The (Cheap) Good Life--How to get a month of dinner mileage out of one chicken

You can get Rotisserie chickens at most grocery stores, and at Sams for between 6 and 8 dollars. While this isn't too expensive for a meal that feeds a whole family, it's even cheaper if you stretch it with some inexpensive ingredients to make enough food to stock the fridge and freezer with what, for the single cook at least, becomes easily a month of food. Buy the biggest chicken you can find (they're often sold by unit rather than weight), and be prepared to spend the day on a project that will save you lots of time in the long run.

So it begins...

1. Fill a largest stock pot you have with water and start it simmering. 
2. Wait until the chicken cools just enough to handle (but not all the way), and pick every last microscopic scrap of meat off of that carcass. When you think you've plundered every crevice, check again and pick some more. Put all the good meat in a bowl. Throw the skin, fatty bits, gristle, and anything else that you wouldn't want to find in a taco into the stock pot. 
3. Put the picked over carcass into the pot.
4. Simmer the entire thing on low for at least 4 hours. Sometimes I do the meat picking in the evening, stick the stock pot in the fridge, and simmer all day the next day.
5. Divide the chicken meat into three equal portions, and set aside for the later recipes. Freeze it if you're not going to use it right away.

Stock

1. When your stock is strong enough for your taste, pour about half of it through a colander, into a large pitcher or bowl. 
2. Ladle or pour the stock into muffin tins, and freeze, popping it out and sticking the portions in a big freezer bag, so that you can use your tins. Each tin section holds about half a cup of stock. Pull out the stock "ice cubes" whenever you need stock in a recipe. (2 cups of stock, salt and pepper and some orzo make a nice, comforting winter lunch).

Chicken soup

1. When you've frozen whatever you wanted to freeze of your stock, pour the rest through the colander and into a soup pot. Discard the bones and pieces you strained out. 
2. Add a portion of the chicken meat, and 1 of the following: rice, noodles, barley, lentils, diced potatoes.
3. Add at least 2 chopped/canned/frozen vegetables
4. Simmer with the soup with whatever spices you like. Bay leaves, rosemary, salt and pepper are good choices. 
5. If you used a big stock pot in the beginning, this should make a lot of soup. Store some of it in the fridge, and freeze the rest in freezer bags. I like to store some in portion sized containers in the fridge, that are easy to pull out and microwave.

Enchiladas

Ingredients:
About 20 small corn tortillas.
1 large can of enchilada sauce (I prefer the green variety).
Chicken from rotisserie
1 package of Mexican cheese (any kind of cheese will do, but you can get a small wheel of crumbly Mexican melting cheese really cheaply in the hispanic section of some grocery stores).
1 can of beans or corn (optional)

1. Mix together most of the cheese, chicken and optional corn or beans. 
2. Place a spoonful of the mixture in the middle of a tortilla, and roll the tortilla up, placing it seam down in a baking pan. 
3. When you have used up the mixture, pour enchilada sauce down the middle of the pan, and sprinkle a little extra cheese on top. 
4. Bake in at 400 degrees, until the cheese is bubbly. 

Chicken Parmesan Patties

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (I usually use the powdered kind, because it's cheap, but of course freshly grated is always better)
1/4 cup fine bread crumbs
Chicken from rotisserie
Some kind of cheese to sprinkle on top--mozzarella is nice, or you could save a little out from the enchilada recipe.
Olive or vegetable oil

1. Mix together the eggs, parmesan, chicken, and bread crumbs. 
2. Divide the mixture equally and make patties with your hands (how many patties you make depends on the size you like). At this point I sometimes wrap up the patties, and save them in the fridge to use for lunches or quick dinners throughout the week. Not sure how it freezes, but that might work too. I suppose the thought of storing raw egg might bother some, but you do the same thing with your mayo.
3. Heat about two tablespoons of oil in a pan, and cook the patty on medium, flipping when one side is nicely browned, to cook the other side. 
4. While the patties are still in the pan, spoon some pasta sauce on each one, and sprinkle with cheese. Let the cheese melt and serve.

