Monday I served grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. I used canned tomato soup and english muffins for the grilled cheese. Split the english muffins and butter the inside (the side with the holes). Put the sandwiches together with the buttered side out (the smooth sides facing in) and grill in a skillet until the outside is toasty and the inside is melty and gooey. Total cost for dinner $2.80 or $.70 a serving. I used 2 cans of soup and we each had just one sandwich. It was yummy and filling (plus there was soup leftover for me to take for lunch)Tonight with the blizzard upon us and following a busy day at work, I wanted something warm, filling and comforting. I decided to use the leftover chicken stock and chicken which I set aside on Sunday to make chicken and noodles. I brought the 8 cups of stock to a boil and added two chopped ribs of celery, and two sliced carrots. I added 2 tablespoons of chicken bouillon, and salt, pepper, and thyme to taste. I dropped in the shredded chicken, and finally 2 - 12 oz packages of Reames egg noodles. Let it all cook for about 20 minutes. You can then eat it as a brothy chicken noodle soup or thicken the broth with a few tablespoons of corn starch stirred into a cup of milk and then added to the broth. Let it boil for a few more minutes. It will thicken more once it cools a bit. I served mine with a side of salad. This makes about 10 servings. The total cost about $4.00...the majority of which was the egg noodles at $3.20. If you made your own egg noodles you could cut the cost even more. Remember the cost of the chicken and broth was already accounted for on Sunday. The salad added about another $1.00 or about a quarter extra for each of us. So dinner was approximately $ .65 a serving. And, even better, I have another meal waiting in the fridge for another night. Total spent this week so far on 4 dinners $16.80. Not bad...about $1.05 a plate. Can you do better? :-)
For those braving the storm of the century...stay warm and dry. Have a great evening!
Mindy
