Thrifty, Tasty, Tuesday: Grilled Chicken Ideas

  

                   I'm busy. I bet you are too. It's part of the parenting gig. We're all trying to balance work, school, shuttling kids from point A to point B, and hopefully squeezing in a little time for ourselves. Having something quick and healthy for dinner is not going to happen without some planning, unless you can afford a personal chef. So today's Thrifty, Tasty, Tuesday, isn't going to be a recipe as much as an idea.

                   Boneless chicken breast is high in protein and very inexpensive. Usually one of my local grocers has giant packages on sale for $1.99 a pound. And there is no end to ways to use it. If you type “boneless chicken breast” into Google, you'd fine millions of recipes. But are you really going to whip up a batch of Parmesan encrusted chicken between Sally's karate class and Tommy's piano lesson, while helping little Suzie with her multiplication tables?

                   If you're like me, you're going to be very tempted to stop at Wendy's or whip up a batch of blue box mac and cheese. With a little planning you can do something much healthier that only takes a few minutes longer. When I have time, I buy one of those giant packs of chicken and pre-cook it. That way I have it on-hand for a quick and easy dinner.

                  

Grilled Chicken for the Freezer

You will need:

                   a large package of boneless chicken breast

                   olive oil

                   salt & pepper

1.)   Pre-heat a non-stick grill pan to medium heat.*

2.)   Trim fat off chicken breasts and pound until they are about ¾ of an inch thick.

3.)   Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper

4.)   Cook first side until it's nice and brown and the top is beginning to look cooked.

5.)   Flip over and cook the other side.

6.)   Remove from pan and let cool

7.)   Once the chicken is completely cool, cut into strips and store in a freezer bag. Try to spread the chicken out into one layer within the bag.

Cute penguin print totally optional.

8.)   Place flat in freezer for 1-2 hours.

9.)   Take bag out of freezer and toss the chicken onto the counter to keep the pieces from sticking together. Then put back in the freezer. This will make getting them apart easier later.

*You can also do this on your outdoor grill. Mine is still covered with snow.

            Here are three ways to use your chicken:

1.)   Chicken Quesadillas. Smear refried beans on ½ a flour tortilla, add chicken, and sprinkle with cheese. Pop them in a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes. Serve with salsa.

2.)   Caesar Salad. Top salad greens with chicken and croutons for a quick Caesar salad.

3.)   Chicken Broccoli & Pasta. Toss chicken with cooked pasta, broccoli and olive oil. Sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese.

In the coming weeks, I'll offer more ways to use your pre-cooked chicken. I'd also love to hear your ideas! Check out my new page called Thrifty Tasty Tuesday, etc. I've compiled all of the recipes I've ever posted on this blog in one place.

                  

Thrifty Tasty Tuesday: Peanut Sesame Slaw

             My kids aren't big salad eaters. I'm pretty happy that they're willing to eat most cooked vegetables that I put in front of them, but the appeal of raw veggies eludes them. We were at an anniversary party for a family member back in January. It was in a restaurant much nicer than my kids are used to. When the salad course came, we were served a salad that was like a cole slaw with an Asian style dressing. There were cashews sprinkled on the top and I convinced Owen to give it a try. Reluctantly, he nibbled a few pieces and loved it. He asked if we could try to make it at home.

           The following recipe is what we came up with. I substituted sunflower seeds for the cashews because that's what I had on-hand. I also used plain green cabbage because that's the most frugal option. But I'm sure this would be delicious with Napa or Chinese cabbage. It's a great side dish for chicken, fish or pork.

Peanut-Sesame Slaw

1 T. peanut butter

1T. canola oil

1 T. sesame oil

2 T. soy sauce

2 T. honey

2 T. rice vinegar

pinch of red pepper flakes

3 cups shredded green cabbage*

2 large carrots, grated*

1 sweet red pepper, very thinly sliced*

2 T. salted sunflower seeds.

Wisk together dressing ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Toss vegetables into dressing. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds.

*feel free to substitute a bag of cole slaw mix to save time.

Thrifty Tasty Tuesday: An Ode to Oatmeal

                    I'm fortunate that my kids aren't particularly picky eaters. But one of them is pickier than the other. Every time I see him picking chunks of tomato out of my spaghetti sauce or inspecting meatloaf for hidden vegetables, I take a deep breath and remind myself how many things I refused to eat as a kid but eat enthusiastically as an adult.

