Save $$, Buy a Rotisserie Chicken

I have a friend who says that she won't buy the precooked rotisserie chickens at the grocery stores because they cost too much money. I disagree, I think that they actually help me save money!

After the hubby and I eat a meal from the chicken, I then pick the rest of the chicken for meat. Do people pick chicken anymore? My mom would always do this growing up to make sure that all of the meat was used.....people just aren't frugal anymore!

To prove my point, while picking this particular chicken I got out my 1 cup measuring cup to see how much extra meat I was able to get. This time I was able to get 4 cups!!!!!!!! of extra meat. I sectioned this off into plastic bags and stuck them in the freezer, perfect for adding to salads, chicken quesadillas and other meals at a later time.

For $5.99, I would say we got our money's worth!!

Easy Garlic Chicken (for Pressure Cooker or Crock Pot)

This might not be the prettiest recipe, but it was certainly one of the tastiest and easiest!

My mom used to make 40 cloves garlic chicken in a clay baker in the oven, it was delicious! But I don't have a clay baker and I usually don't remember to defrost the chicken far enough in advance to make this for a weeknight meal.

Well, that's the beauty of pressure cooking and cooking in my crock pot.....you can use a whole frozen chicken and it comes out great every time in about an hour from start to finish!

Here is a picture of the ingredients beforehand:

I cut up potatoes, carrots and celery (mostly because this is what I happened to have in the house). I then pealed 1 large head of garlic. All of this was thrown into the bottom of the pressure cooker. (Don't know why I only took a picture of the potatoes and not everything else, sorry!).

Over all of the veggies I poured a cup of water mixed with a tablespoon of chicken stock base and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. I also sprinkled in a teaspoon each of rosemary and thyme. Finally, I placed the frozen chicken on top (JUST MAKE SURE THAT YOU BUY A CHICKEN THAT DOES NOT HAVE THE NECK AND ORGANS IN THAT LITTLE BAG ON THE INSIDE, IF YOU THINK THAT THIS MIGHT BE THERE, YOU MUST LET THE CHICKEN DEFROST FIRST AND REMOVE THE BAG BEFORE COOKING!)

Over the top of the chicken I poured a little olive oil and then salt and peppered the bird liberally.

Now, here is the beauty of pressure cooking....I set the pressure cook at its highest setting for 1 hour and then walked away. In that short amount of time, the frozen chicken cooked away and the veggies melted into a yummy, garlicky sauce that was perfect for dipping some crusty bread into.

Like I said....not the prettiest dish ever, but it was sooo good. The chicken comes out perfect every time.

Don't have a pressure cooker. You could do this same thing using your cock pot. Just make sure that your chicken is cooked all of the way through before eating (165 degrees and the juices running clear)!

Recipe Recap:
1 chicken
3 carrots
5 stalks of celery
2 medium potatoes
1 cup water
1 Tbs Chicken Stock Base
3 Tbs Lemon Juice
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper
Crusty Bread for Dipping in the Juices

Throw it all in the pressure cooker or crock pot and cook until the chicken is no longer pink and has reached a safe internal temperature.

Creative Ways to use up Leftovers

Looking inside my fridge on Tuesday, I realized that I had a lot of Superbowl leftovers. Most of a veggie tray, half a jar of pasta sauce, pepperoni slices and half block of cheese. I hate wasting food, so I decided to figure out a way to use all of this.

The simple first fix was to roast the veggies in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. I just drizzled olive oil over the veggies and tossed on some salt.

 Since the rest of the ingredients had me halfway to pepperoni pizza I decided to pull out some chicken tenders and bread crumbs and make some Pizza Chicken Roll Ups. 

To start I pounded out the chicken tenders and rolled pepperoni and mozzarella into each one.

I rolled each one in bread crumbs, egg wash (one egg and a little water) and then back in the bread crumbs.

The rolls went into a baking dish:

and then I topped the rolls with the rest of the cheese and the pasta sauce.

These went into the 350 degree oven for 35 minutes alongside the carrots. When they came out, they looked like this:

Served with the carrots, this made a pretty tasty dinner and used up the rest of the Superbowl leftovers!

Recap of Recipe:
1/2 block of mozzarella, shredded
6 chicken tenders
1/2 jar of pasta sauce
24 slices of pepperoni
1 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
Leftover veggies
Salt/Olive oil

Pound out the chicken and roll with pepperoni and cheese. Roll in bread crumbs and egg wash, top with more cheese and pasta sauce. Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. At the same time, toss the veggies in oil and salt and cook for 60 minutes at 350 degrees.

Healthy Game Day "Wings" Alternative: Buffalo Chicken Salad with Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing

With the big game approaching this weekend, I have been craving buffalo wings! So I put together this semi-healthy alternative for dinner tonight. It is way more filling for way less calories than a serving of wings!

Start off by mixing up the blue cheese dressing right away when you get home after work (let it sit at least 2 hours, but it can sit overnight as well) so that it has time to let the flavors mingle. Just mix a small container of Greek yogurt, about a cup (half of this container) of crumbled blue cheese and about 1/4 cup of water. Use a fork to mix everything together and work out some of the lumps from the chesse crumbles.

When it was almost time for dinner (about 15 minutes before you want to eat) boil some frozen chicken for about 12 minutes.

Do you ever cook chicken this way? Its a great way to take chicken from frozen to cooked in a short amount of time. I was cooking for 2 people, so I used 4 tenders, but you can use any amount of chicken you need, this is the type of recipe that can easily be scaled up or down as needed.

While the chicken was cooking I chopped up some veggies and lettuce to help cool down the heat from the buffalo hot sauce. Use whatever you want/have on hand. I used cucumber, carrot, avocado (sorry, I forgot the take a picture of this) and celery.

Then take the cooked chicken and using two forks, shred it in a medium sized bowl and then add in however much buffalo/hot sauce you are comfortable with. I probably added about 1/4 of a cup.

Then just build your salad, drizzling the dressing all around and adding some extra hot sauce and blue cheese crumbles on top!

From my mental math, I'm pretty sure that this salad is right around 400 calories (about 200 for the chicken, 125 for the dressing and the rest for the veggies). Not too bad for a very filling salad that takes care of that craving for buffalo chicken salad!

Here is the summary:

6oz Greek yogurt

1 cup blue cheese crumbles

1/4 cup water

Mix together dressing ingredients with a fork and let sit for at least 2 hours.

Lettuce

Assorted veggies (celery, cucumbers, carrots, avacados, whatever youve got)

4 chicken tenders (makes 2 servings)

1/4 cup hot sauce

Mix the hot sauce with the chicken and serve on top of salad with lots of dressing and some extra cheese crumbles.

Enjoy!