DELICIOUSLY CHEAP EASYCHICKEN IN THE CROCK POT

THURSDAY APRIL 17, 2014

Yesterday marked the first official day of Easter Vacation from our school district. Well, Wednesday the kids went and yesterday, Thursday, they did not. Unfortunately for me and my daughter we were not feeling quite well. On her first full day off of school!!!!! We both had headaches, stuffy noses, I had an extremely sore throat, hers was mild, I had a mild ear ache, hers was that type of severe that the whole neighborhood hears about it (and we live in the woods). She screamed and cried and would NOT try anything I said. When I became a parent I never thought that what was happening in the house would determine what was for dinner. I'm now quite familiar with this. If we are busy I make something FAST, If not, the whole family sits in the kitchen while I cook. If I'm sick or have to care for a sick child, its a crock pot meal. When we are sick, what comes to mind? Chicken noodle soup usually-huh? So I went down to the deep dark deep freezer in the deep dark dungeon basement (OK its not bad that's where my bedroom is). Anyway I grabbed some bone-in chicken legs and bone-in chicken breast. ***TIP TIP TIP***It's a great idea to look at flyers and see if you can find bone-in chicken breast, thighs, or legs on sale. I never pay more than $1.99/lb and have gotten them as cheap as $0.99/lb. Usually people looking to save money look over these deals because chances are they are packaged in 3-10 lb packages, so they look expensive and they aren't. This family of 6-8 a 5 lb pack lasts us 3-4 meals or 4-5 months. Buy big and sort them into smaller sections, date, and freeze. It saves time and money in the long run.

After grabbing the bone in legs and breast, I went and got the big crock pot. There are two ways to make this but I chose the juiciest way since I was letting it cook from frozen early morning unit 7 that evening. I took the meat, defrosted it in the sink for an hour. Once it was defrosted, I laid them out and seasoned them. I like to use fresh garden veggies, herbs, and spices because I know where they come from; who touched them (: No, I just like gardening. However, it just snowed four days ago here in Pennsylvania. So, I took some minced onion, some pepper, salt, poultry seasoning and season all. I let them sit in the fridge for a while while I did the next step. I took 4 chicken soup cubes and put them in 1 1/2 cups of water, placed in the microwave for three minutes until they were completely liquid. So, I put it in the bottom of the crock pot and placed the chicken on top of the broth and let it cook for seven hour. I re-seasoned the chicken after five hours. This point you have the option to use whole grain rice, whole grain noodles, or potatoes. Add veggies on the side if you want a full meal. Use the broth to make gravy. I'll tell you how. I'll give directions as to what I did.           

•    Grabbed Ingredients:

1. 8 Chicken legs, 5 chicken breast (bone in)
2. CROCK POT
3. 4 bullion cubes heated in 1 1/2 Cups water
4. minced onion
5. pepper and salt
6. poultry seasoning
7. Season all/ Season salt.
8. Garlic Season
9. Whole Wheat Noodles/Whole grain rice
10. I used frozen green beans~you can use what you want 
11. Flour and water for gravy
12. Butter if desired    

• Made my meal flavorful before I left kitchen:

1. Thawed Chicken; laid out chicken pieces and sprinkled with pepper, salt, poultry seasoning, and season salt. Flipped and did the same to the other side. Sat in fridge until ready to cook.
2. Placed 4 bullion cubes in 1 1/2 Cups Water, heated in microwave until it dissolved (about 3 minutes, then stirred).
3.  Put the chicken bullion in the bottom of the crock pot.
4. Added 1/4 Cup of minced onion.
5. Placed Chicken breast first, bone down in large Crock pot. Then stacked the legs on top. They will not be fully covered and that's fine.
6. About 4-5 hours into cooking on low, I upped to high heat, moved chicken peices around, and topped with salt, pepper, Season Salt, poultry season, and a small splash of garlic seasoning.  
7. I knew the chicken was cooked after 6 hours because it started falling off of the bone as I wanted it to do. That is JUICY & SOFT CHICKEN. 
8. At this point I made Whole Wheat egg noodles. You can use white noodles, rice, potatoes, whatever you're hungry for.
9. I then scooped the broth out of the crock pot, placed a small strainer over a sauce pan to catch the drippings, and scooped 2- 2 1/2 Cups of juice into sauce pan. 
10. I then took a glass cup, a cup of flour and half cup warm water and mixed it extra good leaving very small clumps~fast dinner so nothing is perfect.
11. I took frozen veggies and placed them in the microwave to be steamed as desired.
12. I then started on medium high heat the chicken stalk. Taking a whisk I slowly dropped in 2-4 TBS of flour and water at a time stirring the whole time, and adding flour/water mixture as needed. Once the gravy looked like gravy yet a little runnier than I wanted to have it, I stopped adding, stirred and turned heat off(it thickens as it sits).   
13. Drained my noodles, and added 3 TBS butter stirring the noodles. My whole family doesn't eat chicken and gravy over noodles. So, butter works not only prevent hardening and sticking but also to allow for butter noodles. 
14. For the kids, I pulled(no cutting needed on this juicy and tender chicken) the meat off the bone, placed on noodles, and added gravy.     
15. THANK GOD AND EAT, ENJOY AND MAKE AGAIN.                    

