Chicken Fajita's

Quick, easy and delicious!!  One of the secrets is baking your chicken.  Sprinkle a lined baking sheet with chili powder and garlic powder.  Lay your chicken slices on the pan and sprinkle again with garlic and chili powder.  Bake at 350 for 30 - 40 min.  Enough time to cook your veggies and your chicken should still be juicy!

While your chicken is baking start heating your oil and butter on the stove top.  Add chopped onions till brown.

 Add your squash and red peppers and any other veggies you might want and saute till tender.  To add a little sauce I add a tablespoon of honey, garlic powder and a pinch of salt.

We usually eat this just chicken and veggies and sometimes lettuce and beans because it takes so much time to make tortillas. But for those of you who can't have fajitas without the tortilla I will be posting my tortilla recipe soon so watch for it. If you just don't have the time you can use Food For Life tortillas also but they seem kind of chewy to me.  Enjoy!

Beef Stir Fry

So Beef Stir fry went over great with the Husband and older two kids.  My little two year old doesn't like to take the time to chew her meat so mostly ate her veggies.  I am ok with that because when she decides to eat meat she more then makes up for the loss.
To start the week I cut up all our lettuce, red leaf and spinach, and put it into a large bowl to have on hand.  This made prep time real quick.

Ingredients:

Garlic powder ( on hand )
1 lb diced beef
1 chopped onion
1 lb chopped green beans
4 medium chopped carrots
Cilantro dressing ( you can add any flavor of vinagerette for your sauce.  This was not on the grocery list.  I didn't include condiments that I had on hand.)


Saute onion till slightly brown.  Add meat and sprinkle with garlic powder.  Cook till all brown but not all cooked.  Add remaining ingredients and cook to till tender.  Serve over salad or eat alone.  I found out later in the week that the left overs make for GREAT omlet stuffers! So enjoy for breakfast or dinner.

Grocery Experiment Begins

My family and I have been eating gluten and dairy free for quite sometime now.  In fact we eat very little grains at all.  I have always struggled with the amount of money we spend on groceries.  So I decided to see how little I could spend and still eat well.  I found this couple's blog, Koa Strength, that are eating Paleo for $40 a week.  They are a couple and their experiment is to eat on the cheap  not necessarily organic and grass fed. So keep that it mind.  I am hoping to keep my grocery bill for 5 people under $200 per week including organic when I can and good meets.
 My grocery lists will include breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 2 adults and three kids that eat a ton!  I have never been good at cutting coupons because I am picky about the brands I buy.  So the only coupons I use are in store ones or a random one here or there.  I will give you my list and what I didn't buy because I already had it on hand and the prices.  I will do my best to post the meals I cook as I do so.

Today I went to HEB.  I  spent $124.76 and I am budgeting an additional $10 to buy apples and pears at sprouts where they are a lot cheaper.

My List:
4 dozen eggs
5 Sunwell Sweet Potato Chips
2Sunwell Mixed Veggie Chips
2Organic Blue tortilla Chips
2 Unsweetened Applesauce
Large Ketchup
2 lbs deli turkey
1 lb petite cubed Beef
2 HEB fruit twist
4 small limes
10 green Bell Peppers
1 small Cabbage
1 head green Leaf Lettuce
1 Bunch spinach
3.2 lbs Sweet Potatoes
2 small bags frozen peas
4 lbs ground turkey
2 cans black beans
1 yellow squash
2 zucchini squash
3 red Bell Peppers
5 cucumbers
4 Large avocados
5.2 lbs Bananas (about 15)
2 small bags of Carrots
.75 lbs of green beans

I had on hand at home to use for this weeks meals:  4- 5 chicken breast, 2 dozen eggs, onions ( Guess cost $17)

My meal plan:

Breakfast:  One Banana per kid and two to three eggs per person.
Lunch:  Deli turkey, cucumbers, frozen peas (yes my kids prefer their peas frozen)  or leftovers if there is any!
Snack/ lunch rotation:  carrots, apples, pears, sunwell chips, fruit twist

Dinners:
Beef Stir fry
Taco Salads
Stuffed Peppers
Thai Salad
Chicken Taco soup
Chicken Fajita

So here goes week one....we will see how it goes...

I'm Back

I started this blog hoping to help all those out there wondering what in the world to cook.  I didn't have a computer of my own to work on and it just got to hard to keep up.  Now I am back and hoping to get things up and moving quick!

Cilantro Dressing

1 bunch of cilantro
1/3 cup of Olive Oil
1 Garlic clove
Dash of Cumin
4 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar

It helps to pre chop your cilantro unless you have an awsome blender!
Blend and Serve cold

Chicken Fingers

Life here has gotten so busy so I needed to find some quick and simple dinners.  Well I stumbled upon a great site that could make some of your lives easier.  It is Onceamonthmom.com  She plans your monthly meals so you can cook on long day then have freezer meals all month long.  She has a gluten and dairy free recipe list.  I have loved some of her recipes and today I am going to share one. (you will be seeing recipes from her on here quite a bit during the crazy holidays cause I simply don't have time myself!)  I changed her corn flakes to frosted flakes because that is what I could find.

Chicken Fingers

1 Box of gluten free frosted flakes
1/2 cup frozen Orange Juice
1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into strips

4 chopped garlic cloves

2 large eggs

2/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

2 tb sugar

1 tsp molasses ( or substitute the sugar for brown sugar)

1 tb olive oil

2 tb butter

I love the EnviroKids Organic brand.  Not to expensive and limited ingredients.  You can get it at HEB

It a ziploc bag add the orange juice and garlic. After you cut your chicken into the size of strips you want, add them to the bag.  Let this marinate for at least 2 hours.  I usually do this the night before so it has all night and the next day to absorb the yummy orange flavor!  Then in a small dish you want to beat your eggs.  On another plate add your frosted flakes, coconut, olive oil, butter and sugars.  Crunch up and mix well.

Pull your chicken from the orange juice mixture, dip it in the eggs, then cover it with the frosted flake mixture.  Lay them flat and bake at 400 for about 12 minutes.

These were awsome!!  My husband and kids loved them.  What I thought would be two meals, turned out to be one. 

Peanut Butter Cookies

My husbands favorite cookies are Peanut butter cookies!  I am not the biggest fan of them so it is a good thing for me to make when I don't want to be eating sweets but the family wants some.  Every once in a while I will surprise him with these great cookies!

1 C Rice Flour

1/2 C. Tapioca Flour

3/4 C. Sorghum Flour

I use a lot of Bobs Red Mill because I like their quality and their price!  They have great products!

1 3/4 C. of Sugar

2 tbs Molasses

2 eggs

1tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 c. butter

1 c all natural peanut butter

I prefer to use creamy peanut butter but you can use either creamy or crunchy will work great!  

First you cream your butter, peanut butter, sugar and molasses.  Then add in your eggs.

Then you add in the remaining ingredients.  If you let your dough sit then the next two steps will be a little easier.

You want to roll your dough into balls and put them on the baking sheet.  Use a dinner fork to make the criss cross pattern on the top.  I have done this after refrigerating the dough, freezing and defrosting it, or right away.  When the dough is a little cold or harder then it makes the criss crossing not stick to the fork as much.

Bake at 375 for 11 minutes!

Enjoy