How to Stretch Your Food Dollar

Well, they keep saying the economy is improving. I'm optimistic that we'll see a rebound here soon, but for most of us, things are still pretty darn tight, financially. Which begs the question, how can you stretch your food budget?

So here is another food stretching idea for you, and it should get you a couple of healthy meals. First, buy some chicken breast (you'll want a bit more than you think your family will eat, perhaps enough to have one breast left over). Of course, I recommend the chicken breast from the Market. It is nicely trimmed, and you can pound it out in the package. Preheat your oven to 350F.

I like the chicken for this to be about half an inch thick, so it doesn't take much pounding. Smear the chicken lightly all over with olive oil, and season it simply - maybe some tarragon, thyme, then salt and pepper to taste. place in a casserole with sides (you'll see why later) and bake until cooked through - 15-30 minutes, perhaps longer, depending on the size and thickness of the breast.

Here's another site for great tips on cooking chicken breast by various methods. I offer this because chicken is touchy to bake. For the meal I'm describing, I want a dry cooking method, but I don't want the meat to dry out. That is part of the reason that I recommend pounding out the chicken. It is important NOT TO OVER COOK the meat. Chicken needs to be cooked through (no pink in the center) but JUST cooked through. Over-cooking will dry out the meat.

When the chicken is done, it's ready to eat with whatever side dishes your family prefers. My family is a potato kind of family, but I like to throw in green veggies every once and awhile if only to hear the inevitable groans. Since you have the oven on for roasting the chicken, why not try roasting some veggies, like green beans. And rather than putting butter and salt on the green beans, try crumbling some feta cheese over them instead - yum! Leftover beans or other veggies are also great in the next dish!

Place the 'extra' chicken (and veggies, if you have them) in a container and refrigerate for the next day. Deglaze the pan that you cooked the chicken in using water, wine, or lemon juice. Lemon juice? Yes, lemon juice - it lends a wonderful lightness to the chicken soup we're going to make with the left overs. It's a traditional Greek addition to chicken soup. My friend, Marian, converted me when she made me try it. You can adjust the amount of lemon to your taste, but I've found that I like quite a bit. And you can also add the zest of the lemon to the resulting broth for some extra zing. Refrigerate the broth for use the next day.

I call this my left-over soup. I use this 'recipe' as an opportunity to use up all the odds and ends left from meals for the last few days. Have some left over fresh salsa - throw it in. Left over bulgur, couscous or pasta - great addition. Left over veggies - why not? Now there are a couple things you are going to want: an onion, diced; some red pepper diced (green pepper works, too, I just prefer red), a few stocks of celery chopped, and some carrots, chopped.

Place a stock pan over medium heat, and add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. sautee the onion, pepper, celery, and carrots until just softened. Add the broth you made the previous day, along with some additional chicken stock to make up the liquid to what you will need to feed your family (this is truly a 'stretchable' meal - need more soup, just add more stock). Again, I recommend the chicken base from the Market, which has no MSG and no added salt (unlike many of the cheap chicken bases you can find other places that are mostly salt).

Shred the chicken breast and add to the soup. Add any other left-overs you found in your fridge. Bring the mix to a simmer, and cook until all ingredients are heated through. If you didn't have left overs like the bulgur or couscous, you can add it, uncooked and cook it in the soup. Bulgur, or barley, or quinoa, or millet are GREAT and healthy whole grain additions to this soup.

Once everything is done, and the soup has had a chance to simmer all put together for awhile, taste it, and season as you like. This is the time when I might add some extra lemon zest or juice, maybe some fresh thyme or cilantro. It really depends on what you added and how it was originally seasoned, so you really do want to allow the soup some time to simmer, so all the existing flavors come together, then you can adjust appropriately. I would recommend leaving the salt and pepper to individual tastes.

There you go - a food dollar stretching exercise. But if you are feeling lazy, or just rushed, remember that we have home made soups at the Market, and we are starting to make MTO sandwiches. Stop by and let us know what you think!

Please, share what you do to stretch your food dollar!