Sunday, February 16, 2020

Chicken Confidential and Meal Planning

I'm still on track towards a February H&G budget of $300, but it is getting lean. DH has done a little  shopping on his own, but not as much damage as in the past and I worked his spending and buys into my target. It's going to be a long couple weeks though, as I think I am down to just $76 in my target budget and 13 days to go. I can stretch grocery shopping out until after work Tuesday, and possibly make that the final shop of the month. We need some household items like laundry and dishwasher soap though, and shampoo is running low. I could cash in some of my Target cards, but really am hoping to challenge myself with being at or below $300 in real spending. Some loss leader wins will help me get there, plus my go to protein, chicken.

I had good luck and came across $ .69 cent a pound chicken drumsticks at Aldi last Saturday, and scored a large pack of 11, or a tad bit more than five pound for I believe $3.45. I simply baked, saved the nonfatty part of the drippings, and set aside for use during the week. Man did I make that chicken work to help our food budget. 

DH brought a couple chicken sandwiches on buns  both Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after using six of the legs. I told him to just keep the bones in the pan as I would use for soup. Yesterday I took a substantial amount of meat of the remaining legs, enough for 2-4 sandwiches depending on size, or for a hotdish, and threw the rest, bones, skin, and little pieces that had fallen off into my soup pot with a rough cut carrot and celery stalks and heaps of pepper. This made a really nice soup stock. I drained to cool and discard the skins and bones, and veg remains, but not before I took all the last bits of chicken off to put back in the stock. It became soup with new sliced carrots, onions, and celery, and then later, the last 2/5ths of a box of penne pasta. While I'm trying to keep salt low, it was a bit bland so used just four bullion cubes, and it became just right. I filled  my big Pampered Chef measuring bowl, so easily six large soup portions. I'll pop two in the freezer for grab and go lunches for me, but we'll eat the rest for supper tonight. The remaining ingredients perhaps total $1.80. 

If you were bothering, and I'm not sure if anyone would, following my calculations, you'd see how many meals and servings the humble pack yielded. 

3-DH lunches (with buns, add another $0.80)
6 large portions soup ( add $1.80), assume two portions froze, and rest for two people, four meals total

Plus

1 package for future DH lunches or for supper ( with other costs for the meal).That's $0.86 a meal-plus, reserves. In the days when I was buying lunch meat  and would stock up on canned soup, we sure were spending more and with the sodium content run amuck. This is barely any additional work. 

Besides the soup tonight, along with some egg salad sandwiches, the rest of the week may look like this. The * is for items I already have, + means will have reserves for the following week. You can see how I can stretch the budget a bit and still have healthy and nutritious meals. My lunches will be mostly leftovers or freezer finds. I'll need more stuff for DH's lunches, but this keeps us both eating from our kitchen all week. We have no plans to eat out at all with friends or family until we hopefully go to DD2's concert next Sunday. Even then, we'll eat at least one meal in her dining  hall since we have already paid for them.

  • Chicken drummy's/wings*+ with French fries*+ (air fryer, DH's new friend) and southwestern salad*
  • Pork loin or pork roast (whatever is most cost effective) with potatoes* and vegetables
  • Pulled pork sandwiches with sweet potato wedges (using leftover pork), coleslaw
  • Rice*, cheese, chicken and vegetable hotdish
  • Beef*+ soft tacos* with rice* and beans
  • Bean and ham soup*+ (two containers frozen) with cheddar biscuits
  • Spaghetti*, marinara* with garlic cheese bread
  • Flat bread with onions, mushrooms, cheese, and tomatos (*have all but need mushrooms)

What's on your menu? Is anyone else trying a lean February with your household and grocery budget? Share your recent tips for stretching both and maybe we all can save a bit of money. 




22 comments:

  1. You sound very determined and I am sure you will make it. When I was in the US, I made lentil soup and my BFF could not believe how inexpensive, easy and filling it is. I bought GOYA red lentils at USD 1.69 or so per pound. Here is how you can make it: Half a pound of lentils, 1 medium onion, butter or olive oil, salt and pepper. I sometimes throw in a potato/carrot/celery but these are totally optional. You sautee the onions with oil and as they start to sweat, you can add rest of the ingredients and add water. Chicken stock or vegetable stock makes it tastier but they are not a must. Once the red lentils are cooked, you can put in your hand blender into the soup pot and blend everything. Done! Just make sure to consume it in at most three days. It goes bad quickly. Half a pound of red lentils should make you at least 4-6 portions. Very inexpensive.

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    1. My daughter cooks with lentils a lot and a friend has an incredible stew. Thank you for sharing this recipe-I should give it a try. YEs, after how much we over spent in January, and how expensive February and March will be, I really am looking at not wasting and meeting this challenge.

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    2. Red lentil soup (with cumin and chili powder) has got to be one of my all time favourite meals! Delicious isn't it!

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  2. I am not cooking for the week, (though I did make a pot of chili yesterday) as I have committed to doing something with a neighbor all week. They'll survive. I could easily meet a challenge of not spending a cent of food for a month, save milk, eggs (for baking) and half and half--and even the milk we could do without. We don't eat cereal, so we really only buy it because one kid likes it with cookies (blech.)

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    1. I could get even more creative, but will need fresh food anyway. I'm just trying to top up, not stock up.

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  3. I am trying for a lower than normal February - hubby was gone 3 days this week and is going to be away another 3 days the last week of February so I think that really helps. Great stretch on the chicken legs, they are something that is a big part of our diet along with chicken breasts. I can usually buy parts far cheaper than a whole chicken

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  4. I love chicken too but at the moment I'm on a bit of a "vegetarian" kick. So yesterday I made two different curries (aubergine and chickpea - the latter is delicious), some spiced potatoes and a broccoli soup (to use up the wilting broccoli in my garage). It all tastes great but my house does smell like an Indian curry house at the moment unfortunately!

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  5. Great job on the budget and meal stretching.

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  6. I am trying to keep it lean. I think bouillon cubes have too much sodium to be healthy. And, four? Maybe you could try my seasoning for taste. It only takes a bit. Celery, bell pepper, and onion make meat or soup tasty. And, this combination is low sodium. Maybe your taste buds have not fully adjusted to low sodium. I am glad it is easy for you to make healthy food for husband.

    I slice bell pepper into strips, freeze on plate or tray without them touching and transfer to bag for freezer. Same for the onion and celery. I made the pieced large for celery and bell pepper since I do not lice either to eat. Or, dice them so small I do not feel the need to gag over getting them into my mouth and can eat both...lol...yes, picky.

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    1. Four was for like 12 cups of water. I will also add more when reheated. Directions ate 1 to 1 so cut sodium by 75%. We love both onions and peppers.

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  7. I really love chicken, sometimes so much that Hubs gets a little
    tired of it. Today it is a couple of big meat loaves (I will freeze one) baked potatoes, rolls, beans and pie.

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    1. I get tired of it, but using more as an ingredient, can eat more often.

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  8. You can use fennel instead of bullion cubes and it will give a flavor similar without the sodium, maybe even a little spicier without the "hit". If you have access to an Indian grocery store, they usually have decently sized bags for about $3-4 which far beats buying a tiny labeled bottle.

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  9. I've really blown my budget so far this month, so I'm trying to reign it in over the next two weeks.

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    1. I'm in a use it up mindset as well. I'll do a big shop before my daughter is home on spring break.

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  10. Oh I love egg salad sandwiches!
    We have 5 Hello Fresh/ Blue Apron meals to eat between now and the next shipment this coming Thursday.

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    1. I've seen videos on them. They look tasty but out if my price comfort zone.

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