Post by Kelsie: Resourceful Chicken Dinners

Resourceful Dinners Week 1:  Bisquick Chicken Finger Meals

So Britt and I were talking near the end of Thanksgiving break about how great it would be to swap recipe ideas.  Thank you thank you Grant for creating this blog so we can!  Britt and I agreed that we don’t need anything fancy, but just more variety.  Poor Ben lives off Sunday leftovers for practically the whole week.  I don’t want to spend more at the grocery store but I do want to mix it up each night.  So I’m trying to be, as Ben says, “resourceful” by using the same chicken/ ingredients all week but in a different way each night so we can mix it up.  I have some ideas for this week and next, but Britt said she would show us some meals for the week after that.  I’m assigning Paige the week after Britt and then who wants to be next???

Our goal:  take one type of meat and serve it in 3-4 different ways with a carb and veggie.

Our rules:  delicious, healthy, and cheap. 

Have you ever used the recipe on the side of the Bisquick box?  It’s delicious and fairly cheap.  You should have almost everything in your kitchen already besides the chicken breasts, Bisquick mix, and shredded Parmesan cheese.  If you already have those things than score-this will be even cheaper and easier for you. 

Here’s the recipe for the Bisquick Chicken Fingers. 

http://www.food.com/recipe/bisquick-chicken-fingers-159253

Tips:  I would double it if you are feeding more than two.  This is a very easy recipe to double because you only need the extra chicken.  I usually like the mixing in the bag trick like it suggests but not so much with these because I really want them evenly coated so I just whip an egg in a bowl and put the dry ingredients in another bowl and dunk and dunk (good practice for my basketball skills).  Also, I usually cook them a little longer than suggested because I like them crispier.

Ok so Dinner 1:  Chicken Fingers Wanna Be Chicken Parmesan (Sunday Meal)

What you need besides the Chicken Fingers:

Shredded mozzarella cheese (or you could just use the leftover parmesan)

Spaghetti noodles

Spaghetti sauce

-I am going to use the leftover Spaghetti box and sauce next week for Spaghetti so keep half if you can.

Veggie

-I like a veggie I can steam (like a head of broccoli or squash) when I am cooking noodles since I have one of those pots that lets you do both at the same time.

First boil the noodles and the veggie, and quick zap in the microwave for the sauce.  Then plate with the noodles on bottom, 2-3 chicken fingers each on top, covere with sauce, and a generous amount of mozzarella cheese. I stuck it in the oven to broil for a couple minutes, then added the broccoli. 

Dinner 2:  Chicken Fingers w/ BBQ sauce (Weeknight Meal)

What you need besides the Chicken Fingers:

Dipping sauce

-We had BBQ sauce and it was great, but if you have ketchup or ranch on hand use that!

Veggie

-We had leftover squash from Costco so I just steamed that. 

Dinner 3:  Chicken Fingers Salad (Weeknight Meal)

What you need besides the Chicken Fingers:

Spinach

Tomatoes

Carrots

Leftover mozzarella cheese (or you could use parmesan)

Salad dressing

-We had Ranch but if you have Italian or something else on hand that works too!

Red onion (optional)

Craisins (optional)

Chop, assemble, and serve!  You can make the Bisquick rolls (also on the side of the box) to use up some of that Bisquick, but I was starving and didn’t want to wait so we just had this with a piece of toast.

Dinner 4:  Bisquick Pancakes, Eggs, Spinach Berry Smoothie (Weekend Meal)

What you need besides your leftover Bisquick Box:

Eggs

Milk

Your leftover Spinach bag (4 cups)

1 cup frozen berries (I used blueberries)

1 frozen banana

-When I get bananas from the grocery store I always try to chop up 1 or 2 and put them in their own sandwich bag in the freezer-makes for an easy smoothie later on in the week. 

I love breakfast for dinner!  Once again, I followed the directions on the side of the Bisquick box to make the pancakes.  We had some frozen blueberries so right before we flipped them over we threw some on.  Delicious!  We always have eggs in the fridge so we scrambled a couple of those.  The Spinach Berry Smoothie was a new recipe but I loved it and so did Ben!  It comes out green of course so be prepared.  The berry part is expensive but it makes it so sweet and not so leafy.   I doubled the recipe and it made two tall glasses.

Here’s the recipe for the Spinach Berry Smoothie.

http://reneeclerkin.com/recipe/berry-spinach-smoothie/

Hope these ideas are helpful for you!  I’m using meatloaf in a few different ways next week, so get excited!