Golden Chicken

After a summer of taking photography I don’t feel like taking photos. First, because I gave my life over to that class for 9 weeks and I am burned out on photos. Second, there is no way that the crappy digital photos I take with my little cheap camera can compare to those black and white photos. I’m mighty proud of them and I would show them to you except that it’s not worth the bother of scanning them all in. But so you know I’m showing everyone one I meet. Strangers even. But that ended over 2 almost 3 weeks ago so I expect to be over it all soon.

While I haven’t been posting I am still living the food stamp challenge. I was listening with half and ear but it sounded like that went to be voted on last week. I never went to check. But for myself I have learned if all you want to eat is natural yogurt, trail mix with M&Ms, fruit juice popsicles, and frozen burritos that $21 of food lasts 2 weeks. So I succeeded in 2 of my objectives this summer; not going over budget and not cooking anymore than I wanted to. I think it can be agreed that eating healthy didn’t make it.

Most of it isn’t worth commenting on but I did do 2 note worthy things in the last month. First, in July there was a meat sale at Price Copper and I went and picked up a whole bunch of meat after class one day. It appears that when I am working on 4 hours of sleep that I am completely unable to do basic math in my head. I added it up 3 times coming to $19, then $21, then $19 again. So I thought it was good. Once I get the same number twice I figure I’m probably right. I wasn’t. It came to $25 at the check out. Since I didn’t spend the full $21 the week before or the week after it was ok, but really that whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth. And I now have pounds and pounds of meat I have to cook. I’m not much looking forward to that. But I’m set for when I have company over.

And having company over brings me to my next story. Last week. No, maybe 2 weeks ago now. I invited my game playing friends over for supper and some games. 5 people if you count the baby. I went shopping that day and spent $25. See a trend there? $25 seems to be a recurring theme. Anyway that $25 bought a bag of onions, 10 lbs of potatoes, 10 lbs of chicken, 4 lbs of carrots, 6 cans of Cambles Golden Mushroom soup, and just because, a dozen eggs.

I go home and put everything but the eggs in my electric roster. That is 25lbs of food for those of you that are counting. 25 lbs of food for 5 people (one is a baby) and that’s when my Pickett gene kicked in. I looked at that 25lbs of food. I thought of the 5 people (one is a baby) and decided it wasn’t going to be enough. So I walked back to the store to buy snacks. $12 more for grapes, celery, gram crackers, and the fixings for pineapple gram cracker dip.

After all of that, one person was a no show so after 3 people and a baby ate all we could I had 30 meals to put in the freezer and all the gram crackers and dip I could eat the next few days. So I didn’t even bother getting more food the next week.

Golden Chicken
10 lbs chicken
10 lbs potatoes cut in fourths
4 lbs carrots cut in 3rds
4 lbs onions cut in fourths
6 cans cambles golden mushroom soup

Place all in roaster and cook until done.

So you are wondering at what temp to set the roaster aren’t you? So am I. I cooked it for 4 hours and in that time I set it for everything from 250 slow cooker temp so it wouldn’t burn (but would it be done in time? Would it ever be done? Would I die of food poisoning from the cold chicken?) to 400 roasting temp (but what about the poor potatoes? They will burn to a crisp). For most of the time it was set at 325 and I think that worked well.

I haven’t posted much about knitting lately. Well, this summer while taking 2 classes I didn’t knit much. I didn’t have much time, but more importantly than that since we can always make time for knitting. I had already used up all of my creativity with photography. I just didn’t have a need to make anything else. I was satisfied with that and with the design work I was doing in Intro to Graphic Design. So I spent whatever free time I had reading. I did knit one sock 3 times to get it right. That too added to my not wanting to knit much. And when I say ‘to get it right’ I don’t mean fiddly little stuff but so it would actually fit a human foot.

