Easiest Shredded Chicken EVER!

I have spent a lot of time on Pinterest in the last few weeks trying to figure out what to make for supper. I always like having a good idea of the next few days and it is much easier to do all the grocery shopping at once!

Last week, I made some chicken pot pie filling that called for cooked, shredded chicken and realized that this is one of the most versatile things that you can make in bulk and have on hand for unplanned lazy nights.
With the shredded chicken, we have made Pot Pies, enchiladas, and BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, but the possibilities are endless.

Cookbook!

The hardest part of cooking for me is knowing what to cook. I have started to enjoy cooking over the last couple of years. I know that I have become an aspiring chef in my own kitchen thanks to Pinterest. Let’s just say I didn’t get grandma’s cooking skills, they have been learned instead of handed down. I am slowly working on figuring out this whole cooking combined with grocery shopping thing. I can at least say I am getting better.

Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

I have touched on this on a couple other posts, but I LOVE to cook. I just hate spending a ton of time in the kitchen for one meal. Not ideal for me, even if I am home most of the time.
My boyfriend is a huge fan on traditional meals and isn’t a very adventurous eater. I typically stick within the boundaries somewhere between meat and potatoes and pasta when I am cooking supper. Sometimes I have to remember that every family has their favorites, and apparently not everyone eats the same things as we do. This being said, I have been trying to copy a lot of his mom’s recipes to keep him in his dietary comfort zone. This is one that she has made in the past and I have copied. Thanks Robin!

Finger- Licking Crock-pot Chicken Wings

My very first Tasty Tuesday! I am so excited to have finally started a daily blog plan! I hope this starts to bring more readers to the page! Please, share your favorite posts with your families and friends!

This week we have had a lot of cooking in days! I have been so excited to finally have a kitchen again that I never want to go out for supper anymore. I have started making some more recipes and enjoying the cooking again!

My New Blogging Plan

I have struggled with what this blog is about most of the time that I have had the blog. I have spent hours searching other blog sites and reading all about what they do for their blog to make it work.

I am going to try something new and I hope to keep with it throughout the school year. I may have a few weeks were I struggle to keep up, but I will make sure to at least post every once in a while. I am really excited to start this!

My plan is to have a different theme for every day Monday-Friday. Each day will have a theme but it will be broad enough that I can write about a lot of things that are under that category. Every week will have a different blog post for that day of the week.

Monday’s theme is Money Saving Mondays. There will be different things like saving money on a certain project, idea, or bill. Depending on the week, it may be something kind of off the wall, or something that Matt and I have really applied in the house.

Tuesday’s are Tasty Tuesdays. This includes recipes, kitchen tips that I have found helpful and other kitchen oriented posts. This may get pretty narrow depending on the week, but I am going to work on trying a ton of new recipes soon!

Wednesdays are Weigh In Wednesdays. This may be misleading because it sounds like I am 100% focused on weight, but it will actually be about overall health. It will be for mental, physical, and emotional health benefits. Sometimes it will be about my physical process of getting to my initial goal weight (Seems like I was at the same place last year) Sometimes it will be health tips that I have put together or learned along the way!

Thursdays are Try It Out Thursdays. This will be college tips, new craft projects, decorating tips, or just a new place that I visited in Omaha. It will be recommendations for things that I think everyone should try at least once.

Fridays are Freestyle Fridays. This is really broad because I wanted to have a day where I could write about something not in one of the previous categories. It may include a variety of many things. Some of the posts may fall into some of the categories above, but they also may not. This may include traveling or fun things that Matt and I do. This is just kind of a fun day for me to play around with my blog.

I hope to you check out my blog posts for the weeks to follow. I know that I am going to aim to continue this plan for the rest of the summer at least, but I hope to continue it into the school year as much as I possibly can!

Meal Ideas

     Many people struggle with the idea of saving money because when they sit down to make a list, they don’t know what to put on it. They aren’t sure what to make or what they need to get to make it. Then, when they do go to the grocery store, they get snacking foods. When time comes to make a meal, they don’t have complete meals in the house and end up getting take out anyway.. 

    For some time now, I have been working on compiling a master list of the meals that we eat in this house. I am ALWAYS looking for recipes and ideas for meals. I probably missed some major ones that seem to obvious to put on here, but PLEASE. I am always interested in finding out what my readers are eating at home and how much they are working with for their monthly grocery bill.

    Currently, I have our grocery bill at about 180-200 a month. That includes a TON of fresh and frozen produce, and some great cuts of meat when it is on sale. I always look for good sales on meat. 

     The other day we were at Heartlands Foods in Beatrice. They currently have a “Pick 5 for $25” Special on their meat. 

We got pork chops (marked at $5.89) 

Two cuts of ribs ($6.96 and $5.33). 

