Weekly Meal Plan April 15-21, 2016, plus 1 chicken 3 meals!

Well, I didn’t get to do a restocking grocery trip this week after using up my pantry items last week.  This week has been too full of disasters and sickness for us to get out to go anywhere other than the doctor’s offices.  My son, Brickman, ended up breaking his wrist climbing out of a car on Saturday and then Baby came down with the Hand, Foot, and Mouth virus that has been going around.  We are all basically quarantined because of how contagious it is, so I haven’t had a chance to go to Costco to restock.  Not to worry, as you can see my pantry is still pretty full and my freezers are still well stocked too.

I’m also going to share how I turned one chicken that cost less than $6 into 3 meals and extra chicken stock for the freezer!  I will once again post links to the recipes I loosely follow, but I’m not one for measuring or following directions to a T.  I use what I have and trust my instinct and palette to cook and am usually successful doing things on the fly. I do follow a recipe much more closely when I make homemade dough and baked goods though, as that is more of an exact science than cooking.  So here is what I planned out of the pantry for this week’s meals, packed full of comfort foods for my family who are still recovering.

Friday

• Homemade Stromboli ( I used bell peppers I had frozen when I couldn’t use them before the went bad from a large Costco package)
• Caesar Salad (Romaine lettuce lasts a long time in the fridge!)

Saturday

• Freezer meal, mussgo, or meal not cooked last week

Sunday

• Chicken meal 1-Simple roasted whole garlic-rosemary chicken ( pick leftover chicken
  off the bones and set aside. Throw remaining bones, juice, and anything left in the roasting pan into crock pot and cover with water.  Cook on low overnight and you will have concentrated chicken stock in the morning).
• Roasted potatoes
• Frozen peas
• Homemade Amish White Bread ( I only use 1/3 cup of sugar)

Monday

• Slow cooker Indian spiced lentils ( I add 1.5 the spices listed, except for cayenne)
• Basmati Rice
• Garlic naan

Tuesday

• Chicken meal 2- Chicken and cheese flautas ( See my recipe below)
• Smashed black beans
• Guacamole salad ( Jarred salsa substiutes well for fresh tomatoes and peppers in this salad)

Wednesday

• Salmon cakes
• Baked potatoes
• Steamed broccoli with garlic butter

Thursday

• Mussgo Chicken meal 3- Chicken Corn Chowder ( I halved this recipe)
• Cheddar garlic drop biscuits ( mix up in food processor to make even easier)

Chicken and Cheese Flautas

2 cups leftover chicken

4 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese

1 small can of diced green chilies

1/2 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

tortillas, corn or flour

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Coat baking sheet with cooking spray.  Mix all ingredients but tortillas in large bowl.  Spoon equal amounts of chicken cheese mixture in tortillas and roll up, leaving ends open.  Spray tops of tortillas with cooking spray.  Bake until tortillas are brown and filling it hot. Flautas are great served on their own or dipped in guacamole or sour cream.

I must go tend to my under the weather family. Enjoy this weeks budget friendly meals!

-Mussgo Momma