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Spicy Chicken Burgers
On this election eve, we are all waiting to see if our candidate won. Will there be a change of Presidents? You may or may not want a new president, but when it comes to food – change is good!
I was tired of the ho-hum everyday beef burger, so I came up with a new one.
Introducing…
SPICY CHICKEN BURGERS:
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1/4 cup chopped onions
- 1/4 cup chopped mushrooms
- 1/4 cup grated carrot
- 2 TBSP chopped Jalapenos
- 1 TSP seasoning of choice
- 1 egg, beaten
- 4 tablespoons southwest dressing
- 4 100-calorie thin hamburger buns
- Lettuce & tomato slices to top burger
- Cheese (optional)
Mix meat, seasoning, mushrooms, onion, carrots and jalapenos with egg in a medium bowl. Shape mixture into four patties and place in a large skillet sprayed with cooking spray. Cook for 5-6 minutes on each side over medium heat or until done.
Place cooked burger on bun and top each with lettuce, tomato and 1 tablespoon of southwest dressing.
Spicy Chicken Burgers
Author: Cookncents
Cuisine: American
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- ¼ cup chopped onions
- ¼ cup chopped mushrooms
- ¼ cup grated carrot
- 2 TBSP chopped Jalapenos
- 1 TSP seasoning of choice
- 1 egg, beaten
- 4 tablespoons southwest dressing
- 4 Hamburger buns
- Lettuce & tomato slices to top burger
- Cheese (optional)
Instructions
- Mix meat, seasoning, mushrooms, onion, carrots and jalapenos with egg in a medium bowl. Shape mixture into four patties and place in a large skillet sprayed with cooking spray. Cook for 5-6 minutes on each side over medium heat or until done.
- Place cooked burger on bun and top each with lettuce, tomato and 1 tablespoon of southwest dressing.
Notes
WW points=13,
Without Cheese= 380 Calories & 10 WW points
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1 Burger Calories: 495 Fat: 28g Saturated fat: 9g Carbohydrates: 27g Sugar: 4g Sodium: 612mg Fiber: 6g Protein: 34g Cholesterol: 176mg
Just some notes:
Chopped veggies – I chopped some extra to have with an omelet tomorrow morning. I also used canned jalapenos instead of fresh.
When you make the patties, they will be pretty mushy, but don’t worry. They will firm up as you cook them.
The hubby and I really enjoyed these! I had mine “protein-style” which means no bun. I just wrapped it in a romaine lettuce leaf and held the cheese with a side of asparagus.
Healthier Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
Mmmm… pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips. It’s a scrumptious little treat and not too bad on the sugar content (10g) compared to some other recipes.
Next time I may try these with oat flour to make them gluten free.
Healthier Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
Recipe type: Bread
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 12
Whole wheat pastry flour and coconut sugar makes these better for you, which makes room for the chocolate chips.
Ingredients
- 1½ C. Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup coconut sugar (may substitute brown sugar)
- ¾ cup nonfat plain or greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp melted butter or coconut oil
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree (may use canned)
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line or spray muffin tin. Mix together dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients and mix until combined.
- Pour muffin mix by the ¼ cupful into prepared muffin tin or cups. Bake for 17 minutes or until light brown.
- Makes 12 muffins.
Notes
4 WW Points
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1 Muffin Calories: 161 Fat: 6g Saturated fat: 3g Carbohydrates: 23g Sugar: 10g Fiber: 3g Protein: 5g Cholesterol: 77.5mg
Happy Saturday! Corndog Muffins for the Kids
This is an easy “recipe.” All you need is a box of muffin mix and some hotdogs. These were made with (2) 50-cent Jiffy Mix from the Dollar General plus a pack of beef hotdogs for $2.75. This made 17 muffins. I figure this makes 8 servings at $.47 per serving. Not bad. The kids really like these and it would make an excellent lunchbox meal, too.
To clean this up a little, you could use organic or gluten-free mix (better yet, make it from scratch) and uncured hotdogs (like these from Applegate Farms). It would still be an inexpensive meal.
Corndog Muffins for the Kids
Author: CookNCents
Recipe type: Kids
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Easy snack or lunch for the kids.
Ingredients
- 2 packages Jiffy Cornbread mix
- 8 pack of hotdogs
- 2 eggs
- ⅔ cup milk
Instructions
- Combine cornbread mix, eggs and milk. Slice hotdogs and stir into mix. Drop mixture by ¼ cupfulls into lined muffin pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until browned.
- Set on a rack to cool and serve.
Notes
10 WW Points
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 2 muffins Calories: 365 Fat: 19 Carbohydrates: 44 Protein: 7
Cheap Dollar Tree Lunch
This one is not a recipe – just a cheapo Dollar Tree find.
This made a quick lunch - although it falls quite a bit outside of my ideal eating plan (no processed food, hehe), it was good, quick and CHEAP so I did it anyway.
