Working for the Weekend

It is nice to have time to cook ahead for camp.  We have a small fridge so storing multiple ingredients is out of the question.  This weekend, one meal with be a chicken coconut curry.  The cheap factor is that I am using a package of sauce that was a "Special Today" mark-down. The pans were end-of-season mark downs too.  These are drip pans for grill -- the perfect size for a toaster oven.  For ingredients: chicken breast, slaw mix, yellow pepper, onion, black beans and a packet of sauce.

Convenience items are generally high in sodium. I make my peace with this because ordering take-out or buying lunch at camp would mean we'd be eating something high in sodium anyway.  The difference, is that this package was $1.75.  The chicken was part of the bird I roasted on Monday and I'll have used the slaw in multiple meals this week.  All together, this meal for two will come in under four bucks.  Additionally, we won't have to leave camp to eat out.  That makes it a camp winner.

The first thing I did was mix all of the ingredients into the small tin.  This is the perfect size for two people.  I might bring along instant white rice, however, the beans will add enough starch to help us feel full if we don't have rice.  My goal these days is to make a bean/legume part of every meal in order to take in more healthy soluble fiber. 

Although the recipe on the packet says to saute the ingredients first and then add the package, I'm improvising.  Mixing it all together in advance will soften everything up and help blend the flavors.  I can also heat it up in our electric fry pan.  It is more likely it will go in the toaster oven.

Once I wrapped the meal up foil, I cut the label out and put it on top.  Then I secured it in plastic wrap to help avoid any sort of leakage that might take place.  We won't have to guess what's in the tin and if we don't need it, it can go in the freezer and not become a mystery.

We do whatever we can to eat meals at camp because we love the view and love being there.  Lately, we've been lazy and buying more meals out.  Now that I am trying to keep costs down, this will be the way to go.  It's going to be possible now that I have more time to prepare in advance.  This is just another piece of my chicken strategy!