One chicken~three meals

One way to stretch the money for food is to get multiple meals out of a chicken. I bought chicken on sale for $.69 lb a couple of weeks ago, I bought six of them. At the time I thought I would just roast them like I always do. But the more I thought about it the more I wanted to see how many meals I could get out of it. So I started out putting the chicken in water and cooking if for about an hour, took it out and let it cool down. Then I took the skin off and shredded it (no pics, sorry) The first meal I made was chicken enchiladas. I don't make the standard enchiladas I made it into a casserole, layering the ingredients instead of rolling the tortillas. This not only takes less time it also uses less tortillas.

#1


Chicken Enchiladas:
2 sm cans enchilada sauce(or 1 lg)
shredded chicken(use as much or as little as you want)
1/2-1 onion diced
1 sm can diced green chilies
corn tortillas 10-12
shredded cheese(I used mozzarella and Mexican style cheese
I start by heating the sauce up to a simmer and then turning of the heat
At the same time pour 1/2 in to an inch of oil in bottom of stock pot(one with high sides)
heat oil up on a med/high heat
once it gets to temp, using tongs dip tortilla in oil for about 5-10 seconds then put on paper towel to drain and cool. Do all tortillas.
Put a spoonful of sauce in bottom of 9x13 casserole dish
After the tortillas have been dipped in oil and drained, dip them in the sauce and then wipe off extra(gettin dirty here) with fingers:)
lay them in casserole dish not over lapping(should be 3-4 per layer)
add shredded chicken, 1/3 of cheese, 1/2 of onion, 1/2 of can of chilies.
start layers all over again. top off with last layer of tortillas and cheese. heat in oven at 350 dergrees for 30 min or until cheese is melted and it is heated through.
I was hoping for some leftovers but between Jacob and Rob there wasn't any to be had;)

#2

Chicken Quesadillas
cook onion and bell pepper until limp
heat up griddle
put shredded chicken, cheese and onion mixture on tortilla and then top with another.
Grill on one side (350 degrees) and then flip. cook until brown on both sides and cheese is melted
using a pizza cutter, cut into triangles

#3

Chicken soup:
When I cook a whole chicken, I throw the carcass in the freezer to use for stock later on. I had three in the freezer so I made a huge batch of stock. I had enough leftover to freeze for another meal.
After the stock was done I drained it off and added more celery, onion, carrot, garlic and seasonings. I added the rest of my shredded chicken and cooked for a couple of hours. At the end of the cooking time I added the noodles and cooked them until they were done.

Rob was heading to a night job and was going to be outside so I wanted to send warm food with him. I also made the yummy bread on the plate.

It was great satisfaction to be able to stretch one meal into 3.

Fess' up Friday's

Dalyn over at Muck~N~Aprons is giving away $55 to spend at CSN stores any way you like. OK here is my Fess... I love to beat the kids at games...no mercy here. Just today we were playing slug bug in the car, I was winning and I loved it;) I am a VERY poor winner. Not a great example for the kids I know. Maybe this is why hubby doesn't like to play with me. Any game will do, but my specialty is yahtzee, and 4 kings in a corner. I am not a poor loser but if I do lose I will usually want a re-match. So there you go, my big fess up! Now its your turn, head over to Dalyn's and check out her cute blog and you too can Fess up!

Butchering Sheep

***NOT FOR THE WEAK STOMACH***

Turn back now...




Pictures ahead...





Last Chance...





OK one more chance...

It's really not bad by my standards but some might think so.

This is the girl we butchered (by "we" I mean Rob)

This is the one of the knives Rob used, he will definitely be buying more.

Getting the pulley set up.

Putting the legs in the spreader.

Finally hung up and ready to cut into.

First cutting.

As the internal organs started to fall out it got more difficult, but he figured it out.

Jacob and Jordan holding back the wool so none would get in the meat.

Starting to skin it.

J&J holding back the wool once again.

