What's for Dinner? Chicken Cordon Bleu

When I was first living on my own, I bought a lot of pre-made dinners in the frozen section of the grocery store. My favorite thing was these stuffed chicken dinners. They had several options and Wal-Mart sells them for a good price. But as I learned to cook more things, I thought, I can totally make that. The first time was not good or simple or easy or quick. The more I made it, the easier it got. You can freeze the extras and have it later as well.

 

First of all, chicken cordon bleu is relatively simple. You only need a few ingredients and it's not expensive to make.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs

1 egg

1 cup breadcrumbs or 1 cup crushed croutons

Ham or prosciutto

Shredded cheese

Toothpicks

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. While the oven preheats, let's prepare! If you have chicken breasts, you can pound them to about 1/4-inch thickness. That's what I usually use. Tonight, I'm trying it with chicken thighs. You can just open them like this:

 

3. Next, pack in your ingredients!! I normally use provolone for the cheese but I already had shredded mozzarella so we're trying that out tonight. (I found that, unlike when I use sliced cheese, the shredded cheese did not leak out but that could just be me) Since I have ham baked already, I just took out a couple of pieces and stuffed them in.

 

Next, you'll roll it up. Fancy version? We are now going to roll it into a "roulade," which just means we're rolling it up. It's one of those methods that you can use to make a million dishes. Thanks, Mom! Once rolled, toothpick it in place.

I know it doesn't look fabulous like this, but you just want it to stay in place.

4. Traditionally, these are breaded. I was out of breadcrumbs BUT I had some leftover croutons. I smashed them and added a little bit of parmesan so I had probably a cup's worth of breadcrumbs.

Dip your chicken in the egg mixture and the breading mixture. It doesn't have to be perfect; it just needs to be coated. Then, put them on the cookie sheet or whatever baking dish you want. I didn't grease mine.

5. Once you're set, place them on a cookie sheet or whatever you have and put them in the oven for 35-45 minutes. You want to make sure there's no pink and that the cheese is melted. With these chicken thighs, they cooked for 40 minutes.

 

Nice and golden on the outside!

 

Gooey and cooked in the middle!

 

Budget Breakdown:
2 lbs of chicken thighs = $2 (on sale for 99 cents per pound)
1 egg = About 11 cents (full dozen was $1.29)
Croutons = I used what was in my pantry
Ham = I used leftover ham from an earlier meal
Shredded cheese =  About 29 cents (I used about 1/8 of a 2-cup bag while was $2.29)

Total cost = $2.40 for 4 servings.

 

What's for Dinner? Baked Ham (and disaster!)

My original plan last night was to bake a ham for dinner. It was a beauty - over 9lbs of perfect ham, waiting to be cooked. Preheated my oven to 325 degrees. As I was preparing my ham, I typed my ingredients:

 

Ham

1c pineapple juice
1c of root beer

.25 c of brown sugar
.25 c. melted butter

 

I combined the pineapple juice and root beer in the bottom of a glass 9 x 13 pan. Both were room temperature. I took my ham out of the bag, removed that sneaky plastic thing on the bottom, and placed it in the pan. Next, I combined the brown sugar and butter and rubbed it all over the ham. I didn't have any foil to cover it so I left it uncovered for now.

 

After it had been in the oven for about 20 minutes, I heard a CRACK! Then, HISSSSSSSSSS! I thought that perhaps the juice had boiled over or something had dripped. When I opened the oven door, one side of my pan was in pieces on the bottom of the oven with all of the liquid spilling slowly onto those pieces. I took out the pan and put it in my nonstick 9 x 13 to drain while I picked out pieces with tongs. Then, while I was fixing the mess, another CRACK! The rest of the pan crack and basically bursted all over the kitchen. 

I cleaned the mess, checked the ham for glass, re-prepped it in another 9 x 13 and put it back in the oven for 3 hours total.

With a bone-in uncooked ham,  cook it between 18-22 minutes per pound at 325, according to Hormel Foods. Here's a guide for cooking ham from them:

Cut or Type of Ham	Weight/Pounds	Approximated Minutes/Pound
SMOKED HAM, cook-before-eating
Whole, bone in	10 to 14	18 to 20
Half, bone in	5 to 7	22 to 25
Shank or Butt Portion, bone in	3 to 4	35 to 40
Arm Picnic Shoulder, boneless	5 to 8	30 to 35
Shoulder Roll (Butt), boneless	2 to 4	35 to 40
SMOKED HAM, fully cooked
Whole, bone in	10 to 14	15 to 18
Half, bone in	5 to 7	18 to 24
Arm Picnic Shoulder, boneless	5 to 8	25 to 30
Canned ham, boneless	3 to 10	15 to 20
Vacuum packed, boneless	6 to 12	10 to 15
Spiral cut, whole or half	7 to 9	4 to 18
FRESH HAM, uncooked
Whole leg, bone in	12 to 16	22 to 26
Whole leg, boneless	10 to 14	24 to 28
Half, bone in	5 to 8	35 to 40
COUNTRY HAM
Whole or Half (Soak 4 to 12 hrs in refrigerator; then boil, covered with water. Drain, glaze, and brown at 400°F 15 minutes.)	10 to 16, whole; 5 to 8, half	20 to 25

 Overall, my ham turned out delicious and I had about 5lbs left. Tonight, I'm making chicken cordon bleu with some of the pieces. Also, it'll make at least 10 sandwiches. Even though the one item cost me $14+, I will have plenty of meals I can make.

