Best kind of day

Today for me was one of the best kind of days.  It was one of those days where you really don't have to be anywhere in particular and everyone is home to give a helping hand.  I had already grocery shopped earlier in the week, so I did not have much to do today.  That left me time to get my hair cut, delegate house cleaning chores, and get my laundry caught up.  I also did some baking in anticipation of the upcoming week.  I got much done, but it was at a relaxed pace and was ever so enjoyable.

I was going to share with you what I did for dinner on Thursday and Friday.  I like to do what I call bouncing meals.  That is, out of one meal I can create another.  On Thursday we had chicken fried rice and on Friday we had chicken, broccoli, and cheese casserole.  When I cooked the rice for the fried rice, I made extra for the casserole.

I have a rice cooker and this is with three cups of brown rice.  I buy it in bulk from Sams and store it in a food grade container.  I used 2/3 of this for our fried rice and the rest for the casserole.

I then cooked enough chicken for both recipes.

I just cooked it in a cast iron skillet with onions until it is done.  I used half for the fried rice and half for the casserole. 

For fried rice you can used whatever veggies you have on hand.  I used carrots, onion, frozen peas, peppers, zucchini, and broccoli.  When I prepared the broccoli I cooked enough for both recipes.

I then cooked my veggies in a big pot with olive oil and soy sauce.  When the veggies started to get crisp I added the rice and more soy sauce.  I also added two eggs and cooked them in the middle until done.  I didn't get any other pictures of the rice, but here is one in the container when we were putting away leftovers.

For the casserole I mixed the rice, chicken, and broccoli with a cup of mayo, a cup of sour cream, cheese, and a can of cream of chicken soup.  Spread it in a baking dish and top with Ritz crackers and a little butter.  I baked some homemade wheat bread to go with it.

Here is my bread and some apple muffins I made.  They are whole wheat and sugar free.  The kids gave them a thumbs up.

These are both low cost meals that are easy to prepare and healthy.  The casserole could be made healthier, but this is what my family likes.