Have you heard? There's gold in them chickens!

Yes corny, but oh so true. I use chicken stock in many of the dishes I make and I think it just makes things taste better. BUT oh my goodness so expensive! I happen to take a cooking class at my local gym in which they talked about how to break down your own chicken and how to make your own chicken stock. Which I promptly did, just to prove I could, but I honestly struggled with getting it just right.

After a bunch of searching and trying things I found that this is what worked for me:

In my crockpot I put:

1 whole chicken
onion, roughly chopped (whatever you have on hand)
carrots, roughly chopped (whatever you have on hand)
celery sticks, roughly chopped (whatever you have on hand)
parsley (if I have fresh I do one or two stems but if I don't I put enough dry in the palm of my hand until it gets to nickel size)

(if I happen to have mushrooms hanging out in the fridge they go in too)

I add salt & pepper too but I really don't know how much... I just go with my gut (if I had to guess I would say about a 1/4 teaspoon of each)

Cooking time... well I generally do this after the kids go to bed so I start it around 8:30pm and then I let it cook until about 5pm the following day. I pull out the chicken (or as much as I can without it all falling apart on me). I take a large bowl or stock pot and put a strainer on top of it... the very important thing is to line the strainer with cheese cloth. Then I pour the liquid into the strainer.

Now comes the fun part... storing the stock! The best method I have found is to let the liquid cool slightly and put it in freezer bags. A word of caution... Sandwich bags are not a good substitute unless you let your stock cool down a whole lot. I like to lay the bags flat when I freeze them... mainly because the first time I did this I put them in the side door and when they froze they sort of molded themselves to the space and it wasn't easy getting them out... let's just say it involved a blow dryer and a whole lot of swearing (in my head of course).

OK so now I have all this chicken too. We typically just shred it and put it in a container to use during the week in enchiladas, mix it with pesto and pasta, salads... etc. Again, I have to say I do not like chicken BUT it is a huge time saver during the week most of the time AND it keeps me from going through the drive thru!

Bacon & Leek Risotto

My hubby loves to make risotto and we love eating risotto! He made this wonderful risotto with some tweaks... for the original Bacon & Leek Risotto click on the link. The photo on the left is also of the original... it went so fast in our house that I didn't even get a chance to take a picture!

His version is below:

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup Abborio Rice

4 strips of bacon, cut up into small pieces & cooked

1 leek, sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 green or red bell pepper, diced (or use smaller peppers and use a variety of colors)

3 1/2 cups chicken stock, hot (don't try to make risotto with cold chicken stock)

1/4 - 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

4 TBLS butter

1 TBLS olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Cut the top and bottom of the leek off. One tip we got from the recipe was to slice the leek in half lengthwise and then slice them, so as they cook they fall apart easier.

Fry the bacon pieces. As they cook add in the leeks, garlic and peppers. DRAIN... DRAIN!

In another pan, add olive oil & rice, let it cook for a minute on medium heat. Turn the heat down to low and add half of the chicken stock, cook until absorbed. Add the remainder of the stock over the next 15 - 20 minutes. Stop adding liquid when the rice is soft but has a bit of bite to it.

Add in the leek mixture, stir all of the ingredients together. Cook on medium heat for about 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add in butter & Parmesan cheese, cover and let sit for 3 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

AMAZING: Cracker & Cheese Chicken

Alright, I'll admit it... chicken is not my favorite food! Which is kind of a problem in our house because everyone else really likes chicken! I don't know why, how or when this happened to me, I just know I don't particularly care for chicken. I'll eat it but I'm not happy about it!

In my quest to figure out how to stop eating out so much (mainly because it is expensive but also because my waistline grew a little too much), I've been looking at "Freezer Meals", now I must say these women that do this are way amazing! The thought of making 52 meals all at once terrified me, so I decided to just do a few at a time and see how it goes. Anyway, I've got to get back to this amazing chicken! Since my family does like chicken so much I've been looking for a good recipe to freeze. I ran across this blog "What's Cookin, Chicago" and they had this mouth watering looking picture of a meal I was sure would please my family. Imagine my disgust when I realized it was chicken! I still "pinned" it and decided to try it for dinner last night.

Seriously, the best most yummy chicken I've had, like, EVER! It smelled so good I forgot to take pictures of it last night when it came out of the oven so you get a snapshot of my lunch! Yes, I had two pieces left for lunch but only because I told the girls that they couldn't have anymore!
OK, OK, OK... I know you've been waiting for it so here is the recipe (which I've tweaked just a little bit).

Cracker & Cheese Chicken
Ingredients for Breading
32 buttery crackers (I used Ritz), crushed
8oz Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
2 stalks scallions, diced (I actually just cut mine with a pair of kitchen scissors)
1 garlic clove, minced
Pinch of coarse salt (I use Kosher Salt)
Pinch of pepper

Ingredients for Wet
4 TBLs Butter, melted (YES BUTTER - Just do it!)

Chicken Prep
4 chicken breasts (about 6oz a piece), flattened
When I have to "pound out chicken" I put a piece of saran wrap on the counter place the chicken on it and then fold it over... this way I don't end up with chicken splattered all over me!

Directions
Dip the chicken in the butter, coat it with the breading, pushing down slightly to get the breading to adhere. Don't worry if it seems like it falls off we'll take care of that in the end!

You can choose to line a baking sheet with foil however, I just put this directly in a baking dish.

