Creamy Chicken Stew

When I was planning out my week I hadn’t taken into consideration the fact that I’d have about half a can of cream of mushroom soup left. Today’s lunch was made primarily so that I wouldn’t waste it.

So today’s ingredients are:

• ½ can Cream of Mushroom Soup
• 1 chicken thigh (bone-in, skin off)
• 1 potato
• 1 carrot
• ½ onion
• Salt and Pepper

1) Cut potato and carrot into ¼-½ inch chunks.
2) Boil chicken, potato, and carrots. Add salt and pepper.
Side note 1: Incidentally this makes the most basic of chicken soups. Add some cooked rice or macaroni and you have chicken rice/noodle soup.

3) Once chicken is a cooked through, pull out from water. Turn off stove temporarily. Cut away meat from bone and chop into cubes. Return to soup.

4) Add cream of mushroom soup. Add more water (or milk) if too much water evaporated while making the broth/soup. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Side note 2: I garnished with a few leaves of spinach just because the soup looked bland in the bowl without that pop of color. Completely unnecessary and done for aesthetics. A sprig of parsley or another colorful garnish would work just as well.

Cost breakdown:

• Soup: ½ can soup x $1.69= $0.85
• Chicken: $1.19/lb x 1 chicken thigh (probably around ¼ lb)= $0.30
• Potato: $1.09/18= $0.06
• Carrot: $0.59/8= $0.07
• Onions: $0.59/3= $0.20/onion 
• $0.20/2= $0.10

Total (and per serving): $0.85+$0.30+$0.06+$0.07+$0.10= $1.38