I had just enough leftover yarn to whip up two snowballs and turn them into a little woolly snowman. I used the two largest sizes in my pom pom maker set to create his body, braided a warm scarf from leftover needlepoint wool, and topped him off with a 3D-printed hat made by my grandson.

The weather has turned (at least it did for a week) and the other morning we woke up to a chilly 45 degrees. Brrr! But it was expected to reach a sunny 77 that afternoon, so we're holding off on turning on the heat for a few more weeks. Good thing, today it's supposed to reach 87!

The foody part of this post:

There are two kinds of husbands in the world: those who won’t go to Costco and those who will. My guy is the latter. Several years ago, I went on my own, and he had genuine hurt feelings about me going without him. I won’t do that again to my sweet guy, so now we’re a Costco shopping dream team, each with our own unique Costco superpowers.

My Costco superpower is simple: it’s saying no to everything. I’m a bit of a fun spoiler, but if not for this important skill of mine, we’d come home with bags and bags of fifty frozen burritos or potstickers, or cases of batteries, avocados, and chocolate caramel clusters. My skill keeps our household-supplies inventory from getting too unruly.

My husband’s superpower is choosing the best rotisserie chicken. He scans the lineup like a customs officer inspecting a row of passports at a high-security border crossing. He’s not just glancing; he’s laser-focused on spotting the single most perfect bird. And by perfect, I mean the largest.

This week, he picked a beaut. I swear it was double the normal size! Normally, I can easily make two or three dinners for two from one of their chickens, but this week’s bird gave us four dinners and several lunches, with bones left over for stock.

I’m quite proud of this feat, but I didn’t take pictures of everything because I had no idea I’d manage to turn it into a blog post. Still, here’s the lowdown.

The first night, I sliced the breast meat for dinner and served it with my frozen summer squash fritters and a salad. The remaining slices went into three sandwiches, which I quartered, wrapped, and tucked into the fridge for future lunches. My guy is beyond thrilled when he finds a ready made lunch in the fridge.

The rest of the chicken was either shredded or diced and set aside, and the bones went into the freezer for stock that I’ll make another day. I like to collect several chickens’ worth before I bother making stock.

The second night I made rice bowls served with a salsa/salad of diced red bell pepper, tomato, cucumber, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Wraps were on the menu for night three. I know it looks suspiciously like the dinner from the previous night, but this time, I zipped up the salsa with fresh garlic, grated ginger, and snipped chives, then added a splash of soy sauce. A few little tweaks, and dinner got a new personality. We even had three wraps leftover for lunch. Not bad for a dinner that was looking like a rerun!

Our last dinner, on day four, was chicken enchilada soup made with a quart of frozen chicken stock, the last of the diced chicken, a can of red enchilada sauce, taco seasoning to taste, and a can each of corn and black beans. I topped each serving with crushed tortilla chips, grated cheese, and diced tomato and avocado. This is one of our favorite no-effort soups!

And that’s how I made four dinners plus several lunches out of one Costco chicken. Not bad for $5!

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