Huge chicken breasts ($5.89)  

Brautwaursts ($7.26). 

Well, that meat wasn’t really that high priced, but I did make sure to get some of the more expensive cuts of meat. We saved $6.33 on that meat!! (I LOVE sales like that.) 

PLUS!! The best part is that with the heartland foods groceries to gas card Meat is 50 points per dollar spent. Well I earned 1580 points on the meat alone, which can turn into 5 cents off per gallon. (Up to 15 gallons!). That means I can still save a 75 more cents!! 

That puts me at just over $7 dollars in savings in the entire grocery trip.

Anyway… that was not the point of this post, I just had to brag a little because I was excited about those kinds of savings on meat!

Here is my list of meals:

Beef:

Golash

Spaghetti
Stir together Lasagna

Tacos

Hamburgers

Hamburger Helper

Taco Hamburger Helper

Meatloaf

Hamburger Gravy with Mashed Potatoes

Taco Soup

Runzas (Casserole Style)

Cheeseburger Casserole
Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe
Cheeseburger Calzone

Burritos/ Enchiladas

Chicken:

Chicken Tacos

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Casserole

Chicken Breasts (Baked with Ranch powder as a coating)

Wings
Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

Breakfast:

Biscuits and Gravy

Pancakes

Eggs

Convenience Meals:

Banquet meals (Sometimes, they are nice to have when I get off work and don’t want to cook!)

Pot Pies

Mac and Cheese

Frozen Pizzas

Frozen noodle and veggie steamers (Add some chicken.. Yumm.)

Other Cuts of Meat:

Sausage/ Fettuccine Alfredo

Ribs

Roast

Hot Dogs (Turkey Dogs from Walmart ($.99)

Brauts

Pork Chops (SunMarts 10 for $10!)

Sandwiches

Farmland Ham and Instant mashed potatoes
Pepperoni Pizza Roll

Vegetarian:

Potato Soup

Noodles with veggies and cheese (or Alfredo sauce)

Quesdillas with a Rice Side

Stuffed Shells (Meat/Marinara/Cheese.. Or pretty much anything)

I try to do about 2 or 3 vegetarian nights a month, just because meat does get expensive very quickly. I will be the first to admit though, Sean and I eat very well. We have a veggie and a fruit at ALMOST every meal when we eat at home.. We rarely ever have Ramen noodles in the house. We don’t really eat canned soup other than tomato soup. All of those “cheap” foods, they don’t exist in this house.. other than mac and cheese (Cuz its the best food EVER)

A lot of my recipes are found on pinterest. If I find something I really want to try, I typically print it off and try to fit it into the meal plan for the next two weeks.

      Now, when you have a master list you can sit down and figure out what each recipe takes and how much you need of it. Then you can effectively look for price matches or coupons.

Do you do something similar at home home and know something that worked better? Let me know what you are doing at home!!

Cooking Oil instead of Air in a Can!!

     Sooo.. I am starting to try to bake more (trying more pinterest stufff…) and I was in need of non-stick cooking spray. Cooking spray can get so expensive and it has a ton of added chemicals and such… Not a fan.. So I thought I would give this a try. I got the instructions from this blog post.

Ingredients: 

1 part oil

5 parts water

Spray bottle (preferably misting)

Here is the ending result: 

Yes, It is settled, because it settles within 3 seconds of shaking it up. You almost have to spray it in between each shake… Bummer..

My opinion of the product: I’m not really sure what I think about it yet. I don’t like that I have to shake it really well between each spray.. but I did it and it seemed to work.
I used it for making scrambled eggs (baked in the oven) in muffin tins for my egg muffin look alike, which can be found HERE.

I think, for now, I like it. It is quick and easy to make, and I don’t have to spend a fortune on a little air filled can with a little bit of oil. (Plus, every time I am at wal-mart I forget to buy it anyway, that is until I need it again.)

I consider this a Pinterest Success. It helped me save money. AND I don’t have to worry about all of the chemicals in the can of air and oil. Woo!

Egg McMuffins at Home

 Wow, It has been a crazy couple of weeks around here. I had drill last weekend (and it kicked my butt). I have been working about 15 hours a week now (budget is tighter than ever) and I have been spending as much time as I can at my grandparents farm to spend time with my grandpa. Between all of that and Sean being in school and working about 25 hours a week, our lives are crazy..
   Well, now that Sean has started school, he is on the go for breakfast almost every day. He just doesn’t have time to sit down and eat a bowl of cereal (We don’t buy milk either so cereal is kinda out of the question anyway..)
    I’ve been spending some time on pinterest looking for ideas for breakfast. We don’t have time to sit down and make pancakes and all of that every morning and we don’t have the grocery budget to buy a ton of prepackaged, chemical added, frozen breakfast sandwiches. I have come up with a couple good ideas so far, and I’m slowly trying each one of them.