                   Oatmeal is one of these foods. I couldn't stand it when I was a child. But these days I eat it for breakfast four or five days a week. It is a superfood from a nutrition standpoint as well as a frugality standpoint. For the price of a single box of cold cereal, you can buy enough oatmeal to feed a small army (or a large family) for a week. Plus, it's loaded with fiber and protein to keep you feeling full for a long time. My favorite bonus? There is nothing in the list of ingredients you can't pronounce!

                   I love Irish or steel cut oats, but I don't like the fact that it takes 15-20 minutes to cook them. Every minute in the morning is precious to me and spending extra time on oatmeal just isn't practical. This fall I discovered that Bob'sRed Mill sells  “instant” steel cut oats that cook in 5-7 minutes. I bought them feeling skeptical. After all,  instant rice is quick, but the texture is pasty. I was pleasantly surprised when I cooked my first batch. The texture and flavor are wonderful and it can be ready in about the same time as a pot of coffee. Here is my favorite way to cook oats. It feeds 3-4 people, depending how hungry you are.

Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal

2 cups water

1 cup Bob's Red Mill instant steel cut oats

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon turbinado or brown sugar

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup chopped walnuts

dash cinnamon

milk (optional)

Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan.

Stir in oats and salt. Turn temperature down to “low”. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Add sugar, cranberries, walnuts, and cinnamon

Cook for 2 more minutes and serve.

I like to add a little milk when I serve it to thin the oatmeal a bit.

Thrifty Tasty Tuesday: Tortellini with Peas

            It was an incredibly busy weekend for me. I was at the theatre most of Saturday and Sunday in preparation for the show I’m directing. It opens in less than two weeks. I doubted I would be able to get my act together enough to write a Thrifty-Tasty-Tuesday for this week. That’s the challenge with healthy eating, isn’t it? It’s easy to eat healthy when you have all the time in the world to chop and simmer. But for most of us, time is as valuable as money. So I realized this was a week that I most needed to test the bounds of TTT.

            When I was a kid, my mother made something she called Piselle e Pasta—a fancy name for a simple dish of peas and small shell shaped pasta. She’d toss in some sautéed onion and ham if there was any leftover. My version, using tortellini is very tasty, super easy and has only four ingredients. My kids love it and I can throw dinner together in a matter of minutes and still get to rehearsal (or Cub Scouts or baseball practice) on time.

Tortellini with Peas

1 16-ounce package of frozen peas

2 13-ounce packages of frozen cheese tortellini

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, plus additional for serving

1/4-cup olive oil

• Cook peas according to package directions.
• Cook tortellini in salted water for one minute less than the package directions indicate.
• When tortellini is almost cooked, use a measuring cup to remove about 1/2 cup of cooking water.
• Drain tortellini.
• In the pot you cooked the tortellini, pour olive oil.
• Return the tortellini to the pot with peas, cheese and 1/4 cup of cooking water
• Cook for another minute or so, stirring gently until the cheese, water & olive oil become a slightly creamy sauce. If the tortellini seems dry, add additional cooking water.
• Season with a little black pepper and serve

Thrifty, Tasty Tuesday: Black Bean Soup & Cornbread

            Welcome to the first installment of Thrifty, Tasty Tuesday! If you’re looking to save money and eat healthier, there is no greater bang for your buck than beans. They are high in fiber and protein and low in fat. And they are cheap. A one pound bag costs around $1.60 a bag. Yes, planning is required when using dried beans because you need to soak them overnight. But the payoff is huge.

This soup was a big hit with my family. The first time I made it, I served cornbread in case I needed to bribe entice the boys to finish their soup. But they genuinely liked it.
Black Bean Soup is made in a slow cooker (Crockpot). The night before, I chop the veggies and soak the beans. Then I toss everything in the slow cooker before we head out the door in the morning. It's a huge relief to come home with dinner almost ready.

Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

1 lb. bag of dried black beans*

1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes with green chilis
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar

1 finely chopped onion

1 finely chopped bell pepper (I use red, but green would be fine)

4 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed

1 1/2  t. chili powder

1/2 t. oregano

water

4 teaspoons of Vegetable “Better than Bullion” **

salt & pepper to taste

Sort and soak the beans overnight according to the package directions.

Throw everything in the slow cooker except “Better than Bullion” ***

Cover with enough water so there is an inch of water over the beans (about 7 cups). I usually boil the water in the kettle to get things started a little quicker

Cook for at least 7 hours on low (if you won’t be home from work in time, the soup won’t suffer from cooking an extra hour or two).

