Buy once, eat for a week!

I know it's been a while since I have written on here, but I must say, at least it is not because I am just getting lazy. Work has been crazy and any free time I have, I generally spend with my work family :) On the bight side, we spend time cooking and baking, trying out new recipes, and inventing new concoctions.

At least once a week (but usually more than just once), we have what we like to call "Family Dinner". Being young 20 something year olds, the cheaper the better. That being said, we still want to have good quality food. And that is exactly what has inspired this post.

The best solution to a delicious, good quality, well-priced meal all starts with one thing, a rotisserie chicken. Most grocery stores (Randalls, Kroger, Whole Foods, etc.) generally sell hot, fully cooked rotisserie chickens for a fairly reasonable price. My personal preference however, is to get a chicken from Costco. It costs about $5.00 and is big enough to last for a week -- not to mention it is beyond delicious!

More often than not, I get the chicken with the intention of just pulling it off and eating it as is with a salad and some other side. Then, after that meal is over and the chicken has had a little bit of time to cool, I pull the rest of the chicken off the bone and put it in to a tupperware container and in to the fridge it goes.

Sounds a bit boring, I know, but the possibilities of what you do with the left overs are endless. You could literally do just about anything -- nachos, tacos, pastas, salads, sandwiches, etc. Take tonight for example ... After a long and full day of work (that started at 4 a.m.) and an hour and a half of hot yoga, the last thing I wanted to do when I came home was figure out what to cook, not to mention actually cook it. My solution? Left over rotisserie chicken!

I do admit that I did have to put in a little bit of effort, but it was very minimal. I turned on a pot of water for some pasta and put some fresh veggies and garlic in a sauté pan with a little bit of olive oil and let them cook over a medium heat. Once the pasta was done, I tossed it in the pan with the veggies, put some chicken on top and mixed in some left over basil pesto I had in the fridge. I put all of that atop a small handful of spring mix lettuce and dug in.

Between the pasta, the pesto, the chicken, and the veggies, it was the ultimate comfort meal that satisfied every craving I had. All that was missing was a glass of red wine and some good company. So next time, I invite you all to join me.

I hope you try this out for yourself and please share if you have any other ideas or ways that you like to use your left overs! Have a great night and a great holiday weekend! I will be back with more soon, I promise! :)