There are grocery staples that most houses have on hand for those moments you don't know what to have for dinner. Bottled marinara, a frozen pizza, soups, etc. I also am a big fan of Boca and Morningstar Farms items (corndogs, chick'n patties, etc). But, I try to find stuff to buy that can be stretched out into other meals. Everyone is on a budget these days, it seems.
For dinners this week, I've made two 12 oz bags of lettuce, two chicken breasts, a 12oz package of bacon, tomatoes, avocados, and an onion get three dinners for us (two people). How you might ask?
Monday nights dinner consisted of half of the package of bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, onion and avocado. We made BLT's. Well, BLATOC's... Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, Tomato, Onion, Cheese sandwiches. (You'll soon learn I ALWAYS have cheese in my house. We use an another fridge in the garage in the winter that is affectionately known as the beer and cheese fridge). I served them with Cottage Cheese and Sunchips. I made sure to load up the sandwiches with more veggies than bacon or cheese. TIP: I got this idea from 1 Fine Cookie (www.1finecookie.com) BAKE your bacon. I put it on a baking rack on a baking sheet (the same idea as the chicken pictured a little below) and baked it at 400 for about 15 minutes. I was able to cook ALL the bacon I needed at one time, the grease dripped below the bacon so it wasnt swimming in it and it got crispy too. The trifecta of bacon cooking, as far as I'm concerned!
For Tuesday's dinner I marinated what appeared to be the largest damn chicken breasts I've ever seen, possibly raised near power plants, in Lawry's Garlic and Herb marinade for about two and a half hours. Once they were done, I put them in the oven at 375 bone side up for a half hour. Then, doused some of the marinade that was left over in the tupperware that I used (which was refrigerated until I was ready to use it) on the top. I cooked that for about 25-28 minutes skin side up. I let it rest for about 15 minutes, then pulled it apart. I have an astronomical amount of chicken now.
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| This is a normal sized cookie sheet. These were definitely from a chicken that dominated the coop. |
I used half of it for pitas, stuffed with tomatoes, onion, avocado, lettuce, chicken and a tad bit of blue cheese crumbles on the top. This was served with the left over cottage cheese. I also like the Ken's light caesar dressing dabbed on the top for a little more flavor throughout.
Tonights dinner is going to consist of the left over marinated chicken, the other half of the bacon, blue cheese crumbles, tomatoes, avocado, onion, the other package of lettuce and some hard boiled eggs, for a Cobb-ish salad.
Now, I managed to make THREE meals out of this stuff. Healthier meals than you'd find going out to dinner too. For dinner tomorrow, I have stuff to make a chicken stir fry out of chicken breasts, bell pepper, mushroom, (yes, still the same) onion and broccoli.
For Friday, its going to be a pasta- I got the Ronzoni Garden Delight pasta (and has a full serving of veggies in each serving) a jarred pasta sauce (which has a full serving of veggies in each serving) and for a treat- hot italian sausage from the deli. I bought two links, of which I am going to take out of the casing. I know that each of these links has approximately 220 calories. Not too bad for a dinner. Of which money wise, I had a coupon for the pasta for 1.00 off. Frys had it on sale 10/10. So, I got the pasta free. The pasta sauce was on sale for 1.59. Frys had an e coupon for .25 off. I had a coupon for .45 off, which Frys made 1.00. With both of the coupons, I ended up paying .34 for both the pasta and the sauce. The hot italian sausage is 1.00 per link. So, I got a dinner for two people for a total of 2.34. Not too shabby. And, knowing our eating habits- there will be some left over.
Eating healthy isnt always cheap. However, from shopping smarter you can find ways around that...you just have to be willing to look.
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