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Recipe Wednesday: Quinoa Recipes for a Protein Packed Meal

January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’m not sure how I found out about quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) and started seeking out quinoa recipes  but I’m so glad I did! It’s something that is so delicious and so easy to make, it’s now a permanent staple in my pantry.

I decided to spend some time this weekend cooking up a batch of this versatile grain. In case you are not familiar with quinoa, let me tell you a little bit about it. It’s something your probably going to want to start keeping on hand because there are so many things you can do with it!

What is Quinoa?

According to About.com, quinoa is usually considered a whole grain but it’s actually a seed. It looks like a small round pellet and comes in red or light tan colors. I’ve only seen & cooked with the light tan colored quinoa. It’s actually quite simple to prepare & is a great substitute if you are sick of cooking with rice. Some other features of quinoa include:

  • It takes less time to cook than other whole grains – just 10 to 15 minutes.
  • Quinoa tastes great on its own, unlike other grains such as millet or teff. Add a bit of olive oil, sea salt and lemon juice and – yum!
  • Of all the whole grains, quinoa has the highest protein content, so it’s perfect for vegetarians and vegans. Quinoa provides all 9 essential amino acids, making it a complete protein. Quinoa is a gluten-free and cholesterol-free whole grain, and is almost always organic.

Source: About.com

How Do I Cook Quinoa?

By far one of the best sites I’ve found for quinoa recipes is Cooking Quinoa. The recipes are so creative and I’m actually quite shocked at all the ways you can use quinoa! If you are looking for basic steps for cooking quinoa, follow these steps. Once you have your plain quinoa cooked, you can add it to soups, stir fry or salad to get the extra protein that will help you fill fuller longer.


Quinoa Recipes

Instead of posting one recipe this week, I’m going to link to several recipes to show you how quinoa can be used and how versatile it is. Here are some quinoa recipes to try:

As I mentioned earlier, quinoa is a great replacement or a substitute for rice in most any dish. You can cook quinoa ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for the week and eat it plain or add it to what you are eating that week. If you want to cook up bigger batches of quinoa, it will freeze well too.

One note about quinoa, it tends to bulk up pretty quickly. If you plan to add it to soup, I would cook the quinoa ahead of time separately and then add it to the soup at the end. I put 1 cup in with vegetable soup I was making  in the crock pot and it became too thick and very “un-soup like”.

Have you ever cooked quinoa? If so, what is your favorite quinoa recipe? Feel free to share it in the comments below! While your here, don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter and get my Single Girls 7 Day Budget Guide!

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Recipe Wednesday: Hoppin’ John & Skippin’ Jenny for Good Luck in 2012

December 28, 2011 By 4 Comments

Ok I really didn’t make up that name of “Skippin’ Jenny” !! When I was researching today’s recipe, I learned something new too – that leftover Hoppin’ John is called Skippin’ Jenny ‘ ha! Who knew?

Ok you may be wondering what Hoppin’ John & Skippin’ Jenny is and what it has to do with today’s recipe. Both recipes have to do with a mix of rice, black eyed peas and some other variations depending on where you are from.

Interestingly enough, eating both of these dishes on New Years is supposed to bring you good luck in the next year. That part I knew, but I didn’t know the details:

Throughout the coastal South, eating Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day is thought to bring a prosperous year filled with luck.[2][3] The peas are symbolic of pennies or coins, and a coin is sometimes added to the pot or left under the dinner bowls.[4]Collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, chard, kale, cabbage etc. along with this dish are supposed to also add to the wealth since they are the color of money.[5] Another traditional food, cornbread, can also be served to represent wealth — being the color of gold. On the day after New Year’s Day, leftover “Hoppin’ John” is called “Skippin’ Jenny,” and further demonstrates one’s frugality, bringing a hope for an even better chance of prosperity in the New Year.[6][7]

During the late Middle Ages, there was a tradition of eating beans on New Year’s Day for good luck in parts of France and Spain. The European tradition mixed with an African food item to become a New World tradition.

One tradition common in the Southern USA is that each person at the meal should leave three peas on their plate to assure that the New Year will be filled with Luck, Fortune and Romance. Another tradition holds that counting the number of peas in a serving predicts the amount of luck (or wealth) that the diner will have in the coming year.
Source: Wikipedia 

So Hoppin’ John & Skippin’ Jenny are really the same things – one just happens to be leftover. But isn’t it interesting how traditions and names get started and how they carry over through the years!

