Making Double Meals

I love pictures like the one above. It makes you think of how the '50's' era made being a house wife look so easy and enjoyable. Oh, how Mrs Cleaver and Mama Walton make me cringe. Though I wish times as a homeschooling housewife could be as easy as they were portrayed to be, they are not. So, why not find some easy techniques to make life easier. One way is making double meals.

When I sit down to make my menu for the week, I try to combine main ingredients so that I can create more than one meal at a time. This technique is a huge time saver for us. It really helps on those days when we have many things that unexpectedly come up!

Basically, as you are making dinner for the night, you will use the main ingredient to make a second (or third) meal to use for another lunch or dinner. Here is a double duo I made this week.

Main Ingredient: Chicken Breasts(Feeding 6)
You will need 9-10 chicken breast for these recipes. I simply used one of the bags of frozen breast from Walmart.

1. Bake chicken breast on a cookie sheet at 400 for about 20-25 minutes. Until cook completely through.
2. Cut half(4-5) of the chicken breasts into small bite size pieces.
3. Shred the remaining chicken breast. This is done best by allowing the chicken to cool and then using your fingers to tear the shreds.
4. Prepare you meals

Barb-Q Chicken Sandwiches:

• Put the shredded chicken into a bowl.
• Add your favorite barbecue sauce and mix well.
• Refrigerate to use for another meal.
• When ready to use: Warm chicken in a microwave safe container until heated well.
• Serve on a hamburger bun with fries, fruit, corn, potato salad, pasta salad, or cole slaw.

Enchilada Casserole:

You will need:

1 Package corn tortillas
1-1/2 lbs cooked, cut up chicken
2 cans enchilada sauce
1 C. sour cream
1 C shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Stack the corn tortillas. Cut lengthwise, then width wise to form triangles. Loosen well
In a large bowl, mix all ingredients.
Pour into a well greased casserole or baking dish.
Cover with foil.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

Serve with brown rice and corn.

The color of this dish is kind of drab, so I suggest adding some chopped green peppers or pimentos for color! Just add them in the mix before baking.

So there you have it. Just one small way to make your life a little bit simpler!

If you already use these recipes, what do you do differently?