Leftover Chicken, Three Ways

The other night we had grilled marinated boneless chicken breasts for dinner. The Dude cooked it up, and he made potatoes and brussel sprouts on the side. Delicious! There was a lot of chicken leftover, which is exactly how I like it. Perfect leftovers for lunches!

For lunches the next day, I sliced the leftover grilled chicken into thin slices and strips. Using that chicken, I made three different lunches for three different people, using the chicken in three different ways.

First, a lunch for the Dude. I used the thin sliced chicken for the sandwich. The chicken is snuggled up onto a croissant with some spring mix greens and spicy mustard, topped with a grape tomato. He also has a hard boiled duck egg, a few mini Oreos, and a few strawberries.

Yep, that's a little teddy bear pick for my big construction worker husband. It's the little things that make me smile. I have a slightly off-center sense of humor, to put it mildly.

For Bean I used the chicken to make a big salad. I filled the largest section of a Sistema Cube with the spring greens mix and laid the chicken out on the bed, spreading bacon crumbles on top, with ranch dressing on the side. Also tucked in is a hard boiled duck egg on a bed of spinach leaves, a few mini Oreos, and some halved strawberries.

Most of us here are big salad lovers. A big tub of spring greens from Costco generally disappears pretty quickly around here.

Pretty colors, too! I was glad to see strawberries in the store the other day. Hoping they still have some tomorrow; they're Beaker's favorite.

For G-man, I used the chicken strips to make a pirate boy lunch. Which he remembered to take to school... but forgot in the classroom when it was time to go to lunch. At least he ate some of it when he got home.

For his lunch, the chicken is sliced into pieces and placed in a jumbo silicone baking cup, with a little dish of barbecue sauce on the side for dipping. He also has a hard boiled egg shaped like a fish, snowflake Ritz, pirate gold chocolate coins, strawberries, and tangelo segments.

Strawberries run through with pirate swords:

Leftovers are a fantastic way to stretch the grocery budget, prevent waste, and get creative with lunches. With just a little imagination and a few other ingredients, dinner from last night can become a great lunch for tomorrow!