Don't let a possible disaster ruin your meal - learn to salvage what you can and roll with the punches.


 

What's for Dinner? Fried Chicken!

 Last night, I made my absolute favorite thing for dinner - fried chicken. It's the first thing I learned to make from my dad. We were living in Virginia when I was maybe 8 or 9 and he was building a shed for the backyard. He always made fried chicken on Saturdays because it was my mom's day out and it was always accompanied with corn on the cob and tater tots. I don't think any of us minded having it every week because it was DELICIOUS! I had asked about dinner and he had t me write down his recipe before letting me make it myself.

 

My recipe is slightly different but I think it tastes awesome. Enjoy!

 

FRIED CHICKEN

Ingredients:

6-8 chicken legs ($0.99-$1.39/lb - I normally get about 2lbs)

1 cup flour (in my pantry, about $1.97 for 5-lb bag)

1 tbsp. salt (in my pantry, less than $1 for a container)

1 tbsp. black pepper (in my pantry, $1-2 for a container, depending where you go)

1 tbsp. garlic powder (in my pantry, $1 at Wal-Mart0

1 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning (in my pantry, about $3-$4 but you won't have to buy it for a while)

1 tbsp. paprika (in my pantry, $1 at Wal-Mart)

24 oz. oil (any kind but olive oil) ($2.24 for a 48oz bottle at Wal-Mart) 

 

Heat oil to medium-low. While the oil heats, mix flour and all spices in a bowl. Rinse each chicken leg and then coat with seasoning. 

 

 

 Once the oil is heated, put the chicken in. They should started sizzling a little bit immediately.

 

 

Put a lid on your skillet and leave it alone for 10 minutes. When you take off the lid, they should look pretty much like this. 

 

 

Turn them. You'll turn them a total of 3 times at 10 minute intervals. When you turn them the third time, let them cook another 10 minutes before taking them out. (If you see that they are starting to get darker than you like, you can also let them finish in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees.)

 

 

And then, enjoy indulging in a delicious chicken dinner!

 

 

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it. I bought a 4.5-lb package of chicken legs and a full bottle of oil so, for $6.75, I can make this twice.  Hope you like it!

 

Meal Planning to Minimize Your Grocery Bill

Making a meal plan is the best thing I have done for my budget. When I have a plan, I am less likely to make impulse purchases or return trips. I'm also less likely to give in and just order dinner instead. Basically, I divide it into a few steps:

1. Check the sales that will be good for grocery day. I always go grocery shopping on Fridays. Since the sales ads are published by Wednesday, I find the ones that seem like the best deals at each of my local stores and write them down to reference in the next step.

2. Choose recipes that include those on-sale items. You aren't necessarily going to make all of these recipes. If you Google "search by ingredient," you will find plenty of websites that will do this for you. I have a notebook of recipes I want to try that I put together a few months ago and continue to add recipes still. I write down the ingredients that aren't normally in my pantry and I'm able to easily find recipes I want to make.

3. Estimate costs of the recipes. My rule of thumb - if the meal will be over $5.00, I either want it to have leftovers or have ingredients I will use in another recipe. In the recipes I post, I'll make notes of the cost of the meal.

4. Make your meal plan. I use the same plan format every week and you are welcome to steal it.

Breakfasts: same every day

Lunches: same every day

Snacks: a few options but its the same every day

Dinners:
Friday -
Saturday -
Sunday -
Monday -
Tuesday -
Wednesday -
Thursday -

5. Make your grocery list. Write down every ingredient you need. Then, check your cupboards and freezer - you might be able to eliminate some items!

6. Go shopping!

One other thing I do is use digital coupons for Safeway and Fry's. If you have a smartphone, they each have an app. You just scan the barcode of your card in the app and it links so you can choose coupons. You can do this on their website on your computer as well.

Good luck! Tonight, I'm making my favorite fried chicken and I'm hoping to post my first blogged recipe with pictures. Stay tuned!

"A Mean Box of Mac and Cheese."

"I can make a mean box of macaroni and cheese."

This was the proud statement I made through my teenage years until I moved out of my parents' house at 19. I was incredibly proud to have found a different measurement for the butter and milk you add to a box of macaroni and a packet of powdered cheese. It wasn't the only thing I could make but I wasn't really set on making anything else. My dad taught me to make his recipe for fried chicken when I was a kid and I had learned recipes from my mom through the years but I prided myself on macaroni and cheese. When I moved out, I realized that it would not be healthy to only live on a box of preservatives and begun collecting recipes to try.

Now, I am proud when I make chicken cordon bleu or homemade pizza dough or a slow-cooked pot roast. I have learned so many recipes from my mom, cooking websites, magazines, cookbooks, and I've even modified some myself. My budget continues to shrink and, each week, I ask myself:

"What delicious foods can I make without breaking the bank?"

I'm hoping to use this blog to show you inexpensive and easy recipes from all of the resources I've had. I'll reference websites I've used but I'll try to post my own pictures that may not be as pretty as the magazine. I hope you enjoy this journey with me!