$4.60 Turkey Chili

We love Chili. We love easy. My friend Crystal gave me this super easy turkey chili recipes. I love recipes that are "a can of this...a can of that..." The ease of not needing one measuring cup made this a great recipe! It also made the house smell fabulous, is quite healthy and tasted great too!

By the way, have you heard of Slow Cooker Liners? These things make my life so much more pleasant. Clean up takes seconds and there is no scrubbing of cooked on food. To me, the added expense (about $2 for 4) is worth the saved time. Time is money! Right? Reynolds makes them and they are available at Wal Mart and other stores near the aluminium foil, etc.

Ingredients:

• 1 lg. ground turkey $1.79
• Taco seasoning $0.33
• 1 lg. can crushed tomato $0.79
• 1 lg. can kidney beans $0.79
• 1 lg. can chili beans $0.79
• 1 onion, diced $0.11 ($1.49/bag/13 onions in bag)
• Total = $4.60

Directions:

1. Place turkey in Crock Pot
2. Cover with onion, beans, tomato and seasoning.
3. Stir to mix, using side of spoon to break up turkey
4. Cook on high 6-8 hours*
5. Serve with dinner rolls $2.50/15 rolls = $0.17 each (Dinner gets slightly more expensive when you leave the bag of rolls on the table and the dog steals the bag and eats 5)

*If the turkey is frozen chili needs to cook more than if it is not.

$5.00 Crock Pot Chicken "Stir Fry"

I love Chicken Stir Fry. It is an easy and healthy meal. However, out of curiosity I wanted to see if there was a way to mimic the flavor in the Crock Pot - therefore making it even easier. I found this recipe for an Asian inspired Crock Pot Chicken. Using the user comments on the recipe I adapted the recipe.

The night before I prepared the sauce to make a quick fix in the morning. If you make the sauce in advance, be sure to stir it well in the morning as the brown sugar will separate out. The sauce probably has a few more calories than regular Chicken Stir Fry, however you are saving fat from not using oil to fry the chicken. I also saved calories by replacing the Sprite with lemon and lime juice. If I had Sprite Zero or Diet Sprite this would have been a good choice as well.

Below I have calculated the approximate cost of both the main dish and a side salad.

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts with rib meat, large $2.70 ($8.11/lg. package divided by 3 meals)
• Frozen stir-fry vegetables $0.99
• Brown Rice $0.56 ($1.69/box divided by 3 meals)
• Total = $4.25

Pantry Items:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup Lemon and Lime juice (about 1/8 cup each)
  
• 3 -4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
  
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
  
• cornstarch

Directions:

1. Place chicken in crock pot.
2. Pour frozen vegetables over chicken.
3. Mix all pantry ingredients and pour over chicken.
   
4. Cook on low for 6 hours.
5. Break up chicken with spoon.
   
6. Add cornstarch to thicken sauce a bit. A shake or two will do.
7. Serve over cooked rice.
8. Enjoy!

Side Tossed Salad

2 bags chopped lettuce $4.98 ($2.49 x 2)
4 tomatoes $3.49
2 cucumbers $1.58
Total = $10.05

Obviously, buying a head of lettuce would have been less expensive, however the store did not have any available while we were shopping. I used the ingredients to make one large salad in a covered bowl. This will save time throughout the week as all I’ll have to do is serve out a small side salad with several meals. I expect to use this salad for at least 5 meals. This makes each day about $2 or $1 per person.

Getting Back To It...

Around the time this blog came to a screeching halt...I found myself pregnant with an aversion to raw food and cooking! Well, she's here (February 3rd) and I'm ready to start cooking again. My objective is to have relatively easy, low-cost and low-calorie meals. My husband is a type 1 Diabetic and getting a pump soon, meaning we need to be extra careful with our carb counts.

I'm also madly in love with shopping at our new store, Price Rite. The entire shopping list for this week's dinners and also lunches and breakfasts came to less than $80!

