Wednesday Leftovers From Tuesday

Since I brought a to go box from the Tuesday free lunch, I had that lunch for Wednesday.  It was delicious without the sour cream.

Dinner on Wednesday was two slices of Texas toast with the leftover Tuesday night dinner--BBQ chicken and leftover slaw on top. Texas toast on top made a delicious sandwich. I was grateful not to have to cook at all today.

Lunch and dinner for two days for two people cost me less than $2. That is about $0.50 for each of those four meals. I can deal with this type of frugality. Last week, I only bought two half-gallons of milk, bananas, and tri-color slaw mix. I made a list and never used it. Neither of these two items were on sale, had a coupon, or were reduced! Still, that was less than $10 for groceries in one week. From that $10 purchase, there is still more than one-half gallon of milk and about 1/3 of the slaw mix.

I needed the oven on for about two minutes on Wednesday night and three hours later realized it was still on. At that point I could no longer feel the ac at all. My body was wet with sweat even though I was lying still and right near the ac.

The sale papers for grocery ads came today. I look it over and make a list at next look-through. There is a community dinner on Thursday, so I suppose I will go. Why not?

Your turn
Have you found any good sales this week?  What leftovers have been on your menu lately?

Thursday Eats, Parsimoniously

Sweet potatoes make me happy, like sunshine

When exbf arrived to give me a hand today (Thursday), I had not bathed or eaten. I had just sat here, hurting and drinking a regular Coke, my morning "coffee." Then, I became hungry after awhile.  Breakfast was two scrambled eggs and a glass of orange juice.

Snacks all day: pecans, dehydrated  apples, dehydrated tomatoes, glass of milk

Neither of us need to eat hotdogs. We love them but rarely eat them for our health's sake. So, for lunch we had two free hotdogs on free buns. Actually, I only ate one bun. I love hotdogs, so if you want to invite me over and offer hotdogs, I will eat them in order not to hurt your feelings....snicker.

On Thursday night a church here has a dinner for anyone who wants to come eat. Church members, mothers too tired to cook, and the hungry can come, anyone. I usually go. If I don't get a meal that I will finish, I can carry home lots of hen food. People bring their plates to me often, offering food for the hens.

The overwhelming majority of the people who attend these dinners are marginalized, horribly disadvantaged. Some have trouble even walking with aid. Many lack a hs diploma, some are not capable of even passing the GED test. They were in special ed. Many are elderly and do not drive. Many are hungry for company and food. (Church members deliver about 200 meals each Thursday, besides the meals served on site.)

On Tuesday I thawed two items for dinners for both of us on Thursday, but wanted to go to this dinner, also. He has never been because he rarely comes up on Thursday. I told him the plan and he agreed.

I put a three pound roast of some kind and six potatoes into an oven bag. Then, I seasoned with dehydrated green and red peppers and dehydrated onions. I could not afford carrots that I love with the roast, but, oh well.

There were four thawed chicken thighs, also free, in the freezer so that I could put nothing more in. They went into another cooking bag. Salt, pepper, and celery seeds went into this bag. I could not find the celery in the freezer and hurt too much to stand there, looking. The next excess celery will be dehydrated and wait quietly in a jar on a shelf, not hurling itself headlong from the freezer along with other disgruntled prisoners kept frozen.

Roast, chicken thighs, potatoes

Both cooking bags went into one pan. Both cooked at 350 degrees, so all was well.

I peeled seven largish sweet potatoes given to me at this dinner the week before. The outsides were sorry looking, not something I wanted to bake and then find out the sweet potato was bad. I peeled and sliced them and put them in a buttered Corning ware casserole that I have had since 1966. One cup of water went in the casserole dish. I used the glass lid. All those sweet potatoes were gnarly, not pretty, yet not one was rotten inside. You could have fooled me. All was done and refrigerated long before we left for the dinner.

Also, just before we left for the dinner, I made a Tupperware divided plate for his lunch tomorrow. He had a chicken thigh and sweet potatoes. He will add green beans he has open to fill the third part of the plate. Almost half the roast and three potatoes were put in another container for him to eat later in the week. Plus, he took home the three other thighs, frozen and another frozen thigh that hid from me another week as it sat in the freezer door.

Now, for the odd/coincidence part. We had hotdogs at the dinner tonight. PLUS, there were candied sweet potatoes and green beans! The coincidence of hot dogs for two meals today, sweet potatoes tonight and for tomorrow, plus green beans tonight and tomorrow stunned me. It's a good thing variety from meal to meal is not necessary for the two of us.

I have several of the thermal bags sold at stores to keep food cool or hot. He carried the frozen items home in that. He has one with his name on it. We have a system...lol.

The half of the roast and white potatoes will last me another four days (two days if I eat a sandwich at lunch and heat it for dinner). The sweet potatoes (lunch)  left will probably last three. I could stretch them to four days. I don't ever cook two kinds of potatoes on one day. It just happened, and we both have non-starchy vegetables to eat with what I cooked. I never candy my sweet potatoes. The variety, Beauregard, needs no sugar or butter. The white potatoes will have no salt or butter on them.

Today, my oven stayed on for less than 2 hours and cooked vegetables for 12  meals and meat for about 12 meals. Those are my dollars I saved by cooking all in one oven. Exbf buys cooking bags once in awhile when I need them since his food is cooked in them also. Actually, if I cannot afford freezer bags, he willing pays for them. I use both sparingly and buy with coupons and sales.  He knows food will come his way...lol.

