More Meals for One

Some time ago I posted a series of posts on making meals to serve one person and the huge mileage I got from one little $5.00 rotisserie chicken. Those posts are right here:

http://sammysgrammysneedlin.blogspot.com/2012/06/meals-for-one.html

http://sammysgrammysneedlin.blogspot.com/2012/06/act-ii-of-rotisserie-chicken.html

http://sammysgrammysneedlin.blogspot.com/2012/07/act-iii-of-rotisserie-chicken-chicken.html

These recipes are economical and tasty even if you're preparing meals for more than one. You'll just get less mileage from your ingredients.

I find myself in this position of preparing meals for just one person and it's a challenging change of pace from cooking for a family of five. Thank God, it was gradual so that I could get used to it a step at a time. If you have had kids leave the nest, you know how difficult it seems at the time to make that adjustment of not setting their place at the table and making a little less dinner to accommodate one less person.

With just me to cook for, I am always looking for tasty meals for one and the other day while watching the Food Network I ran across Marcella Valladolid of Mexican Made Easy. On this program she prepared empanadas. I am a big fan of anything Mexican. I downloaded her recipe and made it the very next day. So delicioso ! I flash froze each empanada in it's own little plastic bag so that anytime I feel like having one for lunch or dinner, I just leave it on the counter for a bit then put it in my toaster oven for a quick warm up (in the toaster oven the beautiful crust stays nice and crispy).

Here's Marcella's recipe for ground beef empanadas:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marcela-valladolid/ground-beef-empanadas-picadillo-recipe.html

I tweaked Marcella's recipe a bit. I added cumin and coriander ground spices to the meat mixture. And instead of using the puff pastry sheets like she did, I found that by using puff pastry shells, you save some steps. The shells are already cut in round shapes, perfect for empanadas. I left the centers intact (which you would remove if you actually wanted them to become a shell). I put each pastry shell on a floured counter and rolled it out to about a 7-8 inch circle, then spooned the filling toward one edge of the circle, then brushed the edges with beaten egg and folded the other half circle over the filling, sealing it by pressing edges with a fork.  Otherwise, I did exactly as the recipe suggests.

       I am going to have one for lunch today along with a small caprese salad and iced tea.

Act III of Rotisserie Chicken - Chicken Tortellini Soup

This is the final act of the rotisserie chicken that I purchased at my local supermarket for $4.99 and created several "meals for one" from................... ______________________________________________________________________ I'm sorry that you find yourself in the position of "cooking for one" and that your dinner companions are the TV or reading matter spread all over your kitchen table. But, simply because this is the most unenviable situation to be in, you should have absolutely delightful meals and not just purely servicable......... _______________________________________________________________________ For the chickie's final application, he's coming to the table as chicken tortellini soup with fresh spinach........................ ________________________________________________________________________ You remember that way back in Act I when I made the chicken quesadilla, I advised you to remove all the rest of the breast meat and use it to make chicken salad (that was Act II) and to wrap up the remaining chicken entire carcass and meat and freeze it - freezing also, the juices that were left in the bottom of the supermarket container that the chicken came home to roost in............... __________________________________________________________________________ Now is the time to remove that package from the freezer. No need to defrost it. First of all, wrap up the carcass in cheese cloth. This is prevent the bones from falling apart and floating around in your soup. (And this is a personal preference) I don't like meat floating in my soup. If it is all wrapped in cheesecloth, it will all stay where it belongs......................... ___________________________________________________________________________ Fill a large soup pot with cool water. Drop you cheesecloth wrapped package gently into the pot along with the juices that were in the store container bottom. Bring pot to a boil, then lower heat to simmer. Skim off any foam which gathers on top. Add veggies to the soup. I like to put them in whole so that it is easy for me to remove them when the soup is done. I put a couple whole stalks of celery - including celery leaves, whole carrots and a whole onion. I also add a small can of tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, if you have them................... ___________________________________________________________________________ Simmer for 1 - 2 hours. Remove wilted veggies. I mash the carrots with a fork and add them back in. I toss the celery and onion. All their goodness is now in the soup. Remove the cheesecloth package. Now you have a lovely clear soup...........

____________________________________________________________________________ Bring it back to a soft boil so you can cook the tortellini right in the soup. I add about half a 1# bag of frozen cheese tortellini to the soup. Cook according to package directions. When the tortellini is almost cooked, I add one half a bag of fresh baby spinach............................................. _____________________________________________________________________________ Dinner's ready. I serve this with a couple tsp. of grated romano/parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. If this doesn't seem like a hearty enough dinner, have a chicken salad sandwich with it. You can also have dessert - because there's not too many calories in the soup.!!!! ______________________________________________________________________________ After I ate my chicken tortellini dinner, I still had two quarts of soup left over. I put one in the freezer for another delightful future meal and the other in the fridge.

Act II of the Rotisserie Chicken

If you read last weeks post, you know I purchased one of those rotisserie chickens from my local supermarket for $4.99. I understand the price has gone up to $5.29 (.30 more). Still a good price for the amount of meals I made from that one little chicken. _______________________________________________________________________ I am cooking for one, so if there's more people to feed at your house, the chicken will not be as good a deal as it is for me. But even if you get 2 meals from it, it's roughly $2.50 a meal. I had at least four meals of chicken tortellini soup, three meals of chicken salad, and one meal of chicken quesadilla. That's eight meals from one little rotisserie chicken. About .63 a meal. _______________________________________________________________________ My recipe for chicken salad - I use only the white meat or breast portion - I shred that into a quart glass measuring bowl (with a cover). Dice a couple ribs of celery - a handful (1/3 cup) of halved grapes or white raisins - a handfull of chopped pecans. Mix that all together. Use enough mayonaise (I use light) to moisten the salad. Before mixing the mayonaise through the salad, I add a sprinkle or two of curry powder to the mayo. In the picture, I have served the chicken salad in a toast cup. But it can also be served on a lettuce leaf or in a sandwich. _____________________________________________________________________ For the toast cup, I buttered both sides of a piece of white bread, put it in a ramekin sprayed with Pam, into a 400 degree over for about 10 minutes.