And I have read Harry Potter! A friend loaned me his copy. Isn’t he a sweetie? Because of that I know longer have to avoid spoilers for a year. And we all know how successful that would have been. In just the 2 week since the book had come out I was already quickly closing browser windows on knitting blogs and sticking my fingers in my ears and saying lalalala while listening to NPR Saturday shows. That last part burns me a bit. If you can’t even listen to public radio without running into spoilers who can you trust in this world?

When I was loaned the book I was getting ready to spend the weekend with my family. I knew I wasn’t going to have time to read it there. I decided to not read it until I got back on Monday. I picked the book up from Ted at noon on Friday. I stuck to my guns until 5pm. I started reading it then and finished at 4am. About 1am I realized that even trying to wait had been silly and that I should have started reading as soon as I got it and that I might have gotten at least a little sleep that way.

But back to the knitting. The last 2 weeks during break I started a few sweaters but none of them were holding my attention. I did do a lot of spinning. I spun while listening to 5 of Douglas Adams books. But after all of that I hadn’t made a dent in the fiber and only had about half of what I needed and I sort of wound down on that too.

Then while listening to the Hobbit I knitted mittens. I am almost done with mitten number 4. I had thought to knit mittens until this cone of yarn was gone but I with mitten 3 it started to loose its charm and besides the book was over. Maybe with my next book I can pick it up again.
I had been reading about books on tape on spinning blogs for a while now and they are fantastic. The trick is getting one with good readers but that is a crap shoot.

Oh, and while listening to the Douglas Adams Hitchhikers series I also knitted 3 felted bags between spinning 8 ounces of alpaca and 2 ounces of silk. See? 2 hard weeks of work and I’m still only half done, if that. But I’m spinning the silk at work night and that is fun. I should finish up with the other 2 ounces in the next 2 or 3 weeks. Then it’s back to doing finishing work there.

I really dislike the finishing work but just a few days ago I noticed I only had 5 things that needed the ends tucked in and buttons sewn on left in my FO drawer. That is amazing and it’s because of work night. Although, I feel sorry for everyone else there since I have to announce at least 3 time a night I hate finishing work and wish I had brought my spinning wheel instead.

I don’t think I will be ready for TGIF this Friday with the camera but I’ll try for next week since I do have quite a bit to show.

School starts tomorrow. Two days after summer classes finished I was burning to get back. Now after two weeks off I’m dreading it.

Middle Eastern Stew

The first week is over and it went pretty well. I did eat out with friends at the café in the art museum for lunch one day. That whole day was spectacular. All other meals I ate at home. I had plenty of food and ended the week with 6 servings of lentils and rice still in the freezer. However, I missed my sweets. I finished off my lemon drink mix and had a spoon full of honey over nuts a few times too. I will make sure and keep some in the house from here on. I will try for healthy sweets like fruit, but this week I went strait for the snack cakes.



Grocery shopping was easer this week. I spent $20.95 and came home with 8 lunches, 8 snacks, and the ingredients to put 25 meals in the freezer. After cooking I still have half of my canned vegetables left to use a different week.



Middle Eastern Stew

1 T. oil
4 onions coarsely chopped
12 potatoes coarsely chopped (leave skin on)
1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes
6 cloves garlic crushed (4 cloves for a milder stew)
2 15.5oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ bunch parsley chopped (about a cup)
1 bunch green onions chopped (about 6)
cayenne pepper to taste

Add onions to hot oil in a large pot and sauté for 5 min. Add potatoes, tomatoes, and crushed garlic. Cook until potatoes are done. Add the chickpeas and heat until hot. Turn off the heat and add the parley, green onions, and cayenne pepper. This stew is even better the second day.

Serves 10




Curried Potato Bake

8 potatoes, boiled and mashed with skin still on
6 eggs
½ bunch parsley chopped (about a cup)
1 bunch green onions chopped (about 6)
1½ t. curry powder
1 t. hot red pepper sauce

Mix together and spread into an oiled baking dish. Bake at 375 for 40 min.
Serves 5

This recipe also makes excellent potato pancakes.
Spray a large skillet with vegetable oil cooking spray. Heat over medium heat. Spoon 3 mounds of potato mixture into skillet. Flatten into pancakes. Cook flipping once. Takes about 5 min.




