Oatmeal Make My Morning Go!

After most workout mornings oatmeal is my source of food. I really like making it the old fashion way in a pot. Since it only has to cook for 2 minutes it is the quick hot breakfast meal I prefer. I now use skim milk instead of water, I grab a handfull of raisins (loaded with Iron) and add them to the milk before I turn the heat on. A little brown sugar for sweetness without adding sodium and right after I put the oatmeal in the my bowl I add sliced banana on top (loaded with potassium).

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24 lbs Gone In a Month

Why am I posting this information on a budget blog/

It seems I may have caught a bug, the running bug. Feeding a family on  a budget is always tough but now fitness seems to have caught on in our family. Fitness requires food as fuel for the body. Similar to a casr engine, the better fuel you put in the better performance.

We are putting better fuel / food in our bodies and still living within our budget.

So far the whole family has lost 41 lbs!

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Chicken Roasted Two Different Ways

Roast chicken,

Roast chicken can save w grocery budget when you are trying to feed a family. As a follow up to my last entry. The grocery store had a sale on chicken that was so great I could not refuse to purchase some.

I picked up three chickens for a great deal. I put one in the freezer for future use and cooked the other two at the same time in my giant roaster.

To roast the chicken I decided to do two different styles;

The first chicken was very simple, was pat dry with paper towel and run with olive oil.

The second chicken I made a by combining equal parts 1 tablespoon of garlic powder, onion powder, poultry seasoning. I added ½ tablespoons of oregano and chili powder for some kick and finally 2 tablespoons of brown sugar for sweetness. I found the best way to mix spices is to use your hands.

I repeated the process of washing the chicken in cold water and patting dry with paper towel. I finished the second chicken by rubbing by hand my spice rub all over the chicken.

Here is a picture of the cooked chicken.

The meat has been used for chicken salads, sandwich meat, stir frys, and as part of roast chicken dinner. The bones will go into the slow cooker later for amazing chicken broth / soup

Sometimes The Grocery Store Will Dictate What You Eat!

I am all for clipping coupons to save money while grocery shopping. Unlike the extremists who can create major savings, my savings come mostly from spend $25 and receive $5.00 off.

Sometimes the grocery stores have loss leaders to get us in their store that are to good to be true. For example my local store had Iceberg lettuce for $1.49 a head. A competitor had the same lettuce for $0.33 and fryer chicken for $0.59 lb.

Without boring you another grocery store had an amazing sale on produce and vegetables.

I could not pass up on these deals, with $25 in my hand we shopped and we will be eating alot of chicken and vegetables this week.

Lasagna - full of flavor taste and texture

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This Lasagna is flavorful, tasty and the kids end up eating a lot of vegetables.
We like this recipe because it gives us a low fat, low sodium meal that is full of vegetables. The ingredients are very simple but the taste is powerful.

My ingredients are:
Olive oil
Red and yellow peppers
Celery
Garlic
Tomato
Onion
Oregano
1 pound of ground turkey
Grated Cheese
Whole wheat flour
2 eggs

First step is to cook the ground chicken in a non-stick skillet with a fat free spray. while the turkey is cooking begin making the pasta by breaking the eggs adding some olive oil and then the flour mix and knead.

While the dough is resting roughly chop 1/4 of each pepper and a cup of celery, place in a bowl. Cut up two tomatoes and place in a blender with two garlic cloves, onion and oregano. Turn the blender on and add olive oil. Blend until smooth and pour into bowl with chopped veggies and mix.

Begin heating a pot of water to cook the pasta noodle in.  roll the pasta dough into thin strips and place in boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove and oil so it won't stick.

Chop the cooled cooked ground turkey.

Place 1/3 third of the vegetable sauce oon the bottoom of the pan, then a layer of ground turkey, then a layer of shredded cheese, followed by a layer of pasta noodle. Add dollups of home made Greek style yogurt cheese.

Repeat and finally add shredded cheese to cover the top and bake at 350 for one hour.

Soup Salad Grilled Chicken and Whole Wheat Pasta

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What an amazing week!
April 27th I took up running. First day was 120 yards with a break in the middle. Today
I reached my goal of running 100 60yard runs.
The food we have been eating lately has been really health oriented.
similar to pizza salad can be made with anything including grilled chicken, hummus and Greek yogurt cheese.
The bones and skin from grilling chicken  wer put into a slow cooker to make an incredible broth. The soups I made with this broth were packed full of veggies. I used half a bunch of celery stock and my kids cleaned out the slow cooker. Good broth is everything!

Picked up a bag of whole wheat flour and made 100% whole wheat pasta, truly it was an amazing meal.

We are still under budget and eating fine.

