Ranch Chicken Sandwiches

Way back when I started this blog over a year ago, one of the first things I planned to post were these sandwiches. Because they're awesome. And then I didn't and then the Cheap Eat Challenge came and we couldn't afford to make them and then I kind of forgot about them. Until a week ago when I threw some Ranch dressing on some chicken in a skillet. Suddenly I remembered them. Suddenly I wanted them. Desperately.

Now you can desperately want them too. You're welcome.

P.S. Don't let the chicken breasts and spinach deceive you. This isn't low-fat.

Ranch Chicken Sandwiches
Makes 4 sandwiches
Prep and cook time: 20-30 minutes
Cost: $4.70 plus what you pay for buns--$5.50
(chicken: 3.00, bacon: .50, ranch: .70, spinach: .50)

Note: One of the great things about this recipe is that you can use leftover chicken in it if you've got it--it'll still suck up the flavors of the sauce. If you don't have it, don't despair, because this is still uber fast to make.

Note on Ranch dressing: You can probably use any kind of Ranch dressing to good effect. However, we generally use "homemade" Ranch dressing, which means we use the powdered stuff mixed in with mayo and milk per the instructions on the package. However, if you want to have the very very best Ranch mixture, this is what you should do. Mix one package Ranch Dip (not dressing) with 1 C milk and 1 C mayo. It'll be a runny sort of "dressing." We discovered this by accident when I bought dip once instead of dressing, and it is the best. I don't know why it's better than regular Ranch, but it is.

2 chicken breasts, cut into bit sized-cubes
4 strips bacon
Ranch dressing (see note above), about 1/2-1 C, though I never measure
4 C spinach, chopped or shredded by hand
4 rolls, bagels, or hamburger buns
mayo, pesto, and/or cheddar (optional)

In a skillet, cook bacon until fairly crisp. Remove bacon from pan, but leave those lovely drippings.

Cook cubed chicken in the bacon drippings for a couple of minutes. Add Ranch dressing to the chicken and stir it around to coat the chicken. Stir this every minute or so until the chicken is entirely cooked (the dressing will get a little brown as it cooks with the chicken and some of the oils may separate out of the dressing, so don't freak out if that happens. You want your chicken to be brown at the end, not to have a coating of white Ranch dressing on it).

Throw spinach in the skillet and cook a minute or two more until it is wilted. Crumble bacon and add it back to the pan.

Scoop out the chicken mixture and put it on your sandwich bun of choice (we used a whole wheat version of these rolls, which were awesome. We also like bagels or sandwich buns or even hamburger buns). You can toast your roll first or not; both are good.

If you aren't completely freaked out by the amount of fat you've already witnessed in your pan (embrace it my friends; and serve the sandwiches with a big salad--that should make you feel better), you can put mayonnaise on your bun with a little cheddar, which is delicious. The other thing I really love with these sandwiches is a bit of pesto spread on the bun. Alternately, if you don't have pesto, you could throw a handful of well-chopped basil leaves and a chopped clove of garlic into the skillet when you add the spinach. If you like basil, this is very very butt-kickingly delicious, so do it, okay. Even if you hate basil, you might like this because it's subdued, but still delicious.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Crock Pot Italian Chicken

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

This recipe is from my little brother. It's a strange thing to get a recipe from the brother who is 11 years younger than you. Yet, eventually there comes a time in life when such a thing happens. When this happens, you can rest assured that you, the oldest sister, are very old. But don't worry, because as the oldest child you were most likely born old. So you might as well take advantage of your brother's recipe because it's super yummy. (Your mother--for whom he made it--even said so. By the way, when your littlest brother is not only making food that does not consist of peanut butter and jelly, but also sharing that food with others, you can bet that you are, in fact, even older than you thought. You can bet that young people who see you don't see the hip cool thirty-something you suppose yourself to be. You can bet that they see some lady with several kids who has forehead wrinkles and frequent bad hair days.)

Besides being super yummy, your brother's recipe comes of age in a crock pot. Which, as the outside temperature creeps up into the 90's, is a very good thing. And in addition to not requiring you to sweat over a skillet or an oven, this recipe is super easy. It's perfect for a Sunday dinner after church. It's perfect for a potluck. It's perfect for a short visit from your sister. It's perfect for any old Tuesday night. It's perfect for nights after/before soccer, baseball, cub scouts, piano. It's perfect if you work. It's just really good. Kip said so several times last night. Several.

Of course, as an oldest child I did fuss it up a little bit. It's my job after all. Because I am old. And because I did not have cream of anything soup on hand. Below I will post the super easiest version--truly one for a morning when you need to be out the door in 3 minutes. And I'll post mine which involves the making of a white sauce. This only adds 5 minutes to the meal. And I thought it was really good. (P.S. For another 5 minutes, you can make your own Italian dressing mix as well.) And while we're talking about time, if you forget to get your crock pot going in the morning, I'm betting this would be really great prepared in an oven at 375 or so for about 45-60 minutes.

Crock Pot Italian Chicken
Serves 6
Prep time: 3-10 minutes
Cook time: 6 hours in crock pot
Cost: $4.85
(chicken: 4.00, cream cheese: I got mine for .50, but a more normal yet still cheap price is a little over a dollar, white sauce: .30, Italian dressing packet: homemade: .05; I don't know how much it is to buy it.)

4 chicken breasts--about 2 lb.
8 oz. package cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup (or 2 Tbsp butter, 2 Tbsp flour, 1 C milk, 1 tsp bouillon granules)
1 packet Italian dressing mix (or 2 Tbsp homemade Italian dressing mix)

Put chicken in crock pot. Add cream cheese in chunks. Add cream of chicken soup and sprinkle with Italian dressing mix. Cook on high for 6 hours (my chicken was frozen; if yours is thawed, this will take less time) or whenever dinner is. Shred chicken and mix chicken with cream cheese, sauce, and seasoning. Serve over rice or starch of your choice. We had a salad on the side the first day and broccoli the next day. I also thought it would be really good with a few lovely seasonal tomatoes sliced up on the side.