One of my favorite recipes for Hoppin’ John/Skippin’ Jenny came from the October 2011 issue of All You Magazine. The first time I made this, I made a big crockpot full & had tons of leftovers which is great because this frugal dish freezes very well. So in order to make sure you have time to make this before New Years, here is the recipe for Hoppin’ John:


Hoppin’ John

*When I made this, I doubled the recipe to freeze for later

4 strips thick cut bacon
1 small onion chopped
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 c dried black eyed peas, rinsed & picked over (here are directions for rinsing & picking dry beans)
1 – 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 c long grain rice
1 tsp salt
4 c water

1. Place bacon in a saucepan & cook over medium heat until just beginning to crisp. Add onion & cook, stirring until softened, about 5 minutes. Scrape bacon, bacon fat & onion into crockpot. Add crushed red pepper, peas and 4 cups water & stir to combine. Cover & cook on low until peas are nearly tender, 3 to 4 hours.

2. Stir in tomatoes, rice & salt. Cover & continue to cook just until rice is tender and has absorbed all liquid, 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. Fluff with a fork and serve.


You can serve this many ways.

  • As the Wikipedia article mentioned, you can chop and mix in your favorite greens such as mustard  greens, collard greens, turnip greens etc. I would chop and add these to the last 30 minutes of cooking in your crockpot.
  • You can add leftover turkey, chicken or ham to this recipe. Just chop up as much or as little as you would like and mix it in the last 30 minutes in the crockpot.
  • You can serve this as the recipe shows and add cornbread for extra good luck in 2012.
  • My favorite way to eat this is to add the mixture as made in the recipe to a soft shell tortilla, sprinkle some shredded cheese and microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute until the cheese is melted. This is a great frugal lunch that is so filling!
  • I think this would also be good with sauteed peppers and onions or any other vegetable that you have on hand.


What I love about this recipe (besides that it freezes well) is the cost. All You Magazine estimates the cost per serving at $1.21 but I think the actual cost is much lower, especially if you regularly keep this stuff on hand.

Best of luck in 2012! Be sure to ring in the New Year with some Hoppin’ John & then have Skippin’ Jenny the next day and let me know what you think!!!

 

Image credit: Wikipedia

 

 

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Recipe Wednesday: How to Make Your Own TV Dinner

December 21, 2011 By 4 Comments

Do people even call them TV dinners anymore? LOL. I don’t know. I think the modern day term is “frozen meal” or something like that but I got this idea after a conversation I had with my mom this week. She asked me if I ever make my own TV dinner? I said no – how do I do that?!

The basic idea is this, you take a divided food container like this:

And when you have a little bit of food leftover, you start adding it to the container to make your TV dinner. For example, say one night you make baked chicken but you don’t end up having enough left over to make another meal. You would add that leftover chicken to the food container and freeze it. Then later that week you have a little bit of extra peas or corn, go ahead and add that too the same food container too. Before long, you will have your own frozen dinners and you won’t be wasting small amounts of leftover food!



I think this is such a great idea. It’s amazing how much food we waste in general every month. It may not seem like throwing out a little bit of food is a waste but why not put that food to good use? The trick is to have the divided food containers on hand and remember to start saving your small amounts of leftovers instead of throwing them out.

Thanks to my mom for this great tip!

Do you have any other ideas on how to save leftovers?

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Recipe Wednesday: How to Cook A Free Range Chicken & Turn it Into 22+ Meals

December 14, 2011 By 6 Comments

This week’s recipe may be considered a bonus recipe because when you cook a whole chicken, it sort of ends up being the gift that keeps on giving!

What are Free Range Chickens?

Free Range Chicken’s are just that- they are chickens that are allowed to freely roam the farm and forage for the things chickens like to forage for (we won’t go into that).  By doing so, the chickens are able to develop more muscle (which is what we eat) and this results in much firmer and tastier meat.

You can find free range chicken in some grocery stores but you may have to hunt a little to find them. You can also find them at farmers markets or possibly a food co-op in your area. I’m lucky to live in an area where my chickens (and eggs) come from a farmer about 10 miles from my house.

