Thanks!

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. 

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.

Next time I may try these with oat flour to make them gluten free.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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:

Tangy Cucumber Salad

•                     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!