If making a white sauce instead of using cream of chicken soup:

Melt butter in a pot. Whisk in flour and bouillon. Let bubble for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Whisk in milk. Stir until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened (should take 1-3 minutes).

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Blueberry Soup (aka Almost Ice Cream Blueberry Yogurt Smoothie)

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 tries to eat on $6/day.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I'll drink any healthy concoction you put in front of me (provided it's not, like, aloe vera juice or something). If it tastes great, I'll even post it to this blog. But some things. Some things are so good I'd happily skip ice cream or milk shakes or sundaes just so I can consume them. Some things are so good that I must insist you go buy blueberries and vanilla yogurt this instant so that you too can experience the chilled nirvana this soup/smoothie is. Some things are so good that some kids--even kids who turn their picky noses up at blueberry syrup, which for the record is boiled sugar with blueberries strained through--ran screaming from the yard shouting 'blueberry soup' when I announced that the second batch (because we weren't about to stop at one) was ready on Sunday.

That's right:

I scream, you scream
We all scream for blueberry soup.

Hmm. Let's try that again.

I scream, you scream
We all scream for blueberry yogurt almost ice cream.

There, that's better.

For the record, this can be drunk from a cup. But it was so pretty. And thick and creamy. And truly surprisingly like really soft ice cream in both texture and taste. That we put it in bowls. Just like the hip gourmet people that we are--dining on pretty soups before la main course. Except that, unlike those who get invited to fancy dinner parties, most of us had on bathing suits with mud up to our knees. Because that's how we roll around here.

Seriously though, although this is great for kids, it would also be great for a summer dinner party--either as the dessert or as the soup course. And it takes 3 minutes to make. Which as I understand it, is great for both mommies and hostesses alike. If you're not serving it to people who smell like dirt, you could garnish it with mint, lavender, or lemon balm.

And if you are serving to the sprinkler crowd, we made it into popsicles today. They were great too (though not as perfectly creamy as their soupy counterparts).

Blueberry Soup
Makes 3-4 cups
Prep time: 3 minutes
Cost: $1.58
(blueberries: .65, strawberries: .30, spinach: .10, yogurt: .45, milk: .08)

Note: I must insist that your blueberries (and preferably strawberries as well) be frozen. Otherwise, you won't get that amazing icecreamy quality.

1 C blueberries, frozen
1/2 C strawberries, frozen (if you haven't got them, add another 1/2 C blueberries)
1/2-3/4 C fresh spinach (just do it; you won't taste it at all and you'll feel pretty righteous when those kids come screaming for it)
1 C vanilla yogurt (alternately you could probably use 1 C plain yogurt with 6 Tbsp sugar, which is how I do my yogurt smoothie pops, though I haven't tried that with this recipe)
1/2 C milk (I used whole raw milk because I rage against the machine, but I bet 2 % would work just fine)

Blend it all in a smoothie. Serve in bowls or cups or as popsicles

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Linked up with Amee's Savory and Sweets for a Saturday.

Brownies with Browned Butter Frosting--A Link That Will Change Your Life

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch our family of 6 eat (or try to) on $6/day.

What? You think I'm being dramatic? You think brownies are good and all, but that they don't really change one's life? Well that shows how much you know. The first thing Kip ever gave me were brownies--wonderful, perfect, homemade brownies.

Of course, they weren't these brownies. If they'd been these brownies, I would have married him on the spot instead of dragging things out in bothering to think about the hugely life-changing event that marriage is. Some people get drunk in Vegas. Some people give brownies with browned butter frosting. So I suppose it's for the best that Kip and I discovered browned butter frosting after we were married and several children into it. Because some things are worth thinking through.

And now onto the recipe.

I wanted to steal this recipe. I really did. I wanted to post it and claim it all as my own. I wanted the glory. Because, truly, it is glorious. I tried to think of ways I could alter it so as to improve it or change it just a bit so I could say I had adapted it. But I didn't want to touch it. It is too perfect as is.

Here is the link. It's from a now defunct parenting magazine called Wondertime. And below you'll find the recipe written out. Because the link is very very hard to see.

A few notes:

This recipe is not your throw it together because you're in the mood kind of recipe. It's not hard, but there are three steps and between them you must cool the part before, so it's the kind of thing you start in the morning. I'm okay with that. It keeps me from making these so often that I gain 7 trillion pounds in 3 weeks.

Also, if you have excellent eyesight and read the link, you'll note that she recommends eating these cold for two reasons: one is that you'll be forced to savor them and the second is that they're better. I disagree on both points.

These brownies are awesome and if cold brownies are your thing, so be it, but I like them best at room temperature. The layers hang together better instead of getting so firm that they try (somewhat) to separate from the brownie, they are totally savorable (who says something has to be cold to slow you down) and I just really love the texture when they're soft with a supple frosting. (Boy, I think I need a cold shower just thinking about it. Maybe things do need to be cold to slow you down.)

Brownies with Browned Butter Frosting
from Wondertime
makes 24
Prep time: 20 minutes spread out over several hours
Cook time: 30 minutes
Cost: too much, but worth every penny: $4.76
(this is for brownies and toppings: butter: 1.25, unsweetened chocolate: 2.00, eggs: .40, flour: .09, sugar: .32, powdered sugar: .45, vanilla: .05, cream: .20)


The brownie:

1/2 C butter
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 C sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 C flour
1 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 300.  Butter a 9x13 pan and line it with buttered parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan. (I didn't; I only lightly greased mine and all was quite well.)
 
