OOPS!!

   Somewhere, in the land of too busy and a little lazy, I fell off the wagon! While, I always try to keep health and $$ in mind I did buy us a TOGO meal last night.

   Publix offers a family dinner of a whole rotisserie chicken, two deli sides and a 4 pack of King's Hawaiian rolls..here in Pensacola it runs $11.99! Still a great deal compared to fast food chicken places and the rotisserie chciken is much healthier than fried....and I have chicken left over for tonight. (We did notice that the prepared chickens are much small than the Roaster Chickens I usually buy for around $10.)

 

Oven Fried Chicken and Crash Hot Potatoes

   I was feeling the fried chicken last night but, not only is frying not the healthiest alternative, I also pretty much suck at it. While there is nothing that compares to my Daddy's (and my Grandpa's) fried chicken and I would drop all restrictions to eat it, I have mastered the art of crispy, crunchy oven fried chicken.

    I had 4 chicken thighs still in the freezer = $1.85 (way cheaper than the Colonel's.)

PERFECT OVEN FRIED CHICKEN

                                                       
1 cup of flour          
3 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons cajun spice (use season salt if you don't like spicy)

*For the healthiest alternative peel the skin off the chicken and/or use skinless breasts (I am a skin eater.)

Wash your chicken pieces and let them sit on a plate on some paper towels to dry.

1. Turn your oven on to 425 (it is best to use  pan with a cooking rack that keeps the meat out of its own greases. I use a regular 9 by 13 and place the metal rack from my microwave over it.) Spray the rack with a non-stick spray like Pam (preferrably store brand because it is cheaper.) Place pan and rack in oven to heat up while you are preparing the chicken.

2. Whisk all ingredients together in a medium size bowl...make sure it is well mixed to avoid clumps of seasoning on your chicken.

3. Dredge each piece of chicken in your flour mixture and place on a clean dry plate.

4. When all chicken is coated, very carefully and using tongs, place the chicken on the hot rack in the oven.
If you left the skin on, place them skin side down at this time...this will get you the crunchiest skin.
**DO NOT TRY TO TAKE RACK AND PAN OUT OF OVEN, IT'S TOO HOT! JUST OPEN THE DOOR AND PULL OUT THE OVEN RACK AS MUCH AS YOU CAN.

5. Bake chicken for 25 minutes then flip them over and cook for 15 minutes. If you are using boneless breasts then cut cooking time by ten minutes (5 off of each side.)

    YOU KNOW I AM ALL ABOUT SAVING MONEY AND SINCE I WAS ALREADY 

USING MY OVEN IT WAS THE PERFECT NIGHT TO MAKE AND TRY 

CRASH HOT POTATOES.

Great addition to our potato recipes.... just follow the link below!

CRASH HOT POTATOES RECIPE

  I only used 6 small potatoes (maybe $0.75 worth) and I pretty much followed the directions to the "T".....I did not have any Rosemary but, the mention of the holidays gave me the idea to sprinkle some ground sage on them and I baked them at 425 with the chicken. I won't call them perfect but, I will say that the potatoes disappeared pretty quickly and this will be a regular side dish in our house.

   As always, I also made sure that we had fresh vegetables...I steamed some broccoli and summer squash, I did give into the taste bud devil and made a Velveeta cheese sauce to go on top, it was the perfect compliment to our dinner. The broccoli, summer squash and the amount of Velveeta together didn't even add up to $1.00 

OUR DINNER LAST NIGHT COST LESS THAN $5.00!!!

COMFORT FOOD!!

  VEGETABLE BEEF AND NOODLES MINI POT PIES

DINNER FOR LESS THAN $4.00

   As I predicted, I did make the leftovers into mini pot pies...noodles and all. Talk about comfort food!! They were soooo good! Using my muffin pan, my leftover vegetabal beef and noodles and a recipe for easy pie crust I made these yummy-licious little gems. We decided after dinner that they would have been even more amazing smothered in gravy but, I think the double starch was bad enough for us for one night!

These were very filling! I could only eat 2 and even my hubby didn't have room for my leftover pot pie.

Easy Pie Crust  so easy, so good and only a few ingredients....

   This recipe made enough for 9 crusts, if you want to do tops or a full dozen just double up. I mixed mine in a bowl then made balls of dough that I pushed into my muffin pan. I baked the crusts alone for about 10 minutes then packed them full and baked about 15 more minutes. 

