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

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

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!

Recipe Review: Lime and Garlic Chicken Fajitas

This is my own recipe as well. I made my own corn tortillas too, but that was frustrating ha ha, but they turned out yummy! You can just buy any healthy flour tortillas as well, which is what I will do next time cause I'm not too fond of corn tortillas, I am more of a bread person. If you need a recipe for simplicity and taste, this will saute up quick. Pre-marinading the chicken is the key to the flavor, so you can simply chop and saute. This made enough to fill 10-12 6in tortillas, and the left overs were just as good!

Ingredients:
Corn or flour tortillas
2 chicken breast, cubed
2 onions, sliced thin
6-8 button mushrooms, sliced
1 large tomato, diced
1/4 c marinade with lime and garlic
(optional: 1/2 tsp of cumin and 1 tbsp lime juice)

Marinade the cubed chicken either overnight, or at least 1-3 hours. Just place the chicken with the marinade (doesn't have to be lime and garlic, pic something you like) in a ziplock bag in the fridge. When you are ready to cook, place a large skillet and turn on the stove to medium heat. Chop your veggies while the skillet is heating up. Toss in the chicken and cook until no longer pink, tossing with a spatula or spoon occationally. Add in your onions first. Let them saute for about 3-5 mins, then add in your mushrooms. When the mushrooms begin to soften, about 3 mins, add in your tomato, and if desired, season with additional lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper. When the tomatoes look good and roasted and yummy, serve over warm tortillas! To finish off serve with sour cream or guacamole. I have pictures of the whole process below if you want to see!

And the last two photos are my pain-in-the-rear tortillas! Hope you enjoyed the recipe, I had fun with this one!

Recipe Review, Crockpot onion soup

I just kinda winged this one after reading several recipes, so here we go! This recipe fits in a large crockpot, but I am sure you could scale it down. I made mine with tons of onions, so reduce the amount to have more broth and less onions. Sorry the photo of this one is not so good, but it was delicious I promise! It is really low budget, you can buy a bag of onions and beef broth, add seasonings, and tada!

Ingredients:
2 lbs of onions (about 5-6?)
6-8 cups of beef broth
1 stick butter or margarine
(or 6-8 c water with 6-8 beef bouillon cubes)
1-2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
minced garlic or garlic pwdr, to taste
Salt, pepper to taste
(Tip: the best bouillon I have ever tried is called better than bouillon
and it is way better than using beef broth or bouillon cubes, I love it!

Directions:
Slice onions thinly to make nice rings, and place in crock pot on top of butter. Add broth and seasonings and stir lightly just to combine. Cook all day on low heat or for 4-5 hours on high heat, until the onions are soft.

Serving suggestions:
Serve with garlic bread or to really wow the crowd, place soup in an oven proof bowl. Place a thick slice of bread on top, and cover with shredded cheese. Place in an oven on 250-300 deg F just until the cheese melts. This way is delicious, and my favorite way to serve this! If you are worried about health, use whole grain bread and low fat cheese.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust Recipe Review

Recipe review on whole wheat pizza crust

Ok, so I found this recipe on allrecipes and I loved it! The recipe has gotten 4 1/2 stars out of 5, and been reviewed by 313 people. This recipe will make 2 thin crust pizzas, or 1 thick crust. I made the two thin crust. The less bread I eat the better, because I love love bread and it does dangers to my diet, lol. The recipe is as follows, and here -->(pizza crust) is the original link so you can see all the nutrition and reviews

Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
submitted by: Marla

• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.
5. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

So I followed the recipe how it said, and even set my timer for 10 mins to make sure it was kneaded enough. I let it rise and all that, and it was easy enough to work with that I rolled it with a rolling pin, and rolled up the edges a little to make an outside lip. The only thing is I think it needed more salt or seasonings, because it was a little bland for my taste. I baked it on some aluminum foil, because I have no pizza stone, and when it was set and halfway through I shoud have baked it on the rack to make the bottom more crisp. So, do that or use a pizza stone, or the bottom will not be crisp like it is supposed to. I topped mine with cheese, lean hamburger, onions, and green bell pepper, but use whatever you like! This recipe was easy enough for a beginner I think. Just make sure your yeast is not out of date and it froths when you let it sit for the 10 mins or it will not rise. Other than that I have no more tips! OH and hubby liked it enough for me to keep this as my main pizza crust recipe, he didn't even mind that it had wheat flour in it.

I am making whole wheat pitta bread tonight so of course that will be my next review, along with some french onion soup I made the other day that was awesome!!