Add Better Than Bullion and stir thorougly.

If you have an immersion blender, run it through the crockpot before serving to thicken the soup. If you don’t have one, puree two cups of soup into a blender or food processor then return the pureed soup to the crockpot. If you have neither, use a potato masher and smoosh up the beans.

Cook for an additional 30 minutes or more. While that’s cooking, you can whip up a batch of my favorite cornbread shown below.

Serve soup with cheese or sour cream.

*I use Goya beans. There are store brands available for a little less, but I think it’s worth a few cents extra. There is usually less debris and fewer broken beans in the Goya beans. 

**I love this stuff, I keep several varieties on hand. However, it is high in sodium. So if you’re watching your salt intake, use low sodium vegetable stock instead of water and skip this ingredient.

***Salt slows down the cooking time of beans, that’s why it’s best to add this at the end.

*****Smoosh is a very technical culinary term.

Vickie’s Famous Cornbread

(to save time, you can mix the dry ingredients the night before)

1 Cup Yellow Cornmean

1 Cup King Arthur White Wholewheat Flour*

1/2 Cup Sugar**

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 Cup Buttermilk***

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425º

Spray an 8x8 pan with nonstick spray.

Thoroughly mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Mix eggs, buttermilk and oil thoroughly and add to the dry ingredients.

Stir gently and quickly. Don’t overmix or the cornbread will be tough. A few lumps are okay, they’ll disappear in baking.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

*I’ll admit it. I’m a flour snob. I only buy King Arthur. I watch for sales and stock up.

**I use turbinado sugar because it gives a slight molasses taste, but regular white or brown sugar works fine.

***If you don’t keep buttermilk in the house, use a cup of milk plus a tablespoon of vinegar as a substitute

New Year, New Feature

             I have a confession to make. I made some New Year’s resolutions this year. I don't usually. I believe that if something needs to be changed in your life, change it. Don’t wait for a special day on the calendar. This year, the need to make a change has been building for months.

I won’t go over the laundry list of clues that my body has given me that it's time for a change. I will tell you that my chiropractic bills could fund a pretty nice vacation and my bathroom scale hasn’t been so cruel since I was sporting maternity clothes. It’s time to start treating myself better.

I’m not focusing on counting  every calorie or working out like a maniac. In the cold heart of winter that would be setting myself up for failure. I’m simply eating better and moving more. I’m walking to the bus stop and doing yoga when I can fit it in to my schedule. I’m planning my meals instead of suddenly realizing at 4:30 that we’re all hungry and there is nothing easy to throw together in the house. That’s a recipe for a trip to Little Caesar's or Wendy’s with a Zantac chaser.

This past weekend I was filling my grocery cart with food and reflecting on our first week of healthy eating. It had gone really well. While I haven’t lost much weight, I was feeling better than I had in months and my family enjoyed my meal choices. Another huge bonus: I was saving money.

There is a perception that eating well is expensive. It doesn’t have to be. I had the unique good fortune growing up learning lots of tricks for eating well without spending a lot of money. My mother was the department head of a large inner city Home Economics department. She has years of experience feeding people on the cheap and teaching people to eat well. She and I will be teaming up to bring you a  new feature on this blog, “Thrifty, Tasty Tuesdays: Feeding your Family for Less.” Each week we’ll bring you tools to help your family stay healthy on a budget. Sometimes it will be a recipe, other times it will be general tips go easy on your wallet and your waistline. I'll use ingredients that are widely available and I won't use any fancy equipment. Also, every recipe will have to pass the scrutiny of a couple of veggie-fearing, fried food-loving, sugar-craving judges:

Fast food? Us?

            So watch this space next Tuesday for our first installment of Thrifty, Tasty Tuesday. Start the new year with a healthy diet and a healthy bank account!

What's for Dinner?

 

            Last week my husband was working late so the boys and I ran some errands and went out to dinner after day camp. I tried to talk them into going to an actual restaurant with menus and waitresses, but they had their hearts set on fast food. We picked Wendy’s since I’m trying to shed a few pounds and they have some decent options for the health conscious.

            The boys have outgrown fast food kids meals. They realize now that the toys are disappointing. I’m pretty ecstatic about that myself. No more little plastic toys to clutter up my car and no tears to soothe when the toys get “lost”* or broken. The main reason though? The typical fast food kid’s meal isn’t filling enough to sustain them. There are enough calories, to be sure. But they’re still hungry after they’ve eaten. So we’re on to regular menu items these days.