My yummy little pot pies before baking.

To get them out of the muffin pan I just placed cookie sheet on top and flipped it over! Some of them needed a little encouragement by tapping on the bottom of the pan with a spoon. Use a spatula to scoop them back up and flip over onto plate! 

TONIGHT'S GRAND TOTAL? 

LESS THAN $4.00 !!!

AND I AM FACTORING IN 3 

GLASSES OF MILK TO WASH IT DOWN!

Linda McMillon's Chicken Soup!

GIANT POT OF CHICKEN SOUP FOR $8.50

Here is Linda's Chicken Soup that she made a few days ago...click the link for her recipe.

I see now that I may have stolen it!! Sorry, Linda it was not intentional.

PERFECT FOR COLD WEATHER!

$5.00  

 VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP WITH NOODLES!

   On Sunday night I made one of the London Broils that I bought BOGO for $10.94....we ate just a little over half of the roast (that's less than $3 worth of meat!) with a nice salad and corn on the cob altogether maybe $5 TOTAL! In hindsight, I wish I had paid a few extra dollars an gotten bigger roasts cause we all wanted seconds,not because we were still hungry but, it was perfect! The rest of the meat was cubed up and put away to make vegetable beef soup in anticipation of the Winter Storm (with snow!) that we are expecting here in Pensacola this week...

   You, of course, do not have to have already made your roast. Thaw it out and cut some off! DO NOT REFREEZE!! Be prepared to make something with the other half in the next 3-4 days. It also does not really matter what kind of vegetables you use (or whether they are canned or frozen)...just think of the story of "Stone Soup" and whatever little bits of leftover this and that you have, throw in there!

This plate is piled high with veggies and about 2 cups of cubed london broil and we had meat in EVERY bite!

2 large carrots ($0.23)

2 stalks of celery ($0.20)

1/4 bag of frozen corn ($0.42)

1/2 medium onion ($0.24)

one of the partial bags of green beans in freezer ($0.22)

two cups of cubed beef ($3.00)

4 beef bullion cubes ($0.17)

4 - 5 cups of water
few dashes of salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder (to taste)

*1/2 bag of egg noodles ($0.50)

GRAND TOTAL OF $4.98!!

Put everything *except noodles in stock pot and bring to a rolling boil. Cover and turn down to simmer for 2-3 hours. Stirring occasionally.

*7-10 minutes before dinner bring pot back to boil and add noodles, cook according to package.

I thicken mine up just a little with cornstarch (my mom uses a little instant mash potatoes!)

I may even make a little "crust" tonight and make mini pot pies in my muffin pan...maybe $0.50 more cents, if that, just to mix it up a little. 

THIS IS GOING TO BE DINNER FOR TWO NIGHTS (AND IT WILL ACTUALLY TASTE BETTER THE SECOND NIGHT.) SO WE HAVE DINNER FOR $2.50!!  

POTATOES ARE CHEAP!!

   Potatoes are cheap and filling but, it can get boring eating the same thing every night. Here are some great ideas just specifically for potatoes - I will be making at least 3 of these within the next 2 weeks!

7 Great Potato Ideas! 

$2.75 BREAKFAST FOR THREE!

   I usually cook breakfast on Saturday and Sunday but, this week James worked on Saturday so Alex and I just had cheese toast the price is so minimal it wasn't even worth mentioning. This morning however, banana pancakes (mine with peanut butter on them!) Just using the Hungry Jack pancake mix that is made with water (no milk in the mix less $$.) Even if you made double the pancakes it would only cost $0.25 more!

1 cup of Hungry Jack (cost about $0.25)
3/4 cup of water
1 TBS Vanilla Extract
1 TBS sugar
1 thinly sliced banana ($0.42)

I like to add a little extra oomph to my pancakes so I add the vanilla and sugar but, it is not needed.

I also add some of my sliced banana to the pancake after I pour them (I make the ugliest pancakes but, they taste great!) You can see in this picture how my bananas get fried a little bit during cooking...I love it!!

1/2 pack of bacon (I paid $2.99 so $1.50)

Even if you calculate the drinks we had for breakfast (milk and OJ) it was less than $4.00 TOTAL for all three of us!