On a side note the family has dropped a combined 32 pounds in the last three weeks.

Spectacular Chicken Noodle Soup

Last night we tried the  chicken broth from last weeks BBQ chicken we cooked.
The finished product was spectacular. The broth is everything when it comes to chicken noodle soup. It was low in sodium, low in fat but had big time flavor we added lots of vegetables and whole wheat pasta.
The kids at almost a whole slow cooker worth of soup.

You can get a free copy of our book "The Scratch" by sending an email to rickjhenderson@hotmail.com I won't share your email with anybody.

Soft Cheese Easy to Make at Home

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Soft Cheese the home made way

Living on a budget of $100 a week to feed a family of four is never easy. This task becomes really hard when you try to eat high quality food. One way we are able to keep the high quality is to make soft cheese. Our family loves to eat cheese and the soft cheese we find in our deli section of our grocery store would easily wipe out our budget.

Our Greek style soft cheese has become a favorite which is great because it is very easy to make.

You will need the following ingredients;

1 Whisk

1 Large bowl

1 Container of Greek Yogurt

Cheese cloth

Plastic container

The first thing is to empty the yogurt container into your bowl and whisk for about ½ a minute.

Spread the cheese cloth over the plastic container and slowly pour the yogurt onto the cheese cloth.

Grab the corners of the cloth and lift so the yogurt forms a ball and tie the top with string or twist ties.

Let this ball of yogurt hang over the kitchen sink for 12 hours (I like to make mine before bedtime and wake up in the morning with my fresh cheese)

Carefully peel back the cheese cloth and there is your creamy tangy soft cheese ready to eat.

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Mayonnaise You Can Make During T.V. Commercials

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If there is one thing I like better than getting a great deal at the grocery store it is making food during T.V. Commercials. Mayonnaise is one of those foods you can make during commercials rather than watching the commercial (exception would be Superbowl ).

This recipe requires the following ingredients
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon of dijon mustard
salt and pepper
1 cup of oil
1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar
Wet dish cloth

The first thing I do is set up all my ingredients on the counter before my show starts.

During the first set of commercials I separate the egg yolks froom the whites and put the whites in another container to for later. since this does not have to be perfect I squeeze the dijon into the bowl until it is the same size as one egg yolk, add a little salt and pepper.Back to watching my show.

Next commercial whisk everything then slowly begin to add my cup of oil while whisking. When all the oil is mixed in begin whisking extra hard for 30 seconds.

At this point you are almost done but if your show is a good one wait until the next set of T.V. commercials  to whisk in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice add a little salt or pepper to taste.

Now you have 1 cup of inexpensive home made mayonnaise.

Feeding a Family - Making BBQ Chicken Lunch Meat

The deli can provide the consumer with an abundance of different meats, flavors, thickness of slice, high sodium, lower sodium no fat, low fat, etc... a perfect place to find the quick and easy fillers for two pieces of bread. Quick and easy also are known to be very expensive. Many deli meats range in price from $7.00 to $9.00 per pound. They come packaged in resealable bags or containers so you can keep your meat fresh for a couple days.

Try making your own lunch meat after reading this blog. If feeding your family good quality food is your goal, then keep reading.

Yesterday I purchase chicken thighs with the leg attached. I like this meat because it cooks well and will be more forgiving even if you over do it a little. The other reason for picking thighs and legs is the price. At my local grocery store this kind of chicken costs $0.74 a pound.

A pound of deli meat will cost approximately $9.89 a pound. My purchased of $9.07 worth of chicken is comparable to the amount of deli meat I used to buy before going on a budget.

I have simply put the chicken on the bbq skin side up to cook on low (275F) for the next couple hours. Try to minimize how many times you turn the chicken, meat tends not to stick to the grill when it is done cooking on one side.

Let the chicken cool is something big without a lid, I used my roaster.

To separate the meat from the bones and skin I just used my fingers, slow roasted chicken will pull away from the skin and bones with ease.

The bone and skin do not go to waste. I put them in my slow cooker with onions, carrots, salt, poultry seasoning. Top the slow cooker with water and forget about it for a couple hours. I leave mine cooking o low overnight and in the morning strain.

This leaves me with 10 cups of chicken broth for soups, polenta, rice, pizza dough, etc... If you are not going to use the broth right away freeze it in containers. Once frozen transfer them to a freezer bag so you can use your containers for other foods.

You can get a free copy of our book "The Scratch" by sending an email to rickjhenderson@hotmail.com I won't share your email with anybody. The Scratch is about making three great meals to feed your family for under $17

BBQ Pork Pizza

BBQ Pork and veggie pizza with quick oats

To make it we start with 1 cup of cold filtered water that we will heat in the microwave. Warm water from the tap has a metallic taste. Add 1 tablespoon of yeast and let sit until it begins to look foamy or cloudy depending on your yeast.