Melt the butter and chocolate on low heat.  (Did mine in the microwave.) Remove and cool.  Beat eggs with sugar and salt for 8 minutes. (I did mine for 8 minutes, but felt that at 5 or 6 they were as fluffy and thick as they ever got, so you can probably cut this time down a bit.)

Fold in the chocolate, then flour and vanilla.

Pour into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes. (Mine went 32-33 minutes.) Cool about and hour and a half.


The frosting:

1/2 C butter
2 C powdered sugar
1/4 C heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla

Melt the butter on low heat until it browns. The original recipe said to do it for 25 minutes on low. I did this and had to turn it up at the end to get it to brown. You can probably do it faster on medium heat, but it will need your attention so you don't burn your butter. For those who haven't browned butter: The butter will melt; it will reduce; it may foam; it will begin to change color. You will want it to be a nice caramel color. There may well be some solids (dark fleck like things) at the bottom of the pan; this is fine. It will begin to smell nutty. You'll want to swirl your pan or stir it so parts don't burn. When it's caramel colored with a nutty smell, take it off. Give it a minute to cool and pour it into a bowl. If you leave it in the pan, it will continue to cook and may burn.

Remove from heat and beat in the sugar, cream and vanilla.

Frost the brownie layer while it's still a tad warm.

Let cool at least 15 minutes. (I left mine much longer and all was well.)


The glaze:

Note: I know it takes a teeny bit of faith to use the unsweetened chocolate on the top. DO IT. It's the perfect contrast to the sweet brownie. It will not seem you are eating unsweetened chocolate at all. It will merely seem very chocolate-y and very browned butter-y.

3 Tbsp butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

Melt the butter and chocolate in a small pan on very low heat.  (I did mine in brief--20-30 second--intervals as I always do when melting chocolate.) Pour over the icing layer and gently spread it by tipping the pan back and forth.

Let the whole thing cool for about an hour then cut the brownies into squares.

Refrigerate it if that's your thing.

 PRINTABLE RECIPE

BLT on Sourdough with Avocado Mayonnaise

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 learns to eat on $6/day.

I am a firm believer that BLT's are usually best in the summer when the lettuce and tomatoes are fresh and abundant. However. On Monday Kip and I went out to lunch at a sandwich shop where the first thing listed was a BLT on sourdough with avocado mayonnaise. It sounded awesome, but I didn't order it. I got another sandwich that also sounded amazing, but just wasn't. And so, ever since then I've been unable to shake the urge for that BLT. And then avocados were on sale for $.78. What can I say? I know when a thing is simply meant to be.

I had fresh lettuce, but could not bring myself to pay $2.48/lb for the mostly green tomatoes at Walmart. I figured I would improvise something and I did. I had some home-canned tomatoes (I know some of you just checked out; stay with me), but I knew just flopping them on the sandwich wouldn't do it any kind of justice. So after the bacon had cooked I tossed the tomatoes into the bacon grease and let them warm up and some of the juices evaporate off. It worked. It's not fresh summer tomatoes, but it was still very very good. A winter BLT. Come and dine with me.

BLT on Sourdough with Avocado Mayonnaise
Serves 4
Prep time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 7 minutes
Cost: $2.43
(avocado: .78, mayo: .10, lettuce: .10, tomatoes: .10, bacon: .1.25, bread: .10)

10-12 strips bacon
4 large lettuce leaves
1 large fresh tomato or about 1/2 C quality canned tomatoes
1 avocado
1/4 C mayonnaise
8 slices sour dough bread, toasted (French or white or whatever firm and yummy kind of bread will also work)

Cook bacon.

While it cooks, prepare avocado mayonnaise by mashing the avocado with a fork, then combining well with mayonnaise. Tough, I know, I'm just a regular old gourmet.

Toast bread.

When bacon is done, toss tomatoes into grease if using canned tomatoes. Give them a minute and let them sizzle and some of the juices evaporate off, but don't burn them. I took the pan off the heat because it was so hot. Turn them over to warm the rest and remove from heat.

Assemble sandwich: Avocado mayo, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce.

Eat, my friends, eat.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Best Ever Chocolate Cake

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 learns to eat on $6/day.

I love this cake.

Then why don't you marry it, you may be asking, especially if you are six years old.

Because I have, as alluded to yesterday, a wee problem with fidelity. I see other recipes and they just sound and/or look so good sometimes. I flirt with them a little, just to see, I tell myself. And some of them are good. Some of them are even great. But none of them is this chocolate cake. Which is the best there ever was. Period. Please forgive me chocolate cake, for ever thinking anything else. I love you and promise not to go seeking after grass that may seem greener, except maybe for that one with almond filling that I'm thinking of trying for my birthday. But after that, I swear, it's you chocolate cake, only you...


Best Ever Chocolate Cake
adapted from smittenkitchen
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Cost: $2.63
(chocolate: .50, sugar: .50, flour: .23, cocoa: .75, eggs: .30, oil: .12, buttermilk (I do milk and vinegar): .20, other stuff: .03)

3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (about 1/2 C)
1 1/2 very hot water
3 C sugar
2 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
3/4 C vegetable oil
1 1/2 C buttermilk (or use a scan 1 1/2 C milk mixed with 1 1/2 Tbsp vinegar)
3/4 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300. Grease and line bottoms of three 9-inch cake pans. Grease the wax paper lining also.

Chop chocolate (or save yourself some time and use chocolate chips) and put it with the hot water. Let it stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate has melted.

In large blowl, sift fugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl, beat eggs until thickened very slightly and lemon colored (3-5 minutes). Gradually beat in oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate. Add dry ingredients and beat until just combined well.

