Brown rice

Brown rice gets very mushy when cooked traditionally. And it takes a long time. And the appearance and texture make you not want to eat it.

So we found a different way.

You will need:
Desired amount of rice (I just use a palm full for each serving)
Large stockpot
Water
Colander

We are going to cook the rice like pasta. Put rice in pot with a lot of water.

Bring to a hard boil and continue to boil, uncovered for 20 minutes.

Strain into colander. Return to pan and add butter or oil, season as desired, and serve. I always make extra, it stores well in the fridge for a quick meal the next day.

Family packs of chicken

A good price for boneless, skinless chicken breast is $1.99 a pound. A great price is $1.79. When I can get it for this price, I buy 4 family packs. Here's what we do with it.

You will need:

Quart size freezer bags, large sharp knife, cutting board.


Starting with the first piece, trim visable fat. Then lay the breast flat on the cutting board. Put your hand over the top to steady the piece, and carefully run the knife through lengthwise to remove the top portion. One side is thicker than the other, so move your knife at an angle.

Take the chicken tops and place into freezer bags, leaving space between each so they can be taken out while frozen if needed.

The bottoms get cut up into chunks and cooked in a skillet with a little oil, salt and pepper.

Once cooled, put into freezer bags, freeze flat.

We use this for quick meals. Chicken soup, fajitas, quesadillas, stir fry, casseroles, etc.

The top filets of chicken can now be cooked very quickly and evenly, won't dry out and is a better portion size. You can put them in the oven frozen, or thaw and cook in skillet or oven or grill. You can also put some marinade in the bags before freezing and they will be nicely marinated once thawed.

This is a very frugal way to eat the best cut of chicken. We ended up with 32 chicken fillets and 8lbs of cooked chicken. Eight family packs cost us about $35, and gets us 20lbs of quick, healthy, easy meals. Buying pre-frozen chicken and pre--cooked chicken strips would cost $70. It would also have a lot more visable fat and additives.

Fresh Salsa

This is Crack at our house. Put it on tacos, nachos, fajitas, quesadillas, chicken, burgers, hot dogs, white fish, shredded pork, salad, even eggs. Or on rare occasions, with a spoon.

You have to let it sit in the fridge for an hour before you eat it, and it lasts for 3 days after that.

You will need:

6-8 Roma tomatoes
1 Onion
Cilantro
Lime juice
Salt

The amount you use depends on the amount you want of the last three ingredients.

Slice tomatoes into quarters, lengthwise. Cut out seeds and centers and discard. Yes, the entire inside of the tomato. Chop into small pieces. Chop onion into same size pieces as tomato. Add lime an salt. Now de-stem and slightly tear cilantro leaves. Mix and store in a closed container in the fridge until ready to serve.

Tortellini soup

One of our favorite meals, any time of year. You can change out the veggies for what your family likes, or what's in season. I have made this soup with several variations and it's always come out well.

For each meal, you will need, 2 Italian turkey sausage links, 2 cups of chopped veggies, 2 cans Italian diced tomatoes, 1 can of water, 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 1 cup of tortellini  (added later) prefered amount of garlic and seasonings, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil.


Take sausage out of casings, crumble and brown in skillet with oil. Drain and cool. Bag and freeze if making this for a freezer meal.


Chop assorted veggies. Our favorite one for this soup is zucchini, we also like summer squash, carrots, onion, bell peppers, celery, and mushrooms. Bag and freeze if making as a freezer meal.


Combine in crock pot sausage and veggies, add canned tomatoes (I blend mine first because we don't like the consistency of cooked tomatoes), water, tomato sauce, garlic and seasoning. Cook on low 6 hours, add cooked tortellini and top with parm. cheese, serve.


For the freezer packs, when you get ready to make the soup, just break up the veggie packet and meat packet and add to the crock pot with the other ingredients, it won't add to the cooking time since the meat is already cooked. I used to put everything, canned tomatoes and water and all into a freezer bag together, but it was a huge mess and took forever to thaw. This way is much easier for me.

This makes 4 servings at 300 calories each.