Edit: Remember, he is taking about 9 meals home--five frozen thighs and however many meals he uses the roast for, dinners or lunches. Sometimes, he will cut the roast and freeze part. I, on the other hand said I had four meals of meat, more or less. If I eat roast beef, sliced thinly for lunch two days, and roast beef with potatoes for two nights, I have eaten my four meals at once. The whole shebang minus the frozen chicken could be gone in two days, maybe three days for the potatoes, maybe two days for the potatoes. So, I am not leaving meat in the refrigerator to sit for 12 days. No way.

About the cooking bags...Until I am free of pain on standing and scrubbing, I will use them to facilitate cleanup. We were rushing too much to take after-cooking pictures. Plus, nothing was actually plated.

Bonus
Another huge red pepper met the dehydrator and fit into a small pimiento jar when finished. Exbf brought my heater back for me. I now have heat but don't want to use it because of the high electric bill I will have.

Your turn
Do you ever cook a dozen meals at one time? Do you ever use the dreaded plastic cooking bags? Raise your hand if you love sweet potatoes as much as I do.

Working it--less time in the kitchen

Kitchen time
Since there is only me, I prefer not to be cooking a meal each night and washing many pots. Of course, when I actually get out the pots and pans each night, there are leftovers from days before. One-dish meals work for me, but that is not on the agenda for this week. Even if I decided to cook each night, there are leftovers to work into the meal. To others, my meals may seem redundant. Of course, I really like each and every meal I prepare, so boring is not part of my experience.

Chicken again for the week
As usual, I am cooking chicken again. Today, I boiled four leg/thigh quarters and one breast. Right now, I am salivating for chicken and dumplings. On Monday, only the dumplings will need to be made and the dish assembled. Three of the legs will go tomorrow to the donater of two of the quarters. She does not like the thigh. Four thighs and one leg have been stripped of meat. The broth is in the refrigerator waiting for the fat to congeal in the quart. That is the hard part of chicken and dumplings--preparing the chicken and broth.

Four more breasts are boiling in water placed in the same pot. I should have just put the breasts in the first broth. But, I did not. Actually, I should have used a larger pot the first time. But, I did not...lol. This breast broth will be refrigerated until that fat congeals, and both broths will make chicken and dumplings.

Heavy on the dumplings?
I know. I know. But, since I replicated exactly my mother's recipe for chicken and dumplings, I am just totally hooked on it. Besides, it will soon be too hot to cook the dish.

Pasta for two meals is just about done. I will cook the cabbage and carrots later today.

I have many meals in my repertoire for which I can use all this chicken meat. I don't really assign a meal to a day. But, I will have many meals--lunch and dinner to choose to put together and eat from Sunday to Friday. It is chicken all the way this week!

1--chicken and dumplings for four meals with green beans
      (This dish will have four small thighs, one small leg, and one half breast)
2--rest of alfredo sauce (needs to be consumed today) with chicken and pasta for one meal, salad
3--chicken, pasta, and basil pesto for one meal
4--chicken sandwiches with Romaine and cheese for four meals, lunches, probably
5--salad--romaine, tomatoes, chicken for two meals
     (#2-#5 will use the other four breasts)

That's twelve planned  meals from 4 thighs, one leg, and four breasts. Maybe I should freeze some of the cooked chicken since there is more than enough. Hmmmm.... No, all the pieces are really small.

Along with the chicken portion of meals, I will have the Romaine, tomatoes, cabbage/carrots steamed, green beans, sweet potatoes, and potatoes. Maybe I will use the Classico Traditional Basil Pesto with the pasta. Whatever leftover I find in the refrigerator will be eaten, incorporated into a meal or snack.

Snacks
I snack on fruit and pecans. There is a bag of oranges that I must eat. Sometimes, if I am becoming hypoglycemic, sliced cheese and a dozen Wheat Thins may be another snack.

Breakfasts will be:

1--2 scrambled eggs with cheese, glass of milk
2--2 scrambled eggs with sausage, glass of orange juice and glass of milk
3--cold cereal with banana and milk
4--cooked oatmeal with raisins, glass of milk
5--chicken and dumplings if I want them

I love beans
A pot of navy beans sound delicious. I can make a meal of those. They will be cooked in water with no seasonings. Nope, no salt, no pepper, no ham. Okay, beans are on the stove!

Leftovers for hens
I purposefully don't strip every smidgen of meat from the chicken bones. The hens now have five meals  that will give them fat, protein, and productive busy-work. The busy work will keep them from pecking each other and being pecked when I decide to confine them to their 10'x10' pen. I am in awe of how clean they can pick a bone...nothing, no gristle, just slick. They also get the outer cabbage leaves and any trimmings.

Hens get apple cores and bruises, banana peels and bruises, potato skins that are cooked, eggs shells, bits of cooked chicken gristle from my plate, and a special bowl of oatmeal. Of course, they get the produce donated to them. Did you know that banana peels are people edible? They are.

Your turn
Does anyone have an approach to cooking like I do--planned leftovers? Or, maybe you think my approach is lacking variety? Can you actually make a weekly menu and stick to it?