Whole Chicken in a Crock-pot

     I had mentioned in my previous post about money saving ideas and one of the ways I save money for my family is by cooking a whole chicken. This gives us one healthy meal for dinner and leftovers for more dinners or lunches. It is super easy to make and the prep time is short. If it's a busy day this is a great fix it and forget it kind of meal. Best of all, its cheap! I paid $1.09/lb not on sale. You can find these as low as $0.98/lb in my area (Southern California) -not bad at all! 

Whole Crock-pot Chicken 

Ingredients

1 small fryer chicken 5-6lbs depending on the size of your crock-pot
2 stalks celery, washed and chopped
4 carrots, washed, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic minced 
Garlic powder 
pepper 
Mrs dash original seasoning 
1 lemon inside chicken 


Directions 
First  chop your vegetables and garlic and throw them in your crock-pot.

 Next unwrap the chicken and remove the innards. Give the chicken a good rinse and pat dry with paper towels.

Now comes the easy part just place the chicken in the crock-pot and season to your liking. I did not do exact measurements I just seasoned both sides up really well with the pepper, Mrs. dash, and garlic powder.
Cut a lemon or two in half and stick them inside the chicken. This will help give it great flavor.

Place the lid on, set on low and walk away. Depending on the weight of your chicken it will take roughly 7 hours. This is what it will look like when it is finished. it is so tender.

 Happy cooking and saving everyone. Until next time, best wishes from my family to yours!  

Money Saving Tips!

Hello everyone!
     I am always getting asked by people how to save money. Truth be told I love to coupon but I understand that it isn't for everyone. Below I am going to list some ways that I save money for my family that don't include couponing. I will do a follow up post in the near future about couponing but these are some great tips if you don't want to coupon!

     1.Menu plan! This is probably my most important tip. You wouldn't want to by a watermelon in mid December, not only is it not going to taste as great but it is going to be double the cost. Plan your menu around what is currently on sale for the week (fruits, veggies, and meat).

     2. Use foods such as rice, pasta, and potatoes to bulk up your meal. They are inexpensive and they fill you up. A side salad is also a cheap healthy side option.

     3. Try to only drink soda on occasion. There are plenty of cheap drink options. I'm from NC so I personally love sweet tea, its cheap and super easy to make. Water with Mio, green tea, Kool-Aid, or water with lemon are also great low cost options.

     4. Do a whole chicken in the crock-pot once a week. You can have it for dinner that night with veggies and then take the rest off the bone and cut and shred it up for future meals. Some meals I love to use it in are bbq chicken sandwiches, chicken salad, chicken and rice and chicken crescents. After the chicken is off the bone put the remains back into the crock-pot and make homemade chicken stock (Freezes well).

     5.Freezer cooking. Make things like pancakes, muffins, breakfast sandwiches and even dinners ahead of time and freeze. This will save you from being in a rush or to tired to cook and just running through a fast food restaurant.

     6. This may be an obvious one but don't let your leftovers go to waste. Eat what you have left for lunch the next day or turn it in to another meal.

     7. If you can make it, do so. Pancakes, bread, muffins, cookies, brownies etc... It is cheaper then buying the boxed stuff most of the time and you can control the ingredients and preservatives that go in to your food.

     8. Buy seasonal. This sort of goes back to menu planing, but buying fruits and vegetables that are currently in season is going to save tons of money. Oh man what I wouldn't do for a delicious watermelon right now :/

     9. Stock up on things your family will use when they go on sale. You don't need to use coupons to stock up. If you are buying something on sale it is still better then having to pay full price for the same item you are going to buy a week from now anyways. So you might as well pick up a few extra.

     10. Make your own laundry soap and cleaning supplies. I have another post on here about how to make laundry soap. It is one of the things that saves me the most money.

     I hope you find these tips helpful to you and your family. Saving money can easily be done if you just plan ahead.  Now get out there and save!!

(not my pic)

Banana Crumb Muffins

     We go through bananas in my house like crazy, although this week as I looked at the counter their there was 3 bananas getting ready to go bad on me! Say what?!?! This never happens. I got really excited because that meant I would get to bake a delicious warm banana snack, but what?? So off to Pinterest I went. After searching for what seemed like forever for just the right recipe, I settled for Banana crumb muffins hoping that they wouldn't be like all the others in the past that were too dense, too dry, not sweet enough, too sweet. I was looking for perfection and to my pleasant surprise these were it!! 

     This is a recipe by Six Sisters Stuff. I have tried many of there recipes in the past and its always been right on the money or a complete fail, but these looked just to scrumptious to pass up. So without farther ado the recipe. 

Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted

Crumb topping:

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar

Directions:Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place 15 muffin liners in muffin cups.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Kadence and I both loved them so much we had multiple in one sitting. Shhh dont tell! 

Next post should be "How to clean dirty muffin pans" Lol

This is the finished product. It was to die for. Go make them right now! Really,go. 

***Update- You can leave off the crumb topping and add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, they are just as yummy. Feel free to experiment with other add ins such as nuts.

Homemade Paint

Hello everyone, 

     I don't know about your kids but mine loves to paint!!! She is not one to get her hands messy so traditional finger paint just wont do. Considering how quickly we go through it, the prices for paint at the store are just outrageous. I have searched a long time for a paint that was first safe for my daughter if for some reason she ate it.. Hey, you never know what these crazy kids will do! Secondly, I wanted something that looked good but wasn't clumpy on the paper.