2 boxes Clam Strips (I’d compare the taste to fried calamari or fish sticks) $2
1/4 bag of frozen fries $.25
- Side of Ketchup or Cocktail Sauce (pennies)
Serves 2 – 3. Approx $.75 – $1.12 per serving
Dollar Store Dinner – Chicken Tortilla Soup
Today it was rainy, and it felt like a good day for some Chicken Tortilla Soup. There’s a lot of recipes out there but this one is made with goods from the dollar store. It’s a great recipe to cook from the pantry with, as well!
Dollar Store Chicken Tortilla Soup
Author: CookNCents
Recipe type: Soup
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
A chicken tortilla soup made with goods from the dollar store.
Ingredients
- 2 6 oz cans white chunk chicken
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can corn, drained
- 32 oz box chicken broth
- 8 oz jar of salsa
- 1 fajita sized tortilla, cut into strips.
- 1 TBSP Taco seasoning OR 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chili powder + ½ – 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- Cheese, optional
Instructions
- Lightly brown/crisp strips in oven at 350 for about 5 minutes and set aside.
- Pour all ingredients into a large saucepan and heat to a boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes. Ladle into bowls and top with tortilla strips and a bit of cheddar or jack cheese. Serve.
Notes
6 WW points
Nutrition Information
Calories: 278 Fat: 2.4g Saturated fat: 1.3g Carbohydrates: 35g Sugar: 6g Fiber: 8g Protein: 29g Cholesterol: 54.3mg
All items were purchased @ The Dollar Tree except the Jiffy mix which was purchased from Dollar General.
- 2 6 oz cans chicken $2
- Black Beans $1
- Corn, $1
- 32 oz Chicken Broth $1
- 8 oz jar of salsa $1
- Pack of Tortillas $1
- Spices – on hand (I’m sure it only amounts to pennies though)
- Cheese $1
- Jiffy Mix $.50
- Total: $8.50 or $2.13 per serving.
I just love cornbread to accompany my soup – but you could also simply use the extra tortillas with some butter or spread.
Once a Month Cooking Update – Cost
So far, everything we’ve eaten from the OAMC freezer stash has been great! I especially like the Orange Teriyaki pork chops. The day I made those, not counting defrost time – dinner was made in SIX MINUTES!!! I grilled the chops on my George Foreman while The frozen burritos are super handy in the morning, too.
It’s taken a few days – but the realization just hit that I FORGOT to discuss the COST of the meals! How did I do that? **Face Palm**
I did my shopping at Sam’s Club, and bought most of the ingredients there. I already had most of the spices on hand. I spent $257 at Sam’s Club for all the meat, cheese, bread, tortillas, produce and eggs to cook these meals. I spent another $25 or so at WalMart to buy the refrigerated dough, canned beans, some Mrs. Dash seasoning and pizza sauce. I still have a ton of cheese and beef leftover. I over-bought the ground beef by about 8 pounds!
I’m thinking of doing another cooking day real soon – I think I try my own plan though, and whip up some of our family favorites.
Once a Month Cooking
Over the weekend, I tried out “Once a Month Cooking” for the first time. It was a LOT of work, and I took 2 days to prepare everything instead of 1, but now we have some good food in the freezer for some quick meals over the next month.
After doing some research, I decided to go with Once A Month Mom’s free menu plans. I chose the August 2012 Traditional menu. It looked to be the easiest and most likely to be accepted by my children.
Once A Month Mom gives you links to Google Docs to print out the instructions, labels and recipe cards. I highly recommend logging into Google Docs and printing them out from there, because I tried to download them to Excel and it messed them all up.
Here’s some pictures of our OAMC day:
The kids unrolling crescent dough for our Rattlesnake Rolls (see link to menu above for all recipes) which are very
tasty.
Lemon Raspberry Yogurt Muffins – a huge hit with the kids. I made 36 & only 24 made it into the freezer.
Bubble Up Pizza – I made it half meat & olives & half cheese only.
We prepared the rest of the menu except the Tomato Bisque – my kids wouldn’t eat it, and I’m not crazy about it, so I didn’t bother with it. I also left some things out of recipes – like bell peppers and onions (onion powder is a good substitute if you like the flavor but not the texture of chopped onions).
I’m already planning to do some more muffins and food for the kid’s school lunch soon. I’ll update and let you all know how OAMC really works out after we’ve had the chance to reheat or cook the food and really put it to the convenience test!
Tangy Cucumber Salad from Heather’s Garden
Heather sent me some GREAT produce from her garden. Some greens, kale, squash, a HUGE zucchini, basil and a lovely lovely cucumber
Doesn’t it look spectacular? Heather’s really been working hard on her garden.
A few days ago, we discussed non-lettuce salads on our facebook page, and there were some really great suggestions. When I opened up the box she sent me, and saw this cucumber, I thought immediately of making a cucumber salad. I went to www.allrecipes.com which is one of my favorite sources for great recipes and found this winner:
- 2 small cucumbers, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon salt, divided
- 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
- 1 medium onion, chopped (I used red)
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil (I used fresh, chopped – from Heather)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard (I used prepared dijon mustard)
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- dash cayenne pepper
The original recipe called for chopping the cucumbers, sprinkling with salt and letting them sit for 1/2 hour – I just tossed it all together and it was fine and DELICIOUS. Hope you enjoy this one!