One Small Chicken..Four big meals..One tiny price

Although I create, shop for, and try to stick as closely as possible to a monthly menu plan there are times when I do go off the plan. Yesterday was one of those occasions. I've been actually craving a good roasted chicken and my friend with whom I am spending a weekend was on board. We stopped at a local grocery store and he purchased the ingredients. Total cost $11.63
I was a bit disappointed that the largest chicken they had on hand was only 4 pounds but since it was just the two of us we went with that. I seasoned the chicken and put it in the oven to roast

. A box of Stovetop stuffing mix from his pantry cupboard

and fresh baby carrots that I cooked and then candied with butter and brown sugar as well as some homemade gravy from the roast chicken drippings rounded out this meal.
This morning I took the chicken carcass and cut off a nice amount of white meat from it for my friend to warm up with leftover gravy and carrots for an evening meal for himself during the week then placed the remaining chicken carcass along with the wings and one remaining quarter leg into a slow cooker. I added carrots, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning, covered it all with cold water and turned it on low to simmer while we went about our day's activities. This stock became the basis of a chicken noodle soup lunch after I cooked and added more carrots and a half a bag of kluski style noodles to it.
After enjoying a couple of bowls of hot soup for lunch we have enough leftovers for another meal for him plus enough for me to take home to the kids for hot lunches on Monday for them!