Free range chickens are more expensive than regular chickens but I promise you it is so worth the difference. If you try it just one time you will understand what I mean and never go back to regular chicken!

Whole Chicken vs. Cut Up Chicken

If you have the option to buy your chicken already cut up, I recommend that because it will make it much easier on you. I’m not big on cutting through bones but if you aren’t worried about it then this won’t be a problem for you. If you want to cut up the chicken on your own, here are detailed instructions on how to cut a chicken.

Whether you cut your chicken yourself or it’s pre-cut for you, you will end up with the following pieces:

  • 2 breasts
  • 2 thighs
  • 2 legs
  • 2 drumsticks

If you bought your chicken pre-cut, you may have the neck and back of the chicken included. Don’t throw those away, we will use them in step 3. Sometimes my chicken has come with the liver and gizzards which I do discard. Some people like to eat this so if you do, go ahead and save it but we won’t be using those parts in this recipe.



Step 1 – Baking Your Chicken

What you will need:

  • 3-5 lb free range chicken cut up into 8 pieces
  • Salt (I used seasoning salt)
  • Pepper
  • Olive oil (or oil of your choice)
  • Fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme or other herbs of your choice
  • Garlic salt (optional)

Baking your chicken in the oven will result in the best tasting chicken you’ve ever had in your life! While I love my crockpot, I don’t recommend cooking your chicken in the crockpot because it just doesn’t end up the same. The oven gives the skin a nice crunchy crust and it cooks faster in the oven! These directions are based on a 3-4 lb. bird. If you have a larger bird, you will need to cook longer (until the juices are no longer pink).

  1. Using a roasting pan (or pyrex pan if you don’t have a roasting pan) preheat the oven to 400 degrees. coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil or any type of oil you have on hand (I use grapeseed oil).
  2. Begin to rinse each piece of chicken and dry off with a paper towel. As you dry the pieces, begin to arrange them in the pan with the breasts in the middle and the smaller pieces on the outside. Make sure to keep the skin in tact as it will help the juices stay in.
  3.  Once the pieces are arranged, brush (or use your hands) the oil over the top of each piece of chicken. This will help the skin become nice and crispy.
  4. Sprinkle salt and pepper over all the pieces. Feel free to add garlic salt or other spices of your choice. I sprinkled thyme over the chicken I made and also stuck dried rosemary sticks around the pan and under the skin of the breasts.
  5. If you have potatoes, stick them around the edges of the chicken to bake with it. The juices from the chicken will mix in with the potatoes and have a wonderful flavor.
  6. Bake the chicken at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 350 degrees and cook another 30 minutes until juice is no longer pink and the meat is no longer pink.

This should smell so good while it’s cooking you may not be able to stand it. The skin of the chicken should form a nice crispy layer over the top. If it’s not crispy enough for you, you can put it under the broiler for a minute or two. (Step 1 will get your first meal out of your chicken – 21 more meals to go).



Step 2 – Remove the Meat From the Chicken

Once you’ve finished your first meal from the baked chicken, it’s time to start removing the leftover meat from the bones. I usually just set a bowl next to me and start pulling off the shredded meat and adding it to the bowl.

Baked Chicken (ate some of it before I got the picture!

 

Don’t discard the bones! We are going to use that in step 3.



Step 3 – Making Homemade Chicken Stock

Once we’ve had our first meal and removed the meat from the bones, it’s time to put those bones to good use making chicken stock. You will definitely want to use your crock pot for this if its available.

What you will need:

  • Leftover bones from step 2 (I just throw the bones in the crockpot as I’ve picked the meat off)
  • Chicken back that may have come with your chicken you didn’t cook
  • Carrots
  • Celery
  • Onions
  • Cold Water
  • Seasonings of your choice (herbs, salt, pepper, garlic etc)
  • 2 tbsp vinegar

Throw everything in the crockpot and cover it with cold water. Let the mixture sit for at least an hour. The cold water and the vinegar let the flavor and nutrients be extracted from the bones.  After an hour, put the crockpot on low and cook for 10-12 hours. Some people cook their stock 18-24 hours but I’ve found 10 hours to be plenty.

Using a strainer, divide the stock and the leftover bones/vegetables. Divide the stock up in 2 cup 1/4 c increments (approximate size of 1 can of chicken stock) and freeze. If you plan to use the stock in the next 2-3 days, it will be ok in the refrigerator.

