We eat a lot of lunchmeat at our house. If we have ham sandwiches for dinner it is a pound of ham, ½ pound of cheese, and a loaf of bread. While this is cheaper, and better for us than fast food, it isn’t very economical either. When you consider that deli ham is $7-$10 a pound, and doesn’t have a lot of flavor.
A whole ham, is around $2 per pound, and tastes a million times better than deli ham. Pick up a ham, and bake it. Slice it up, freeze half, or in portions that make sense for your family. Eat it on sandwiches until it is gone. But why stop at a ham. You can do this with Turkey, Chicken, Roast beef, and pork shoulder. Having these meets bought in bulk saves money. Cooking them and eating it through the week for lunches, or quick dinners, saves time.
This week I bought 2 whole chickens. Granted I bought these at Kroger, not Sams, because I didn’t go to Sam’s, and I had pre-planned enough. But two 5 pound chickens cost me $10.00. I put them in the oven Sunday morning, seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, rosemary and thyme. Just dried herbs sprinkled on top. They roasted for 2 hours; we were busy doing other things around the house. Once they were done roasting, and pretty cool, I cut them up. I am not good at cutting up whole chickens, yet. I was able to remove the wings, drumsticks, and breasts (mostly) whole. The rest of the chicken, I picked off. I put the chicken in a Tupperware container. Tonight, I will divide it up into meals that I will plan. When I was cutting it up yesterday, I had several meal ideas in mind, but hadn’t set them in stone. Tonight I will set them in stone, by preparing the chicken the way it would be needed. If I was super mom, I could have used the carcasses to make broth, but I’m not there yet, they went in the trash.
Some Ideas for meat from a roasted chicken:
Quesadillas, BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches, chicken salad (mayo, celery, etc.), chicken soup, chicken sandwiches, enchiladas, and Big Salad with chicken; and this is just from the top of my head. I would recommend that you know several recipes that your family likes using pre-cooked chicken and ground beef (cooked crumbled). Ground beef is good for a quick chili, pasta sauces, bbq sandwiches (like Mamwich), tacos, Taco dip (a family favorite of my family),
Another good go to meal would involve pasta. Have several recipes that use cooked pasta. I don’t really have any of these; we just toss Prego on it. But I am looking into it. Contrary to what our mothers and grandmothers would have us believe, every meal doesn’t have to be, meat, potatoes and a vegetable. If you cook pasta and mix in some grape tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and a dash of parmesan, you can call that dinner. Dinner doesn’t have to be heavy, just delicious and filing. There is nothing wrong with having fruit crackers and cheese for dinner. If you are satisfied, it’s dinner. That is a nice, light and nutritious meal that your family will love. Try to break free of what you think about dinner. Sandwiches can be a dinner, just because you are eating with your hands, doesn’t mean it’s not dinner.
