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Last night’s dinner was leftover chicken from Sunday…done my hubby’s way. Before we met, I would use my leftover chicken to make soups or casseroles, but he and his family have taught me a new trick. On Monday nights, they re-use or re-create their Sunday dinner by throwing it into a wok (deep frying pan) with some oil and vegetables. In ten minutes or less, you have something totally and completely different from the day before. It is both simple and delicious.

Begin by de-boning the chicken and slicing up some fresh vegetables. You can use whatever is around. Last night’s was peppers, onion, and crochet (zucchini). I have also used things like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and potato. Then fry these on high heat until they are brown; add the meat at this point. Finish up by throwing in leftover rice or roasted potatoes. If you don’t have any of those leftover, you can substitute cooked pasta: spaghetti or other noodles. Finally, add a dash of soy sauce or your other favourite flavouring and serve hot.

So let’s see how this concoction rates against the Frugal Fam core values:

Family first. You can’t do much better than ten to fifteen minutes in the kitchen for making dinner; saving minutes or even hours to spend with those that matter most.

Saving money. Re-using/re-inventing leftover chicken in this way cuts down on grocery costs. I will get at least three meals out of this weeks chicken (to be fair I made two chickens this week, I usually don’t have much leftover).

Environmentally friendly. You have kept meat out of the landfills…and it is a really bad polluter as it decomposes.

Healthier. Will depend a great deal on what you put into your pan. Last night’s had over three cups of fresh vegetables, so it would rate rather high. And since my casseroles were usually loaded with cheese, hubby’s creative cooking ranks much higher on this measure in our household.

So the next time you have extra chicken leftover, why not give this creative cooking experiment a try. You never know what you might create.