Frugal Sunday Menu 4/3/2011

We returned home from the funeral in Tennessee last Saturday evening and had to prepare many things for the next day, including Sunday dinner.  As part of my Great Freezer Cleanout of 2011 I checked to see what was available to fix our crowd. 

I was very blessed.  One of the things in the freezer was a 3 lb. bag of skinless, boneless chicken breasts that I'd bought on sale a few weeks earlier.  A check of the pantry showed canned chicken bouillon.  Using these ingredients I was able to make a stock-pot full of chicken and dumplings.  The dumplings were made from scratch which helped to keep the cost down significantly and to improve the taste (in my opinion).

Bags of store-bought vegetables (corn and broccoli) were added, as were frozen rolls.  The big splurge of the day was a frozen store-bought turtle pie (also bought on sale) because I had no time to make a dessert. 

I have a pretty good idea of what I spent on the chicken  a few weeks ago ($5.99) and each of the veggie bags ($2.00 each).  The pie cost about $3.00.  So for about $13 I fed 11 people on Sunday and had enough chicken and dumplings left over to make lunches for 2 days.  Also, 7 of Sunday's 11 people were adults. 

Price per person on Sunday was less than $1.20 each.  Factoring in the leftover lunch portions would make the cost considerably less (below $0.90 per portion).

And the best part was that everyone liked the meal and was pleasantly surprised that we weren't forced to go out to eat due to our unexpected funeral trip.