Oven Fried Chicken!!!

Wow! The kids will LOVE this! You can make it with the cheap leg quarters I keep telling you to buy. Here is what you do:

Cut up the leg quarters in 2 pieces, leg & thigh. It's not hard if you find the join. Then get a big baking pan and spray it with cooking spray and put a stick of butter or margarine in it. Turn the oven on to 425^ and put pan in the oven to let butter melt.

While that is melting, take a large bowl & put 1.5 cups of flour in it. Add 1 teaspoon salt, garlic salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper & 1.5 tablespoons paprika or creole seasoning. Mix it all up and coat 1 piece of chicken at a time. Leave the skin on. By this time your butter should be all melted.

Take pan out of oven with oven mits and place floured chicken skin side down in pan. Cook for about 20-25 minutes then take out of oven & turn over. Cook an additional 15 minutes on this side. Cooking time will be around 40 minutes.

You can even use the left over grease in the chicken pan to make great tasting gravy! Will give you the recipe for that next time.

Rosey~

Save Money Now!!

Now, more than ever, you have to find ways to save money! Recently 10 lb. bags of leg quarters were on sale for under $5 each. For a family of 4-5 you can get 2 to 3 meals a bag, big, filling meals!

So, we stock piled our stand up freezer with nothing but leg quarters. We went every day to the store and purchased 2 bags. That was the limit. Figured I could feed my family for a month for $60 or less! What else could you fix for that?

Chicken is so versitile. You can Barbeque it, roast it, broil it, fry it, grill it, even make chicken soup with it! Hope this helps! Rosey~

Side Dishes- GREEN BEANS!

ALWAYS have at least one Green thing on your plate! That is my eating Rule. They won't always like the same things. My boys like broccolli and one likes asparagus. But, most kids will eat Green beans.

Try adding a little bacon in before you add the green beans. It give it some flavor and then just salt, pepper & add a little garlic salt. Keep it simple. You can use canned or fresh.

Rosey~

Sausage Biscuts for BREAKFAST!

Here is another GREAT breakfast idea! Try sausage biscuts. Just buy the cheap biscuts, you know the 4 together, which gives you 10 biscuts. Then by the off brand sausage. I usually only pay around $1.20 for a roll. You can freeze them and thaw them right before you use them. The trick is not to thaw them all the way, just enough to get your knife through. Cut them into 10 pieces and put in the frying pan for around 3 minutes per side. I usually cook mine twice, that would be 6 minutes per side total or 12 minutes total.

While you are thawing out the sausage, pre-heat the oven to 400^ and spray a pan and pop open biscuits and follow directions to cook. So far, you have around $2 for breakfast!

If that is not enough, you can always fry eggs or scramble and you can have sausage and egg or add cheese. I usually cut up a piece of fruit with this, like an orange.

Rosey~

Breakfast Ideas

My boys love a big breakfast! Sometimes you don't have the time. But, if you make it up the night before, it can be done.

I have a great pancake recipe that even has the dreaded cottage cheese in it and they won't know it's good for them.

Country Pancakes: 3 cups all purpose flour, 4 tablespoons sugar, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1.5 teaspoons baking soda, 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 1/2 cup of milk, & 1 cup of cottage cheese smashed with a fork. Mix it all together. It make a huge amount, at least 2 breakfasts. It won't keep longer than that.

If you like you can substitute sugar for artificial sweetner, you can't tell. I also use sugar free syrup, but my boys use the regular. You can add chocolate chips or nuts if they like that. When you fill them up on pancakes, they eat less meat! You can fix fried bologna or something else cheap. They'll love you for it!

Rosey~

Don't forget the rice & Fillers!

Once you have a few good meat recipes, don't forget the fillers. Give them anything to eat, except more meat! Try rice. You can just make rice & gravy or you could add chicken bullion to add flavor or bay leaves. Baked potatoes are good. You can bake in the microwave. Just scrub & fork holes all over and make a circle on rim of plate and cook at least 15-20 minutes. Most microwaves have a potato button. You can make broiled potatoes. Cut up scrubbed potatoes, put in a shallow pan, cut in small pieces. Add olive oil, garlic salt, salt, pepper, & creole seasoning. Mix & broil for 20 minutes. Don't forget to stir once or twice. They'll love it!

Rosey~

BARBEQUE BBQ IN THE CROCK POT

If you need another great crock pot idea, here is a Great Simple one. Just take a Boston Butt and place it in the crockpot. Cook 6-8 hours. Before you add the BBQ sauce, take off the juice and measure it and put it in another pan for rice. We call it "GREEZY RICE" and boy is it good! Just add rice & twice the liquid (including the juice from the pot). Start the rice to boil with lid and turn down to low and simmer 20 minutes (just don't lift the lid). Once you have the juice off the BBQ, just add mustard based sauce. It doesn't have to be the expensive kind. The cheap stuff will do. Let it cook for about an hour longer. It will be falling apart, but you can cut it up for the hash look. I also fix a can or 2 of off brand green beans with galic salt, salt & pepper. What a great and hearty meal! Sometimes you can get Boston Butt for $.99 a lb.

Rosey~

More Meat Ideas

Tired of Chicken! Try Pot Roast. You can do it in the crockpot or roast it in the oven.
Crockpot: spray with pam, add pot roast & cut up carrots & potatoes (peeled) then just add 1 envelope of Onion Soup Mix and 1 cup of water. Cook 6-8 hrs and enjoy!
Oven: do the same thing as above, instead cook in dutch oven or one with a lid at 350^ for 2-3 hours.
More later!

Rosey~

More Chicken Leg Quarter Recipes

Here are some more simple, yet amazing chicken recipes!

Try this Greek chicken recipe: spray your crock pot & put several whole pieces of leg quarters, skin and all in the pot. Then add olive oil, vinegar, garlic salt, a pinch of sugar, 4-5 bay leaves, a little oregano & a can of diced up tomatoes (if you don't have diced up, you can use whole & cut mash them up yourself or use tomato sauce or paste) you just want a hint of tomato taste! Scrub whole potatoes & quarter or eighth and put in the pot. You'll also be making Greek potatoes! Cook 6-8 hours in the crock pot or you can cook in the oven, slow roast at 275-300^ for 3 hours. It will be falling off the bone good! You can make a pot of rice and spoon the sauce over it.

On any of these recipes you can remove the skin. I'm not always crazy about the skin. So, on some of the pieces I will remove it and just have skinless chicken for me.

If you want it to look like more chicken, cut up the pieces into legs and thighs. They usually cook a little faster that way.

Try another recipe by just adding some jelly to the chicken. Orange marmelade is great or you could try peach. Just season with salt & pepper and add jelly on top then bake!

That's probably enough about leg quarters. But stay tuned to more crock pot & meat ideas!

Rosey~

Take Stock of the Situation

Once my children where born and weighed 10 Lbs. 15.5 Ozs. & 9 Lbs. 1 Oz. I knew my husband & I were in real trouble. Our boys were eating all the food on their plates at restaurants for children 12 and under by age 4 or 5. By ages 10 and 11, I told my husband, who is a big guy (6'1" & 300 lbs), in a couple more years I'll have three (3) your size sitting around our table and eating all our food! Little did I realize they would be bringing their Friends over for dinner also! Our boys LOVE to EAT MEAT! Can anyone say "LEG QUARTER"? You can even pay too much for them. Will give you more tips on that later.

Rosey~