Divide batter evenly into cake pans.

Bake 35-40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs attached.

Allow to cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn out on racks to cool completely.

Frost with your favorite frosting. We favor the chocolate one you'll find here.

Note: Just want two 9-inch layers. Smittenkitchen gives an adaptation here, but don't cook it as long as she guesstimates. You must only do 35-40 minutes or it will be burned and dry and not the best ever.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

(Look, I even found a picture of it from Kip's birthday a while ago.)

Jean's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 learns to eat on $6/day.

We like cookies in these parts. But generally speaking, I'm not the main cookie maker in this family. Don't get me wrong; I make plenty of sweets, but I like to experiment and try new things. Most of our faithful standbys--brownies, cookies, wacky cake--are made by Kip. However, this past Sunday I found myself home from church with a few sick kids and it just seemed like something fun to do. By that point in the over-a-week-of-sickness, I was in need of something fun to do.

When Kip makes cookies, he makes a lot. And he doesn't like to vary from the way we always do them (see that comment above about me being the one to experiment). With him out of the picture, I did it my way. And I halved the recipe. Please imagine the maniacal laughter of someone drunk with her own power. Thank you.

What is my crazy way, you may ask? And why on earth would a sane person halve a cookie recipe?

First of all, who every said I was sane, and secondly, my way isn't so very different, but it involves oat flour, which I love. Plus, that makes it healthy, right? (Public Service Announcement: The previous comment was a joke. Adding a bit of oat flour to your normal old chocolate chip cookies will not make them healthy, though it will make them more complex and tasty. Please do not serve these cookies for breakfast. Thank you.)

And I halve the recipe because I think it's fun to torture my poor husband. Just kidding. I halve the recipe because I don't like having cookies around for days. It's not good for us. We do this weird thing and we eat them all. If we save some as dough, then we eat that. If we don't eat them all, sometimes scooping dough in clumps from the refrigerator (and we usually do eat them all, though occasionally there's like a cookie and a half hanging around stale), then I feel guilty for wasting them. So I halved it. Kip does not allow this. Again, please imagine Dr. Frankenstein limping around her laboratory kitchen doing whatever she will despite the warnings/fears of others--bwahaha. Thank you.

Jean's Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 18-24 (Yes, this is half what we usually make.)
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 9 minutes/batch
Cost: $1.90
(butter: .50, brown sugar: .17, sugar: .08, egg: .10, flour: .08, oat flour: .07, chocolate chips: .90)

Note: To make your own oat flour, just throw some oats in a blender and blend until flour-y consistency. Freeze what you don't use.

1 stick butter
1/2 C brown sugar (packed)
1/2 C white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 C all purpose flour
1/2 C oat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat in eggs.

Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix. Add to wet mixture.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. I did mine right at 9 and thought they were perfect. Don't overbake these boogers or you will be sad--they should be just browning at the edges and maybe a wee bit on the top.

These freeze well as does the dough. You can freeze the dough as a hunk or roll it into balls and freeze it in individual serving sizes. Then you can just throw the balls onto a cookie sheet and add a couple minutes to your cooking time and voila.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Renee's Cornbread

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 learns to eat on $6/day.

It's been a rough month. Someone--usually more than one someone--has been sick every day for the last 11 days. We've been sick in all kinds of ways from tummy stuff to boogers to hacking coughs to an ear infection--several of the children enjoying many varieties of sickness in succession. As you can imagine it's been a regular fun house around here. I've barely left the house. I've rarely gotten dressed. And, yet, I am grateful because through it all I've remained fairly healthy. In fact, in some ways I've felt like a general watching her soldiers fall one by one. Last night Kip succumbed, albeit in a much more mild way than the kids. And I'd like to believe that I'll remain standing and, um, win the war and stuff, but today I'm tired and just a wee bit under the weather. Sigh.

Anyway, no one has wanted to eat much in the normal balanced meal department. Last night we were going to have chili and cornbread. It turned into just cornbread. Fortunately, it's really good cornbread, so I can tell you about it.

I got this recipe from my friend, Renee. It's moist and just the right amount of sweet (which for us is definitely sweetish). My son--who eats almost nothing in the out of the PBJ range--loves it. And in case the word 'sweet' didn't give it away, it's northern style cornbread--nothing to do with bacon grease. Sorry southerners.

Renee's Cornbread
Makes 16 pieces
Prep time: 5 minutes (I'd like to point out that this is so easy to assemble. It will take approximately 3 minutes longer than a Jiffy mix and it tastes worlds better.)
Cook time: 25 minutes
Cost: $.60
(Cornmeal: .15--bit of a wild guess; I haven't bought it for a while, flour: .11, milk: .13, egg: .10, sugar: .08, other stuff: .03)

3/4 C yellow cornmeal
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease square pan (8 or 9 inch). Sift dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and stir thoroughly. Pour batter into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Test with a toothpick or fork or knife or some other method besides cutting it into 16 pieces and realizing that the top was still raw and throwing the partially cooled and thoroughly cut concoction back into the oven and then cooking it again (not that I have ever done this before).

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Kale Green Drink

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

Let's talk about kale. It's green. It's pretty. It's can handle cruddy soil if you're growing your own (as opposed to its more needy counterpart, the spinach leaf) and it can endure cooler temperatures. In fact, it's sweeter after it's gotten a little frost-bitten, so it's peak season is during the fall and winter. It lowers cholesterol, acts to detoxify the body, has anti-inflammatory properties, and of course tons of antioxidants. It also contains a crazy amount of vitamins K, A, and C, as well as lots of nearly everything else. For more info, have a look here.

And it's cheap. A bushel of about 9 oz. of kale cost half as much at Walmart as a 9 oz. bag of spinach. When used raw in a smoothie, the tastes of the two greens are surprisingly similar.

