Meal Plans that Work: How to Stretch a Meal to Last a Week

Stretching food to last for a week can be hard. Here's how I stretched one "big meal" into lots of smaller meals, complete with recipes, photos, and a shopping list! The following will feed 2 people, or one person with more than enough to freeze for another week. If you're cooking for a larger family you might need to start with a larger chicken!

Day One: Roast Chicken (Leg/Thigh portions) (with roasted potatoes, carrots, beans, and broccoli)
Day Two: Chicken Pot Pie
Day Three: Chicken Soup
Day Four: Sliced Chicken (Breast portion) (with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and beans)
Day Five: Chicken a la King
Day Six: Smörgåsbord of leftover chicken (pot pie, a la king, and roast)
Day Seven: Chicken Pasta Soup

Okay, so it might look a little boring and repetitive, but it's all good and is relatively inexpensive. You can always freeze your leftovers and pull something out of the freezer from a previous week for days six and seven, or for any of the other days, too. I do not recommend freezing the potatoes or broccoli, as they will become mushy when they are defrosted.

Day One

Purchase a whole chicken (6-7 lbs will work for two people and these meals). Roast the chicken according to your favourite recipe (about 2 ½ hours for 6-7 lbs). Roast vegetables. Serve legs and thighs (and wings) with roast vegetables and some gravy.

After the chicken has cooled, slice 5-6 slices of the breast and save for a future meal. Cut off remaining chicken into slices or chunks (all will be cubed later). Take ALL bones (especially bones with meat still hanging off them) and place in crock pot with enough water to cover bones. Cook bones overnight (about 8-10 hours) on low.

Day Two

Turn off crock pot in AM. Use a slotted spoon to fish out all the bones. Place bones in roasting pan (or on a cookie sheet) and wait for bones to cool. When bones are cool, pick off as much meat from them as possible and discard bones. Put a colander into a large bowl and slowly pour broth from crock pot through colander. This will ensure you've gotten out all the tiny bones. Cover container and place in fridge.

Make Chicken Pot Pie. Put leftover filling in the fridge.

After Dinner, remove broth from fridge and scoop off fat with spoon (the fat should have solidified and risen to the top). Prepare ingredients for soup before bed if you'd like.

Day Three

Start Chicken Soup in the crock pot in the morning.

Day Four

Heat up the breast slices and make some mashed potatoes, gravy, and vegetables (you should have some leftover carrots and peas)

Day Five

Take the leftover chicken pot pie filling, put it in a pot on the stove and follow the recipe below.

Day Six

Leftovers! You should have a little bit of pot pie, a little bit of a la king filling, and some vegetables leftover.

Day Seven

Pour leftover soup into crock pot in the morning and add 2 cups additional broth (use broth cubes or just plain water). If you still have carrots or celery left, add some more. If there's any pieces of chicken left, add those too.

About 20 minutes before serving, add pasta (whatever you have on hand will work).

You should even have leftovers from this to freeze for another day!

Recipes

Roasted Vegetables

¼ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon pepper
4 large potatoes, quartered
½ head of broccoli
1 cup carrots, cut into chunks
½ lb green beans

1. In small bowl, mix oil, thyme, marjoram, and pepper.
2. Brush vegetables with oil mixture and roast at 375F/190C for 30-45 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

You can roast the vegetables around the chicken, too. Just add them about 45 minutes before the chicken will be done.

Chicken Pot Pie

2 cups peas and carrots (One cup of each. Chop carrots into rounds or cubes)
1/3 cup/25g butter
1/3 cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 ¾ cup chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
2 cups cooked, diced chicken
2 ready-made pie crusts

1. Melt butter. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Cook until mixture bubbles, remove from heat
2. stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling. Boil an additional minute.
3. Stir in peas, carrots, and chicken
4. Heat oven to 425F/220C
5. Prepare pastry for crust (or thaw frozen)
6. Roll 2/3 crust mix together and press into bottom and sides of an 8 inch square pan
7. roll out remaining crust and use cookie cutters (or a glass) to cut out shapes.
8. Pour chicken mixture into crust and top with overlapping shapes.
9. Bake about 35 minutes, or until crust is golden brown

To make extra filling to later have for Chicken A La King use - 1 ½ cups peas and carrots, 3 cups chicken, 2/3 c butter, 2/3 c flour, and 2 cups chicken broth instead of the original instructions and only use ½ - 2/3 of the filling in the pot pie.

Chicken A La King

2 Tablespoons butter
¼ cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 cup peas
1 oz white wine
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon each of parsley, thyme, sage, and paprika
2 cups cubed chicken

1. Melt butter over medium heat, add flour and stir until thick paste.
2. Add chicken broth, wine, and vinegar and bring to a boil
3. add carrots, celery, and peas. Add herbs and spices. Add chicken.
4. Heat thoroughly.
5. Serve over toast.

To convert the leftover Pot Pie filling to A La King, simply add ½ cup chopped celery, 1 oz. white wine, 1 teaspoon each of parsley, thyme, sage, and paprika and 1 teaspoon vinegar to the existing mix,and bring to a boil.

Chicken Soup

4 large carrots, diced
1 cup diced celery
1 cup peas (optional)
2 cups diced chicken
chicken broth
3 bay leaves

1. Combine carrots, celery, peas, and chicken in crock pot.

2. Fill with enough broth until crock pot has about 1 inch left. Add bay leaves.

3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

4. Remove bay leaves before serving.

To convert to Chicken noodle soup, simply add noodles or pasta 20 minutes before serving time. You also can add rice (at the beginning) for Chicken Rice Soup.

Shopping List

This list assumes you have basic staples - flour, milk, bread, the spices mentioned, pasta, etc.

1 whole chicken
Chicken broth cubes
1 large bag carrots
Peas
Celery
Green beans
Broccoli
2 shortbread pie crusts
White wine
Olive oil
Butter