I just LOVE planned-overs! Two days ago, I made Chicken and Dumplings. I had a package of five chicken breast halves. I removed the skins and browned all of it. Then I added the broth and brought it to a boil. After simmering until the meat was just cooked, I removed all of it, took it off the bones and chopped it. I only returned HALF of the meat to the broth. The rest I made into Chicken Salad, for sandwiches.

So I fed my family Chicken and Dumplings for dinner that night. I mixed up the Chicken Salad, made a sandwich for DH's lunch for the next day and put the rest of the chicken salad away. After we all had eaten our fill of dinner, there was still a lot of "stuff" left in the pan -- plenty of meat and veggies, and the broth that had been thickened by the dumplings cooking in it. I put that away in the fridge.

Then yesterday, I cooked a BIG batch of white rice. I started with 4 cups, so that makes approximately 12 cups of cooked rice. I brought the leftover "stew" from the previous night's dinner to a boil, adding more broth to make it more like SOUP. Then I added HALF of the cooked rice and we had homemade Chicken-Rice Soup for dinner. The rest of the rice (and a couple leftover servings of soup) were put away in the fridge.

Today, I made Fried Rice for lunch! The planned-over rice was ready to go (it's best to start with refrigerated steamed rice for fried rice). I chopped up an onion, three carrots, and three celery ribs, beat four eggs, and fired up the wok...

So out of five chicken breast halves, I got three meals, plus! There's still a bit of chicken salad (probably enough for two more sandwiches) after making four generous sandwiches. And there's still a couple of servings of soup. We had Chicken and Dumplings and Chicken-Rice soup. Plus the planned-over rice made a fourth meal, too!

Tonight I'm making pork steaks. If there's leftover meat (often the four of us aren't able to finish the three steaks I cook), I will save that for pan-fried noodles. I cook ramen soup, then drain, reserving the broth. Then I stir-fry some veggies and the meat and pan-fry the noodles. Frugal? Well, I suppose...but it's also delicious, and gives the family some variety at the same time. : - )