Kale Green Drink
Makes 3 cups
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: .80
(kale: .15, applesauce: .10, strawberries: .25, peaches: .20, banana: .10)

Note on kale: If you're new to green drinks you might want to start with 2 cups.

Note on fruit: This tastes better if at least some of the fruit is frozen when you start out. Then it's nice and cold and smoothie-like instead of warm fruit-drink like.

3 C kale (middle rib removed unless you've got a strong blender)
1 banana
1 C strawberries
1/2-3/4 C peaches
1 C apple juice

Blend till smooth.

This will supposedly keep for up to 3 days (with most of the nutrients in tact) if it's sealed and refrigerated, though I've always drunk it right up sooner than that.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Hot Reuben Dip

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch, or join us as our family of 6 eats, or tries to on $6/day.

So I'm a little late to the Superbowl. It and I never quite make each other's radar.

Fortunately, this dip/sandwich spread would be good for any old sporting event party you'd like to have. Or any other kind of party. Or any old evening when you're pressed for something quick, hot, and so delicious.

We use it as a sandwich spread and like it best served on slices of sourdough bread. But it's great as a dip served with crackers or cut veggies. Last night we ate it with some homemade white bread, and green drinks on the side.

Hot Reuben Dip
Adapted from Betty Crocker's Quick and Easy Cookbook
Serves 4-8
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Cost: $3.72
(cream cheese: $1, corned beef: .58, Thousand Island: .50, sauerkraut: .15, Swiss cheese: 1.50)

Note on substitutions: Don't like sauerkraut, just leave it off (you'll notice in the picture below that half of ours has it and half of it doesn't. I'm sure that doesn't surprise you). And if you hate Swiss cheese, you can use mozarrella or a mild cheddar. But the Swiss is delicious. And of course, it and the sauerkraut make a reuben a reuben.

1 package cream cheese (8 oz), softened
1/2 C Thousand Island dressing
1 1/2 C shredded Swiss cheese (6 oz.)
1 oz deli sliced corned beef (I just used the cheap Budding package), chopped into 1/2 inch (or smaller) bits
1/2 C drained sauerkraut

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine cream cheese and Thousand Island. Add 1 C of Swiss cheese and corned beef. Mix well. Spread onto bottom of 9 inch pie plate.

Top with sauerkraut and remaining 1/2 C Swiss cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes or until edges are brown and bubbly.

Serve warm with crusty bread, cut vegetables, crackers, or pretzels.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Alyssa's Better than Perfect Breadsticks

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 learns to eat on $6/day.

A few months ago, we had some good friends over for dinner. We made pizza and they brought breaksticks. The breadsticks totally upstaged the pizza.

Fortunately, I know these are true friends because they gave me the recipe. So now I can upstage myself. Because these are perfect. Better than perfect. Better than any breadstick you've ever had from any pizza place. Much better. And they're not even hard to make, although they do require an hour to an hour and a half of foresight. I realize that can be a challenge. Do it anyway.

Alyssa's Better than Perfect Breadsticks
Makes 27
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20-25 minutes
Rise time: about 45 minutes, though I fell asleep during the rise, so mine rose longer.
Cost: $1.15
(flour: .28, butter: .40, cheese: .40, other stuff: .07 (just to keep it even))

2 C water

1 1/2 Tbsp yeast

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

4 C flour

2 Tbsp olive oil

6-8 Tbsp butter

1/4 C shredded Parmesan cheese (you can even get away with the powdery kind here)
1 clove garlic, minced

2-4 Tbsp shredded cheddar cheese

In a bowl place water, yeast and sugar. Mix and let stand for about 3 minutes. Add salt and just enough flour (about 3 C) that the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl.

Take the dough out and knead in another 1/2-1 C flour. This will take 4-5 minutes. If it gets too sticky too keep kneading add a dusting more of flour. But. The dough will remain loose and sticky--looser and stickier than it does for regular bread. Like this...See how it's loose with a sticky edge...

When it gets to looking like the picture above, dust it with a bit of flour and put it back in the blow to rise. Let rise in bowl till doubled in size (30-45 minutes).

Grease a jelly roll pan with 1-2 Tbsp olive oil--be generous--you want it not just to act as a de-sticker, but to add flavor to the breadsticks.

Roll dough out on pan. Try to get it to the edges.

Mix 6 Tbsp melted or very soft butter with the 1/4 C Parmesan cheese and the minced garlic.

With a pizza cutter, score the bread with 3 lines along the short way and about nine lines the long way.

You may notice that I don't have the butter/cheese/garlic on all my breadsticks. That's because my kids are ingrates. I assure you that I mean that in the nicest possible way. But seriously, why waste my buttery cheesiness on people who will whine and complain that they want me to take it off?

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until golden. About 15 minutes into the baking time, add the shredded cheddar.

Let them cool and tear them apart. Look at the perfect insides. Just look at them. 

Dip them in your favorite sauce. We used a marinara, but I think pesto would have been really good too. And Kip likes ranch. Of course, I ate a whole bunch plain as well. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Kip's Hot Fudge Sauce

Cheap Eat Challenge: Join or watch as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

January gets a bad rap. It has the misfortune to fall between Christmas and Valentine's Day. Additionally, it occurs in what we like to call 'winter'--otherwise known as the season lots of people hate. And not only does January fall in post and pre-holiday winter, it also takes place in the worst part of the winter--that bit where snow and cold and hot soup just aren't that novel anymore, that part when people are starting to wish for sassy old spring to come along and bloom their troubles away. And don't get me wrong, I like spring as much as the next guy, but January with its ice and snow days, with its gray and white, it's always been kind of a nice pause for me (and by 'always' I mean since I got old enough to appreciate such things, so, like, the last 3 years or so). A time to breathe and reflect after Christmas and the old year have passed. A time to rest before the rigors of spring and summer are upon us. Additionally, I had the good sense/fortune to have a baby in the month of January. And if that's not reason enough to enjoy it, my littlest sister and two dear friends also have birthdays in January. Which means, to put it bluntly, that January finds us still making lots of good food. And having people with whom to share it.

