Frugal Foodie: Sunchips Oven Baked Chicken

Looking for an easy recipe to make this weekend or maybe on a busy week night? This recipe is extremely easy using only chicken, butter and Sunchips! This is great recipe for a quick dinner and/or if you have crumb chips. You know, the chips at the bottom of the bag that aren't quite chips anymore but you don't want to be totally barbaric and just pour the bag of crumb chips in your mouth?

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken tenders (uncooked and thawed)
• 1/4 cup of butter or margarine melted (in bowl)
• 2 cups of Sunchips crunched into teeny bits (this is easy to do if you just keep them in your bag and smash the with your hand on the outside)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 415 degrees.
Take chicken tender and coat it in butter. Then roll it in the bowl of Sunchips. I personally like to mix the flavors up and I use Jalapeno Jack and Harvest Cheddar. Then, place in an oven safe dish and bake for approx 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Frugal Foodie: Easy Strawberry Jam Canning Recipe

Here is a delicious and quite easy recipe for Strawberry Jam.

New to canning? Check out the Ball website for some great tips: http://www.freshpreserving.com/getting-started.aspx


Ingredients:

2 cups of strawberries prepared (see below)
1 cup of granulated sugar (this was modified against the normal 1 cup of sugar/1 cup of strawberries but I don't care for to much sugar)
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of Ball Classic Pectin

Directions:

1. Choose ripe strawberries, hull them (looks like the photo below).
   
2. Take a potato masher and mash the strawberries by layers. Put first layer in and mash, then layer the second, third etc. I have read of people putting them in a blender and pureeing them as well but have never tried, I think it depends on what texture you desire.
3. Pour the prepared strawberries into a measuring cup (so you know how much you have to measure against the sugar and pectin) and then add them along with the lemon juice into a sauce pan, bringing to a boil.
4. Once the boil is rolling, gradually add pectin, then add sugar and mix until dissolved. Allow mixture to come to a harder boil just one more time for 1 minute then remove from heat.
5. Skim foam. What I did was I took the ladle, skimmed the foam and then put in a bowl. Once it set for a few minutes I added it to ice cream, yum!
6. Pour the hot strawberries into the jars. Seal tight then boil in a canner for 10 minutes using the water bath method.

Enjoy!

My tips for canning anything:

• Be patient and can when you have time because it does take time.
• Sanitize, sanitize sanitize! The one thing I've learned is that it is extremely important to make sure not only your jars and lids are sanitized but also your canning tools such as tongs, spoons, funnel etc.
• Use ripe fruit, when you use fruit that hasn't quite ripened it has an off taste and it's harder to press.
  

Frugal Foodie: Easy Peasy Chicken Pot Pie

I have a hard time convincing my family that "leftovers" are a good idea. Last week I made a chicken Alfredo pasta and had leftover chicken I hadn't used. Instead of having leftover pasta, I just had leftover chicken and decided to do something else with it; chicken pot pie!

I'm not going to lie, I used a premade frozen puff pastry crust (since these can get pricey, next time I'll probably use go with a reg. pie crust).

Here are the ingredients:
1 can of peas
2 carrots sliced
1/2 cup of flour
1/4 cup of margarine
2 cups of chicken broth
1 cup of milk or half and half
2 garlic cloves minced
1 /4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of chopped onions or 1 tablespoon of granulated/dried onion
fresh basil optional
leftover chicken or 3 cups of chopped/shredded chicken (cooked)
1 pie crust or puff pastry (thawed)

Directions:

• Place butter, carrots and onion in pan over medium-high heat, saute for about 7 minutes.
• Add peas
• Slowly add flour mixture to coat the vegetables, stir on medium heat for 1 minute
• Add chicken broth and half/half or milk and create a rolling boil on medium heat until thickened.
• Once thick, add chicken and spices desired.
• Slowly add to a casserole dish ( I like to use a large pie pan ).
• Cover with the pie or puff pastry.
• Cook for 25 minutes on 400 degrees.

Enjoy!