Almost done skinning.

internal organs on the ground.

cutting off the hoof area.

Lungs inside the cavity.

Cutting off the front leg.

Cutting off hoof area.

First leg done.

Rest of the carcass.

I didn't take anymore pictures after this, we were running around getting bowls and rinsing.
The table is a door off of an old refrigerator.
The older kids helped the whole time, asking great questions. We talked about the difference between our meat and store bought meat, and how it was so important to know this skill. Jaelyn came out once and took some picture, but Jocelyn was no where to be found;)

Bad Goaties

Came out to the pasture to find this:

Except no one is fessing up to doing it...

Who me?

Not me mom

The they won't even let me in there.

Could it be mother daughter duo?

Well if the goats didn't do it then maybe the chickens did, they seem to be hiding out under the porch.

This is what we get for buying a cheapo shed. Rob has plans on building one this Spring/Summer.

Playing with my New Toy

The only thing I really wanted for Christmas (besides kitchen, gardening, and goat stuff which my husband refuses to buy as a present) was editing software for photography. So I asked my friend at church/ photographer extraordinar Samantha which program was the best for beginning and she suggested this one. Thank you Samantha! fun stuff. But considering I am unable to just wing it and learn as I go I decided to buy a book:


I have realized after so many years that I cannot just pick up a book and learn without reading it over and over again. This is probably the reason why I did so poorly in History, but did great in Math. By that time I give up on the whole idea. So when I was scanning books to get and found this one I was overjoyed! It gives you a CD to upload lessons on you computer. So when you are going chapter by chapter it has the exact same pictures to work with that are in the book. I really have enjoyed the lessons, but I have also realized I could never do an online school at this time in my life. There are way too many distractions and the noise is way too loud to concentrate. I am looking forward to more lessons in the future, although it may take me awhile to get through the book. And at my age I may have to go through it all over again after I am done just so I can remember what I learned;) Ok, I am not that old but I will still have to go through it again.

Dreaming

planning
scheming
plotting
hoping
waiting
drawing
researching
charting
coloring
reading
dreaming of Spring...but without the wind thank you very much!

2010 Projects

Beginning of last year, after reading Terri's list we made a list of things we wanted to accomplish on our property. My list isn't quite as long as hers but we have a few less acres than she does;)The list can seem overwhelming but at the end of the year it is nice to see things got crossed off.
*completed or worked on
Outdoor
Garden:
Fencing around garden
*more berries
*take garden edging out
*work on getting compost built up
finish fencing around yard
*Can more fruit/vegtables (only did some since our garden was flop last year)

goat pasture
*remove old sprinklers and put in pop up sprinklers
pump house fixed
*milk shelter/hay shelter (still need some shelter so the hay doesn't go bad)
*pump rebuilt

Front yard
*take mailbox fence down
lattice around bottom of porch
*more flowers
repair concrete landing
*paint stairs and railing
fill up low spot that collects water
*fruit trees (need more still)
prune plum tree
*climbing roses (need more of these still)

Backyard
grass
paint shed
rewire sprinklers
kids play area
fix deck
lattice around bottom of back porch

poultry
new meat and layers
turkeys

There were a lot of inside projects on the list but we didn't even get to touch those. We got a lot done that wasn't on the list. This year we will be focusing on the back yard. Grass grass grass is the name of the game. We are so tired of dirt dirt dirt.

Christmas Recap

Christmas started the week before with the childrens program where there were several kids singing solos and duets. Jordan and Jocelyn sang a duet together. Mama's tummy was a ball of nerves.(sorry about the red eye)

The day after the childrens program we started to get sick. By Christmas eve Rob and I had been in bed a few days. Neither one of us had a voice and when we did we coughed. So the reading of Luke in the Bible was read by Jordan.

Me on Christmas morning, I was trying to keep oatmeal down;)

Rob on Christmas morning, he was freezing and after the presents were opened we both headed back to bed.