September 22 - Slow cooker whole chicken

After last night's dinner fiasco, I figured I'd tempt fate and try cooking an entire chicken (I mean the WHOLE bird) tonight. I've never done the whole thing, but how much different can it be cooking one in a crockpot than cooking a few "chicken boobies" (thank you, Christy, for my new chicken phrase!)? And, thankfully, it wasn't!

It was a BOGO free sale on whole chickens at Acme and all of their chickens were a solid 6 lbs. I figured $12 for 12 pounds of chicken wasn't a bad deal at all. I let the little guy cook all day in the crockpot and added some carrots 2/3 of the way through cook time. Served all of it over some jasmine rice and voila! - delicious meal. The prep was simple - skin the bird, rinse it off, pat it dry and plop it in the crockpot. Mix up the marinade and pour it in (I had to double the amounts since my bird was 6 lbs.), set it on low, and let it cook all day. It took me about 15 minutes to put together this morning and that was it for the rest of the meal.

Kathy's Delicious Whole Slow Cooker Chicken
Ingredients
1 (3 pound) whole chicken, skin removed
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic

Directions

1. Remove skin from chicken, and empty inner cavity of contents within. Pat chicken dry with a paper towel, and place inside the slow cooker.
2. In a bowl, stir together the chicken broth, soy sauce, olive oil, honey, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil, and minced garlic. Pour mixture over chicken, and cover.
3. Cook chicken on low setting for 8 hours, or 4 hours on high setting. 

September 20 - Crab cakes, corn, mashed potatoes

Acme had a great sale on crab meat and I had a couple of $2 off coupons, so I picked up a bunch of crab meat and decided to make some seafood! I knew the kiddos wouldn't eat them (although I swear Linds scarfed them down before, but maybe I'm imagining that?), so I made them nuggets. It was funny looking at their nuggets, mashed taters and corn...totally reminded me of an elementary school lunch!

Everything came out really well, but it never fails - my cakes always fall apart when I try to flip them. I think I need to form them earlier and pop 'em in the fridge for a couple hours before hand just to firm them up. Regardless, they still tasted fantastic!

Crab Cakes
Ingredients
8oz. Phillips crab meat
1/2 tsp. seafood seasoning
1 egg
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp. dry mustard
1 Tbsp. mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1.5 tsp. mustard
1.5 tsp. melted butter
1/2 tsp. parsley flakes
1/4 c. breadcrumbs

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except for crab meat. 
2. Gently fold in the crab meat, being careful not to break up the lumps. 
3. Shape into cakes. 
4. Pan fry until golden brown.

I didn't take any photos since I was a little embarrassed about the floppiness of the cake. You know what they  look like though!

May 6 - Honey Dijon Chicken

A couple weeks ago I clipped a coupon for 50 cents of any Lawry's marinade...it went on sale for $1 at Acme that week, so after it doubled, I ended up getting it for free! Since I had a bunch of other kinds of marinade, I bought a honey dijon flavor. I wasn't sure if the boy would enjoy it (he's picking with his meat - he doesn't want fruit with it or anything sweet), but I know he likes honey mustard, so I figured it was a safe bet. I grilled up some chicken breasts that were marinating in the sauce all day.

I also made some scalloped potatoes (boxed - quick and easy) and Linds and I munched on frozen peas with everything else. I can't stand the thought of eating vegetables frozen, but for some reason, ever since I was a kid, peas are the best when they're frozen! My mom used to give it to us as a snack when we were younger.

I don't have any recipes since I didn't have to actually "prepare" anything, but here's what it looked like:

Acme Savings - 4/10

My first exciting buy this week was on Thursday - Acme was having a sale buy one, get one (BOGO) free sale on McCormick pure vanilla extract. Since I've been baking more, I've been going through it like crazy! I used a 75 cent coupon on top of that (which doubled since Acme doubles coupons up to 99 cents), so instead of paying $17.98 for two bottles ($8.99/bottle), I paid $7.49 ($8.99-$1.50). That's a savings of damn near 60% off! On top of that, I got a coupon for $1.50 off a future purchase, so in reality, I really only paid $5.99 (67% savings). Nice, huh?