Dinner #6 Sharing the Love

I had the wonderful opportunity to shower a new mom with a meal and squeeze a brand new baby girl too! So a nice big dinner was in order to share the love and a great meal.  I doubled the recipe below (roughly) to be able to deliver a nice sized dinner to my dear friend Meg.  

Creamy Italian Lemon Chicken

2 large chicken breasts (fresh or frozen)

1/2  bottle of Italian salad dressing

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 bar regular cream cheese

1/2 lb frozen baby peas

1/2 can petite diced canned tomatoes

1 small can sliced mushrooms

1 lb hot cooked pasta

Parmesan cheese 

additional salad dressing or lemon juice as needed

salt & pepper to taste

Put your chicken in the slow cooker and add dressing, lemon juice & Italian seasoning.  Cook on low 6-8 hours or until cooked until able to shred.  About 1/2 hour before serving start cooking your pasta per the directions on the package.  Add the cream cheese, peas, tomatoes & mushrooms to the chicken in your crock pot.  Allow cream cheese to melt, stirring occasionally, and breaking up chicken into nice sized shredded pieces.  If there isn't enough liquid to fully cover you pasta, add additional Italian dressing and lemon juice as needed.  Combine chicken 'sauce' with pasta once pasta is fully cooked and drained.  Top with Parmesan cheese and serve with freshly baked bread!  

Chicken pieces used:  4 (two whole large breast) Chicken pieces remaining:  46

BONUS RECIPE

60 Minute Loaves

4 cups very warm water

2Tbs yeast

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup honey

1 Tb salt

10-12 cups bread flour*

In a large mixer combine water, yeast and 4 cups of flour.  Allow to rest for 5 minutes.  Add oil, honey, and salt (I like to use the paddle of my KitchenAid mixer for these steps.)  Next, with the mixer running on low and the dough hook in place, begin to add the additional one cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the side, well.  Once this happens, allow mixer to run for 5 minutes to thoroughly knead the dough.  Remove from bowl onto lightly floured surface to knead lightly and divide into three sections.  You may bake them in standard loaf pans or stretch and shape into a french loaf.  Place in cold oven and heat to 170 deg for 20 minutes.  Do not open door, just increase temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 30 minutes or until desired crust color is achieved.  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before carefully removing from pan to cool completely.  Then slice and enjoy with butter!  

* You may use whole wheat flour just add 1/4 cup gluten with the yeast.  

Yes, It's true!

I friend found and shared this with me today... I had to laugh as it's pretty darn accurate!  

Dinner #5

I love to try new recipes and this one surely didn't disappoint... but then again, how can you go wrong with Lettuce Wraps?  

I found this recipe on Food.com... and have now made it a few times.  It is great!  

P.F. Chang's Style Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients

3 tablespoons oil

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 cup water chestnut

2/3 cup mushroom

3 tablespoons chopped onions

1 teaspoon minced garlic

4 -5 leaves iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon hot mustard

2 teaspoons water

1 -2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

Stir Fry Sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions

Make the "special sauce" by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.  Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.   Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.  Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.

Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.

Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.  Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done.  Remove chicken from the pan and cool.  Keep oil in the pan, keep hot.  As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.  Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.  When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.  With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil.  Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan.  Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups".  Top with"Special Sauce".

Chicken pieces used:  4 (two whole large breast) Chicken pieces remaining:  50

One sick chick(en)

We recently had a Barred Plymouth Rock hen, named Lego, that wasn't feeling so well and fearing she was egg bound, I brought her in for a nice warm soak in the utility sink.  

After her bath she was loving dried and cuddled by the kids. 

I'm happy to report that after spending the night inside, she was feeling better and is now back to normal.  Once again a one happy egg laying chick!  

Dinner #4

So we are moving right along here... another night, another chicken dinner!

It was warm (ok, it was just above freezing but that seemed warm given the number of days below zero we've seen this winter!) and the snow was beginning to melt... well, at least a little bit!  I decided it was time to fire up the grill!  

Red Marinade

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup vinegar

1/3 ketchup

1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp ground mustard

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients and use to marinate chicken for 1-2 hours.  Grill over medium heat 8 minutes a side or until cooked through.  

Chicken pieces used:  6 (three whole large breast) Chicken pieces remaining:  54

Eggs?

We have 15 laying hens of 5 different breeds that lay the most wonderful and delicious fresh eggs.  I just love to go out to the coop and find these gems.  They are so pretty I couldn't resist sharing them!  :)

Dinner #3

While normally I try to avoid serving the same protein back to back nights but it happens and that's ok!  It was one of those nights where I was short on time, and probably didn't plan my day that well.  I admit it, it happens!  So I looked through my handy hand written cook book for some inspiration and I found an oldie but goodie.  I knew I had enough random ingredients in my fridge and freezer to make it work.  And because of that, I knew it would be a budget friendly meal, bonus!  

I gathered what I could find and got ready to cook!  