This fed 6 people and we still had chicken left. I used the extra chicken to make chicken salad sandwiches. Pull chicken off the bone. Mix 2 parts mayonnaise with 1 part Miracle Whip. And you got LUNCH THE NEXT DAY . Or, you can have chicken and gravy sandwiches.                                                                                                                                                   

Happy Kids, Full Kids, make a happy home. 

Let me know if you made alternations or decided to make something else for lunch out of left overs. Thank you.

xoxo

Megs                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

WELCOME: About me and my cooking ideas.

Believe it or not, I have a boyfriend and four kids. My current life's circumstances include my mother in law who works non stop a full time job, a part time job, and does OCD (not being mean but she is in a good way) RIGHT when she walks in the door. It also includes my boyfriend's 85 year old grandfather who is set in his ways of not making his own dinner and being served like he's at a restaurant. I love this family and so I being a stay at home mom right now, have learned to cook. ALL things. Breakfast, dinner, lunch, snacks etc. My boyfriend DOES make the evening snacks so little does he know he'll be blogging that. :).

If you haven't followed my other blog, MAD CRAFTING MOTHER OF FOUR feel free to check it out. We will be posting all of our current crafts this weekend throughout the week. So, if you aren't familliar with it, I am 29, my husband/boyfriend is 30-TODAY, and my children are Autumn, who is 10, Hannah who is 9 (they dont live with me full time). Then our live in children, Aerieannah, who is 6, almost 7 (on June 5, 2014), and our little kid our parents warned us about, Chris Junior, who is 2. By the kid our parents warned us about.... "I hope you have a kid that is just like you or worse." NO he is NOT a BAD kid. He's just the most curious, most independent, determined to do what he wants when he wants boy I've ever met. Not to mention he's stronger than me.He's two and weighs 53 pounds and his 6 year old sister weighs 60.

I'm busy with life as we all are. When a parent is busy and the kids are hungry I know we all- or 95% of us have made life easier a few times here and there by handing over a not so healthy snack, microwavable food, chips, or ran thru a fast food restaurant passing up a side salad for a cheeseburger(no ketchup or onions extra pickle). So I wanted to make a blog of our family's food. We do not always eat right BUT, I found some ways to add whole grains, calcium, and veggies by sneaking them in a recipe the kids already LOVE, and passing them off as something else. I've passed tofu(for extra iron) off as cheese because I flavored it and mixed it in with mozzerella and sprinkled it on the pizza. No body knew except me and I couldn't even taste it. There are ways to feed junk food-like pizza with extra special nutrients on it so it's no longer considered JUNK FOOD. Right now is the perfect time to start.
Though NOT healthy it's my boyfriend's 30th birthday and he loves RED VELVET cake. WE are far from rich so we usually wouldn't make it since we had to buy an over abundance of red dye as well as buttermilk we won't use again until its expired to throw away. SO this may be one of the most extravagant foods i make that is not cheap. And it's a shame I'm thinking of featuring it as my first food....maybe I'll sneak something else in, but I'm NOT perfect(nor would I claim to be), and its a birthday.

I hope that my ideas will help you save money and help you find easy ways I've developed or found thanks to other frugal healthy bloggers, various sneaky ways I've found myself, and raising 2-4 children, and feeding an 85 year old set in his ways(garlic and onion should be on EVERYTHING in LARGE amounts in his eyes) I even find ways to make him happy. So, help yourself and help your family enjoy a fast, cheap, DELICIOUS meal. I'll share some of the old things I've made that were a hit. I'll share the food I made that was a hit throughout the week. I hope you like. Next post may be the birthday hubbie's cake. (NOT AT ALL HEALTHY BUT SUPER GOOD). We all know when we crave "junk food" then it's best to have a small amount of that then deprive yourself or you will be off any diet or healthy eating plan that you were trying to do. If you crave chocolate, find a recipe for healthy chocolate oatmeal cookies or make a cup of hot cocoa.
 Here it goes. WELCOME TO MY FOOD BLOG. I am overweight. Though I eat healthy I blame the soda. I went a week with no mountain dew and lost 9 pounds in 6 days. I am too busy running around taking care of kids and family sweating my butt off to exercise conventionally...but running a house is exercising.

Check back if you are busy as I like to make meals in under 30 minutes. Check back if you love Crockpots as I love on a summer day when we are busy throwing stuff in the crock pot and having a delicious family meal. Check back if you love veggies and salad because I DO TOO! Check back if you have a sweet tooth because I love to bake. Check back if you have a picky eater, because I have five or six. No matter what I manage to make everyone happy. Hope I'm helpful.
Here comes the cake baking. Red Velvet from scratch. CAN NOT BEAT IT. I don't care for red velvet but it's the hubbies favorite and I used a family recipe.

HOPE TO SEE YOU BACK. ANY QUESTIONS, TOPICS ON FOOD, FOOD QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUNG PICKY EATERS......ASK. Chances are in my life as a mother, being in a mixed family, and in and out of foster care as a child, I'm sure I got a trick Idea or answer up my sleeve. If not, we can get together share tips and feel free to share similar recipes and I love constructive criticism. If you try something don't like it TELL ME. It only helps me.
Peace Love and Happy family Eating.
xoxo,
Megs