Packed dinner/hearty lunch idea: I used to pack this in one of those plastic boxes you get with chinese takeout, for a night class dinner. I would keep some cooked patties wrapped in the fridge, without cheese or sauce. I also made a pot of rice at the start of the week, pressed it into muffin tins, turned it out, and froze the individual portions. When I packed my dinner, I would place a patty on one side of the box, and top it with a little sauce and cheese. On the other side I would place a frozen rice portion. The frozen rice kept the patty cold through the first half of class, and when the dinner break came, I just had to pop the whole thing into the microwave for a delicious, filling meal.

Reflections upon the occasion of my growing old

I have realized of late that, sometime when I wasn't paying attention, I grew old. Not old in the grey hair and ancient wisdom sense of the word. Heavens no. I am only 23, after all. What I mean is that I have somehow become not-a-child. No one asked me if I wanted this. It just was. Just is.

I have long passed the age when people look at your foolish mistakes, laugh, shake their heads and say "Ah well, she's just a kid. She'll learn." The practice round is over, and I am being tried as an adult in the court of public opinion, where failure is sometimes a felony, justice is subjective, and the jury is often cruel.

My peers have scattered. They are no longer flocks of young fledglings, huddling with each other for safety, as they test their wings. They are wives and husbands, fathers and mothers, laborers, young professionals and vagrants. Many of them are happy, and still many more have made decisions they will regret for the rest of their lives.

Upon reflection, I am, as a whole, satisfied with the change. Like a good book, the first chapter was endearing enough, as it drew me into the story, but now that I know how the next chapter begins, I cannot go back. I have taken my heart out of its little locked cupboard more often, and it has been battered a bit as a result, but I have found that in the end it is better to have the bittersweet, than no taste at all. The bitter will fade, but the sweetness lingers.

I have discovered happiness to be a better friend than a lover. When it is free to come and go as it pleases, unforced, and unfettered; visiting whomever it likes, whenever it likes, it is treasured for its absences.

I don't like the idea of sky-diving or bungee jumping. Falling only frightens me, without any thrill. I've never been one to have a bucket list. Life is interesting enough as it comes. But there are several things I want to be before I turn 30, and here they are:

I want to...
Love my job. I do not want to put off living each day until I've clocked out.
Become a Big Sister in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program. I've wanted to do this for years, but have never been geographically stable enough to commit to it.
Be growing. I never want to stop.
Keep my heart wide open.
Climb another mountain.
Be done with school for good.
Not be lonely.

I guess I'll check back in a few years from now and see how it all turned out, because if being "old" has taught me one thing, it's taught me that life rarely works out as I planned.

Age 5

Good Gear: Travel

I am, in general, a minimalist. I hate clutter, I hate shopping, and I hate having a ton of stuff I don't need. I'm frugal and would rather make do without than make do with too much any day. That being said, I'm also a big believer in buying quality tools for the things that are important to you in life. Travel is definitely something I enjoy, and I've got several "can't live without" items that I take with me every single time, so I'm sharing them with you.

Deuter Futura Pro 34 Backpack


This is my friend, my trusty companion, the apple of my eye, when it comes to traveling. It is the most important piece of gear I own.

Sized for a woman, which my narrow shoulders appreciate, this pack is the height of comfort and versatility. It has plenty of compression straps, so it comfortably carries any sized load, without the contents of the pack jostling or falling to the bottom. I have used it to carry a warm wardrobe, raingear, all my food, books and toiletries for a two week backpacking trip through the Scottish Highlands (about 50 pounds total), and also as a light pack to tote picnic supplies on a short day hike.

There is no metal frame, the straps and hip belt are heavily padded, the curved design keeps the pack from resting too much on your back, allowing air circulation, and warding off sweat soaked clothing. There are tons of adjustable compartments, loops to hang things and straps to keep things secure. The rain cover has its own zippered pocket, where it is attached so you can't lose it, and is a snap to put on (plus it really works. I've used it torrential downpours and never had anything get wet.) It also dries super quickly.

Anyway, I can't say enough about this pack. Get one. Use it. It's the only piece of luggage I take with me anywhere these days, unless I'm actually moving somewhere for more than a month at a time. The only scenario it would be bad for is business traveling. Thank goodness I don't have to tote suits around.