     Even though I have worked at McDonald’s for almost 3 years, it has not stopped me from liking our egg muffins! I LOVE our Sausage Muffins. So after spending sometime on pinterest I realized that I could easily make some ahead of time, toss them in the freezer with a paper towel around them, and microwave them in the mornings for us.

Here is a printable version of this recipe!

 I used:
Tomas Muffins (Bought at the Bread Store)
6 Eggs
6 Slices of Cheese
6 Slices of Ham (about 2 or 3 slices per muffin
3 pieces of Turkey sausage (Not Pictured)

First, I cracked the eggs into muffin tins.
I broke the yolk just enough so it would bake all the way through.

 Preheat oven to 350 and bake the eggs for about 10-25 minutes. That seems like a huge range, but it really depends upon the muffin tin you are using.

When I made them, it took about 15 minutes. I suggest not using a small muffin tin like I did. Our eggs turned out fitting really small on the muffin. The goal is to have the egg smaller width wise. It should be relatively flat.

While the eggs were in the oven, I baked the muffins just a little bit. I spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven with the eggs.

I have read that you can also use a toaster and that works just as good.

After the eggs were fully cooked, I assembled the muffins. I made three of them with sausage and the other three with ham.

Then, (Not Pictured) I baked them for about 3-5 minutes after they were completely assembled. After taking them from the oven I let them cool on the counter for about 20 minutes.

After that I wrapped them in paper towels and placed them into 2 freezer safe bags. (One marked ham, one marked sausage)

For reheating, I just about 2-3 minutes. I flipped the muffin over half way through.

These are great for in the mornings.

Price Breakdown 

Muffins:                        1.25                        (At Breadstore in Beatrice)
Ham:                            1.55                        (while at BOGO Free-Regular at 3.10)
Cheese:                         1.98                         (Heartland Grocery Store)
Eggs:                               .89                         (For half dozen eggs)

Total:                          5.67
Per Muffin:            95 CENTS!!

McDonald’s Savings:      2.66   –  .95   =  1.71 savings per muffin!! 
    On 6:                      15.96   –  5.67  = 10.29!!!! 

What a great way to save some money if you are one of those people who eats a sausage egg muffin on the way to work almost every morning of the week (or even 1 or 2)

These are also great for kids! What a yummy treat to get them to eat breakfast, not to mention they have a lot of the needed food groups in just one sandwich (Meat, grains, dairy)

And! They are pretty healthy. (Well.. The egg muffins actually don’t save you that many calories.. Only about 40 calories..)  BUTT.. When using turkey sausage you save about 140 calories. They save you a ton of sodium as well. If you use a lower calorie cheese or muffin you can mix it up and make them for pretty low calories.

(But with that kind of savings who can argue with that!)
They only took me about 45 minutes to make (while I was doing a couple other things!)

Did you try this at home and find something that worked better? Let me know what you are doing at home!!

Portion Control to the Max!

   

The other day Sean and I were talking about why were weren’t losing any weight, even though we eat pretty health and live pretty active lifestyles. (It seems like we are always on the go..)

     Sean said that his biggest problems was portion control. After he said that, I thought he might be on to something. Knowing HOW much you are eating is just as important as to WHAT you are eating!! (I always forget this…)

      My biggest problem (just so all of my loyal readers are up to date..) is that I don’t eat enough. I talked with my recruiter early next week and we talked about what I am eating on a day to day basis. He told me that he wants to see me try to eat at least 6 times a day. (including 3-100 calorie snacks). I am regularly suppose to eat every 2-3 hours during my day. 

          So after I talked with my recruiter, I was on my way to walmart to get snack baggies, pretzels, wheat thins, and prepackaged 100 calorie snacks. 50 bucks later, I came out with everything I needed to make my own snack packs to take with me when I am at work, or on the go during that 2-3 hour window. At work, I just run to the back, eat it really quick when I get a chance and get back up on the floor. I haven’t really ran into much of a problem when I couldn’t grab my snackage at work before heading back, which is great. 

       My recruiter told me that for the first few days, I was going to feel like I was eating so much food. I was going to be extremely full, but after those few days. I was going to be starving for the next food that was going into my body. I would get to the point that at about 2 hours, I was extremely hungry already. This is my metabolism kicking in and working better than it did before. 

      Well, he was right. I’m pretty much always starving right now, except right after my meals.. Then I am extremely full. 

All of this sparked my creativity side of thinking and I started thinking about how I could so easily prepackage a lot of my foods.

So I started off with the wheat thins and the pretzels. 

