Ham and Potato Chowder

This is one of my favorite cold weather meals.

Ham chowder
4 large carrots,diced
4 stalks celery,diced
4 large potatoes, peeled and diced
1 small onion, diced
5 c. water
2 to 3 cups diced cooked ham
2 TB. butter
Salt and pepper
6 TB. flour
2 1/2 c. milk
Cook celery, carrots, potatoes and onions for 18 to 20 minutes in the 5 cups of water. Add the ham, butter and salt and pepper to taste. Combine the flour and milk, shake till no lumps remain. Stir this into the vegetable mixture, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Cheap Easy Chicken Recipes

Chicken is such a versaltile food. You can have chicken made so many different ways you can have it on your weekly meal plan several times in the week and it's not like repeating the meal. We've been eating chicken adobo and chicken chow mein since we moved to the Philippines. Eventually I will learn to cook those well enough to share recipes. In the mean time I used some of the recipes I have enjoyed over the years with our family to put together a cheap chicken meal plan. You can see the full meal plan here

The meal plan gives four recipes that can use leftover chicken, or use chicken you cook when you find a great sale. If you are not sure what to do with what you find on sale, cook it, shread it and freeze it for future meals.

The recipes on this meal plan include:
Cheesy Chicken Shortcakes
Chicken in a Shell
Night Before Chicken Casserole
Chicken A la King Toast Cups

If you have a favorite cheap chicken recipe feel free to link your blog in the comments section.

Meal Planning in a new location

Debating on meal planning a lot lately. It is tough because I dont know what I can find when, and sometimes it depends on which store we go to. We're using up a lot of the stock we bought with us so I need to be replenishing things in the pantry but have not gotten used to being a cash only shopper yet. I sure miss my checkbook!

This week I think we have everything on hand to make each of these items:
1. Chicken Noodles and Vegetables
2. Goulash
3. Ham and Egg Pie
4. Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo
5. Tuna Noodles
6. Southwestern Stroganoff
7. Honey Orange Crockpot Chicken

I don't need 7 meals for the week though so we'll decide which ones to make as the week goes on. There are more pasta meals in this than I like in one week so a couple of those wont be done. It will just depend on whether I am in a chicken mood or a tuna mood when I am ready to cook.

I dont have a crock pot any more, it broke the first time I used it, so I plan to try the honey orange chicken in the oven.

Recipes are found here

Green Eggs and Ham

Monday March 2nd would have been Dr Seuss' 105th Birthday. I love Dr. Seuss. He has inspired so many children to read over the years. As my kids were growing up there were different Dr. Seuss activities in school. Several times the schools had green eggs and ham for lunch. What a neat thing for the kids to experience. Why not make some green eggs and ham for your kids next week?


Read the book, print out some coloring pages, do a word search have fun with the day and remember a fantastic author Dr Seuss!

Links to Word Searches:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1515990/dr_seuss_word_searches.html

Links to Coloring Pages:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1516064/dr_seuss_coloring_pages.html

Links to Green Eggs and Ham recipes:
http://www.seussville.com/titles/greeneggs/recipes.html

Free Banana Bread, IHOP Pancakes and Tacos

Quite a combination huh? You can read the details for each of the items here

I've been trying to adapt the cooking for the family to what items I can readily find here in country. It has been a challenge at times but we are eating different things and are doing fine. We got some fish from the seafood market last week and that's always good for us as we love different seafood meals. I have a few more meal plans in the works, will post links to them in the next few days

Back to the Easy cooking days

Cheap, Easy Cooking. Gosh it is easy to stray away from something when you get busy. That has been the case for me. I strayed from my blogs while I was in the midst of a recent household move. Although I have not been blogging I have been scoping out things that are considered cheap easy cooking in my view. Now that I am in a different country shopping is different for me so I am having to adapt my ideas of what to have for dinner. I have to admit, the easy part isnt quite as easy but not having convenience foods has made it healthier. One thing that I would encourage anyone looking for increasing the ease of their meals to do, is invest in a rice cooker. We have had ours for about 10 years now and use it almost every day. Rice, even with the recent rise in costs, is still one of the main staples of cheap easy cooking. Watch the widget on the blog for meal plans as I continue to post them on Associated Content. If you would like to find some of the older ones, just visit my page for all of the articles I have written.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Turkey day has passed, are you sick of turkey sandwiches yet?

How about a way to remake the turkey and ham to something else?

Thanksgiving Leftovers Crustless Quiche

1 Dozen eggs
2 cups heavy/light cream or half & half (or combo thereof)
2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, swiss, mozzarella, monterey jack)
1 to 2 cups of cooked turkey or ham(Thanksgiving leftover meats)
chopped onion to taste (optional)
broccoli or other cooked veggie (Thanksgiving leftover from the veggie tray)

Steam the left over veggies.
Whip up the eggs and cream.
Fold in other ingredients.
Spray pan with non stick spray.
Pour in a 9x13 inch pan or into 12 muffin tins.
Cook at 350 for 35 minutes.. Let cool before cutting.

More leftover recipes are found here.