13 cups of chicken stock ready to freeze





Step 4 – Pick the Bones

If you are a bit squemish about picking through bones you can skip this step but if you can get past it, it can pay off. Trust me, I have better things to do then stand around and pick through chicken bones (& I know you do to!) but this extra step in the process yielded an extra 2 cups of chicken pieces for me!

5 cups of shredded chicken

One Chicken – Many Results


Ok let’s break down what I got out of 1 free range chicken. The cost of this chicken was approximately $11 w/ tax. From it I got:

  • 1 meal when the chicken was cooked
  • 5 cups of shredded cooked chicken
  • 13 cups of chicken broth

From the 5 cups of shredded chicken, I will add 1 cup to various meals I’m making. Most of these meals will include adding beans and rice in some form to make the meal go farther. Here are some example recipes:

  • Chicken Chili (approximately 6 servings)
  • Mom’s Overnight Casserole (approximately 6 servings)
  • Chicken Enchiladas (approximately 3 servings)
  • Shredded Chicken Nachos – Sprinkle the shredded chicken with a little bit of chili powder and mix well. Pile the chicken on your favorite chips and add black beans. Add cheese and bake at 350 degrees until the cheese is melted. Once it’s out of the oven, top with lettuce, tomato and onions. ( approximately 3 servings)
  • Chicken & Rice – Mix 1 cup of chicken with your favorite rice dish (approximately 3 servings)

From those 5 example recipes that include the 5 cups of chicken, I’m going to get about 21 servings (assuming 1 cup of chicken in each recipe). Add back in the original serving when I baked the chicken and that comes to 22 servings of chicken. It takes our original $11 bird and brings in down to about $.50 a serving.

I’m not even including the stock in that. If you’ve looked at the price of organic chicken stock these days, it’s not cheap. I got 13 cups of broth out of my chicken and considering each can of broth is about 2 1/4 cups of broth, I got the average of 6  cans of organic broth. In my area, a can of organic chicken broth is around $1.50 so by making my own broth, I saved around $9.

Not to bad for an $11 bird eh?

Notes on Cooking a Chicken

  • This can seem like a lot of work and overwhelming if your reading this for the first time. The trick is to plan it so it doesn’t feel like you are doing a lot of work.
  • I generally begin to thaw the bird in the refrigerator on Wednesday when I plan to cook the chicken on Saturday.
  • On Saturday, I will bake the chicken and have meal 1 with it.
  • While meal 1 is baking, I will start to prep the stock by throwing in all the vegetables, chicken back and seasonings in the crockpot. I move that to the refrigerator.
  • Once the baked chicken is done & cooled, I take the crockpot out of the refrigerator and set it beside the pan I’m using to remove the meat from the bones. One bowl is for the easy to tear off meat, the bones go in the crockpot to make the stock.
  • I try to start the stock at a time that I can guage when it will be done. I usually let me stock go 10-12 hours so I need to time it so it’s not done at midnight which means I’ll be dead tired trying to pick meat off bones. Not fun!
  • Make sure the broth is cooled down completely before you refrigerate it. I’ve let it sit out all night to cool w/ no problems (mainly because like I said the broth was done at midnight and I was too tired to mess with it). Some people will not do that so just make sure to plan accordingly.
  • The Nourishing Gourmet has a post on reusing chicken bones to continue to make broth. I’ve never done this but will probably give it a try the next time I do it.
  • I save jars (spaghetti sauce, salsa etc) to use to freeze items like the chicken stock. Yes you can freeze things in glass jars, just make sure you leave a 1 inch space at the top for expansion. If you don’t have jars, you can use freezer bags.
  • If your stock cools and has the consistency of jell-o, don’t freak out!!! According to Home Ec 101 – this is high quality stock. This jell-o like stock is from the gelatin in the chicken. “Gelatin is a protein found in the connective tissue and cartilage of animals. Sure it’s kind of scary looking, but your soups and sauces will have a richer flavor and feel to them, and rank a little higher on the nutrition scale.”

Buying a whole chicken and using all the parts can result in an extremely frugal meal. If you try this, please leave a comment and let me know how it turned out for you. Enjoy!

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