I linked up at:

Frugal Foodie: Homemade Chocolate Syrup

I love chocolate syrup, and so do my kids but we don't have it very often because of the HFCS in pretty much all chocolate syrups. Recently, I found out how easy it was to make homemade chocolate syrup with no high fructose corn syrup! In fact, this costs less than $.50 a jar! Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of cocoa (I used Nestle cocoa found in the baking aisle at Walmart for around $2.50)
• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla
• pinch of salt

*Very Important Tip: Watch the saucepan the entire time as this can boil over quickly.

Directions:

• Pour water and cocoa into saucepan, over medium heat stir and dissolve the cocoa.
• Bring to a small boil, slowly add sugar.
• Mix well then bring to a small boil on medium heat, continuously stirring for about 3 minutes.
• Remove and add salt and vanilla.

Pour into a sterilized jar and refrigerate! Enjoy! This actually tastes like chocolate, not like a sugary syrup!

Frugal Foodie: Homemade Potato Skin Recipe

Our kids love Potato Skins at restaurants. But, we don't go out to eat that often so I decided to make Potato Skins at home! It's really an easy recipe, it just takes a bit of time to cook.

Homemade Potato Skins Recipe:

Ingredients:
5-6 potatoes
2 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons of sour cream
1.5 teaspoons of fresh minced garlic
1 teaspoon of salt
1.5 teaspoons of granulated onion
1.5 teaspoons of oregano
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1.5 cups of shredded cheese


Directions:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees
• Cook Potatoes for about 40 minutes (speed things up by cooking them in the microwave for 20 minutes)
  

• Once potatoes are cool enough to touch, cut lengthwise
• Scoop out most of the "inside" of the potato, leaving a potato layer next to the skin.

• Place the "insides" in a bowl to use later

• Pour olive oil and all spices into a bowl (garlic, onion, salt and oregano), mix well
  
• Brush the olive oil mixture on the front and back of the potatoes
  

• Cook for approx 14 minutes face down
• While the potatoes are cooking: take the insides and add milk & sour cream, mix well. I added some onion powder to my potato mixture for a little more flavor.
  
• After the 14 minutes, turn each potato over with tongs so they are face up and cook for 5 minutes
• Take the potatoes out, spoon potato mixture back inside the potatoes (careful, they are hot)
• Top with shredded cheese
• Bake for 3 minutes or until cheese is melted
• Top with additional sour cream if you wish!
  

Enjoy!

Frugal Foodie: The Fruit Shortcake Parfait and Shortcake Bar with Reddi Wip

I've been thinking of recipes to use on Memorial Day and I thought about making a Strawberry Shortcake. I wanted to do a creative take on this traditional dessert and came up with the Fruit Shortcake Parfait. In this recipe is angel food cake, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, pineapples, and Reddi Wip with a bit of sweet cream to soak the shortbread.

I layered the bottom with shortcake, then placed the sliced kiwi fruit on the sides. I then drizzled some of the cream (recipe below) on the shortbread and added fresh sliced pineapple and blueberries on top of that layer. I then took Reddi Wip cream and placed a layer of the Reddi Wip Whipped Cream on the fruit and shortbread. On the whipped cream, I placed another layer of shortbread and then took sliced strawberries and blueberries and put them on that layer. I drizzled the final layer with the sweet cream them topped with the whipped cream.



The cream to soak the shortbread is easy and just a few ingredients:

1 cup of plain yogurt or 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (whipped)
1 cup of orange juice
1 tablespoon of honey
a splash of vanilla extract


Mix these together and drizzle on the shortbread layers.

Obviously, this was a hit with my family:



After I made this I had a thought, why not to a Fruit Shortcake bar! You may have read about my Cupcake bar at Easter, I really like the idea of when entertaining, giving the guests a choice in what they want to have in their dessert. In a Shortcake bar, you can easily put out different fruits for your guests to try. If you aren't having guests over, this is still a great idea for kids. The Reddi Wip comes in handy in a Shortcake bar because guests both big and small can spray some on their Shortcake, making it easy and less messy!



