Rice-A-Roni

Because I am cheap, we have bought this stuff before. To make my cheapness extend as much as possible, I have discovered how to make a box of Rice-a-Roni extend into an entire meal.
For those of you who have had the privileged of feeding my husband and/or children, you know that they are eaters! Before I perfected my Rice-A- Roni meal, a box of this was near useless in feeding my family.

Here is what I do:
I add an extra 1/4-1/2 C plain rice, white or brown, to the rice mix from the box.
I follow the regular instructions, just using a larger pan. If it says fry rice, I fry all of the rice- my added rice included. Then when it comes time to add the water, I add twice as much water as I did my extra rice in addition to what it calls for on the box, (ie: 1/2 C extra rice, add 1 C extra water, if it was only 1/4 C extra rice I only add 1/2 C water.) Then I add chicken. If you want to add raw chicken, add it right after the water and seasoning, stir in, cover and cook for the required time. If you add canned chicken, you can add it when you have 7 minutes or so to go in your cook time. Then, I always add a vegetable to the top of the rice and chicken 5-7 minutes before the cooking time is complete.
For the chicken and broccoli Rice-a-Roni, I add broccoli. For the chicken fajita, I add 1 chopped green bell pepper, etc.

There you have it. A meal in a box. Better for you than hamburger helper and most of the time cheaper. When you can get Rice-A-Roni on sale for 69 cents a box and already have frozen veggies in your freezer and left over/canned chicken meat from a meal, that makes out to be a super cheap, easy meal for the whole family.