     I have been through many different paint recipes (flour and water, yogurt and food coloring, shaving cream etc...) you name it and we have probably tried it.  After all the trials this is the one I have come to love. 

Homemade paint for kids

*2 Tbsp Cornstarch+1 cup cold water

*1 cup boiling water 

First mix together the cornstarch with the cold water until it all dissolves. Add the cornstarch mix to the 1 cup of boiling water and mix until thickened.

(This is what the mixture will look like)

 That's it! You can then separate the mixture into bowls to add food coloring or let cool and pour into a mason jar for later use. I find that a mini muffin tin is the best to put the paint in for the kids to use.

***It saves well so you can make a large batch, pour it in a mason jar and then just dye different colors when ever your little on wants to get creative. You will need to shake it up really good before using after it has sat for awhile, it will gel a little bit. 

Paint your hearts out! <3 I hope your kids love it as much as Kadence does! 

Easy Chili

     We all have those days before the next trip to the grocery store where you open up your pantry and think, "ughh I have nothing to make for dinner!" Yep, that was this girl last night so I decided to search and found several ingredients for a perfect homemade chili. I had actually gotten the ingredients to make a specific chili recipe this week but realized I had gotten the wrong things so tonight I will be making my own chili recipe! I must admit, as much as I love cooking, I am a very by the book follow the recipe to a tee kinda girl. This impromptu make your own meal idea made me a little nervous I must admit, especially since I didn't have tomato paste or the regular stuff that goes in chili ( I had to get creative).When all was said and done it was a great quick week night meal and I even got the thumbs up from the husband. 

Easy Chili

Ingredients:
     *1Lb of Ground beef
     *1 yellow onion
     *14.5oz Diced tomatoes with green chilies 
     *15.5oz Chili Beans
     *1/3 cup Spaghetti sauce 
     *1/2tsp Minced garlic
     *1tbsp Brown sugar
     *2tbsp Ketchup
     *1/2tsp Ground cumin 
     * Salt and pepper to taste (It really made all the difference) 

     Brown the ground beef and onion together in pan until all the way cooked. 

Drain fat. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer till heated all the way through.

 That's it! Really simple quick and easy dinner. Will defiantly be making again. Garnish with cheeses, sour cream, Frito's, anything you like the possibilities are endless. 

Sunday Fun day!

Happy Sunday,
                        I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. Today I am feeling a little under the weather; I cant seem to beat this head cold but I wont let it get me down. I love making the weekends feel important. As a stay at home mom with my husband going to school full time and working even on the weekends it is very easy to get in to a rut, sometimes my days just all run together. After being in a rut for quite sometime (like since I moved to Cali) I realized that I needed to have a day to make important. Sundays are that day for me. Growing up it was always the day that my whole family would get together, go to church, go out to eat lunch, and then spend the rest of the day relaxing at the beach or home. I loved this and would love to do the same for my family. 

     One of the things I miss the most about living in NC is that special Sunday every week. I know if I was there I would be going to Church with my mom and Kadence would get to spend the rest of the day spending time with her Grandma(my mom) and playing with her cousins. I must say, I am quite jealous of my sister when it comes to how close her kids are to my mom. They see her at least once a week if not more and I wish Kadence was able to do the same. I truly miss the Southern way of life. I feel like most people out here just keep to themselves. Anyways I kind of got off on a tangent, lol! To make our Sundays important now I like to wake up and cook my husband and daughter a big homemade from scratch breakfast; Chad normally has to be to work by noon, but just because it just me and the baby the rest of the day doesn't mean I don't want to still make it special for her. Today we are going to go to the local lake to feed the ducks, play at the park and have a picnic lunch. I truly believe it is the little things in life, and quality time with the ones you love is one of the things that just makes my heart happy. Does your family have a "Family day?" If so, what are some of the things your family loves doing together?                    

 Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Laundry galore! Will it ever end.

So today as I am up to my eye balls in laundry I figured what better way to get me more motivated to do it then to post about it and give some of my laundry tips! I am not the best at keeping up with my laundry. I don't like doing it, never have, and probably never will, sigh! Maybe implementing naked Saturdays would help haha jk. Enough of my poor me I hate laundry, on with the tips! :)

*** To start I make my own laundry detergent, Wow what a money saver! I spend around $20 on the ingredients and it last me about 8-9 months give or take. I find that it cleans our clothes just as well as anything else it just doesn't have that laundry sent. Our clothes are clean and smell fresh but don't smell like lilac or mountain fresh or whatever other concoctions they have out there, but hey they are clean and that's good enough for me (I do add softener for sent).  Here is the recipe if you are interest in trying it. Its been great but I think when I run out I will experiment with my own recipe ( I no longer want to use the Oxy clean, im finding its not so great for whites).

http://beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html

When I come up with my own recipe I will do an updated laundry post :)

**My husband is currently working at a job where he has to wear white shirts everyday. After about a month of him working there and washing his shirts with just bleach I found they were getting dingy looking. This is the recipe I use for our whites! It still doesn't work as well as I would like but it has improved the whiteness greatly :)

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/04/miracle-laundry-whitening-solution.html