Creamy Chicken and Bacon Veggie Pasta

2 chicken breasts

4-6 slices of bacon (cooked or uncooked)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups uncooked pasta (I like penne)

4 cups assorted frozen vegetables (thawed) 

4 oz. cream cheese, cubed

2 Tbsp parmesan cheese

 This is a one pot meal so get out a nice large skillet or dutch oven.  Saute chicken breast in a little olive oil until lightly brown on both sides.  It's ok if it is not cooked all the way though.  Remove from pan and set aside.  Now add uncooked bacon to skillet and cook until crisp.  Remove and set aside.  Add onions to drippings and saute.  If you are using pre-cooked bacon as I did, add a bit more oil before adding onion.  Once onion is tender, add chicken broth, and pasta to pot.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 8 minutes.  Add your veggies (I used a mix of frozen broccoli, carrots, green beans, and red peppers - basically the dregs in my freezer) and bacon.  Cut you chicken breast into bite sized pieces and add to pot as well.  Continue to simmer until veggies and pasta are tender and your chicken is fully cooked, about 5 more minutes.  Add your cream cheese and stir well until it is all melted and creamy.  Top with parmesan and serve!  

This pot full fed my family of 8 plus a few lunch sized servings!  Total cost for meal about $5.   

Chicken pieces used:  2 (one whole large breast) Chicken pieces remaining:  60

Dinner #2

Well, it was time once again to serve chicken to my beloved family.  Yes, dinner had arrived.  (Why must that happen every night?)  I was out of good ideas, and not feeling very creative, so I asked a few friends for ideas.  This one struck me as easy and a good fit for the time I had available to prepare dinner.

A big thank you to Bridget for this awesome recipe that is sure to be part of my arsenal!   

Olive Oil Chicken

4-6 bones skinless chicken breasts

seasoned bread crumbs

olive oil 

Ok, not much of a recipe, right?  It's more of a procedure, I guess.  First, preheat oven to 375 degrees and get out a baking sheet to put your chicken on.  Then, prep your breading station - I use two shallow bowls.  Pour a few tablespoons of olive oil in one bowl and bread crumbs in the other.  

A note about bread crumbs:  You can buy any kind you like, or better yet, make your own.  I save all the ends of the bread loaves for this purpose (stale crackers or pretzels too!).  I just keep a small pan in my cabinet to catch them and allow them to dry out.  Then I grind them up in the food processor and store in the freezer.  In the summer when I have fresh herbs, I will dry some and add them to the mix too.  But for this batch, store bought herb it is.  I also added garlic powder, kosher salt, and fresh ground black pepper.  Grated Parmesan is a great addition as well!

Ok, back to the recipe!  Next dip your chicken in the olive oil and coat with the bread crumbs.   Place on baking sheet.  Put in oven and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until done and golden brown.  

I served them with homemade angel hair pasta parmesan and french cut green beans.  It was delicious!  

Chicken breasts used:  3 large = 6 pieces.  Remaining chicken in freezer:  62 pieces.  

Dinner Number 1

Have you even been to a banquet where they serve you a piece of chicken that just totally covered with other stuff as though they are trying to disguise the fact that it is just a plain-old-run-of-the-mill chicken breast?  It has been cleverly camouflaged... except you need to pronounce it slightly differently so as to make that word sound rich and exciting and maybe a wee bit French... like several friends I have who prefer to shop at Tar-jay...  I think you get the idea.  This is my take on that chicken...  it's a family favorite and so easy on a busy night.

So dinner number one... using up 6 pieces of chicken (or 3 whole breasts) is:

Chicken Camouflage.  

4-6 chicken breasts

1 whole box fresh mushrooms sliced, or 2 small cans mushrooms slices 

1/2 vidalia onion chopped

1 can cream - o -something soup (or a homemade substitute for this)

1-2 tsp dried herbs of your choice 

1/2 cup white wine

salt & pepper to taste

Saute mushrooms and onions in olive oil.  Remove from pan and set aside.  Add chicken breasts and cook until almost fully cooked but nicely caramelized and remove from pan.  De-glaze pan with the wine making sure to really make the most of the lovely brown bits.  Add the soup (or chicken base with milk or water that's been thickened a bit with flour or corn starch to equal about 1 1/2 cups) and stir well.  Add additional 1/2 cup of water and all herbs.  Add back the chicken (with any juices) and mushroom & onions.  Allow to simmer until chicken is cooked though.  Serve over rice with a nice green veggie on the side.

*  Unfortunately, I was not able to get a good picture of this dinner as it was all gone by the time I thought of it... I promise to add one when it comes back around in the rotation.  

Wow, That's a lot of chicken!!

I was off reading blogs one night when I came upon one dedicated to frugal living.  On that page was a link to a unique company that uses co-op style buying power to sell bulk food in locations all over the US.  Being that I usually buy in bulk to feed our larger than normal family, I thought I'd give it a try.

So hubby took the drive 40 minutes away to pick-up our 40 pound box of fresh chicken breasts from the refrigerated truck that was sent by Zaycon Foods.  And later on I got to work processing the goods!

Our chicken came in a medium sized cardboard box with 4 big bags of butterfly chicken breasts.  They were processed just 3 days earlier and were large and really nice.








So after separating them into individual breasts and cutting them in half to thin them out, I packaged them in freezer bags.  The 40 pound box yielded 74 nice large pieces of chicken and three bags of chicken scraps for soups and such!  It should take us a good long time to finish all that up, let's hope!







I was feeling very lucky that the temperatures were supposed to be down in the single digits over night so I put them out on the screened porch to 'flash' freeze over night!  Tomorrow's task will be to figure out how to stuff them all into our two freezers!

Hello and Welcome!  

I think this blog title says it all but just in case you need more info, here it is!

I recently decided to purchase a bulk package of chicken breasts and will be chronicling just how I go about using that chicken to feed my family of 8.

I hope you enjoy what you read!