Meal Planning 3.1 – 3.6

Make ahead madness

Today I bought a chicken on sale $1.69# for a total of $6.25. Almost every week I find myself buying a whole chicken, roasting, shredding and freezing, then telling myself, and my husband, and I am DONE with roasting whole chickens. I don’t make stock from the bones (I don’t have time to babysit a stock pot), and as you get closer to the bone the chicken can get mushy and kind of pink and icky looking. Then, because we live in Florida, land of critters in search of enticing trash, and endless sun beating down on our trash can, I have to keep the chicken bones wrapped up in the freezer until the trash pick-up day. The white meat is what I care about, so each week I tell myself, “from now on I am only buying split chicken breasts.” But, split chicken breasts are almost as expensive as boneless. Then I see a price like I did this week, I cave and buy the chicken to roast, shred, and freeze. sigh I froze two small containers of chicken, maybe cup or so, both for pizzas later in the week. I’ve learned one pizza with tons of chicken, a salad and fruit can feed all four of us.

I also roasted two pork tenderloins. I didn’t buy these on sale, but they will give us two dinners and several lunches. I think I will do a special post on everything we get out of two pork tenderloins.

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Sunday: Cuban sandwiches, using pork I roasted

Monday: Leftover chicken alfredo

Tuesday: Pork, rice and beans

Wednesday: Store bought tortellini with balsamic tomatoes, cheese, onions, green peppers, olive oil

Thursday: Quesadillas, and tortilla soup I have frozen

Friday: Chicken pizza using chicken I roasted and froze, leftover pizza sauce that probably should have already been used, and fresh mozzarella, because 8oz blocks were 2 for $5.

Saturday/Sunday: TBD