So, since man cannot live on bread alone (even if it is cinnamon swirl bread), I give you more chocolate. Because that seems to be what we need to live on in this house. Especially in January. (Just don't forget to share it.)

Kip's Hot Fudge Sauce
This recipe belongs to one of Kip's old roommates--a guy I never knew named John--so, John, if you're out there, can I please post your recipe on my blog? Thank you.
Makes about 4 cups
Prep time: 2 minutes
Cook time: 15-20 minutes
Cost: $1.89 or $1.30 depending on type of milk used
(sugar: .32, cocoa: .25, butter: .50, evaporated milk--.79 on sale, (or regular milk: .20), other stuff: .03)

Note on evaporated milk: The original recipe called for evaporated milk. However, once when I was out of it I used regular milk--1 1/2 C and it worked just fine. (Also, I don't know how it would work with skim and therefore can't vouch for that.) I boiled the regular milk a bit longer, just to be safe and the sauce came out tasting the same. Using regular milk will knock $.50 off of the cost of this. However, today I had some evaporated milk getting close to its expiration in the pantry, so that's what I used.

2 C sugar
1/2 C cocoa
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 C (1 stick) butter
1 can evaporated milk
2 tsp vanilla

Put butter in saucepan and begin to melt.

In the meantime, sift together dry ingredients in separate bowl.

When butter is melted or close, add the evaporated (or regular) milk. Whisk together. Add dry ingredients and whisk together. Bring all ingredients to a gentle boil. Boil for 5 minutes (gently--this shouldn't be a crazy rollicking boil.) Remove from heat. This is perfect on ice cream or in dessert crepes or, frankly, eaten out of the container with the spoon. Not that we would do such a thing.

Serve warm (unless eating straight out of the fridge, in which case, cold is fine). Leftovers can be kept refrigerated for a couple weeks.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

A Chicken in Every Pot: Chicken 4 Ways with a recipe for Fried Rice

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch, join us, doubt or believe (not sure which side I'm on some days) as our family of 6 eats on $6/day.

1. Roast Chicken

2. Fried Rice

3. Chicken Soup (or fish stew with chicken broth)

4. Ranch Chicken Pizza

Around about the Great Depression--a time when the banks failed along with people's fortunes and farms, a time of uncertainty, joblessness, and hunger, a time which was sandwiched between 2 world wars, President Herbert Hoover promised the American people a chicken in every pot--a promise that he was largely criticized for not fulfilling. I know this from the musical "Annie"--'not only don't we have the chicken; we ain't got the pot' (the stage version, not the movie version), but my mom (who probably learned this historical tidbit in history class) reminded me of it in a recent phone conversation.

It got me thinking. Really thinking. Until a little over a year ago, I had never purchased or roasted or slow cooked a full chicken in my life. Nor had I seen my mother do so. I did not even know how. The only reason I even decided to give it a whirl was that I decided I wanted to buy humanely raised meats. Which are more expensive. But if I bought a whole fryer (which were much cheaper per pound) and learned to use the whole thing and make a broth I could make up for the extra money we would be spending. Which has proved to be quite true. It's opened my eyes to many things--like how awesome and fairly easy roasting a chicken can be. But it's also made me see that in my and my mother's generation there has been an interesting cultural shift. When I asked my mom why she'd never roasted a chicken, she said that when you roast a chicken you end up with all the fatty parts. In my family and I think in many/most families in that low-fat craze of the '80s and '90s, there was a push--maybe we should call it a shove--from the health industry and perhaps the food industry. People were told/taught/brainwashed to eat the lower fat white meats. Additionally, it was much easier to buy a boneless, skinless breast, or any chicken cut into parts. Or so we were told/taught/brainwashed. Which of course has paved the way for those freakishly breasted chickens and all that sort of thing that I will leave Michael Pollen and others to tell you all about. But at least we have our national health. Oh wait, we don't.

So maybe we should re-examine the humble roast chicken and all the freaking awesome foods that can be made therefrom.

1. First we're going to start with The Best Roast Chicken I Have Ever Made or Had. It's from smittenkitchen, and it, like Mary Poppins, is practically perfect in every way. It's also a breeze to make. Except that you have to think in advance. Which I admit can be a challenge. I didn't quite think of it enough in advance so instead of doing the salt rub for 1-3 days, I brined my frozen bird overnight with 1/4 C salt and 1/4 C sugar and then rinsed it and then dried it and then did the salt rub for about 4 hours before I cooked it Sunday afternoon. I cannot stress how perfectly amazing it, its drippings, and its broth has been. Perfection.

The next day we had leftovers plain and simple. After that I pulled off as much chicken as possible, which was still quite a lot (probably about 1 1/2 C) and put that in the fridge. From the bones, skin, and whatever bits I missed, I made a stock. Go here for instructions on how to do so. It takes 30-60 minutes, but is mostly just the stuff simmering. You'll be actually doing something for about 5-10 minutes.

2. From that stock I made the fish stew you met earlier this week. You could have omitted the fish and used 1/2 C of the saved chicken bits instead to make a chicken soup.

3. Ranch Chicken Pizza. We plan to make this on Monday using abot 1/2 -1 C shredded chicken that remains. It is super yum.

