Super easy recipe: Skillet Salsa Chicken plus bonus budget tip

I don't know how I came up with this recipe, probably one of those days I was searching and searching through recipes on the internet and combined the ingredients I had on hand into one recipe! This recipe is super easy, you will be serving a healthy dinner in no time. I served mine over brown rice and it was a hit with hubby, and he dislikes 'health food'. Buy chicken breast with the bone in, this will be more friendly on your budget, plus you can use them to make chicken broth for your dinner or lunch the next day, and it won't cost you any extra cooking time, all you need is a crockpot. Stay tuned tomorrow to find out what I did with my broth!

Recipe serves 4

Skillet Salsa Chicken and bonus recipe*
(you do not have to do the bonus recipe, but it will save you money and time
for dinner the next day. Stretch your dollar!! Simply leave out the recipe step marked with the *)
Ingredients:

4 chicken breast, bone in
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 jar salsa (flavor of your choice)
1 tbsp olive oil ( or cooking oil of your choice)

Place your chicken on a cutting board and cut away the bone and skin. Slice the chicken into 4 or 5 long strips. *Toss the chicken bones and some seasonings, as well as some left over veggies (see my vegetable end recipe tip) into a large crockpot. Fill with water, cover, and turn on low. Let cook overnight, and your broth will be ready for tomorrow!* Heat a large skillet over medium heat and drizzle in 1 tbsp of oil. Put chicken strips into the skillet, put in the taco seasoning, and toss to combine. Cook the chicken strips until just a small amount of pink left, about 5-8 mins. Pour in salsa over chicken. Let mixture come to a bubble, reduce heat to a simmer, and cover. Cook for an additional 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked all the way through. Serve over cooked rice or noodles. Can also be served with sour cream or guacamole on top!

*nutrition is without the rice, facts are approximate, depending on the salsa and seasoning you buy

Nutrition Facts

4 Servings

Amount Per Serving
Calories 294.7
Total Fat 3.3 g
Saturated Fat 0.8 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.7 g
Cholesterol 136.9 mg
Sodium 919.5 mg
Potassium 601.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 6.9 g
Dietary Fiber 1.0 g
Sugars 4.3 g
Protein 55.6 g

Budget streatching tip: Save bread ends for bread crumbs!

I came across this tip in a low budget recipe cookbook bye taste of home called 'Dinner on a Dime' It was a gift from my mother-in-law and I love it! There are so many good recipes and tips. This is one of my favorite tips that I have found to be very useful to me. When you get to the last of your bread, save the ends and any other pieces that are broken or just about to go bad. Toss them into a gallon zip top freezer bag and place in your freezer. When your bag is full, or when you need some bread crumbs, thaw out the bread and process for soft bread crumbs, or dry out in a warm oven for dry bread crumbs.

Recipe Review: Whole wheat Pancakes

I found this recipe on allrecipes, and even tho I modified the recipe, they were very good and so so filling! This recipe has many great reviews on allrecipes, and if you read some of them you will find some good variations! There is also a photo posted on the original site. Here is the original recipe, and below is my variation. I believe the nutrition is a little off as well as the servings on allrecipes, because I scaled it down to serve 4 and it served 5 instead, making 10 pancakes, 2 for each person. My nutrition is calculated using sparkrecipes recipe calculator. I tried to be as exact as I could. These are very filling and will keep you going all morning! My recipe contains flax, which is high in fiber and omega-3's. The whole wheat flour will help your body to digest these slowly.

Ingredients

1 c whole wheat flour
2/3 c all-purpose flour
1/3 c rolled oats (I used quick cooking oats)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 c flax seeds, ground
1 c skim yogurt, plain
1 1/2 cups 2% milk
2 large eggs


Directions

In a large bowl, mix together first 7 ingredients. In a smaller bowl, Combine the yogurt, milk, and eggs. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add wet mixture. Stir until just combined. If you stir too much they will be tougher. Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto a non-stick griddle or skillet, heated to optimal pancake cooking temperature. (When a drop of water 'dances' on the surface, without quickly evaporating) Cook until starts to bubble, and flip, making sure pancake heats through before taking off griddle. These pancakes will be darker than white flour pancakes. Recipe makes 10 pancakes. A serving is 2 pancakes.

