First pass

Since I haven't done a shopping trip yet this week, I figured I'd start last night by taking a hard look at what was already in my freezer and pantry and trying to maximize what I have at hand. I also wanted to see what exactly I was spending per meal to get a better idea of where I needed to make the most changes.

So I dove deep into the basement freezer and I found the jackpot....a Perdue oven roaster chicken! I am ashamed to admit that in 13-odd years of living on my own, I have never roasted a whole chicken without help. Fortunately, Jim Perdue understands my plight and printed fairly easy roasting directions on the back of the package. I grabbed the roasting set we got for a wedding present, blew off the dust, and did up the chicken, Perdue style.

My next stop was the pantry...had to find a veggie and a decent starch. The veggie was easy - there was a can of sliced carrots right at the front of the pack...the starch was a bigger challenge. Pasta and rice had been kinda overdone this past week, and part of the point of this challenge is to find other ways to fill the dinner plate so we're not eating the same 3 meals every day. My eyes fell on a box of Price-rite brand pancake mix. I vaguely remembered making biscuits out of Bisquick once, so I figured the ingredients wouldn't be that different with the PR brand. I peeked into one of my cookbooks, and one had a very easy recipe for cheese biscuits - perfect!

I'm happy to report the meal came together quite nicely, the chicken cooked nice and tender (kudos, Mr. Perdue!) and the biscuits and carrots were just right. At the end of the meal, our three bellies were full, AND we had a plate of leftover chicken and a carcass left in the roaster. Being new to this "minimum waste" philosophy, I thought for a few as to what I could do with the leftovers...at some point a dusty light bulb fired up in my head and I recalled my mom making chicken stock from misc. parts on special occasions. Google served me well and I found a very easy chicken stock recipe. So now I have stock I can freeze, and the goods for a tasty chicken salad sandwich for lunch tomorrow! Hooray!

Oh and the grand total for dinner, with all the extras:
Roaster chicken, 4 lb - $3.89
Can sliced carrots - $0.75
1/3 box of baking mix - appx $0.60
1/4 cup cheddar cheese - appx $0.80
Grand total - $6.04



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