4. Fried Rice. We made this yesterday. Using leftover shredded chicken, it is cheap eatery at its best. If you've got some leftover rice and vegetables, it's also one of the fastest meals you can make. We had a bit of leftover rice and no vegetables. It still took less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

Chicken Fried Rice
Serves 4-6
Prep time: 10 minutes (vegetable chopping)
Cook time: 30 minutes (the rice must cook and then you need to add it to the veggie stuff and fry it)
Cost: $1.30
(chicken: .25, rice: .25, vegetables: .30, soy sauce/spices: .25, oil: .05, eggs: .20)

1-2 C dry rice (2-4 C cooked rice)--we used half brown (leftovers) and half white (which I cooked)
1/2 C shredded chicken
1 C chopped vegetables (we used broccoli from the stalk and 2 large carrots, but peas, asparagus, leeks, onions, celery, spinach, bok choy, and lots of other vegetables will work too)
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder, or 1 clove
1/4 C soy sauce
1 Tbsp plum sauce or oyster sauce (plum for sweeter, oyster for savory)
2-4 Tbsp oil
2 eggs

Note: If your chicken isn't cooked, cube a piece of it and cook it in 1 Tbsp oil, a dash of ginger, dash pepper, dash garlic powder, dash onion powder.

Heat oil in large skillet or wok. Add ginger, onion powder, and garlic and cook about 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add vegetables with about 1 Tbsp soy sauce. Cook to desired tenderness.

Remove vegetables and set aside. Fry 2 eggs in a bit of oil with some soy sauce. Remove eggs and set aside.

Heat remaining oil in skillet. Add rice and fry for 3-4 minutes, tossing it around in the oil and letting it sizzle. Add remaining soy sauce (start with 1 Tbsp and add the other 1-2 Tbsp if you feel you need them). Add plum or oyster sauce. Throw in chicken, vegetables, and eggs and mix in. If you need more soy sauce or other seasonings, add them. Serve nice and warm.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

And the next time you're trying to eat really cheap and your husband says he needs more meat, get yourself a humanely treated chicken and roast that lovely up. Just don't forget to use it all.

Is Instapot your thing? Check out these recipes. 

Tilapia with Ginger Soy Glaze

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

You don't expect picky people to like fish. Kip and I were married before I knew that he was not only willing to consume fish, but also perfectly happy to do so (at least in most cases). Go figure. And tonight, when we sat down to eat with our 4 children who pretty much can't agree to all like the same meal even if it's something as non-threatening as spaghetti, they ALL--did you get that--ALL ate at least some of the rice and fish, although Mark did slather his small bite of fish in BBQ sauce. Elizabeth and Savannah asked for more. Again, go figure.

So, even if you're not a fish person. Or you don't think you're a fish person because you're picky and how could a picky person also be a fish person (don't ask me), well, this is a great recipe to start out with. The white fish is mild, the glaze is sweet and savory all at once. Oh, and the glaze/sauce also makes for a great warm vinegarette on your spinach salad if you're that kind of girl. I, my friends, am that kind of girl. Omega 3's, anitoxidants, here we come.

And if that's not good enough, this meal takes all of 15 minutes to make. If you have it with rice, that'll add another 15, but it's still very solidly within the last minute meal range. Enjoy.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, how we're managing to eat fish on a mere $6/day....Well, someone at Kip's work brought in a bunch of thawed tilapia the other day. Kip's co-worker couldn't use it all before it went bad, and we were happy to help the poor guy out by taking some of it off his hands. Free food (and the people who give it), how I love thee, let me count the ways.

Tilapia with Ginger Soy Sauce
Serves 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Cost: $5.50
(1 lb tilapia: $5 if you find a sale, soy, ginger and other seasonings: .30-.50)

A note on the fish: This recipe should work with any mild white fish. Tilapia, however, is our favorite.

3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp balsalmic vinegar (to cheapen it, I expect you could get away with 1 Tbsp balsalmic, and 2 Tbsp cheap distilled, but I thought about trying it too late--sorry)
1 scant tsp ground ginger
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 tilapia filets
1-2 Tbsp olive or vegetable oil

On plate or in bowl, combine sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, and garlic. Mix it together and place the filets in the mixture to marinate. You can do this for up to 20 minutes, but I always just put it in for a few while I warm up the pan and put my ingredients away. (Sometimes if my fish is frozen, I even just put it in the marinade to de-thaw and marinade at the same time for 20 minutes. Because I am a multi-tasking genius, and apparently not a thinking ahead genius.)

Heat oil in skillet over medium to medium high heat. Take filets out of marinade and place them in oil. Cook on each side for 4-6 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Remove the filets to a plate. Try not to let them break up like crazy, but you can see from the pictures that I'm no expert in this realm.

Pour reserved marinade into skillet and heat over medium heat until mixture reduces to a glaze (about half as much liquid as there was before, and it'll be thicker). This usually takes about 2-3 minutes. Spoon glaze over fish (and over your spinach salad if you wish--yum), and serve immediately.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Wacky Cake

Cheap Eat Challenge: Join or watch as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.
Have a look at Jean's Food Journal for a daily accounting of what I eat, plus some thoughts on the bumps as we go along our way.

(Photo update: I wanted to get some prettier pictures than I had, although we eat this way too fast and I have trouble getting a good pic before we do. Here's to trying.)

And for old time's sake, here's the previous picture: 

I consider myself a moderate eater. I enjoy a variety of foods. I generally stop eating when I'm full. I try to listen to my body and eat how much and the types of foods it's telling me it needs and even wants. I can usually have one cookie, or just a few chips, or a piece of really good chocolate and feel satisfied. But there are a few foods that are, well, let's call them achilles heels. And, yes, I have more than one. And probably more than two. Maybe we should call them achilles toe joints. Anyway, chocolate cake is one of them. And wacky cake is one of the best chocolate cakes there is. My only salvation is that, in the chocolate department, my husband has a more voracious appetite than even I. And a faster metabolism to go with. So he usually gets to enough of it so that I don't end up gaining 700 pounds. Not yet anyway.