Here is the plan for this week:


Monday – Chicken Stir Fry w/salad
Tuesday – Turkey Chili w/rolls and salad
Wednesday –Pasta with pesto and chicken w/salad
Thursday – Marinated Pork roast w/potatoes and carrots
Friday – Pork chops w/cous cous and broccoli w/salad
Saturday –Ham steak w/pineapple, rice and veggie w/salad

Baked Stuffed Zucchini

I've been cooking quite a bit with Zucchini recently. I've made Zucchini bread, stir-fry, pancakes, battered and fried, grilled and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. This idea was given to me by a friend and came out quite delicious.

Ingredients:

• I used this one zucchini, under normal circumstances it probably about four.
• 

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 4 servings brown rice ( cooked according to package directions)
  
• Seasonings to taste
  
• 1 jar tomato sauce
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella

Procedure:

• Brown the beef and add your choice of seasonings. I used onion powder on it all and added fresh peppers to some of the beef. (I hate peppers, but my husband likes them.)
• Mix the browned beef and rice.
• Cut Zucchini lengthwise and hollow out the seeded portion with an ice scream scoop.
• Fill with beef mixture
• 

• Place filled Zucchini in a glass baking dish.
• Cover with Tomato Sauce and sprinkle cheese over entire dish
• Bake at 350 for an hour covered. Uncover and cook 15 minutes more.
• Check Your Zucchini frequently for tenderness as thickness may vary.
• 

Chicken Surprise

Tonight I made Chicken Surprise. The surprise being I had no idea how it would turn out! Due to our pathetic snow storm yesterday I did not get to the store to buy meat that I needed. As a result, I had fun throwing random things in the Crock Pot over some chicken. It was pretty darn yummy too!

Chicken Surprise

Ingredients (from what I remember...)

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 onion, chopped
• Some button mushrooms, about a pint
• Handful baby carrots
• Can of cream of mushroom soup
• Can of water
• Garlic powder
• Cajun Seasoning

Procedure

• Place chicken in Crock Pot
• Cover with the veggies
• Pour on soup and water
• Cover the top with garlic powder and then the Cajun Seasoning

Snow Ice Cream!!

My friend Emily posted this awesome recipe online. It is so fast, so yummy, and perfect for a snowy day! Who doesn't love a nice cold bowl of ice cream when it is snowing outside?

Snow Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• SNOW!
  

Mix together until blended.

Then add snow until it is an ice cream like consistency (5-6 cups usually)

Scoop and enjoy!

You can add chocolate syrup, fruit, etc to make it flavored as well. (I mixed in hot chocolate mix)

Freeze for up to 5 days for later use.

Potato and Canadian Bacon Slow Cooker Chowder

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I love a good chowder on a cold day. I've tried a few corn chowders and this time it was a delicious potato chowder. However, I would add in corn to this recipe next time! It was also my first time cooking with barley and I love the consistency of the chowder as a result. It was flavorful, warm and soothing on a very busy day! This is a Weight Watchers recipe addition, with a few changes by me (of course).

Potato and Canadian Bacon Slow Cooker Chowder
From WeightWatchers.com

Ingredients

• 2 cup(s) potato(es), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  

• 1 large carrot(s), diced (I chopped up a handful of mini carrots)
  

• 1 cup(s) leek(s), chopped, white part only
  

• 1 medium garlic clove(s), minced
  

• 4 cup(s) fat-free chicken broth
  

• 1/2 cup(s) uncooked barley
  

• 1 piece(s) bay leaf
  

• 1/4 tsp dried thyme, crushed
  

• 1/4 tsp black pepper
  

• 4 oz Canadian-style bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces (I used sliced ham -- same thing right?)
  

• 1/2 cup(s) fat-free milk

Procedure

• In a slow cooker, combine potatoes, carrots, leek, garlic, broth, barley, bay leaf, thyme, pepper and bacon; cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
• Stir in milk and heat until it is warm.
• Note: The original recipe calls for evaporated milk and fat free half and half. I just used milk and I thought the chowder was perfect. Click through to the original if you want to make it "authentically".