MMMMMM - good way to use leftovers!

1 Cup white Rice

1 Container of Garlic Cooking Cream

Remainder of the bag of cheeder cheese that is in your fridge.....

1 Frozen bag  of Broccoli

Some chicken- idealy, left over chicken! In this case, package of 99% ff chicken

Sleave of Ritz crackers

1/2 cup milk

This is a recipie that my sister and I adapted from Philidelphia Cooking Creams cook book- we added the rice :)

This would be a GREAT dinner to make out of leftovers- any chicken that you have left from the week, and probably any veggies too.

Cook your white rice, and chicken if you are not using left overs

Once its cooked, throw it into a lasagna pan

Toss in your leftover cheese, 1/2 cup milk, and container of cooking cream

MIX MIX MIX

Crush up your crackers, put them on top

Cook in the oven until melted/warmed through- Really, you are just waiting for everything to mix.

This give you a TON of servings, and is a GREAT use of leftovers. I made it for dinner one night, and got two adult servings, then (probably more then anyone needed ;)) and then several servings of leftovers.

Lets talk about cost- in a perfect world, we are re-using left overs- BUT if we are not......

1 Cup white Rice - .25

1 Container of Garlic Cooking Cream - BUY THIS ON SALE - OR with coupons- there are some great ones out there - 1.5 AT THE MOST!  (in this case it was free:))

Remainder of the bag of cheeder cheese that is in your fridge..... .75

1 Frozen bag  of Broccoli -$1

Some chicken- idealy, left over chicken! In this case, package of 99% ff chicken -$2.25

Sleave of Ritz crackers - .62

1/2 cup milk - .25

SO $6.62.... or $1.10 per serving, if you figure 6 servings.

IF YOU ARE USING LEFTOVERS- .72 at the most PER SERVING!

I'm working on making sure that we waste less. Nothing makes me more angry then dumping what would have been perfectly good food out of my fridge and into the trash can. Well there are a few things that make me more angry, but I'm tired of wasting money!  SO I am hoping that I can find some new dinners that re use left overs, and cook only one. Thats my other newer thing- making sure that I cook enough that I dont have to buy lunch the next day- a built in savings of around 2.5!

Chicken and Dumplings

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

(between Nate, Ari, Alaynna and I this made one dinner- no leftovers)

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

(between Nate, Ari, Alaynna and I this made one dinner- no leftovers)

2 Boneless Skinless chicken Breast

Bunch of carrots chopped

One Onion Sliced into rings

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

2 cans of the SMALL Pillsbury biscuits (you can find a four pack for $2)

2 Cans water

Slice onions into rings, lay on the bottom of the crockpot

Throw a few handfuls of chopped carrots on top of the onions

Put chicken breast on top of that

Dump in two cans of cream of chicken

Put in two cans of water

Cook on Low all day- 8 hours?

Open two packages of biscuits, and slice each biscuit into 1/4s

Put these into the crockpot with your chicken mixture and turn up to high

Will be done in about ½ hour! You know dumplings are done when the outside is still “wet” but the inside is cooked

Slice onions into rings, lay on the bottom of the crockpot

Throw a few handfuls of chopped carrots on top of the onions

Put chicken breast on top of that

Dump in two cans of cream of chicken

Put in two cans of water

Cook on Low all day- 8 hours?

Open two packages of biscuits, and slice each biscuit into 1/4s

Put these into the crockpot with your chicken mixture and turn up to high

Will be done in about ½ hour! You know dumplings are done when the outside is still “wet” but the inside is cooked

In terms of cost- I have to say not bad. I buy store brand just about everything. Including cream of _____ soup :)

Ingredient Cost:

2 Boneless Skinless chicken Breast  ---- in this case, these were free- normally, $2.5

Bunch of carrots chopped - Part of a bag- .50

One Onion Sliced into rings --- .89

2 cans of cream of chicken soup  --- 1.3

2 cans of the SMALL Pillsbury biscuits (you can find a four pack for $2) -$1

2 Cans water --- FREE :)

2 TBS Butter- .11

$6.30- NOT my best savings meal, but thats $1.57 a serving :) (and in this case with the free chicken that was only .95 per serving!)  And that I can get behind!  

Good Ideas- limit the fat- Boneless, Skinless Chicken

98% fat free cream of chicken soup!!! Real veggies mean no extra soduim!

I have to say- hubby had two plates full, and I had two bowls. YUM!

Better Late than Never.....

So this year I intended to start a list of everything that I recieved for free. Needless to say, its now almost APRIL and I have NOT started that list. But the lady at the grocery store gave me a "good for you!" at lunch when I ran out to grab food for dinner, and so I decided that maybe I would start  now :)
So here is todays stuff :

I paid for the broccoli and the lean cuisine- I paid $3.49 and saved $5.18. Not the best I ever did, but nice.

Yesterday my monkys and I went to Target to get some TP, and other things that we needed..... I had a FREE $20 Target Card that I got from using plumdistrict.com. NICE. They ran a promo a few weeks ago when you got four new people to sign up with your link, and I did soooooooo..... anyways.
So for a total cost of $1.24 (which included .79 in tax.....)

12 Pack of Angel Soft TP
Large Dawn Dish Soap
Milk
Butter
Infant Motrin (store brand of course)
Vanilla cupcake goldfish (can you guess whose idea these were?)

I feel like THAT is good :)