And what's so special, so wacky about this here wacky cake? I'm glad you asked. For starters, it's cheap. The lore goes that this was a depression cake (as in a cake of the Great Depression era, not a cake that could cause or cure depression, though used in the right doses, it can certainly do either of those things as well). It required no eggs, no milk, no butter. Sound like your pantry sometimes, well then, there you go.

Secondly, you make it all in the pan. Did you hear that? Do you understand the implications. There is no bowl. If you grew up in a house with no dishwasher, you will understand the sheer and beautiful meaning of that. No wonder we made it a lot when I was growing up.

Thirdly, since it contains no eggs, butter, or milk, it's allergen friendly and can be made vegan with the right kind of sugar.

Fourthly, fifthly, sixthly, and seventhly, it's really moist, really delicious, really chocolate-y, and really really hard to mess up (possible, but difficult), as opposed to other cakes that can be a bit particular (thus the boxed cake craze--bah).

So...make this cake. Just don't forget to feed a lot of it to your husband and kids. Otherwise you might be unable to stop in your sheer consumption of it. (Yes, I did just tell you to sacrifice the health and wellness of those you love most in the name of your own vain self interests. Trust me, they won't mind.)

Wacky Cake
Serves, well, it should serve at least 24
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Cost: $.88
(flour: .16, sugar: .32, oil: .12, cocoa: .18, other stuff about .10)

A note on layering: This makes one 9x13. It is too moist to make layers. I like it that way. Should you wish, however, to make a very lovely layer cake that is still intensely good and moist, add 1 C more flour and line your layer pans with wax or parchment paper. We've done this before and it turns out wonderfully.

A note on frosting: Traditionally, this is made with a flour-based wacky cake frosting. We love this frosting, but we often make it with Kip's chocolate frosting. Because we are sick-o's in the chocolate department. If you use the chocolate frosting, it will be intensely chocolate everything. That works for some people, but not for everyone. Both frosting recipes will be included below.

For a mint cake: Substitue the vanilla extract for 1/2 tsp of mint extract. It's really really good. Then you can make a chocolate frosting and put crushed Andes mints on top. Yes, we are apparently over-the-top people in this realm--that's what I was trying to tell you in the first paragraph; weren't you listening?

2 C flour
2 C sugar
6 Tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 C warm water
2/3 C oil
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 tsp vanilla (or 1/2 tsp mint) extract

In a 9x13 inch pan, mix dry ingredients.

Add wet ingredients.

(Note: We like to make wells for the different wet ingredients--so a little hole for the water, a hole for the oil and a hole for the vinegar and vanilla. Then we make rivers and then mix it all together and the baking soda reacts with the vinegar and fizzes a bit and I don't know why we do this, but we both did when we made versions of this cake as children. It's fun for some reason. But I won't make you make it this way--you can just throw it all in if you want. But it's fun. It fizzes...)

A few smallish lumps in the batter are no big deal.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick (knife, fork, whatever) comes out clean. Note: It is possible that if you bake this in an aluminum pan, vinegar/baking soda will react and cause it to taste like metal, so use glass or a non-reactive metal.

Wacky Cake Frosting

Note on butter: I will give you the original recipe as it is most in keeping with the Great Depression Era Cake theme. However, I must tell you that we prefer this frosting made with all butter. It makes for a firmer frosting, but we don't mind one bit because the buttery-ness is tastier. To us. Some would disagree and find the frosting too firm when it hardens to room temperature.

A note about using flour in frosting: I know it sounds weird. You just must trust me. It totally works. Yes, it seems like you're making paper mache at first, but you are not. You are going to add sugar and butter and vanilla. I ask you, does paper mache have sugar and butter and vanilla. I think not. So trust me. It will be good. Very very good. Trust. Me.

4 Tbsp flour
1 C milk
1 C sugar
1/2 C (1 stick) butter, softened considerably
1/2 C (1 stick) margarine
2 tsp vanilla

Mix milk and flour in a saucepan, and cook until thickened. Let it get thick. Don't fear it's weirdness. When it's thick, take it off the heat.

Make paper mache if you will and create a pinata using newspaper. If you do not, at this juncture, wish to make a pinata, then beat butter and margarine (or all butter) together. Slowly add sugar to butter mixture. Beat well. Add milk mixture (i.e. paper mache stuff). Beat very well until there are no (or almost no) lumps. It will take a few minutes. Add vanilla and beat. Taste it. See that your faith has been rewarded.

Kip's Chocolate Frosting
(There will be extra. Serve on graham crackers after you've consumed all the cake.)

One Confession: Kip's recipe is a little hard to pin down. He throws general stuff in and tastes it. Sunday, however, he made the best frosting that he has possibly ever made and I tried to make him remember how much of everything he used. This is what I got.

3/4 C (1 1/2 sticks) butter, somewhat melted (halfway melted, in Kip's words)
1/2 C cocoa
1/3-1/2 C milk
1 tsp vanilla
dash salt
nearly 2 lb powdered sugar (probably 2 C shy of 2 lb--this is the sketchiest part of this recipe--start with less--you can always add more if it's way too runny or thin)

Mix butter, cocoa, and 1/3 C milk. Add other ingredients and beat well. If it's too stiff, add more milk.

(Didn't get a good picture of Kip's frosting; we must have licked the beaters off too quickly, so how about another one of that ooey, gooey cake. It makes me want to go lick the bottoms off the remaining 2 pieces--that's right, only 2, even though we just made this on Sunday. I will refrain. Or that is what I will tell you. And Kip.)

PRINTABLE RECIPE