Stoney's Crew: What's for Supper?

Well, I'm almost "back in the saddle" again with menus. This re-engineering of my cooking into fewer servings may get the best of me yet! No really, it is working out pretty well right now because of a little project I work on on Monday's and Friday's for a few hours! Those days are when I pull something already made out of the freezer to finish baking or warm up. I'm getting closer to being a full-fledged once-a-month chef doing this! Now I am starting to mark the "extras" on my master planner calendar for another day of the month as I make them ahead so that I don't forget what is in the freezer and have to dig through the contents!

Last week I had a hankerin' for Chicken Subgum, a dish from one of our local Cantonese eateries. My version was simple and delish, however, the next time I make it I think I will add a little more pepper or red pepper flakes to kick it up a notch





Here's how I made:
2 chicken breasts cubed

1/4 teaspoon ground sage
1/4 teaspoon Sesame Oil
2 cups celery stalks, sliced
1 large onion, diced
1 large green pepper diced (I used 1/2 orange and 1/2 yellow pepper this time)
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped

2 cups chicken stock/broth (I used homemade)
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts
Soy sauce to taste

Brown chicken breasts in butter and/or olive oil. Season with sage, salt, and pepper to taste. Remove from pan when cooked and set aside. Put onion, peppers, Sesame Oil, and celery in pan and saute on low until onions are almost transparent. Add all but 2 tablespoons of the broth to the pan and bring to a gentle boil. Mix flour and remaining stock with broth and add to pan to thicken the stock to a light "gravy". Add chicken back to pan with water chestnuts, and soy sauce to taste. 2 minutes before serving add the cashews to the mixture. Serve over plain rice or Fried Rice. An additional "side" might be one of my Egg Rolls! Garnish with "Chinese Noodles".

On the menu for this week!

Monday, March 15: Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans, Rolls (Last week when I made meatloaf, due to this re-engineering thing, instead of make 1 freeze 1, I made 4, froze 3 with 2 pounds of ground beef!) [Bake 4 potatoes, use 2 on Friday.]

Tuesday, March 16: French Toast (made with cinnamon raisin bread), Sausage Patties, Fruit

Wednesday, March 17: Green Salad with Cajun Turkey (I bet you thought, being Irish, I would be serving something else...but Stoney won't eat Corned Beef & Cabbage, so I have to settle for "green" lettuce! I guess I could have opted for Lucky Charms!)

Thursday, March 18: Sloppy Joe Sandwiches, Salad

Friday, March 19: Pork Chops, Twice Baked Potatoes, Corn, Salad

Saturday, March 20: Mystery Meals!

Sunday, March 21: Chicken Subgum, Fried Rice, Egg Rolls

Don't forget to check out Menu Plan Monday at Org Junkie for more menu ideas!

Stoney's Crew: The Price of a Chicken in Every Pot!

Well, I have run the numbers every which way I can think of and still cannot figure out how to come up with the costs of the stock made from that bird...so I'll call it FREE as a by-product of my original quest of chicken.

Yield and Cost:
This is what I have come up with as the yield and the costs of that bird:
13 cups of Chicken meat
4 quarts of stock

Broken down, that is 50 cents per cup of chicken or $1.00 for most recipes. The cost of a 10-12 oz can of chicken meat is about $2.50, so I believe I saved $1.50 for each recipe.

The cost per servings:

$6.50 divided by 34 (including noodles without meat meal) 19 cents a serving.

Exclude the Noodles meatless meal and it is 22 cents per serving.

And, no, that does not include the ingredients to make the meals or the meals themselves. But I have to say...that bird was cheaper per recipe than a can of tuna would have been!

This is the best per total meal cost (includes ingredients, side salad at 25 cents and a veggie or starch in most cases) that I could come up with. I am not an accountant folks, so bear with me!

Plain Chicken with salad, vegetable & potato (round 1) 90 cents per serving
Enchiladas with salad and rice $1.07 per serving
Subs with salad and green beans $1.25 per serving
Chicken Pizza (The FLOP!) was a jaw dropping $2.88 waste per serving (saw that one coming a mile away!)
Chicken Noodle Casserole served with a side salad was $1.88 per serving
Egg Rolls with Fried Rice was 90 cents per serving
White Chicken Chili with side salad was $1.15 per serving
The healing Chicken and Noodles (used stock only was) less than 40 cents to make the Noodles from scratch if you call the stock free.

