Delicious Dish: $5 Dinners' Curried Chicken With Quinoa and Peas

Baby F showing off a very happy (and messy!)
dinner-time smile!

I made another delicious dish from $5 Dinners tonight and it was delicious! Erin's recipe for Curried Chicken With Quinoa and Peas was not only easy, it was relatively quick to make and had Baby F and my husband gobbling up their meals! I have to admit that I was inspired to make the meal mostly because of the photos of Erin's darling little boy literally licking his bowl. He's apparently got good taste - because the same reaction was had in my household!

I made another recipe from $5 Dinners recently and it was also delicious. If you haven't yet, I highly recommend you check out the site!

Resourceful - making my own chicken stock!

A few weeks ago I decided that instead of buying a roast chicken at the grocery store almost every week I was going to make my own and really maximize the bird... We use roast chicken a lot - to make Jody's Pot Pie (yum!), to make meals for Baby F, to make delicious dishes like Nikki's Green Chili Soup, and other quick weeknight meals. Last week I decided to go one step further and use the chicken carcass to make my own stock. I know people who have done this - but it was my very first try.

I followed a basic recipe that I had from a baby food book, but embellished a little and made use of what I had in the fridge.

I started with the picked over chicken carcass. Yum (not.)

I added some veggies - including onion, carrots and celery. TIP: I had some leftover baby carrots and celery from a veggie platter we had at a party a few days before. They were perfect! I had very little prep work to do.

Finally, I added water and some seasonings, cranked the pot up to a boil then down to a simmer for 3-4 hours.

If you know me - you know that I sometimes get these great ideas late in the day - so as it got closer to bed time I decided to move my stock into the Crock Pot and let it stew overnight.

Here's what it looked like in the morning!

In the morning I used some cheesecloth and a strainer to remove all veggies and chicken bones/parts from the stock and then portioned the stock into baggies measured at one and two cup measures. I have since used a few portions and I have to say - it's tasty! I've backed off of roasting one chicken per week (it was a little excessive...), but I will definitely make good use of the next chicken I roast - and for about $6-7 per bird I'm getting several meals and about eight to ten cups of stock! Pretty good deal, if I do say so myself.

Delicious Dish: Nikki's Green Chili Soup

I got the following recipe from my dear friend Nikki - and as I'm not entirely sure where she got it I'm going to go ahead and name it Nikki's Green Chili & Chicken Soup! Nikki made this dish for us when our families were together in Edwards for Spring Break and it was delicious. I modified the recipe a little - mostly because of what we had on hand - and it was still really delicious. Enjoy!

Nikki's Green Chili & Chicken Soup

• 1 cardboard container chicken broth (I used low sodium)
• 1 roast chicken, shredded (I used about 1/2 a pretty good-size chicken)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped (I used a whole small one)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jar salsa verde
• 1 can beans (Nikki used white beans - I think cannellini - but I used a can of a three bean mix and it was still great!)
• 2-3 tablespoons sugar (I used two)
• 1.5 small cans of green chilies (I used two whole cans - what do you do with a left over 1/2 can?)
• Juice from one lime
• Spices to taste (I did kind of a generous "shake" of each):
• Paprika
• Pepper
• Cumin

I simply put all of the above ingredients into a stock pot, brought it to a boil, and then let it simmer for a half hour. Nikki served the soup over rice - I had quinoa on hand so used that and it was yummy! My husband added some Frank's Red Hot (I thought it was spicy enough without it!) You could add some cheese, or even a dollop of sour cream, and if you didn't want to serve over rice you could definitely add a tortilla or two. Delicious - and so many options!

Inspired!

I love, love, love the blog The Stories of A2Z. If you like crafts and home decor, this blog is for you, too! I just took a peek at Beth's latest post about the trend in decorating with pallets (who knew?) and I am TOTALLY inspired! My favorites are the toy boxes from Ana White, a meaningful head board from House Tweaking (I can see this in our master bedroom or the guest room!), wall coverings and a cool toddler bed. Truth be told - I think I love them all... I feel a craft project coming on!

Ana White

House Tweaking

Delicious Dish: Chicken Salad

Photo credit: lexandlearn.blogspot.com

Tonight I made Chicken Salad With Apricots and Almonds from Whole Living Magazine for dinner. It was my first time poaching chicken and it was SO easy and fast! I am going to have to do it again... maybe tomorrow as I now have two chicken breasts sitting in the fridge waiting for an assignment. I doubled the recipe and we have some leftovers. I loved the fact that with chicken and Greek yogurt the protein content of this salad is really high and the apricots added just enough sweet, and the almonds made for a great little crunch. I even used fresh chives from our garden! Glad those pop up early in the season.

I learned about this recipe from my dear friend Alexis over at Lex And Learn and I have all the fixin's to make the slow cooker meal she suggested, too! I'm thinking that's on Sunday's menu. Stay tuned for a review!

Pampers Rocks - Special Offer!!

Photo credit: Pampers.com

We learned the hard way this last week that some diapers just don't perform as well as others.  I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say I'm glad my motherly instincts include being okay with surprise messes and I like doing laundry.

Since Baby F joined our family we've been Pampers die-hards but a few weeks ago I thought I'd try a store brand in an effort to save some money. Bad idea - I'm headed out to buy some Pampers on the way home tonight to restock our supply!

I tweeted about my love for Pampers and they promptly replied by tagging me in their "Thank You Program" and offering me 50 points of my own and 25 Gifts To Grow points for a friend who uses the program. I have been dutifully recording my Gifts To Grow points each time I make a Pampers purchase and can't wait to redeem the points for a cool gift. If you use the Gifts To Grow program and would like the special 25 point code I've been offered, please make a comment below or shoot me a direct tweet (@CarissaMc)! The first person to reply will get the code.

Viva clean diapers!

Walking AT Work

Photo credit: Chris Machian for The New York Times

Guess what I'm doing RIGHT now? Walking (albeit relatively slow) on a treadmill at work.

Not kidding... almost 300 calories burned and nearly 1.75 miles walked in less than 45 minutes, not to mention e-mails sent, files updated, etc... I could get used to this!