Scope Creek - One Factor in Cost

"Scope Creep," as Shawn explains it to me, is when your project grows (during production) to the point that it is no longer profitable. The added components are often wonderful and helpful! But the resulting cost of your overall project is much higher than you had projected. In the business world, if you've given the client a fixed price for the product, too much scope creep means your company has to absorb the extra expense. And lose its profit.

How does scope creep relate to our freezer group? Well, after making our first month's dinners, I know I'm going to have to remind myself to stick to an entree (unless we decide entire dinners are the way to go). I could buy five or six pounds of chicken for $16. Add some spices, and stuff... $20. This time I fixed five pounds of chicken, 150 oz white beans, 3 onions, spices, broth, etc.

Something to think about as we evaluate the success of our first month's effort.

Cost Analysis

I did also figure out the cost of the Mariachi Chicken Rolls meal (since the cost of the ingredients for 6 entrees (I'm doing a MTB meal with this too)) somewhat staggered me at Meijer this morning.


For one batch/recipe above, it's about $31, which is a little more than $10 per entree, or $2.60 per serving. I think it might be a good idea to have a ballpark idea of what we're spending/aiming for with these, so we're not always one-upping or worrying about not spending enough. I'm guestimating that this might be the most I'd spend per meal, given that chicken is one of the most expensive meats we eat around here, and I plan to do some rice/beans/veggies/etc. stuff as well.  But I just got back from vacation and this recipe sounded good to my pregnant self, so for the next few months we might be seeing more cravings appearing... :)

Thoughts? I don't think we all have to publish this, but I thought it might be helpful for us to do for ourselves.

Mariachi Chicken Rolls

This is from my Fix Freeze Feast cookbook, which is for big batches of freezer meals (obviously) - I'm not going to do the math to reduce the amounts for you, so here is the recipe for 3 entrees.

1 tray (about 6 lbs) boneless skinless chicken (half) breasts
1 large red bell pepper, diced
4 scallions, chopped
1 (2.25oz) can chopped black olives (1/2 c)
3 (8oz) packages light cream cheese, cubed and softened
3 c prepared salsa

1) Flatten chicken with your hand, smooth side down.
2) Combine pepper, scallions, and olives in a small bowl
3) Blend cream cheese and salsa in a mixer.
4) Place 2 tablespoons pepper mixture  near the wide end of each piece of chicken. Roll chicken around the filling, starting with the widest part of the breasts. Divide rolls among baking dishes (3 8in squares)
5) Divide cream cheese mixture evenly over each dish of chicken. Sprinkle with paprika.
6) Wrap each dish entirely in plastic wrap, top with foil, label, and freeze.

TO COOK:
1) Completely thaw in the refrigerator.
2) Preheat oven to 350 F
3) Remove foil and plastic wrap and replace foil.
4) Bake, covered for 1 hour or until a meat therm. reads 170 F.

That was somewhat time intensive - I think I might just copy each recipe and print it/tape it to my meals, and just list the title/main ingredients.

Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant

1-2 Eggs

Flour

Salt

Pepper

Italian Seasonings

Oil

Pasta Sauce

Mozzarella, Parmigiana and/or Asiago Cheeses

PREP:

Make Pasta Sauce or use ready made sauce(I need to find my recipe)

Mix Flour, salt, pepper, seasonings

Scramble eggs

Slice Eggplant into ~1/2"slices

Heat Oil in pan

Coat eggplant slice in egg and then dredge in flour mixture. Fry until golden brown on each side.

Lay on paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Cover the bottom of a baking dish with sauce then layer of eggplant slices, sauce, eggplant, sauce, eggplant, sauce then cheese mixture on top, cover and bake ~30 minute then bake 10-15 minutes uncovered to crisp the cheese.

White Bean Chicken Chili - September

1 T olive oil
1 chopped sweet onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 t cumin
1 t oregano
2 1/2 c chicken broth
3 c cooked chicken (shredded or cubed)
30 oz northern white beans (drained)
30 oz northern white beans (un-drained)

Cook onions in olive oil until tender. Mix in garlic, cumin and oregano. Stir while cooking for three minutes. Mix in broth, chicken and white beans. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Pork Tenderloin - September

1/4 c olive oil
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 T cider vinegar
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh roesmary
2 T chpped fresh thyme
2 T chopped fresh parsley
2 T dijon mustard
1 14- to 16-ounce pork tenderloin

Process the ingredients (except pork) in blender until finely chopped. Pour over pork and marinate 8-12 hours in fridge. Drain. Roast at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until done. Let stand 5 minutes. Slice thin and serve.

Let's Try This!

So Ladies, I stole someone else's idea for a dinner meal blog... hoping to make this easy for all of us. We can post our indended meals for each upcoming month (with recipe if desired) so that we do not duplicate one another. We also can use it as a 'history' of past meals so that we always can find a recipe if we fall in love with a meal.