Chicken, Beef, Bean, or plain Cheese Enchildada

This recipe comes from Michael's aunt Carolyn. We love it!

This recipe is so versatile! The chicken mentioned can be replaced with refried beans, plain beans, cheese or beef! You can get my "from-scratch" recipes by clicking the highlighted words.

• 1 cup of boned chicken [or refried beans, chili beans, beans & rice mixed, shredded cheese only, or beef (hb meat or shredded)]
• 2 cups of grated Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup Chicken broth or water
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup
• Vegetable oil
• 1 can of diced green chiles
• 1/2 tsp of pepper
• 1/2 cup of chopped onion (I just use about a tablespoon of onion powder since Michael isn't fond of onions)
• 6 soft corn or flour tortillas

Chop cooked chicken, add diced onions (or onion powder), and let set. Add diced green chilies to cream of chicken soup and mix with chicken broth. Set aside. Take tortillas, add chicken and onion, tablespoon of shredded cheese and roll up and place into a 9 x 13 oil sprayed pan. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas. Cover with cream of chicken soup mixture and bake at *400 for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let stand 15 minutes before cutting. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Chicken Vegetable stew

Today I made a very large stock pot of chicken stew. Here are my directions:

Ingredients: Chop or prepare the ingredients below (adding to or deleting to your taste), cover with water and boil until tender.

• One portion each of cooked chicken & one portion of chicken broth. *Option: This is roughly one or two cans of pre-cooked chicken or 2 chicken breasts and one 14 ounce can of chicken broth. You could also use beef instead!
  
• 2 diced stalks of celery
• 5 diced carrots
• 7 potatoes peeled and diced
• 1/4 of a red (or white) cabbage, diced
• 1 can of kernel corn
• 1 small can of mushrooms
• 4 tomatoes, peeled and diced *option: you can use a can of diced tomatoes
• Season with salt, pepper, dry onion powder, & dry garlic powder
  

After the above ingredients have cooked to tender add:

• 1/2 - 1 cup of sour cream, or plain yogurt, or milk, or a can of cream of chicken soup!
  
• 4 tablespoons of cornstarch: Get 1 cup of cold water and mix in the cornstarch well before pouring into the pot (after all ingredients are cooked and water is boiling)
• 1 cup of dry rice, cooked according to directions. Dump this in any time after the veggies are tender.
  

This makes a giant pot of chicken stew. If you think it is too much you can adjust by halving the ingredients, or sharing with friends and family!

I usually take all leftovers and freeze into single serving sized portion containers to heat up later for lunches!

How to Stretch a Chicken :-)

I know the title of my post sounds hilarious, but it is a skill of which a frugal Home-maker should be very aware!

Here are my humble instructions:

1. Boil or cook your chicken in a crock pot:

• Make sure your chicken is completely covered in water. Add garlic, onion or onion powder, salt, & pepper and poultry seasoning (optional). Dice fresh celery and add to the water.
  

2. Remove the chicken from the broth. Place the chicken in a covered bowl and refrigerate. Strain the broth and refrigerate in a separate bowl.

3. The next day (after meat and broth have been refrigerated all night), de-bone the chicken and separate the meat into zip-loc bags according to how many meals you want the chicken to be stretched. I usually separate our meat into 3 or 4 quart-sized bags (depends on the size of the chicken).

4. Take the broth and scrape the layer of fat (it will have risen to the top) away into the garbage. Separate the broth (will be a jelly-like consistency) into zip-loc bags according to how much you need. Most recipes will call for 14 ounces... so that is a good amount to pour into your bags.

Freeze all into separate containers. Now you should have at least 3 or 4 ready to go portions of cooked chicken and broth!

Zucchini Crisp

I found a really yummy recipe in our church cookbook. We usually have a good abundance of zucchini during harvest time; this is a great way to use them up!

It is really yummy, and if you like Apple crisp you will like this.

Zucchini Crisp
5 cups of seeded and diced zucchini
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup water
1 tsp cinnamon, or more to taste

Mix the above ingredients together and simmer for 15 minutes.

Make topping:
1/3 cup margarine (I like real butter)
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Crumble topping ingredients together and sprinkle over top of zucchini mixture. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until topping is browned.

Enjoy!!!

Easy Pizza Bread

Pizza bread is a very easy and quick supper. It makes a great weekend meal or a great meal on a night you really don't feel like cooking.

What you need:

Spaghetti or pizza sauce
French bread, hamburger or hot dog buns, or rolls
cheese
toppings of your choice (pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, bacon [or bacon bits], mushroom, peppers, olives, onions, ..... the list is endless!)

Directions:

Place bread open-faced on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven (I broil for about 1 minute). Spread a little sauce on each bun. Sprinkle with cheese. Add toppings.

Place under broiler for 1 -2 minutes. Watch closely so that you don't burn the bread!

That's all! :-) Easy & quick!

You can also do this Mexican style. The variation is to add taco meat & cheese instead of pizza sauce. After it's broiled... top with lettuce, tomatoes, taco sauce, & sour cream!

Honey Oatmeal Bread

This is my favorite bread recipe! I very rarely make loaves because rolls are more convenient for our family. I make a big batch and then freeze whatever is left. Anyone can just pull out the big bag of rolls, take however many they want, and pop them in the microwave. Loaves just seem too messy and they dry out too fast.

2 1/2 cups boiling water
2 cups of quick cooking oatmeal
1 cup of honey
2 cups of whole wheat flour
3/4 cup cooking oil
4 beaten eggs
2 packages of dry yeast (or 2 Tablespoons)
2 Tablespoons salt

Pour the boiling water over the oatmeal and set aside until it cools (you can put it in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes or so...just make sure it is lukewarm! Not hot.)

Dissolve the yeast in 1 cup of warm water.

Mix the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl and beat well. Then add the yeast, being sure everything is just warm before adding.

Work in (which basically means sprinkle flour on it and knead it) until it is a nice, spongy dough that is not sticky. Be careful not to add too much flour or you will get a heavy bread.

Grease top and let it rise for around 1 1/2 hours*. Knead and shape into rolls, and let it rise again for 30-60 minutes.

Bake at 400 for 10 minutes.

*Another option is to put it the refrigerator for later use (cover with a wet towel, plastic wrap, or a lid if you used a large Tupperward bowl.)

When you pull out the cold dough, shape into rolls and let it rise for around 4-5 hours (perfect for Sunday dinner! Just shape into rolls Sunday morning and bake for 10 minutes when you get home.).

White gravy or Cream soup mix

White Gravy

(replaces any type of cream soup, can add sausage for gravy with biscuits, add cheese, sour cream [for stroganoff]... whatever you like)

I personally think the BEST is made in a cast iron skillet!
2 TBSP cold butter or oil
flour (about 1/8 cup or more... depending on how thick you want it)
2-4 cups of milk (or more)
salt & pepper

melt butter in frying pan. sprinkle with flour. Use a fork to mix together and to get rid of the lumps. Gradually add milk and keep stirring until the lumps are gone. I let mine bubble as it thickens.

Pour over biscuits, casseroles, or use as a replacement for cream soups.