We ate our dinner and headed off to Trader Joe’s. I adore Trader Joe’s, but the closest one is about 40 minutes away. So I shop there the way most people shop at Costco or BJ’s. The cashiers always comment on the amount of peanut butter I buy. I have three insulated bags for the frozen stuff I bring home and those are usually jammed full. I pretty much stop shopping when my cart is about to tip over.

            As I was contemplating how many bags of Mandarin Orange Chicken I should buy, James asked, “What are we having for dinner.” We had only left Wendy’s about fifteen minutes beforehand. Dinner? What was the fifteen bucks I dropped at Wendy’s for? A snack? I looked at James, a little short for his age and so skinny I can count his ribs. He had just consumed about 800 calories at Wendy’s and was ready for “dinner”. Two things popped into my head:

            1.) I’m going to have to work overtime to feed these kids and

            2.) where can I get a metabolism like that? 

* By “lost” I mean thrown away by their mother.

The Great Lunch Snafu

            A couple of weeks ago my children were clearly disgruntled when they got off the school bus. Since they normally greet me with hugs so enthusiastic I’m nearly knocked to the ground I knew something was seriously wrong. And Man, was it wrong! Mommy, goddess of food and all things domestic (but especially food) had messed up the lunch boxes (gasp!). Normally, the boys’ lunches contain one sandwich, one serving of fruit or baby carrots, one snack like goldfish or a granola bar, and one drink—a water bottle or a juice box. But on this fateful day that will live in lunchbox infamy, I (in my early-morning haze) gave one boy got both containers of baby carrots and gave the other both granola bars.

            Owen wrote me this note:

            Owen’s sense of fair play would never have allowed him to eat both granola bars (or gunola bars as he calls them in his note)—he knew perfectly well that one was supposed to be for his brother so he didn’t touch it.  And James was never going to eat two servings of carrots—I mean a carrot is a vegetable. I’m grateful that he’ll eat one serving—never mind two. So I’m sure they were a little more hungry than usual when they got off the bus that fateful day—fortunately the remedy for hunger was a five-minute walk away.

It’s tough to discover that our parents make mistakes. Especially when those mistakes involve food. It’s probably even more upsetting when Mommy doesn’t feel especially remorseful about it. Let’s face it, there are children at school who didn’t have dinner waiting for them that night. My kids can be pretty certain that there will not only be dinner, but snacks and dessert if necessary (and when isn’t dessert necessary?). I figure if I make four people three meals a day, seven days a week (minus the very occasional take-out or Sunday breakfast out) I’m bound to screw up sooner or later. I’m not going to waste too much energy feeling badly about it.

I take yoga classes with a very devout Christian. She often says, “Remember to give yourself Grace.” I think it’s her sunny way of saying “Everyone f#$@s up now and then. Forgive yourself and move on.”  It’s good advice—especially for parents. It can be so easy to succumb to guilt. Children are really good at dishing it out. Don’t get me wrong. There are things we do that we ought to be guilty about and things that we shouldn’t. Here are a few:

Your client is a jackass who makes your life a living hell so after a really bad day you scream at your kids for laughing too loud. Feel guilty for that one—leave the client at work where he belongs, grab the kid with the craziest laugh and tickle him until you’re both laughing.

It’s time to get the kids to school and someone is suddenly feeling a little under the weather. You tell him to stop complaining and get ready for school. A few hours later you get a call from the school nurse. Little Freddy has a temperature of 103 and is the color of wet newspaper. Skip the guilt. If he truly didn’t seem sick, don’t sweat it. If on the other hand, you really thought he might be sick and dosed him with Tylenol and crossed your fingers, you deserve the guilt.

It’s been a busy week and you haven’t had time to shop. There is almost nothing in the house to eat and you just can’t drag yourself to go grocery shopping. If your budget allows, order pizza. If not, make pancakes—kids love breakfast for dinner. You probably have flour, eggs, sugar, oil, baking powder, milk and salt in the house. No? Really? Maybe you should feel guilty. Sorry, my mother was a Home Ec Teacher. My worldview may be a bit skewed when in comes to pantry essentials.

As a parent, you learn pretty early on that you need to pick your battles. It’s the same thing with guilt. If your mistakes cause no one in your family any harm—physical or emotional, skip the guilt trip. Admit it, apologize, make it right and move on. Remember to give yourself grace.