Depending on the size of your family and how much they eat, these meals could last you an entire week, if you save and use your leftovers. You can stretch them a bit if you have a salad with them or a side dish.
This is you grocery list, assuming you already have flour, salt and pepper, milk and butter or margarine in your house: I shop at Save-a-Lot so the prices are Save-a-Lot prices, if you don’t have a Save-a-Lot in your area you will need to find an equivalent bag-your-own groceries type store or buy store brand, in which case your total may be slightly higher.
1 Whole Chicken – $4.50 or $4.90 for ten lbs. of chicken legs and thighs at Wal-Mart
1 bag rice – 99 cents
2 cans mushrooms – 49 cents each = .98 cents
3 cans mixed vegetables – 39 cents each = $1.17
1 can peas 39 cents
1 can tuna – 79 cents
5 cans mushroom soup – 49 cents each = $2.45
1 package of tortillas – 79 cents
1 bottle ranch dressing – 99 cents
1 dozen eggs – 79 cents
1 package egg noodles – 79 cents
1 box Velveeta or So Cheesy – $3.99
2 boxes of Macaroni – 89 cents each = $1.78
4 cans diced tomatoes – 49 cents each = $1.96
If it is in your budget, here are additional ingredients for an additional meal:
1 pkg. of 8 burritos $2.49
1 can of chili $1.79 (or ingredients to make your own are cheap and you can have chili once and save the leftover chili to use in this recipe.)
1 can of diced tomatoes with or without garlic and basil – 49 cents
1 pkg. shredded Mexican cheese $2.49
Optional Salsa $1.39 and Sour Cream $1.39 for topping
Chicken should be cooked first as follows:
You will boil the chicken until it is falling off the bones, adding water as needed and dumping broth into separate container and adding more water to get plenty of broth.
You will set aside 2 portions of broth, a larger portion for the soup and a smaller portion for the Rivels. When you tear the chicken up you will put some nice pieces aside for the chicken tortilla recipe, some decent pieces for the soup, and the lesser pieces with fat and such for the Rivels.
Rice, Mushroom Soup, and Chicken
Put water in a large 2 qt. pan, a little over ¾ full and bring to boil. Squeeze bag of rice in middle and pour half of rice into pan. Seal up the remaining half for another recipe later. Now cook this rice with the lid off and stirring it occasionally so the rice will be gummy and have too much water. After about 20 minutes the rice will be fully cooked and you will add 2 cans of mushroom soup and the chicken pieces you set aside from the chicken for this recipe. Turn heat down to low. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir it up and just let it cook long enough to warm up the added ingredients and serve. The remaining water should’ve been absorbed by the mushroom soup and chicken, making it a nice consistency. If it is still too watery you can sprinkle in a little mashed potato flakes to absorb any remaining liquid. This recipe is also quite good with tuna instead of chicken for variety.
Homemade Chicken Mushroom Soup
Heat the chicken broth you set aside for this recipe and add the chicken also set aside for this recipe. Add two cans of mushroom soup, 2 cans mushrooms, and three cans of mixed vegetables. Mix flour and water and add to boiling soup to thicken it. Season to taste. If you have any leftovers that would fit well in this recipe go ahead and add them unless they are needed for another recipe later. You can divide the second half of the bag of rice up, using half for this recipe and half for the chicken tortillas if you wish. (You should cook the rice according to package directions prior to adding it to the soup.)
Chicken Tortillas
Using the nice pieces of chicken you should sear them in oil or butter, mix in the remaining half or fourth of the bag of rice, (cooked) depending rather or not you used any in the soup, and stir it up. Now lay out a tortilla and put some chicken and rice in a line on one side and add ranch dressing and roll it up.
Rivels
Using the broth you set aside for this recipe you should measure it and then bring it to a boil. Now take one cup of flour and one egg for each cup of broth. Mix to a powdery consistency and add to the boiling chicken broth. Add the chicken pieces, salt and pepper to taste.
Tuna Noodle Casserole
Cook the egg noodles. Drain. Add one can mushroom soup, one can of peas, drained, and one can of tuna, drained. I always break the tuna up well between my fingers, making sure there are no bones and helping it to distribute better around the casserole. Salt and pepper to taste.
Macaroni, Cheese and Tomato Casserole
You have enough ingredients to make a large batch of this twice, you should freeze some up for use in between other meals to break up the monotony.
Simply cook and drain 1 box of macaroni. Add butter and half the box of Velveeta, chopped up small to melt faster, and 2 cans of diced tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. (You can add peas if your family likes them.) You can cook it in a pan or layer it in a casserole dish. If you layer it you may want to put a pat of butter in center and pour in some milk to keep it moist. If you bake in oven use 350 degrees until hot and cheese melted, about 25 minutes.
Additional Meal Option:
If you purchased chili ingredients have chili and use the leftovers the next day to make this, if you did not purchase chili ingredients use the can of already made chili to make this recipe.
Take a sheet cake pan and spray it with cooking spray or butter it so it won’t be hard to clean later. Dump in the 8 burritos and line them up single. Mix the can or leftover chili with the can of tomatoes and dump on the burritos. Bake at 350 until hot all the way through about 25 – 30 minutes if frozen. Add the shredded Mexican cheese on top and put back in oven long enough for the cheese to melt. Optional: Salsa and sour cream for topping.
You can buy everything on the list for less than $35.00 and it is more than enough food to feed your family for a week!
