Recipes (yes, I DO cook!)

Here are a couple of my recipes for those of working with a thin budget...

Dish-o-chicken

Since I've married, I've had to learn to improvise in the kitchen. A LOT! This is a pretty quick and easy chicken dish I came up with:

Ingredients

• chicken pieces (I use whatever's on sale) and I used six legs
  
• about 1/2 cup sour cream
• about 2 cups bbq sauce (I used tangy honey flavored)
• fave seasonings (I used garlic pwdr, italian, and crushed chicken boullion cubes)

Thaw and rinse chicken. While it's still wet, shake on the seasonings & let sit in a bowl, covered in fridge (for at least 1/2 hour, but try for a couple of hours).

Directions

• When ready, heat oven to around 350
• mix sour cream and bbq sauce
  
• pour 1/2 of sauce mix into bottom of baking pan/casserole dish
• layer chicken pieces in bottom
  
• pour rest of sauce mix over chicken, making sure each piece is coated/covered/slathered
• bake for about 30 minutes, then...
• check and turn the chicken in pan, keeping covered with sauce...
• continue baking, checking every 20 minutes or so (to keep chicken coated with the sauce) until done.

I serve my chicken dish with baked potatoes and steamed broccoli and instead of using butter on the taters, I used some of the chicken sauce (since I usually smother my broccoli with butter!) Once you try this, you can alter the sour cream/bbq sauce mix to be more or less tangy/creamy. And, yes, I came up with this one all. on. my own. Shoot, I'm thinking about writing a cookbook called the WalMart chef (for all of us po' folks!)

 

Easy One-Dish Meal

Hi guys. I know I promised something else, but I wanted to share this quickie recipe with you. I call it One Dish:

Ingredients

Hamburger Meat (browned with the seasonings) - or, if you like, chicken or tofu Potatoes (baked) Potatoes (boiled & smashed) Tomato Sauce Tomato Paste Garlic (chopped as fine as you like) Garlic (chopped in large pieces) Onions (chopped) Lawry's seasoning salt Black pepper (other fresh peppers if you want) Italian Seasoning Now - here's the cool part: I don't have any set amounts of ingredients to give you; use what you see fit for your family size. Personally, I use a pound of meat, 4 large potatoes to bake and 2 large potatoes to boil/smash, and then I season to taste. We have 5 adults and 2 kids in our crowd & at least 2 or three drop-ins at meal times! I have had leftovers enough for a couple of small lunch servings after all that. You'll need boiling bots, deep baking dish (or a couple of shallow ones), deep skillet.

Directions

Put the potatoes on to bake since they can take a while to be well baked Peel and chop other potatoes in chunks to be boiled later (When baked potatoes are half done, slit and insert pieces of garlic and finish baking) Start browning the meat & when mostly done, drain the oil (leaving a little in the meat to hold the seasonings) Add the dry seasonings to taste Add the Tomato Paste and Tomato Sauce (save the paste can) Using the Paste can, add water to dilute the meat sauce (it will cook down during the simmering) Simmer covered for at least 10 minutes on a medium heat (add more water if the meat sauce thickens too much) Start boiling your chunked potatoes Add onions and remaining garlic Reduce heat to low, cover & simmer for at least 20 minutes When boiled potatoes are done, mash them as smooth as you can, adding a touch of milk if you need to (can add a little butter, but try for plain mashed to keep down the calories). Set aside. When baked potatoes are done, peel off skin (or not; I sometimes leave the skin on) & line up in bottom of baking dish. With a knife sort of chop/chunk up the baked potatoes so they are spread around the bottom of the dish. Season the lining potatoes with some of your dry seasonings Ladle the meat sauce over the baked potato lining Spread the boiled/mashed potatoes over the top of the sauce Sprinkle top potatoes with seasonings if you want (I use the Lawry's for this) Put the dish in the oven on a VERY low broil just long enough to brown (you don't have to do this, but I like the brown-topped texture. You can serve by scooping portions out with a large spoon. NOTE: My niece likes to top her finished dish with cheese, but she is young enough where a couple of days at the gym works for her food sins! Enjoy!