Roasted Chicken legs with potatoes and carrots

Chicken legs in a roasting pan with  carrots and potatoes. Very easy  and cheap to make and surprisingly quick to cook. It is always a hit in my house.

I do this one night a week,  chicken legs, cut up potatoes and baby carrots in the oven. I cover the veggies with chicken legs and 2 cups of water. Uncovered Bake at 400 for 1 hour. It is like a roast chicken with less work. I get everything ready in the morning and I get it in the oven at 4pm. Wha-la supper is ready at 5pm, plus my kids love it.

 There is no chance of allergy problems because there is nothing added to this meal. It's a no brainer.

Quiche

I made a few meals for a friend who is going back to work after her maternity leave.  This is where I get excited.  Unfortunately for my friend she has to make the huge adjustment to leaving her daughter at daycare but for me - I get to cook.  I love cooking for friends who need a quick meal due to time restraint. I have cooked for friends who are planning for a new baby's arrival.  I love it. Preparing one month's worth of meals in a day is fun for me.  Kinda like running a marathon for others.  It is exhausting and not entirely fun but hugely rewarding at the end. Which is also a good way to describe child rearing actually.  Today I was thinking about freezer meals for one. This week I cooked a ham for my family. So with some leftovers I made quiche but I tried my recipe in muffins tins.  I am sure this is something other cooks have figured out before me but I am feeling like some sort of

genius.  These little quiche muffins are adorable and will be so easy to grab and go for a work lunch.

I use the bisquick recipe called Impossibly Easy Chicken n' Broccoli Pie.  I change it all around.  So here is what I made
1/2 of a very small onion chopped
1 cup of chopped  ham
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
- insert frozen vegtables like spinach or cooked chopped broccoli, I used 1/2 a red pepper in mine
1/2 cup of salsa
1 cup of milk
3 eggs
3/4 cup of bisquick mix
1/4 tsp pepper
I put ingredients in order into a bowl. I whisked it lightly and poured into well greased muffin tins.
This will make 8 to 12 muffins,  I poured the remaining quiche mixture into a small pie plate after I filled the 6 muffin tins so I am not sure on the amount.  They smell amazing. I will freeze each quiche/muffin in it's own ziplock bag for easy grabbing. Wouldn't this be a great idea to take camping?

low fat Cream of Broccoli Soup

So I made an attempt to make low fat broccoli soup.  I love cream of broccoli soup and a friend pointed out how cream of soups are so high in calories.  I have no idea the calorie count of this soup but it makes about 6 cups.  This soup has not been perfected by making often. I just made it this afternoon and it turned out so I am sharing what I did.

2 medium onion
1 large clove of garlic
1 cup of chopped celery
Saute in 1/4 cup of water if you have a good Teflon frying pan.  Use oil if you need to in order for your veggies not to stick. I did not use oil, once my veggies were frying good I added a few tbsp of the chicken stock to keep things from sticking.
900 ml box of low sodium, low fat chicken stock.
2 broccoli heads
Chop up broccoli florets, peel broccoli stems and chop up. Add the chopped broccoli to the fry pan and let fry up a bit.

Once the onions are just starting to brown, put your veggies in to a food processor in batches. Add 2 cups of water with the veggies. As the vegetables purees, add 1/4 cup f flour a little at a time into the food processor. This is the secret to good 'cream of' soups. The flour will cook and thicken the soup with out clumps or needing fat to blend with the flour.
All the pureed vegetables, flour, water go into a  big pot with the rest of chicken stock.
De-glaze your frying pan with some of the chicken stock and add to pot as well.
Cook this on low for 1 hour.  Stir every 10 mins because the flour will settle and stick to the bottom of the pan.
Your soup should thicken, it will take a while. 
add 1 1/2 cups of fat free sour cream. cook for another 20 mins. Whisk well. Add pepper to taste.
I added 1 to 2 tbsp of low fat cream cheese.
tastes good and will improve the longer it sits. If it is not creamy enough you can add grated cheese to each bowl as it is served.
Next time I make it I think I will put in the crock pot to cook,  I wonder if that will work. Then add the sour cream at the end.
YUM

