Chicky Chicky Chicken!

I am watching Beau play video games with my sister and her boyfriend and it almost makes me want to join in! Almost... :) I have never been much of a fan of these things unless it involves a little frog hopping across traffic to the river. I am very very competitive so I like instant gratification; meaning I like to win as quickly as possible. All of this shooting people, story lines, blah blah blah. It's just not my thing. But it sure is funny to watch other people play!

I would just cuddle up with a cup of hot chocolate and watch them contentedly except that it has been nagging at me that I promised some chicken recipes. So I thought I would take a moment to not only jot them down, but also to brag that I still have chicken in the fridge waiting to be eaten! One 3 pound whole chicken has been feeding us for days now, and it all started with a broth...

I have been obsessed with Nadia G lately (if you don't know who she is, you can look her up on the cooking channel's website) and I wanted to try a soup she made called Aztec soup. So I bought the stuff which ended up being very affordable and that is what started all of these chicken meals. The recipe only called for 1 cup of cooked chicken, but I wanted a whole one so I could make a broth. So I bought one little chicken friend and made a delicious broth. Usually I just stick the chicken, carved of its meat, in a crockpot and let it go on low over night. But this time I left the meat on, chopped it up to expose the marrow in the bones, and let it simmer with some vegetables (all chopped). I sauteed some carrot, celery, onion, and garlic in a stock pot. Then I added fresh oregano, threw the chicken into the pot and covered it with filtered water. I simmered it for 2 hours and let me tell you, the house smelled amazing! After I let it cool, I strained all of the broth into mason jars and hand picked all of the chicken off of the bones. There was already flavor in the chicken from cooking in the broth which is a nice added bonus.

As for the soup recipe it is a Nadia G recipe and I am not sure what the rules are about putting somebodies recipes on these things so I will just tell you this: you can look up the Aztec soup recipe by looking for Nadia G on cookingchannletv.com. It is a delicious, flavorful soup that is kind of spicy and very hearty. There is chicken, black beans, corn and wild rice in it. I used wild rice but I know the stuff is expensive and after eating it I would say that brown rice would work just as well. And she grills corn on the cob and then slices off the kernels and uses it in the soup but I am here to tell you that frozen corn does the job! And creme freche is her topping of choice; sour cream people. Let's keep it simple. Oh and one last thing, I could not find dried chipoltle peppers anywhere in my local grocery store- canned chipoltle peppers in that yummy sauce will do the trick. So take my little handy hints and try the recipe! It is well worth it.

And then for the rest of the chicken? That has been the fun part! Sure I could have done the obvious: chicken enchiladas, more chicken soup, etc. But I decided to just throw it in anything and everything. Chicken sandwiches for Beau to take to work with just lettuce tomato and cheese were simple and a nice change from lunch meat. Grilled cheeses with chunks of chicken, and then a personal favorite is this cheap box of spiral noodles in a cheddar cheese sauce (kind of like macaroni and cheese) and then just toss in chicken! My next meal will be tacos which is so super easy, just toss with some spices and grilled onions.

I know I didn't exactly give you any solid recipes to work with but I hope I at least gave you some ideas! So go out there friends and buy up some whole chickens, because they really do save money. Hence the name of this blog; there is so much to be done with Three pounds of chicken!

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Quick and Easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole

cooked leftover chicken
a mexican blend of shredded cheese
green or red canned enchilada sauce
corn tortillas

heat your enchilada sauce and soften your tortillas one by one in it before laying it in a casserole dish. layer down your chicken pieces, top with some cheese, then add another layer of tortillas. You can make another layer, or just top with lots of cheese and some extra sauce. Bake at 350 until the cheese is melted and it looks bubbly around the edges. let it cool a little before cutting and serving.

There are so many ways to fancy this up and make it amazing, so use this as a little rough draft and make your own masterpiece! Or make it as is for a quick dinner when you need something fuss free. It freezes very well and can definitely be made ahead of time and heated right before serving.

1 more way to eat chicken...

