COOKING FOR MYSELF.

COOKING FOR MYSELF.

I find myself sometimes in a quandry as to how to cook my dinner. What the devil do I mean by that. Well, It is like this; I live alone, I'm on a fixed income, so, the kinds of food I buy are limited to the lower cost cuts of meat.

Should I use frozen dinners, and/or other prepared meals?

For those of you that think preparing frozen meals, and other pre-cooked, pre-packaged meals, think again. If I were to buy just microwave frozen dinners for one meal a day, it would cost me an average of $3.75 per day, or $112.50 just for dinner. Yes that is a lot cheaper then going out for dinner, and it isn't as tasty. OH! yes, let's not forget all the unspeakable, and UN-pronouncable additives in all prepared meals. Ugghh!

Add to that the cost of toilet paper, paper towels, dish soap, cleaning supplies, laundry soap, etc and it adds up quickly. Then let's not mention the cost of gasoline, oil, repairs, insurance, and taxes on your vehicle. It doesn't take long before your monthly stipend is gone long before the end of the month.

Back to cooking for myself, I usually buy chicken thighs, drums, and once in a while chicken breasts. I also buy the cheap cuts of beef, plus ground beef, and the cheaper cuts of pork and even ham when it is on sale. Each of these I then divide up into serving size portions for one person and freeze them. I also purchase potatoes, onions, salad fixins, and the cheaper store brand canned veges, beans, sauces, etc. Pastas are also on the menu. Eggs, milk, juice, butter, peanut butter, and jellies are also on hand.

As you can see, I then have to figure out a way to fix these foods, while adding variety to my menu. I tend to fix balanced meals which include a meat, a starch/pasta, and a vegetable.

For today's dinner I had a couple of chicken thighs, some leftover rice, and some lettuce, so I fixed a lettuce salad w/thousand island dressing, sauteed one/half an onion in olive oil along with the leftover rice, seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.
The chicken thighs, I prepared by taking about one-half cup of plain bread crumbs, added to them a package of French Onion Dry Mix, then coating the chicken in this mix, and fried it in about one-half inch of canola oil until done.
The chicken came out juicy with a crispy flavorful coating. No it wasn't Kentucky Fried's Recipe, but it certainly was good.
Dahli loved the bones, skin and other scraps too.
Yeah! I know, Dahli is spoiled rotten.
God Bless us all. Amen

from the gahillbilly.

"(C) Copyright by Victor Winebrenner"