There you have it. My number crunching efforts...I snagged another chicken this week for 98 cents a pound, slightly higher initial investment, but if I get the minimum 13 cups of meat then I am still ahead with a cost per cup of 55 cents a cup! Don't worry, this week's chicken is being divided like normal in 2 cup portions and put in the freezer for retreval as needed...although I am trying to convince myself to make a huge batch of egg rolls and stash soooo, we will have to see what I decide in the morning of the bone pickin'!

BTW, I used the last of the Cream of Mushroom Soup (1 pint) last night for Swiss Steak Recipe...oh, and yeah it was good!

Stoney's Crew: Egg Rolls & Fried Rice!

I have used the last little bit of chicken from last week's adventure (approximately 2 cups) I still have a quart (+ or -) and a pint of Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup yet, but I have now used the last of the meat! How you ask? Egg Rolls! Sometimes I would have used the chicken in the Fried Rice, but this way you get a 2 fer!


Stoney's Crew Egg Rolls
2 cups cooked chicken (shredded or diced)
2 stalks of celery diced
1 small onion finely diced
1/2 can water chestnut (drained) chopped
Egg Roll Wrappers (usually found in the produce section, I used the large size)
3 eggs
Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix the chicken, celery, onion, water chestnut and 2-1/2 eggs in a bowl...Reserve the 1/2 egg for the seal on the wrap.

Place mixture on egg roll wrapper and...

Wrap! Yes, I used the same wrapping style for the Enchiladas I made last week.

Nine Egg Rolls all in a row! (I could have gotten 10, if I had planned ahead!)

Bring small amount of vegetable oil (enough to be 1/2 up the egg rolls while cooking) in a pan up to high heat. You could use a Fry Daddy or similar fryer if you have one.

Fry until just golden brown. Place on clean cookie sheet and finish cooking and keep warm in warm oven. I have baked in warm oven; but the color isn't as pretty!

Some folks will add other veggies (shredded carrots, shredded cabbage and such), but this seems to be the way that we like them best here at Stoney's Crew.

I have made these ahead and frozen by using a full chicken's(s') meat--one of the fastest ways to do this for a party is to buy plain Rotissere Chickens from your local deli. It will cut down on your prep time if you are in a hurry. Extra Egg Roll Wrappers? Fill them with Taco Meat & shredded cheese and fry as above. You can also make a Crab Ragoon with the wrappers. YUM!

Stoney's Crew Fried Rice
2-3 cups of cooked rice
5 eggs beaten
1 cup diced ham (use leftovers when you can!)
Chopped green onion
Soy Sauce to taste

Scramble eggs in lightly oiled skillet (with pepper if desired--the ham and soy sauce will have a lot of salt, so I don't add any here). Use a whisk to make them fluffy while cooking. Add ham, green onion. Move to one side of skillet. In the other half of skillet add just a bit of oil and spoon plain rice into corner, stir to heat it through.

Once the rice is "fried" mix with the ingredients on the other side of the skillet. Add soy sauce to taste. Fried Rice is ready!

If you want you could add a cup of frozen peas and/or carrots to the ham, egg, onion mixture and warm through. Some also like to add a can of thoroughly rinsed Chinese vegetables. Stoney's Crew likes it best as above. This can easily be doubled or tripled and frozen for future use.

Stoney's Crew Perfect Rice Every Time
1-1/3 cup White Unconverted Rice
Rinse rice in a strainer with cold water thoroughly
Place rice in a 2 quart sauce pan add 2-1/3 cup COLD water
Bring to BOIL; lower heat to simmer and cover for 20 minutes.
Let the rice stand without heat for an additional 20 minutes and when you lift the lid you will have perfect rice every time! Rice can be refrigerated or used immediately.

I now have a microwave rice cooker that I use; but the premise is the same. Rinse, (ratio for mine is 2 cups rice, 4 cups cold water) cook 20 minutes, let sit 20 minutes.

Chicken Meal Count: +5 (2 each) bringing the total to 34 meals! The remainder stock will be used shortly; but I am not sure that it will make a full meal to add to this count. The Cream of Mushroom Soup I am thinking of using in Friday's meal, so stay tuned. Tomorrow, I will provide the cost breakdowns for each meal from this bird and you will be surprised!

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