      I pre-proportioned my wheat thins, pretzels, almonds, banana chips, raisins, marshmallows, and (bought for an extra extra treat) dark chocolate covered raisins.. they are all packaged in approximately 100 calorie proportions.
   This is great for when I am on the go at work, and doing other errands. It saves me from having to count everything out and worry about over eating. It also keeps me from eating straight out of the boxes/bags, which I have been known to do once or twice.
       I did end up buy pre-packaged cookie 100 calorie snacks for my sweet tooth cravings. I have an awful sweet tooth around 9:30-10 at night. I just want a something sweet and a lot of it. Well I got these cookies specifically for that time period. Although, I don’t think I will be buying them again because I have found that I can replace the cookies with marshmallows or raisins and my cravings are just as satisfied because with those snacks I get a lot more of them than just 6 tiny little cookies. 

Then I moved on to my oatmeal that I eat every morning…

    Since I was told that I need to eat more.. I have been aiming for a breakfast consisting of anywhere between 300 and 450 calories. I try to aim pretty close to 380 for most mornings. Since then I have been trying to eat oatmeal for breakfast. It is low in calories, but high enough for me to get what I need without having to eat a TON! I have found that stirring in the brown sugar after it is cooked helps make a little bit go a lot farther. I only use about a tablespoon of brown sugar total (about 35 calories). My mornings can get really hectic. On Saturdays and Sundays, I have to be to work by 7am. For those who know me, they know I am NOT a morning person (still trying to figure out why I joined the military for that reason…lol) All of my portions are already measured out, so I can just dump the bag into a bowl and add a cup of water. Perfect for mornings..
    For those with kids, this is perfect for them to get going in the morning. Oatmeal is known to keep a person fuller longer, but it is also great for cold winter mornings. Having it portioned out makes it extremely easy for kids to make their own in the morning. When bagging them, you can add brown sugar for convenience, but I prefer not to, just because I am calorie counting.

Then to my frozen vegetables…

     This was probably the most helpful thing out of all of them. I pre-proportioned out my frozen veggies so I don’t have to worry about that when I am making them as sides for lunch/supper. I LOVE veggies. These are proportioned out according to serving size on the bags. Most of these bags contain anywhere from 30-70 calories, which makes them great sides to go along with a chicken breast, pork chop, or even a burger. I am really excited about these because I think it will help us eat more of our veggies and think of them more as a convenience and not a hassle to deal with.

So… My organization…

I bought 4 or 5 of these cute little baskets for our freezer and cabinets to hold the baggies. I got the baskets at Family Dollar for $1.50 a piece, which was crazy cheaper than walmart’s prices for like items.  I also bought my Aunt Lisa’s cabinet from her to hold ALL of our snackage. This way it is all in one place and we don’t go looking through the other food in order to find snacks. This has been working out great!!

I started out writing on EVER SINGLE BAGGIE.. but that ended quickly. Instead I have two post-it notes with the amount in each baggie. It made everything go by so much quicker when it came down to bagging it.

     So.. This has been a huge success for me and I am every excited about the entire thing. I have everything ready for when I need to eat and when I am on the go.

      So, I bet my faithful readers are wondering how much this has helped me lose… *Drum roll please* I am sitting at a solid- Non fluctuating. 150. Which is great. I have drill next weekend and I am hoping to be down to 145-147 by then. I would really like to be close. I have accepted that I will not make my goal of losing the weight by graduation because that gives me 30 days to lose almost 20 pounds (crazy unrealistic. So my new goal is to be at 140 or high 130’s by graduation. Then down to my goal weight before I leave for AIT on May 30. I am really hoping to be able to do this, but the next few weeks are absolutely crazy when it comes to my schedule.

My Love-Hate Relationship with the Kitchen

    With Sean starting school and me looking at a part time job, I have to find something for breakfast! Last night while Sean was at work I got the crazy idea that I could cook. HA!
      I decided to try to make applesauce, tortillas, and granola bars. HaHa!!

Here is the applesauce recipe that I attempted.

Here is the granola bars recipe I tried.

And here is the tortillas that I killed.

Well let’s just say that nothing really turned out how I thought it was going to/ how the recipe called for.

The tortillas were awful. They tasted like pure flour. Instead of using regular flour, I tried using whole wheat flour. It is better for you, but it turned out dry and awful.

The granola bars turned out harder than I thought they were going to be. I didn’t have the right sized pan so I was going to try to make them into cookie sized granola cookies. 

Fail. They tasted like burnt honey. I wish they would have worked out, but many I will try again with a different recipe. 

I think the applesauce was the one I was hoping would work out the most. It looked soo good, but it was mushy and gross. I was really disappointed.

So, my relationship with the kitchen is not very strong right now. I go thru these random fails, where everything I make doesn’t work out. I have since retried working in the kitchen and have made some pretty good stuff. I wish I would have been successful with the granola bars because those would make really good snacks, but that’s okay. Maybe next time.