Day 1: I roasted an enormous chicken in a citrus sauce, over squash.

I put the back, neck and wings aside.

We ate the thighs, squash and some couscous.

Saved the thigh bones with the wings, neck and back.

Day 2: Legs and one breast, plus the rest of the couscous. Saved the bones.

Day 3: Used the other breast in a pasta recipe. Saved the bone.

Day 4: Made stock from the bones.

Day 5: Leftover pasta.

The chicken was $7. The squash was $2. Citrus sauce was a reduction from leftover fruit salad. Couscous was $2 and I have tons left in the box. Pasta was $1, broccoli in the pasta dish was $1.50 (and there's half the broccoli left). Everything else was a pantry item.

Yeah, I'll take 5 dinners for 2 from one chicken, at under $15.

Tonight, it's pork pud see ew (pork = $4, noodles = 50 cents, broccoli = leftover, everything else, pantry, will serve 2 at least twice, plus a lunch somewhere).

I'm growing more and more frugal (practical!) in my not-THAT-old-age. My nightly refrain after dinner lately has been "don't throw that away!" Last week it was bones from a beef roast (stock!), and discarded dungeness crab shells (stock for a crab, potato and corn chowder I've been fantasizing about ever since). The "discard" items are now waiting patiently in our freezer....

meltdown, my first advice is "learn to cook."

Knowing how to cook, how to stretch meat to the breaking point, and how to prepare tasty veggie fare will be a very valuable skill.

Look at how much it's saving you over those boxed dinners in the freezer section. It's better for you, too, cutting the salt by a good half and eliminating a lot of preservatives, coloring, stabilizers, and other junk they need to use to keep that stuff edible after it's been frozen for six months.

a few sandwiches, a 2nd meal and stock from a roasted chicken. I love leftovers!

Last time I made a roast chicken, one of the dogs snatched the carcass off the counter after the first meal. I got it away from the dog before he injured himself, but the carcass was covered with dog hair and grit, so it went in the trash :( Ruined my entire meal plan for the week.

which dog? the newbie or the brown dog?

if it was the newbie BC she's getting pretty darned cocky and comfortable :rofl:

Small brown dog is too small to get up on the counter, otherwise, he would be there in a flash. The new dog is part BC, but also part Australian cattle dog, which means he can be a real bonehead. Sweet, but still a bonehead.

We had all eaten, except my husband who had been working late. He came home to a hairy, gritty chicken carcass with gnaw marks on it. Poor guy, after working so hard, the dog gets his dinner :rofl:

a mix of guilt, greed, satisfaction and fear

and I know the look on the hubby's face too.....

:rofl:

The dog is unrepentant. He still counter surfs occasionally. Here is how I trained a previous dog to stay off the counters.

I grew hot peppers in my garden one summer. I picked a handful of habanero and thai dragons and dropped them on my counter. Then I went out. When I came home, there were hot peppers, a few with light tooth marks, all over the kitchen floor. That dog NEVER touched anything on the kitchen counter again

:rofl:

perfect !! and you weren't even home to get the "mean MOM!" look

:rofl: