As much as I like to be in the kitchen cooking up a storm, there are a few culinary tasks that I dread. One of them is touching and cutting raw meat because sometimes it’s slimy and requires lots of hand washing. So thanks to supermarket convenience, I’ve always bought the pre-packaged and trimmed meat. In fact, the guys at meat counter were kind enough to cut the meat for my Slow-Cooked Hungarian Stew in ¾ inch pieces. But convenience costs a pretty penny. To get the biggest bang for my buck in this week’s challenge, I overcame my fear and bought a raw, whole chicken.
The Shopping Experience:
My jaw hit the ground with I realized that whole chickens were just over $3! The rotisserie chicken in the deli cost more than double that! And when I buy four perfectly pre-packaged chicken breasts, they cost me around $6. The Betty Crocker Kitchen advised me that I could get two or three meals out of one chicken. So I bought two for less than $8.
Shopping was the easy part, but making chicken exciting all week on a budget was the challenge. The good news is block cheese was on sale ($1.49 less than the pre-shredded stuff). Also, I still had coupons from bettycrocker.com and Tablespoon.com. I had three meals planned. I decided I would get creative for the other two dinners with ingredients I already had.
Grand total: $24.69.
Sunday: Beer-Brined Chicken & Green Giant Cheesy Rice & Broccoli
Notes: I went to the Kickin’ Chicken Class on The Mixer and watched how they made this recipe and how they cut the chicken. I thought I had this down until it was time to start cutting. I started to panic…the bird didn’t have any meat on it! Oh, wait! I had cooked the birds upside down. Whoops! But my co-worker says she does that on purpose because it makes the meat extra juicy.
Results: Why haven’t I cooked with beer before? This was very tasty! The Green Giant side dish was delicious and couldn’t have been easier to prepare.
Monday: Collard Greens and Turkey Chicken Quiche
Notes: I used the Betty Crocker Pie Crust Mix, but honestly, next time I would use the Pillsbury pre-made piecrusts to shave of some time. That is, if it’s in budget!
I had been missing cheese after last week’s bean-filled menu. I was drawn to this recipe because I never had eaten collard greens before. And for 70 cents, it was worth it. When I came home Justin was less than pleased. “You didn’t even ask me! I hate collard greens!”
Results: Betty Crocker: 1, Justin: 0
He liked it and said he couldn’t really taste the collard greens. I, on the other hand, LOVED this recipe. I even went back for seconds. What I liked about it also is the collard greens held up very well and didn’t get mushy like spinach would have. I probably didn’t squeeze enough moisture out the collard greens though, so it was a little watery. That or I needed to cook it for another five minutes. It didn’t matter though; it was great anyway!
Tuesday: Layered Chile-Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Notes: I thought I was being clever when I decided to cut this recipe in half to make it in a pie plate. I mean, why put it in a casserole dish when tortillas are round? Boy did I learn the hard way! Your pie plate will not be deep enough for all the layers. I ended up having to flip the entire mixture into 8x8 dish.
Results: Justin loved this enough to go back for more, which says a lot because it’s a pretty heavy meal. In fact, he said this was his favorite meal of the week. We tend to make Mexican food on a weekly basis so I liked it because it was a nice twist on the weekly enchiladas, burritos and botanas.
Wednesday: Kickin’ Chicken Sandwiches
Notes: I had no time to really be in the kitchen that night, but we still needed to eat. I made some unique sandwiches with the leftover lettuce and tomatoes from Tuesday night’s meal. I still had pepperoni in the house from last week’s Suddenly Salad Meal. I also added garlic hummus and mustard. This by far was the cheapest meal we ate because we used ingredients in the house.
Results: Simple, amazing, and ready within 10 minutes! Perfect. A little messy because of the shredded chicken, so next time I will put it in a pita or a tortilla.
Thursday: Hearty Chicken Stew with Dumplings (Cooking for 2)
Notes: I realized I had everything in the house for this! I liked the recipe because adding stewed-tomatoes was unique. I used a Green Giant carrot and broccoli mixture.
Results: This was my favorite meal of this week. The Italian seasoning was the perfect touch to make it memorable.
Lessons Learned:
1. Education is key! I liked the prepackage meats because I didn’t really know how to cut meat and assumed it would be too messy. But after I learned how and took my time when cutting it, I realized it wasn’t bad at all. If anything, on Sunday I enjoyed the aroma of the Beer-Brined Chicken as I cut into the chicken.
2. Cheaper, yes. Convenient, not quite. Okay, so I had to shred my own cheese. And I had to make my own pie crust. It kept me under budget, but most dinners felt longer to make than usual. If you can, plan for the extra time. On the other hand, cooking a whole chicken was convenient. On Sunday I had shredded all the chicken and put them in little containers- so when it came time for the next meal, I could easily open and add meat.
3. Try New Foods. I hadn’t had collard greens before and for the price it was worth being open minded. Plus, now I know I like it and that it’s a great alternative to spinach in heartier dishes.
If I can do it, you can do it! Don’t be afraid to challenge yourselves this week. How far can $25 and a whole chicken take YOU?