I bought mine for $80 on major clearance from Altrec.com, in early 2008. Go into backpack shopping expecting to pay at least $100 for a good pack, but look for deals as well. A good pack makes the difference between a miserable experience, toting heavy luggage with an aching back, and a great experience, forgetting your luggage is there, and having a good time. Plus, you'll probably put a lot of strain on those zippers and straps, and it's not worth much to buy a cheap pack, only to have those features broken after a few uses. I've used my pack almost non-stop for every excursion I've been on since 2008, and it still looks and acts like new. I don't anticipate having to buy a new pack for at least 10 years, if not twice that.

Roll tight dry sacks


If my backpack is my best friend for traveling, these sacks are my second best friend. You can buy them in a set of 3 from WalMart for just under $10, and they are worth every penny. My number one rule of packing a backpack is to never, ever just put anything in the main compartment loose.   Always put things in a bag. These sacks make keeping everything compact and tidy easy. This eliminates the exploding bag phenomenon, where you rummage through your bag, and then can't get the contents to fit back in it. 3 sacks is quite enough, I've found. For a longer trip, I pack my clothes rolled up in the green bag, my PJ's in the orange bag, and my underwear and socks in the blue bag. For a short trip I would probably skip the orange bag. The nylon means that they slide nicely next to eachother in a tight space, and the roll tops are very secure. (These are not true dry sacks though. Don't try to take them boating. Immersed in water, they will probably leak.) I generally put my toiletries in an old drawstring shoe bag I've had forever, because things like shampoo and lotion don't take well to being squeezed in a compact sack.

Microfiber Hair Turban, Bath Puff and Washcloth

I have long, thick hair, which is a total pain to dry. Toting a fullsized towel while traveling is also a total pain. It's bulky and really nasty to pack while damp. This is my system:

Washing: I use a mesh bath puff to wash with. It stretches the life of soap, dries in a snap (which wards off bacteria), and easily attaches to the outside of my pack with the string loop they nearly all have. These are usually about 50 cents to $1 at any drug or discount store. 

Drying hair: Drying my hair was my biggest challenge, until I discovered a microfiber hair turban while browsing a drugstore. The one by Aquis is very nice, although sometimes a bit pricey (check Amazon for good deals). It is basically a specially sewn micrfiber pocket that goes on your head, you twist your har in it, and use the button loop on the twisted end to fix the whole thing in a turban to your head. The microfiber soaks up water really well, and it comes in a plastic zippered pouch, which makes it easy to pack up if you don't have time to dry it completely right away.

Drying body: Drying your body is actually pretty easy once you don't have hair dripping all over. I just use a thin washcloth, believe it or not. It takes a little patience, and isn't as cozy as a big towel, but the space savings and not having a damp towel to pack is worth it for me. It works well enough. I usually tie my washcloth to the outside of my backpack to dry. 

Light My Fire Spork

I am not generally a huge fan of the spork, because it serves as a very bad fork and a very bad spoon at the same time. This however is a handy tool, because it has a real, usable fork on one end, and a real, usable spoon on the other. It even has a little serrated knife edge on the fork for spreading butter and other table knife tasks. It's made of very durable, flexible plastic, and retails for about $2-3 at WalMart. I take it everywhere, because I'm a fan of eating from grocery stores and bakeries, and you never know when you might need a utensil. 

Two other nice things to have

Definitely not in the realm of essentials, but two things I've found useful to have along when I go hosteling in Europe, or am otherwise traveling into the unknown are a pillow case, folded up in the bottom of my bag, and a can of lavender body spray (buy it when you get there. Don't take aerosols on a plane.) I discovered this Backpacking in Scotland, having become tired of the grody smell of hostel bedding. I had packed a pillowcase, initially with the thought of using it as a laundry bag, but soon discovered that I much preferred slipping it over whatever pillow the hostel offered. I also picked up a can of Yardleys of London English Lavender body spray at a drugstore for a couple pounds, and was very pleased with the luxury of spraying not only me, but my pillowcase before I went to bed. The smell of lavender is as calming as it is pleasant.