One of the biggest drawbacks of trying to feed an entire family healthy food is that it can get very expensive very quickly. Since we pay about $8 a gallon for milk from pastured cows, and shell out a pretty penny for produce from local farmers for our CSA membership, we try to trim the food budget however we can. One of the easiest ways is to eat less meat, but my husband isn’t a fan of that option. So I’ve been trying to stretch the meat we do buy so that it last for a few meals.
This healthy version of orange chicken-our favorite Chinese take-out item-is an example of stretching our meat. This week the kids have VBS (Vacation Bible School) every night so we have been looking for quick and easy dinner options. At the beginning of the week Eddie picked up a rotisserie chicken and a watermelon from the grocery store. (We eat A LOT of rotisserie chicken. It’s just as easy as take out, but it’s healthier and it’s about half the price of a trip to a fast food place to feed our family of five.) I shred the left over meat. The next day I used it to make whole wheat quesadillas for lunch and the day after that I made this orange chicken. Sometimes I also use the bones to make chicken stock, so one chicken can feed us up to four times.
It might seem like a long list of ingredients for this meal, but you probably already have most (if not all) of them in your refrigerator or pantry. Best of all, it only takes about 15-20 minutes to go from this…
to this…
- Brown Rice
- Orange Juice
- Honey
- Garlic (minced, fresh, or dried)
- Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
- Sea Salt
- Ketchup
- Coconut or Olive Oil
- Water
- cooked, shredded chicken
- 1. Mix 1/2 cup Orange Juice and 1 cup of water.
- 2. Boil juice and water mixture
- 3. Add 1 cup of brown rice and continue cooking according to directions on box
- 1. Melt 1 tbs coconut oil (or olive oil) over medium high heat.
- 2. Add 1 cup of cooked, shredded chicken
- 3. Mix 1/4 cup of orange juice, 2 tbs honey, dash of sea salt, 1/4 tsp red pepper flake, 1 tsp garlic, 1 tbs ketchup, and 1/2 cup of water and add to pan with chicken.
- 4. Reduce heat and allow sauce to thicken. If necessary, add 1 tsp of whole wheat flour to help thicken sauce.
This looks great! I completely understand trying to stretch that dollar to feed your family… its too bad hubby won’t go for the no-meat situation because that has helped a ton! Regardless, rotisserie is the way to make a chicken stretch as far as possible.
This looks really good and healthy. I wonder if I could add a vegetable too. Maybe broccoli?
I bet that would be great! We usually serve our vegetables on the side, but it would be even easier to just toss them right in.
I am pinning this and going to actually make too! 😉 It looks amazing! Thanks for sharing, Steph!