You know that joke about social media, where people post about what they are eating. Well I would do that a lot so instead I started this blog.  Tonight for supper we had pork loin, carrots and home made french fries.  It was easy and cheap.   I really want to post about it on my 'status update' but i am sure no one would care so I will share it here.
No frills this week had on sale the pork loin that comes precut.  I divided it into 3 sections and froze two which is 3 or four chops.  This may not be enough for your family but it is for ours cuz our kids are small. A 3 lb bag of carrots was .97cents and a 10 lbs bag of potatoes was $1.97. The pork loin was about $5.00.  Our supper was $7.94 divided by 3 = $2.65 for our family.  These are the things that excite me.  Supper was so good.
Pork Loin - 3 chops in a pan on broil for 10 mins each side.  Instructions were on the bag.
Homemade fries - I cut 6 potatoes into wedges and tossed them in a bowl with 1/4 cup of veg oil ( you can use olive oil) and 1 tbsp of dried oregano leaves, salt and pepper. Also I put aluminum foil on my cookie sheet before I put the potatoes on.  I started cooking these at 450 degrees oven for 15 mins before I cooked the meat with broiler on.  Toss the fries around when you go to put the meat in.  The fries will brown up nice finishing them under the broiler.  Just watch them cuz your oven is probubly hotter than mine. 
Glazed Carrots - I don't have amounts but this is how I do it.  Peel and chop carrots. Put in a frying pan with high sides. Put in enough water to cover. Cook uncovered on high til water evaporates. add a big  tbsp of butter and 'some' white sugar. Keep tossing. As the carrots continue to cook the butter should start to brown and the sugar with caramelize the carrots.  Taste one when you think they are ready to eat.

I don't have any exciting recipes to share today.  It is just another Friday at the end of a busy week.  My family has been fighting the stomach flu the past 8 days.  We haven't been eating much but I still have to provide meals. I cooked a turkey on Sunday that I had kept from Thanksgiving when they were on sale. We ate bits of that all week. I have made a lot of soup and sandwiches.  Today everyone is feeling better and looking for food.  Because of the flu I have not been grocery shopping in a couple weeks.  I want to express how much I appreciate my method of freezer meals ahead for many days.  Once again this morning I looked in the freezer and found homemade apple sauce, frozen strawberries, ground beef.  Today the girls and I made applesauce muffins, Smoothies with the strawberries and we will have meatloaf, potatoes and frozen corn and carrots for supper. We have our own beef from our dairy farm but our neighbours sell beef with that is hormone free and would recommend splitting a cow with a friend and stock your freezer.  This is more cost effective and so much healthier when you read about all the contamination scares.
  I am always so thankful by how much we all have.  I think we should have National eat out of your freezer week. In our house we could eat for a month without buying anything at the grocery store.  It is a great comfort to me to know we have this food planned ahead. However it does speak to consumerism and how much we think we need verses how much we actually need.  I take comfort knowing these strawberries and apples in my freezer (as well as pumpkin, rhurbarb and other foods) we have grown or gotten from our neighbours. So that is what I am promoting. Plan ahead, stock your freezer while food is locally ready, Eat out of your freezer as much as you can in the winter.  Save money, Eat better, Stress less.

Pie Crust

I wanna brag again.
I made an apple pie one afternoon with some of the filling I had left over from the day before when I was canning.  It was SO yummy.  So I thought I would share my pie crust recipe.  I got this recipe from my friend's mom.  How did mom's get so smart?  My parents got so much smarter since they have had grandchildren!  I actually enjoy her advice now.  This mix keeps in a cupboard for quite a while if it is cool.
Pie Crust
6cups of flour
1tsp baking powder
1tbsp of sugar
1tsp of salt
2 cups lard (tenderflake box is 2 1/4 cup)
break up lard in to pea size pieces, toss lightly all ingredients together
keep in a container. This will make about 6 pie crust bottoms.
When you are ready to make one pie, put 2 cups of mix into
a bowl. Add enough milk to make proper consistancy. This amount will make a large
bottom and top crust of a pie.

Chocolate  Clusters (Macaroons)

2 cups white sugar

½ cup milk

½ cup margarine or butter

Melt butter.  Add milk and sugar.  Bring to a bubbly boil and let boil for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.

Add

3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal

1 cup medium unsweetened coconut, firmly packed

6 tbsp cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

Pinch of salt

Mix together.  Drop by teaspoon on waxed paper. Makes 3 dozen

Not my recipe but these cookies are so popular and easy.   With Christmas coming I am whipping up batches of these for our MOPS group.   For church I will make a treat tray of Rice Krispie squares and macaroons to take for coffee time and I will be the 'Sunday Hero'!