With our two daughters grown and gone and with children of their own, it's usually just Hubby and I trying to come up with dinner ideas. We spent years cooking for four - then added more as our daughters dated, married and started their families - always coming over to our house for Sunday dinner. As the grandchildren got older and their parents became busier building their careers, the Sunday dinners got fewer and farther between - eventually becoming occasional rather than a weekly occurrence.
Cooking for two became a challenge. We were accustomed to buying in bulk but found that we were cooking in too big quantities and ended up throwing out food as we tired of the leftovers. Now when we buy in bulk - especially meats, we re-package it in the Food-Saver vacuum bags and freeze for another time.
We also purchase some already prepared food from the grocer sometimes. Our favorite is Rotisserie Chicken and we've found many ways to use it. This is our normal routine: Once a week, we'll purchase a Rotisserie from our local Sam's Club where a very large freshly cooked chicken is only $4.88. The first day while it's still hot, we'll cut one of the breasts in strips. I'll make a large salad, place the strips on it with a little salad dressing and voila! A dinner in minutes. I put the rest of the chicken in a plastic storage bag and refrigerate.
The next day, we'll chop up the other breast, add a diced apple, chopped celery and mayo to make a chicken salad sandwich for lunch. Then I'm left with the remainder of the chicken which still has plenty of meat left on the bones. I re-bag it just as it is and put it back in the fridge or freezer depending on when we'll use it again.
Two or three days later, I'll take the remainder of the chicken out (bones and all) and put it in a pot with a 32 ounce carton of chicken broth and simmer it for about 20 minutes. While it's cooking, I add the following vegetables to another pot with enough water to barely cover.
2 - peeled and diced potatoes
1 - medium onion - diced
2 - whole carrots - peeled and sliced thin
Bring to boil and simmer until veggies are tender.
Take the chicken out of the broth and cut into bite sized chunks on cutting board and put back in the pot. Discard the skin and bones. Add the whole pot of veggies - including the water that it boiled in - to your stock pot of chicken. Bring back to boil and season as you like. I use the following seasonings.
1/2 tsp greek seasoning
1/2 tsp dried garlic (I use Tastefully Simple's Garlic - Garlic
1/2 tsp Montreal chicken seasoning
salt & pepper to taste
While your pot is still boiling, mix a heaping tablespoon of self-rising flour with 1/4 cup of very hot water until smooth. Add this to boiling soup to slightly thicken it.
This makes enough soup for each of us to have a heaping bowl full. Serve with crackers. Delicious!
I use the 32 ounce cartons of broth.
Here are the seasonings I use.
And we usually have one bowl full left to put in the freezer and pull out when there's just one of us here for lunch.
Basically we can make three meals for two people off of one large rotisserie chicken! And there's many more ways to use them. Such a quick, easy and budget friendly menu item! And who doesn't like chicken?
