional spices for the chili. If I was to add the cost it would be an additonal $8.00.



This is the way it broke down:


1. Sunday night we had chili. Leftovers were refrigerated. 2. Monday night we had chicken and dumplings [with potatoes] using a whole chicken for this. Leftovers refrigerated 3. Tuesday we had Chili over rice with corn muffins [over rice really stretches this.] 4. Wednesday we had leftover chicken and dumplings [adding more dumplings because we ate them all on Monday :D!] 5. Thursday we roasted the second chicken, made double amounts of rice and the bag of broccoli [using half for dinner, saving the rest for Friday]. The carcass was cooked for soup on Friday with celery [the top leafy part] & half an onion. 6. Friday we used the broth from yesterday's chicken, the leftover chicken with the extra rice and broccoli for very, very yummy chicken noodle soup with homemade french bread. The soup had carrots, broccoli and celery along with the leftover chicken and rice.


I actually had chicken and dumplings for lunch one day and chili twice for lunch this week!


This is a menu to feed a family of four. [Dad, Mom, teenager and a tweener ;D]


Also everything is homemade unless listed [ex. Jiffy dumplings and Jiffy cornbread - Love me some Jiffy!]

4 comments:

Gail said...

Mmmmm! I am coming for leftovers. I use to cook like that.

Gizmo said...

I wanna eat at YOUR house!! Everything sounds delicious!!! I'll have to send you the "homemade" Jiffy and Bisquick mix recipes I have. :)

Yvo Sin said...

I guess I am the only one slightly horrified at your grocery prices. $4 for "hamburger meat"??? I paid $2.99/lb for ground chuck on Thursday and I was horrified. Ground sirloin was $4.29/lb. but I wouldn't really call that hamburger meat. This is weird but I think I pay less for a lot of my groceries than you do.
Aside from that, though, that is basically how I expect to feed my family. I did the same when I was living with the BF but a lot of nights he would be like "I'm not eating that," and go get McDonald's, so I'd have to eat leftovers even longer. Oh well. It's been hard scaling back to cook for one ;)

SkippyMom said...

That hamburger? That isn't ground sirloin [$5.49 lb] That is your basic 85/15 fat content...best I could do.

I did find 80/20 on sale for $1.79 this weekend but they were sold out [no kidding] and no rainchecks eventhough the sale is 6 days longer.

What is milk where you live? We are at almost $4.50 a gallon for whole. It is killing me.

I mean - we can afford it, but c'mon. How many other people can in this economy. It bothers me that parents around our area may have to pick between milk and I don't know? Food? Thank goodness gas has gone down. Just not food prices.