When you are done, press the remain breading on top of each of the chicken breasts and drizzle the remaining butter over the chicken.

Bake all of this @ 350 for 20-25 minutes. Note that if you do not flatten your chicken breasts you will need to cook it longer and it will cause your chicken to be dry. I know some people think that pounding out the chicken is optional... trust me it isn't... Just DO IT!

Daisy

Well I'm taking the plunge... I'm going to be a troop mom. I'm so excited and overwhelmed all at the same time. I am finding some great stuff online and I'm feeling very good about my decision to do this. I'm thankful that I have two other troop moms to help me though... it is a TON of rewarding work!

Still Brown Baggin It

I must say I am ultra proud of myself! I took my lunch every day this week and I saved some money! YIPPEE! I also only bought one pop this week at $1.59. Not too bad!

So now I'm thinking what else can I do to save some money. Well there are three things we go through like mad in our house... Milk, Eggs and bread.... don't ask me why because I really don't know, what I mean is, yes we eat them but we seem to eat ALOT of them...

So what can I do about the milk? Hmmm not too much, the kids need it to help them have strong healthy bones and I cook with it alot so I don't think there is much I can do about that part of it except try and find a cheaper source...

OK so eggs... what can I do about the eggs? Well again, we eat them and we cook with them, sometimes though, I use an egg substitute. I happen to work for a company that makes that type of product so I can get it at a discount (otherwise I couldn't afford to buy that week after week). But the catch is that even with my discount a 14 egg count of egg substitute is still $1.40. So not too much I can do about that...

Bread... hmmm yep I can do something about that... I have to say I love Rotella Bread and I'm one of those people who do pay $2.00+ for a loaf of bread.

Before you ask, no I cannot buy the expensive bread for myself and then cheap bread for the kids because the kids... well they won't eat the cheap bread either!

The Bakery is actually really close to our house and I drive by it occassionally... and I happen to see a sign that said Retail Store... well I always assumed that they had a retail store because not every store sells Rotella Bread and I assumed that the pricing was just as high at their retail store as it is in a chain store. RIGHT and WRONG... one day I decided that I wanted to stop and take a look around... I was right in that they do have fresh frozen bread at regular retail prices but they also have over run and day old bread at huge discounts.

Now usually we go through 3 - 4 loaves of bread in a week. That is $6 - $8 a week. Now keep in mind that this is just for regular ole sandwich bread... yes we eat that much of it!

But if I go to the Bread Store I can get 4 loaves of bread, 2 packages of hamburger buns, 2 packages of hot dog buns, ciabata bread, dinner rolls and pizza dough for $7.40. So I figured out that when I buy all of this at the store I spend around $25 a week on that... so for a month I spend $100 and in a year $1,200. But if I go to the bread store... I only spend about $355 a year.... hmmm the bread store it is!

I'm starting to see where all my money goes... and it isn't because we don't make enough... it's because we don't spend it wisely! We need to spend it wisely!

Where does all my money go?

Ok can I just say I'm tired of feeling like I'm broke all of the time... we both make good money but there never seems to be enough... I'm seriously thinking I must be spending my money on things that are bleeding me dry...

So one thing I decided to take a look at was how much money I spend on lunch each week. So here is what I did... I tracked how much money I spend on lunch each day. What I found was that I spend $8 a day on lunch... $40 a week... $160 a month... $1920 a year... WOW. I could definately use that on new floors in my kitchen or a new refrigerator or maybe a new washer and dryer! Hmmm, so that got me thinking... what can I do to reduce the amount of money I'm spending on lunch...

Here is what I came up with:

1. Leftovers are my friend. I've already spent money to make it a meal... why not get one more meal out of it and pocket $8
2. If I don't quite have enough leftovers to make it a whole lunch then I'll still save it and add a little something more to my lunch like an apple or a bigger handful of grapes or something along those lines again... I get to pocket my $8.
3. If there aren't any leftovers, then yeah I could do a sandwich but in our house more times than not that lunch meat goes to waste... we just don't eat it quick enough... so I look to the frozen food case and see what is on sale. Now sometimes the thing that is on sale... well tastes... a little less than scrumptious... so I try to make sure I pack some chives, or some type of spice that will give the food a little flavor.

Yes all of this costs money but think of this... If I take leftovers just 50% of the time and then frozen entrees (remember on sale the most expensive @ $2) the rest... here is how the math works out...

That is $5 a week... $20 a month... $240 a year... that is a HUGE difference!

Another thing that I thought of is gee... I bet I'm spending a TON of money on pop as well. So here is the math on that... I pay $1.59 for a 32oz cup of pop... usually I drink two of those a day aside from the one I get at lunch time... now that is an additional $3.18 a day... $15.90 a week... $63.60 a month... $763.20 a year... hmmm not as much of an expense as lunch every day but still... so my solution... buy a 12 pack of pop for $4.99 a week... $19.96 a month... $239.52 a year... again not a huge savings but still a savings!

Another thing to think of is that if I substituted just one drink a day with water instead of soda... I could cut all my soda expense in half!

So now my challenge is one... to stick with it and two keep thinking of other ways to cut back costs!

Wonderful Wedding Weekend

Kendra and Brian got married this weekend! It was a beautiful ceremony and I enjoyed my family very much. The above picture was taken in our front yard before we left for the pre-ceremony dinner.