Next add two cups of flour and 1/3^rd cup of quick oats to the wet ingredients and mix with a fork. When everything is well mixed, you should have a ball of dough, if not add a little more flour. Next, flour the counter with extra flour and run your fingers through the flour to spread it out. Dump the wet ball of dough on the counter and flour your hands so the dough does not stick to you.

Knead the dough to form a nice ball, set aside and cover with damp towel. If you look closely at the picture you will see little flakes of quick oats. These will soften to match the texture of cooked pizza crust when you are done.

I am all about the leftover and today we have leftover BBQ pork which has been cut thin with a good sharp knife. For vegetables, chopped red onion, green pepper and sliced olives.

While the dough continues to rest I use my mini blender to make the tomato sauce. This is real easy, slice a tomato add some oregano, garlic and onion powder. Pour a little olive oil and blend. You will have a nice pink sauce.

Now to work the dough. I do it by hand but I do not toss it like they do in pizza restaurants because the mes would be to big to clean up. I roll it with a rolling pin to create the general shape of the pan I will cook it in. In this case I am using a 14 x 11 cookie sheet.

Oil the cookie sheet with any oil you chose. Place the pizza dough on the cookie sheet and finish stretching the dough to fit. Spread your sauce over the entire pizza using a large spoon then begin adding your toppings. We usually place the meat first, then cheese and followed up with the vegetables.

Bake in your oven at 500F for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400F and wait for the crust to turn dark brown.

After you remove the pizza from the oven wait about 5 – 8 minutess before cutting the pizza so the toppings do not slide off.

All that is left to do is enjoy your home made high quality pizza!

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Sliced Pork Sandwiches

Used the last of the pork as lunch meat yesterday. I sliced the pork thin with a good knife. Put a little home made mayonnaise on each piece of bread, added a layer of pork slices and some lettuce. The top piece of bread I spread BBQ sauce. Packed the lunches and everybody had a great sandwich.

I find roasts are much cheaper than paying big $$$ for high sodium, high fat content lunch meat.

You can get a free copy of our book "The Scratch" by sending an email to rickjhenderson@hotmail.com I won't share your email with anybody. The Scratch is about making three great meals to feed your family for under $17

Oatmeal and BBQ Week!

The Sun is out and things are startitng to warm up.

Last night I found a great deal on bulk quick oats from my local grocery store. I also purchase a little bit of walnuts, brown sugar and raisins. Oatmeal is so inexpensive at $0.99 a pound. It may take me a couple months to use up the $2.75 worth of quick oats in my home.

The plan is to use quick oats in everything. For breakfast I will substitute 1/3 cup of flour for oats in pancakes and waffles. We will also eat it with brown sugar, nuts, maple syrup or raisins.

I want to get outdoors and bbq everyday but that might be tough. I will add quick oats to polenta and bbq it as a side meal. I will grind it and mix with flour for a coat while baking chicken.

My pizza dough will be altered by substituting 1/3 cup of quick oats to flour dough.

One thing we know for sure, the meals will be hearty, tasty and healthy.

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I love finding a roast on Sale!

I found a chuck roast on Sale, the manager had just finished marking down with extreme discount. Normally I would not buy a roast of chuck but I have a slow cooker and was confident it would make the meat tender.

I loaded the bottom of my cooker with the usual carrots onions celery and added a little oregano. Turned it on low and forgot about it until dinner time. As per usual the roast was tender, it broke into three pieces as I lifted it out of the cooker.

The roast has been eaten but it was the star of a couple meals;

Dinner was roast beef with garlic mashed potatoes and veggies.
Breakfast was shredded roast beef and egg sandwich.
Lunch was shredded roast beef and lettuce sandwich.

This weekend will be a bbq chicken weekend!

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March 2nd Breakfast Pancakes with peanut butter Get your Free copy of "The Scratch"

This morning I took two of my kids favorite breakfast foods and combined them. They enjoy pancakes and peanut butter cereal.
I made the pancakes like I usually do but dropped about 9 peanut butter cereal pieces on each pancake before they firmed up.

As I expected they gobbled them all up!

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March 1st starts with a great meal and Free "The Scratch" Book

Our family can never have to much pizza, we made an awesome pepperoni and sausage pizza with a mixed green salad with tomato, avacado, green onion. The dressing was a white balsamic package from some restauarant we were at months ago.

Tomorrow will be sandwiches as football practice starts early.

You can get your free copy of my mini book "The Scratch" It is three great  meals you can make your family.
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Rick