The weather here is seriously playing with my emotions. Okay weather, is it summer now?! Or is this a trick to get me to fold up all my sweaters and put them away so you can turn around and rain on me again? Oh well, whatever the reason, the weather was delightfully sunny and hot today. Like a real summer! Only of course now I am use to the Bay Area weather and not the desert climate I was raised in, so the 75 degree heat felt like a sauna. All day I felt like a huge hippo and I couldn't seem to drink enough water. Which I guess is a good thing because all throughout this pregnancy I have struggled to get enough water and stay hydrated. I was never very good at the "8 glasses a day" rule and it was even tougher to drink enough for 2! But today I had no problems. But now the new problem is that I absolutely hate to eat when it is hot outside! Something about the heat makes all food except fruit and yogurt or ice cream sound heavy and unappetizing. So while I was finally drinking enough water, I was struggling to get myself to eat, and dinner was much later than normal. My appetite returned right around the time the sun was setting and it began to cool off. Unfortunately, when I made my menu plan and bought groceries it was raining, so my menu plan read: "stew, roasted chicken, etc." Not exactly hot weather food for a girl with no appetite. But I did manage to come up with something quite delicious!

The other day when Beau and I ran into a specialty European market, we had bought some fresh pasta. Sound expensive? Here is a trick: look for the "day old" pasta. They will have it someplace off to the side and it is just as good but literally 1/4 of the price! Which adds up to be about the amount for some dried cheap pasta at the store. Only this pasta happened to be handmade goat cheese and spinach raviolis. Yum! So I had a little but of the yummy pasta left that needed to be used and I also had some creamy garlic sauce that I had bought with it. Sometimes when you feel uncreative or if you are like me and can't afford millions of separate ingredients, the fresh pre-made pasta sauces are a God send at these little markets. Or of course, you can't go wrong with a simple pesto. I once advised my mom to use walnuts instead of the more expensive pine nuts in her classic pesto (you know the kind; with basil and garlic and such) and she said it turned out great! But in this case I had this creamy sauce. Not really feeling like cooking, I wanted to get a whole meal in one shabang. So I threw in a protein- chicken, (are you surprised?) and a veggie- asparagus. Asparagus is in season right now and I love it enough to eat everyday! The result was a loaded-with-goodness creamy sauce that was not too rich and creamy to be heavy and filling, served on top of fantastic little raviolis. It looked like something I would pay $20 for at a fancy Italian place, but it cost much less than that and took me about 30 minutes to make. Not too shabby! I served it with some olive bread that was cheap at Safeway and Beau and I were completely satisfied. I once read that it is very "un-European" to serve bread with pasta, which makes sense since it is a carb on top of carb, but after my very American upbringing and having been served bread at every Italian place I have ever been to, it is almost an unbreakable habit. And Beau used the bread to get every little bit of sauce on his plate.

So even though it is my personal opinion that this dinner was a little more suited for the gray and dreary weather we were getting used to, it was still very good and well worth trying! And so so easy to make, which is always a favorite of mine and of most women I know.

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Creamy Pasta with Chicken and Asparagus

ok, so this was all done in true "I don't feel like cooking" fashion, so I don't actually have a recipe. So from my memory, here it goes:

chop up 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic. While you are at it chop up about 8 stalk of asparagus. If you don't know, you need to remove the woody end of the asparagus, it is not so yummy. You can do this by holding it at either end and bending it until it snaps. It will snap where it is suppose to. Then in a pan, saute the onion. After a minute add the garlic. (I wait to add the garlic because it burns easily.) Once soft, add the asparagus and saute until the asparagus us bright green and tender crisp. I like my vegetables to be not mushy, especially if I am adding it to pasta. Once the asparagus is cooked, add diced cooked chicken to the pan and saute just to heat the chicken through. I had cooked the chicken in the oven with salt and pepper just before preparing the rest of the meal. I only needed 1 chicken breast and it took maybe 15 minutes, but to be honest I didn't time it. Once the chicken is hot, add the sauce. I used about 1/4 cup of the creamy garlic sauce diluted with about 1 tsp of pasta water. It was the perfect amount for us but that all depends on taste. Season with salt and pepper and your sauce is done! Then add your pasta to some boiling salted water. When pasta is fresh, you know it is done when it begins to float to the surface. This should only take about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the raviolis and arrange them on the plate then spoon the chunky creamy sauce on top. If you have more money than me, top with some fresh Parmesan cheese or else just serve!