How Many Meals Can We Make?

I LOVE to save money wherever I can. When you have a family of 5 the cost of healthy food can get a bit pricey(depending on where you live and how much you grow yourself). I had a whole chicken in the freezer and we were able to make 4 meals with it. Yes, you read that right 4!!

Day 1: Roast chicken use half the chicken meat to make chicken gravy. You can put this over bread or potatoes. We chose bread and had a side salad with it.

Chicken Roasting: If it's frozen thaw it. I prefer to rinse mine then pat dry with a paper towel. Soften 1 stick of butter(so it's easily mashable with a fork but NOT melted) add herbs. I chose to add an herb and garlic mix I got at the store. Mix butter and herb mixture together then spread on chicken. Preheat oven to 450 degrees cook for 30 mins turn oven down to 350 and cook for another 40mins. I know this isn't the way people usually make a chicken but that's how I did it and it worked well for me.

Chicken Gravy: Melt 1/4 cup of butter in a saucepan add 1/4 cup flour it will make like a paste. Wait until the flour-butter mixture is a golden color(about 3-4 mins on medium) and slowly whisk in 2 cups of chicken broth. Continue stirring until broth has thickened to desired thickness. Add half of the cooked shredded chicken meat.

Day 2: Shred the other half of the chicken to make Chicken & Dumplings

Chicken & Dumplings. Season chicken I chose minced garlic and the Herbs Garlic seasoning I used before. Chop 4 stalks of celery, 4 carrots, half a medium onion. Add all ingredients to a stock/soup pot and add 10 cups or 2 large Swanson's Chicken Broth. Because everything is cooked except the veggies this really just needs to heat up. I put it on low around noon and it was ready around 3:30pm. Next you'll want to take 1/2 of flour, 2 cups of the broth and mix together and mix into the soup until slightly thickened(about 10 mins). For the dumplings I just used Bisquick it's what I had(I ran out of flour) for that you'll take 2 cups Bisquick mix and 2/3 cups milk and drop into soup by the spoonful. Cook uncovered for 10 mins cover and cook another 10 mins.

Day 3: Chicken Noodle Soup
We had A LOT of Chicken & Dumplings left well... just the soup part the dumplings were gone. I just heated that up added noodles and tada chicken noodle soup.

Day 4: Chicken Pot Pie Soup
Again we had a lot of leftovers so I added from already cooked but frozen potatoes, peas, and corn. Just heat up and it's done. Yes, there are already noodles in it so if you want to leave the potatoes out you certainly could. 

Calculated Cost
Whole Chicken 6-7lbs -$6 at our local grocery store
Celery- 3/$5 or Organic $3.49
Carrots- $1 a frozen bag
Onion- $1 a frozen bag
Broth- $1.94x2
Total: $15.37
Sure I would've spent more had I not already had everything else. But $15.37 for 4 meals for a family of 5 is amazing! So about $3.84 per meal or $0.77 per person per meal that's a win in my book!