Tight-arse Thursday: Three meals from one chook.

Hi there!

What a CRAZY couple of weeks it's been! Easter, sick kids, sick me, trip away, more sick kids... The joys!

The other day I went food shopping (excitement plus, right!?) and there were BBQ roast chickens on sale for $5.99. So, I thought "Hey, I wonder how many meals I can get out of a roast chook?"

I've decided that three is the magic number. If you know how to get more, let me know.

The Shopping List:

• 1 BBQ chook - $5.99
• 3 brown onions - $3.99 a bag (7 onions)
• 6 cloves of garlic - $1.29 a bulb
• 6 carrots - $0.99 a bag
• 3 mushies - $1.00
• green beans - $2.99 500g
• 8 med potatoes - $1.99 for a 5kg bag.
• 1/4 celery - $0.50
• 1 broccoli - $1.50
• 300ml cream - $1.49
• 2 rashers of bacon - $0.50
• 1 pkt noodles - $2.49
• 1 egg - $3.49 doz
• 1/2 cup flour - $2.99 kg

That's $31.20. Plus a few things you'd probably have in the cupboard:

• Gravy mix
• Nutmeg
• Cornflour / cornstarch
• Salt
• 2 slices of bread
• Butter
• Olive oil

This lovely little list will make you the following meals to feed a fam of four:

Day 1: Roast chicken and veg
Day 2: Creamy chicken and bacon pasta
Day 3: Chicken soup with kartoffelkloesse (german potato dumplings)

Ok, the list won't actually make the meals for you (damnit!) but it will give you the bits to make those babies. To make them, you'll have to do this:

Day 1: Roast chicken and veg.
Whack a piece of baking paper into a roasting dish. Chop four potatoes in half, peel and cut an onion into quarters, and chop up four carrots however you like them. Pop into a bowl with a bit of olive oil, salt, and four cloves of garlic, skin still on. Mix it all around a bit. Dump into your roasting tray and level out a bit. Roast at around 180-200 deg for about half hour.
While this is roasting, steam your broccoli and beans.
Drain juices from your chicken and juices from the veg into a little saucepan and squeeze the roasted garlic out of the skins and into the juices. Add a bit of water. Simmer. Mix a bit of gravox or whatever you prefer to use with some cold water, add to the simmering garlicky juices and stir with a whisk until it's reached the right thickness.
Strip the breast, stuffing, drumsticks and wings off of your chook. Serve these bits with the veg and gravy. Nommy.

Day 2: Creamy chicken and bacon pasta.
Strip whatever meat you can easily get to off of your chicken.
Dice mushrooms, onion, bacon and finely chop the garlic.
Cook your noodles of choice as per packet directions.
Fry onions in a little olive oil until it starts to smell good. Add garlic, then mushrooms and bacon. Cook, stirring regularly, until bacon is a little crispy and mushroom is soft.
Drain your pasta.
Stir cream into the bacon/mushie mix, heat through and tip the lot over your noodles. Add the chicken, stir it all together. Serve with some parmesan if you want to. Baby spinach might be a nice addition too, to get some green into it.

Day 3: Chicken soup with kartoffelkloesse (this one's my favourite)
Whack your chicken carcass into a pot, add some water (cover the carcass well) and simmer for a couple of hours. Allow to cool. While that's happening, start off your dumplings. I use this recipe.
Strip the remaining chicken off of the bones, and return the meat to the broth. Make sure you've got all of the bones out. Chop an onion, the celery, and a couple of carrots, and add to your pot. Cook until veggies are soft. Finish your dumplings as per the recipe. Pop a couple of dumplings into a bowl, ladle over some soup, and serve. Mmmmmm.

So, there you have it! Three cheap, easy meals from one chook.
What would you do with your chicken?

Have an awesome weekend (Man, it's almost that time again!)

Love on ya's,

mama sof xxx