Simplify dinner prep with connected meal planning (recipe: Chicken & Biscuits) (2024)

The following is a guest post from Katie of Kitchen Stewardship. Welcome, Katie!

When friends tell me they don’t like leftovers, I generally sort of gape openly at them and stand frozen for a few minutes, shocked, eyes wide in disbelief.

We eat leftovers for lunch almost every day.

Once I scrape my jaw off the floor, I usually find enough words to stammer, “Why not?!”

Most of the time, people don’t like the idea of eating the same thing two or three days in a row. They get tired of it. In contrast, our family loves leftovers. If I look in the fridge and announce that there are (“only”) two choices for lunch, everyone feels like they have been shorted, like we are practically out of food.

I’m always thrilled to Cook Once, and Serve Twice – that old C.O.S.T. acronym that freezer cookbooks in particular like to use. Typically C.O.S.T. means making a big batch of a meal and saving an entire meal in the freezer for later.

All photos by Katie

I love that little “gift to self,” too, but when I Cook Once, Serve Twice, it’s more like “connected meal planning,” my term for a series of meals that use some similar ingredients placed in the same week, so you can use up your perishables and save on prep time by using something from one meal for the next.

For example, when I buy a bag of spinach on sale, I take care to plan at least two meals that will use it so I don’t throw away a half bag of slimy spinach mush the following week. Throwing away food I’ve spent money on is just like throwing away money, so good planning makes good “cents.”

Connected meal planning also saves me time. Some from-scratch meals require quite a bit of prep, things like cooking rice or chicken before beginning a casserole, having homemade tortillas on hand for enchiladas, or using leftover bread for a crunchy casserole topping. If I planned each meal independent of the rest of the week, I could be spending two to three hours just to make a weekday dinner.

If I plan with connections, this is what might happen:

Easy Chicken and Biscuits

This dish looks like it could take halfway to forever to prepare when you scan the list of ingredients, but with the chicken, potatoes and veggies already cooked, it really only takes 10 minutes to put together, plus the time to make biscuit dough. If you've been paying attention, you'll probably make a double batch of biscuit dough and bake the extras while you're eating dinner, and then you can have sausage with gravy over biscuits the next night, or biscuits with leftover soup from the freezer.

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Course: Main Dishes

Ingredients

3 - 5 Tablespoons butter
1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped onion OR 1 Tbsp. dried minced onion, optional
1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder OR 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 - 3/4 cup whole wheat flour 1/4 to 1/2 cup arrowroot or corn starch for GF
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning optional
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt more with homemade broth
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1 dash paprika
1 - 2 large leftover baked potatoes diced, OR 2 raw potatoes, diced
4 cups cooked cut-up vegetables
2 cups cooked chicken
Homemade biscuit dough http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/recipes/homemade-biscuits/, or use your favorite recipe for biscuits

Instructions

Prepare biscuit dough using your chosen recipe. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and sauté celery and onion, if using. Sauté and stir at least 5 minutes or until vegetables are limp, adding fresh garlic for the last minute. (If your other vegetables aren’t already cooked, get them going now.) Add flour (if using) and stir and cook on medium-high until you see bubbles, then one minute longer. Add the broth and milk all at once. Stir and add all the remaining seasonings, including dried onion and garlic, if using.
GF adaptation: Reserve a half cup of cold milk when you pour in the liquid. Bring everything in the pot to a boil. Mix the starch with the cold milk and pour into the boiling liquid, then add the spices.
Cook and stir often/constantly over medium to high heat, depending on how closely you can monitor the pot. Once liquid is boiling, stir for at least 2 minutes over medium-high heat. Watch for the “soup” to thicken, then turn heat off.
Mix the cream soup with the chicken and cooked vegetables in a 9x13” baking dish. Place cut-out biscuit rounds or dollops of biscuit dough liberally over the top. Bake 25-30 minutes or until biscuits are golden.

Notes

You can always use a bag of frozen mixed veggies in place of fresh for another time-saving strategy.

-from Katie's "Better than a Box" ebook

Nutrition

I’m excited to share more time- and money-saving strategies, plus more variations on this recipe and some of the others I mentioned above, in Better Than a Box: How to Transform Processed Food Recipes into Whole Foods Favorites. Simple Bites readers are invited to save 25% HERE with the coupon code BITETHEBOX25 through 2/15.

Better Than a Box is available on Kindle via Amazon and Nook. The PDF download also includes the Kindle and Nook files, as well as free printable recipe cards, a freezer supply list, how to make chicken stock one-page printable and other handy dandy charts and tips.

How do you use meal planning to make your life easier?

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