Here I put out strawberries, blueberries, pineapples, red grapes, green grapes and sliced apples along with shortbread. Just place glasses out (if you have guests, you can use disposable to make it easier on you) along with the Reddi Wip and you have a dessert bar in minutes!

This recipe is easy to do and frugal, especially if you price match at Walmart. I was able to get 1lb strawberries for $.99, pineapples for $.50 a pound and apples for $.33 a lb!



See my recipe review and more about this recipe here:

This post has been spnsored as part of an insight study with #CollectiveBias. All opinions, recipes and photos/videos are my own.

Frugal Foodie: Stuffed Bell Peppers

Bountiful Basket Recipe ~ Easy, fresh and frugal!

Tonight I made Stuffed Peppers for dinner. I used Bell Peppers and ingredients I had gotten from my most recent Bountiful Basket (fresh oregano, basil, garlic and onion). I wasn’t sure how the kids were going to react but they loved them so much they asked for seconds! The corn was also from my Bountiful Basket but it was my first time making it in my electric pressure cooker. It came out so moist and didn’t take long to cook at all!

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Heat oven to 375, use a large glass dish for cooking the peppers.

Ingredients:

• 8 Medium Sized Bell Peppers (cut in halves and core the seeds, some like to cut off the tops and leave the pepper “whole”)
• 1 lb of Ground Turkey
• 2 cups of cooked brown rice
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (or 1 tablespoon of granulated onion if you don’t like a lot of onion taste)
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt or garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon of Chef’s Essence spices (paprika, cayenne pepper)
• Herbs ~ I used fresh oregano and basil and minced them in my spice grinder
• 1 cup of shredded cheese

1. Brown turkey in pan. Add spices , onions and herbs while browning.
2. In a large bowl, pour tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt and rice.
3. Add turkey to the mixture and stir together.
4. In the large dish, place peppers next to each other. Fill the peppers with the mixture and cook for 20 minutes.
5. Take out of the oven, then top with cheese (we love cheddar). Place back in the oven for about 5 more minutes.
6. Take out, cool and serve!

This recipe cost less than $5 to make (including the turkey). Read my thoughts on Bountiful Baskets here: http://www.supersavingsense.com/2011/05/bountiful-baskets.html

Technorati Tags: Recipes,Frugal Foodie

Bountiful Baskets

I wanted to share my thoughts on Bountiful Baskets http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/.

Here is what I got in my last basket:

I got the regular pack, the herb add on and I split the “mexican” pack with my mom. The kids ate the blackberries and 3 of the oranges I got as well before I could take the pic.

What is it? Here is the info from the site:

This is a Co-op

This is a grass roots, all volunteer, no contracts, no catch co-operative available in AZ & Utah. Bountiful Baskets is a non-profit food co-op for families that want to have more fresh produce for less money. In order to participate, you must set up a free account on the website.

Reasons to Participate

• This is a great deal and you are helping others get a great deal, too. With the conventional produce offering, you get approximately $50 worth of grocery store-quality produce.
• This co-op encourages a healthier lifestyle.

The contribution is $15.00 per basket. The organic upgrade is $10.00 for a total of $25.00. The amount for add-ons varies depending on the item. The first time basket fee is $3.00, and the processing fee is $1.50, which must be paid every time you contribute. Your entire contribution is spent on food, so the $1.50 is necessary to cover card processing, servers, and other expenses.

Learn more here: http://www1.bountifulbaskets.org/?page_id=233

It happens every other week at a locations around the valley. Some areas have it where you can get it each week as well, right now I have done every other week.

My thoughts, I like getting a lot of fresh produce for $15. I also like that they have add ons such as bread and upgrades to organics. In the past I got a Hawaiian add on with vanilla beans, pineapple, mangos and more. This time I got fresh herbs including oregano, basil, chives, mint and more. These add ons are usually only around $10! I don’t like the fact that there never seems to be a lot of fruit but that could be because my kids love fruit. So I will probably still price match my fruit at Walmart. I also am not too fond of the fact that you never know what you will get, if you are an adventurous foodie then this is great.

I will continue to do this at least twice a month, I just love fresh produce!