Number of Servings: 5

Nutritional Info

* Servings Per Recipe: 5
* Amount Per Serving
* Calories: 375.5
* Total Fat: 11.5 g
* Cholesterol: 91.8 mg
* Sodium: 537.4 mg
* Total Carbs: 52.9 g
* Dietary Fiber: 8.1 g
* Protein: 17.7 g

Recipe: Spicy V8 filler

I found a recipe like this and it sounded too good, but I couldn't remember where I had seen it at. I never get my daily intake of vegetables, and to tell you the truth, when your on a budget it is hard to buy a whole lot of veggies. I usually buy v8, or store brand tomato juice cocktail to get more veggies, plus it is really filling for a snack! This recipe is like drinking a thick gazpacho shake, and it's so good and filling, and just under 100 calories and less than 1g of fat. If you are watching your sodium as well, you will need to substitute some ingredients, they are included in parenthesis. I hope you enjoy this drink as much as I do!

Spicy V8 filler, makes 1 serving

Ingredients:
8 oz of V8 (or use v8 low sodium)
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
1 tsp soy sauce (or low sodium soy sauce)
1-2 tsp hot sauce

Blend all ingredients until smooth and poor into a cold glass or mug. Drink and enjoy!

Sorry no pictures, of course, my camera is still broken, but hey, we all know what v8 looks like right?

Especially for cysters Product review: Lane Bryant's Cacique Bra's

Ok, so if you are uncomfortable talking about bra's, please don't read on, ha ha. I have never shelled out a whole lot of money for bra's before. I delusion myself all the time that I can find a good supportive bra for my big bust with bra's from Wal-Mart. Last year with our tax money, I finally went clothes shopping and bought me two really good bra's, I am a DD, nearly DDD, but I didn't know where to start! I had gotten one bra from Victoria secrets a few months before, it was good, but to tell ya the truth, the straps were just too thin to be any good. I decided to go into Lane Bryant, and I tried on this brand called 'Cacique' It has been a whole year and to tell you the truth, it is well time to buy some more! I am in love with these bra's. My girls were finally up where they should be, and the straps are wide and don't stretch out as fast. I bought a padded one, and a non-padded one. They have a variety of styles, colors, and Lane Bryant carries a variety of other brands as well. I have done a google search, and you can find Cacique in most plus size stores, and many sellers on ebay as well. I don't think I will be buying my bras from anywhere else, even if I lose weight, I will still go to Lane Bryant for bra's, as they come in smaller cup sizes as well. I had been a C all through high school, and even then you still need good support. If you have never paid a whole lot for bra's before, I would suggest doing so, you will never go back to cheap undergarments again!

Vinegar for Insulin Resistance/ vinegar tea recipe

So I have been reading so many articles how vinegar has been proven to help diabetics process sugars and such, so I decided to try eating more vinegar. The main article I read was this post found at soulcysters.com Had some good information. I hear about so many people taking a shot of apple cidar vinegar in some water every morning or before meals, but this just didn't sound too good to me, but I like sour things and love salad dressing made from apple cidar vinegar, so I found this recipe and gave it a try. It was sweet yet tangy, and I found it to be pretty good. It wasn't bad at all and I actually enjoyed the tangy, warm taste as I sipped my morning 'tea'. I think next time I will reduce the vinegar by half, it was pretty tangy. I have had good results eating low gi, so I figured, why not add some vinegar to my routine, if it helps my body to absorb sugars so I can lose weight easier, than I would give it a try.

Hot Vinegar Tea:

1 cup or mug of hot water
1-2 pkgs Splenda or other sugar sub.
1 Tbsp vinegar

Stir in the sugar substitute into the hot water, then stir in the vinegar. Sip and enjoy!

Extremely frugal Cooking tip: Saving veggi scraps

I am on an extreme budget for groceries, so I never buy more vegetables than what I need, and I am always looking for ways to stretch my food for recipes. I came up with this tip:

Save your vegetable scraps. Save the tops and ends of carrots, save the tops of onions or bell peppers, and save the tops of celery, and those tiny soft sticks in the center you never eat. Keep them in a zip top bag through the week or two weeks, if your veggies will keep that long. At the end of the week, toss this bag in some water to make a veggie broth for soups. Broths are so low maintenance! I through mine in a crock pot over night with some chicken bones (from chicken breast that I took the bones out myself) add seasonings, and tada! You have a broth to freeze for later or use for a healthy lunch or dinner. Broths don't have to be just for soup! Use them in the place of water when making rice or other savory recipes.

I also like to save the tops of my tomatoes for an at home tomato scrub I saw on youtube!