3 Chicken Breasts = 3 + meals

Skin on, bone in Chicken Breasts were on sale in No Frills, so I picked up a pack of three breasts for just over $4.

Dh won't eat anything with a bone in it, so there is no use in just plopping one of these suckers fully cooked on his plate as he wouldn't touch it.  So decided to have a cooking session and make some meals from them.

First thing I did was take the skin off them, and pop them in a pan of water with some salt and pepper and poach them for around 40 minutes until they were cooked through.  Took them out of the pan and put them on a plate and tipped the cooking liquid in a jug.

In the same pan I put probably 2 or 3 tablespoons of margarine in there along with a couple of small onions chopped up.  Softened them and then added around 3/4 cup of brown rice.  Stirred them together and then added around 6 cups of the cooking liquid and brought to the boil and simmered for around 40 minutes.  I then added a cup or so of frozen corn and one of the chicken breasts that I had taken off the bone and chopped up.  Seasoned with salt, pepper and ground nutmeg, and added around a cup of half and half cream, and cooked a bit more.  There is one meal, plus a couple of lunches of Chicken, Corn and Rice soup.

In another pan I put around 4 tablespoons of margarine, let it melt and added 4 small onions chopped, and half a pound of mushrooms also chopped.  Let them soften up.  Meanwhile I cut up two bunches off broccoli and steamed them in the microwave for five minutes. I took 1/3 cup of flour and stirred it into onion and mushroom mixture and let it cook for a minute.

I then added in the remainder of the poaching liquid and the liquid from steaming the broccoli.  That made a thick sauce or roux.  I added the broccoli and the other two chicken breasts which I had taken off the bone and cut up.  I poured in a cup of half and half cream to lighten up the sauce and seasoned.

After the mixture had cooled I popped it in a Tupperware container and put it into the fridge.  This mixture is the base for a couple of meals.  I have some small pizza shells I got on clearance in the freezer.  I will put a little of this mixture on top of the pizza bases and top with a little mozzarella cheese and have those with salad.

I am going to make a chicken pot pie with some more of the chicken and broccoli mixture and add more vegetables to it, to stretch it and top with some puffed pastry I have in the freezer.  With the remainder I will thin the sauce out with some half and half cream and maybe add some peas and serve it over rice.

Overall I don't think that's too bad from three chicken breasts, do you?  I would think the cost of all these meals along with the accompaniments would be less than $20.

I put the bread maker on and made a loaf of whole wheat bread to go with the soup on Sunday night and it was yummy!!!  Left over bread will be used in sandwiches.

Menu Plan for the week:

Chicken, rice and sweet corn soup with homemade whole wheat bread

Chicken pizzas & salad

Chicken pot pie

Chicken and veggies over rice

Turkey soup (made from left over turkey carcass from Christmas)

Sausages, fries and beans

Cheese Omelette and salad

Dessert will be:

yogurt or cookies or gingerbread or ice cream

Breakfast for me will be cereal (Special K) and a cup of tea.

lunch for me will be leftovers or homemade turkey soup