SAVORY SATURDAY - Slowcooker Chicken & Dumplings

Welcome to my first SAVORY SATURDAY post.  As mentioned in a previous post, I make a five meal plan and order all my groceries through Pea Pod.  It saves me time, since my DH work different shifts and I home alone with Anthony and Balboa.    I cook at night and freeze the meals into smaller one person dinners.

It has been working out great.  So, I decided to post about my my favorite meal each Saturday and where I found the recipe.

Any other suggestions or ideas?

SO HERE IS THE MEAL.......

I got this recipe Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings from http://www.allrecipes.com/

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

2 tablespoons butter

2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 onion, finely diced

2 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough, torn into pieces

Directions:

Place the chicken, butter, soup, and onion in a slow cooker, and fill with enough water to cover.

Cover, and cook for 5 to 6 hours on High.

About 30 minutes before serving, place the torn biscuit dough in the slow cooker. Cook until the dough is no longer raw in the center.

Meal preparation: ………………...... 5 stars It was easy to prepare, very little to do, just plop in the chicken, soup, and onions.  I used frozen chopped onions and added garlic powder. 


Baking/Cooking: …………………... 4 stars I just set the slow cooker and walked away.  I only opened it up to add the biscut dough.

Versatility: ………………………..... 4 stars Can easily be doubled or tripled.  If you like you can add veggies.

Amount of time to make meal:…….... 5 stars No time at all to make meal.  One of the quickest meals I made. Even easy to clean up. 


Total price of meal:……………….... 5 stars A money saving meal.  4 pieces of skinless boneless chicken breast was Chicken was $6.56, campbells condensed cream of chicken soup was $1.00 a can x2, 12oz bag of frozen chopped onions was a $1.00, we already had butter, the 8ct of biscuits was $2.29 x2.  All together the meal was $11.60.  We got 4 dinners out of the meal, so that is $2.80 a meal! And that was without any coupons. 

Total Rating:……..…………….... 4.5 stars

Money Saving Meal???

What makes a great money saving meal?

1. Most of the ingredients are budget friendly and/or on sale.

2. Half of the ingredients are already in your home and used in many of your meals.

3. Having extra of an ingredient that can be used in another meal, appetizer, or side.

4. Meal is flexible, you can add or change a few ingredients depending on your likes or needs.

5. You can get at least 6 dinners (servings) out of the meal

6. The cost of each dinner (serving) is no more than $3.50.


7. If an item is on sale at a good price, buy a few extra so you have it for the next meal. I like to keep one or two extra of the following.....

• dried beans or peas,
• frozen veggies,
• ground meat or chicken breasts (obviously kept in freezer)
• soups (all types of creams, french onion, or broths)
• bouillon cubes (beef and chicken)
• pasta and pasta sauce

This post and information on money saving meals was created by owner of blog, from her own experience. Before you try making any meals at home, consider if the meal is right for your family and budget. Please do not make a meal if you are allergic to an ingredient.


This post will be updated as owner of blog continues to cook and learn.


Suggestions on money saving ideas are welcome, but up to blog owner to post. If your suggestion is posted, blog owner will give you credit.

Starting to cook again - UPDATE!!!!

Update is at end of post.


Its so hard being alone at night with Anthony and Balboa.  I mean, I can do it, I am doing it, but it is tough.  I would love to start cooking meals at night again.  But since I can't I decided to use the slow cooker at night, and scoop into containers in the morning.  This way I CAN eat healthy and have time to cook. 

My plan......well I found a site sample menu that allows you to plan 5 meals, it takes time to set up the meal plan. But, having it up on the clipboard in the kitchen allows me to not use the ingredients for other items and stick to the meal plan.

I use all recipes to get great slow cooker recipes and then use peapod to buy and deliver my groceries.  So, this morning (since it is a Sunday) I decided to start with Split pea and Sausage soup.  I changed the recipe a little, but it looks really good cooking in the slowcooker right now.

I bouhgt a bunch of plastic containers to store the food, but have glass bowls to heat the food up in at both work and home.




Slow Cooker Split Pea Sausage Soup
1 pound dried split peas
10 cups water
1 pound smoked sausage of your choice, sliced
5 cubes chicken bouillon
2 bags frozen stew vegetables
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 bay leaves


In a 5 quart slow cooker, combine the peas, water, sausage, bouillon, carrot, celery, potatoes, garlic powder, oregano, bay leaves, and onion.
Cover, and cook on High for 4 to 5 hours. Remove bay leaves before ladling into bowls.

I'll let you know how it turned out next post.

UPDATE!!!!

The split pea and sausage soup came out great!  I let it cook 4 hours on high and then 3 more hours on low.  It was so good.  The potatoes were so soft, the broth so yummy, the sausage perfect.  Man, I am so proud of myself. 

I let it cool and put it into containers and labeled them with the date.  Now I am working on the meatballs with buttered noodles.