Corn waffles

2 packages Jiffy Cornbread Mix. Make according the package directions for waffles.
Add
1 can corn, drained
½ cup chopped parsley.

Makes 20 waffles.

I like these plain but they are also good with ranch dressing, salsa, or honey.

Buying and Cooking The Food

The bones made 2 batches of broth. Or at least I thought I was making broth. As I cooled it before measuring it out into containers to be frozen, it gelled. It turns out I made meat flavored jell-o or consommé if you want to fancy. I’m going to use it as broth anyway and see how it goes. I saved 2 cup out for cooking and froze 8 more cups.

I went and picked out the recipe for this week. It’s very inexpensive and good, Lentils over Rice. I also picked out other things I might want to eat. I put it all in order of importance and headed to Wal-Mart Market the closest grocery store to my home.

In the parking lot I found a quarter, this must be my lucky day. I quickly picked up the ingredients for my big cooked recipe. I hope to get extra meals in the freezer right away. With the rest of the meals there were some hard choices and math but I got it figured out.

Since my kitchen is basically empty I won’t have a lot of variety this week. I’m ok with that. I actually like to eat that way on my own and will get into periods were I only want to eat the same thing over and over again. But this time I’ll have to and maybe that’s not as much fun.

I carefully added up what I was buying but mistook how much tax would be. When it came to $21.24 I decided it was fate that I found that quarter on my way in and used that instead of putting anything back. I have to say, that the last 4 years I lived in IL and they don’t tax food.

I was able to get one of my fancy foods. My daily snack will be Dannon’s All Natural No Artificial Anything Low Fat Yogurt. A 4 containers pack cost the same as 4 containers generic but each container is smaller. I’m ok with that because this is the only yogurt I like (and I love it) and whenever I buy the generic or even the other fancy brands I never finish a container anyway.

I need 28 meals (counting my snacks) and I figure I have 38 not counting the sausages. I’m also a hearty eater so we will see if I have 10 left in the freezer at the end of the week or not.

I feel that I did pretty well. I’m only disappointed in breakfast where I was only able to get eggs. My yogurt snacks might be used as breakfasts instead. I just can’t see eating eggs for breakfast every day for a week. Although, I should say now, I’m not really concerned. I haven’t eaten breakfast food at breakfast time in years. Like 10 years now. I’m more likely to have a pot pie for breakfast and the eggs for dinner.

Health wise, I think it is a little light on vegetables with one serving of broccoli a day plus the fruit in the yogurt and whatever is in the pot pie and egg rolls. That is typical for me but I will try to do better.

This week’s recipe is really inexpensive but one of my favorites. I’m aware of copyright and will only post my own recipes. This one is mine and I am pleased with it.



Lentils Over Rice.

1lb rice (use basmati if you have it, I didn’t)
1lb lentils (I like the black ones the best, but tan was all they had)
10 c. water (replace any amount with broth, I used 2c lamb consommé)
2 onions- sliced thick
4 cloves garlic- crushed
3 t. cumin (it costs less if you buy it in the Mexican aisle instead of the spice aisle)
4 hot smoked sausages- sliced (Bar S Hot Smoked Sausage package of 16 stocked next to
the hotdogs. Freeze the rest for later)

Wash lentils. Combine lentils, water, onions, and garlic. Cook in a crock pot all day on low. Half an hour before serving slice the sausages and add it and the cumin to the crock pot. Cook the rice according to package directions on the stove. The lentils and the rice will be done at the same time.

To serve, dish up the rice in individual dishes and top with the lentils.

I ate one meal and froze 9 more. After freezing, the lentils will not be as saucy and good. Add some water, about 1 tablespoon or so, before reheating in the microwave. And really, use basmati rice. Without it the dish just isn't the same.