Stop the dollar menu!

While I love a bag of potato chips and a chocolate chip cookie as much as the next girl, I really do care about living a nutritious lifestyle.

I get so frustrated by those who live off of (and feed their kids from) the dollar menu because it's "so cheap". 

I understand the convenience factor is huge for a lot of people, but the cheap one doesn't get by me.

I promise I'm not going on this mini rant without making a point.

I have proof!

I bought a whole chicken from the grocery store for approximately $4.25.  After chopping up about $1 worth of onions and carrots and drizzling with a couple of tablespoons of oil and some seasonings of choice, it looked like this--

I baked it for maybe an hour and a half at 350 degrees (until 165 degrees internal temp.) and let the whole thing rest for at least 20 minutes under aluminum foil before slicing.

I also used the pan drippings to make this delicious sauce...

And our dinner looked like this (along with *leftover* quinoa and veggies).  Forgive the not so great photo.  I promise it was very tasty.

I also picked about 12 oz of extra meat off of the bones for a future meal..

AND I'm saving the carcass to make homemade chicken stock for a batch of fall soup.

So the final tally is:

 

Yummy Chicken dinner

Homemade sauce

Extra chicken for a future meal

Chicken carcass for homemade stock

All for maybe $6.00 at the most.

I'm just saying, it can be done!

Have a happy Tuesday :)