Monday, March 22, 2010

Tips and Tricks

Thanks to everyone who commented on the last post, I feel the blog love right now!! And I must say, I am renergized to blog a little bit more. I do blog for our family, so we have a lot of Brennan's milestones recorded and photos and funny stories. And I also blog to stay in touch with family and friends. So I will continue and press on and journey on and (key Independence Day soundtrack!).

Here's a photo from today of the B-Man:

Look at that crazy face!! And that crazy hair!!
So my friend Rachelle and I painted some wooden B's from Hobby Lobby for Brennan's birthday party to be used as decorations. But I loved them so much, I hung them up above his crib, check it out:

I loved the way it turned out!!

My friend Mariam called this morning and we were chatting about a bunch of stuff, one of the things being a crock pot roast. We were talking about cuts of meat and whats expensive or not (hello, I sound like were senior citizens, talking about expensive cuts of meats, too funny!). Anyways, I was telling her about crock pot chicken that I found from this blog. You basically buy a whole chicken, they are quite inexpensive, around .88 per pound at our local Kroger. Rinse the chicken of and pull out the bag of yuckiness from the cavity of the chicken. And then stick it in the crockpot on low about 8 hours. How simple is that!? It cooks in it's own liquid! I usually sprinkle some spices on top- paprika or garlic powder- whatever you like. We have chicken for dinner that night and then I use the leftover chicken (usually there is quite a bit) for a casserole later that week. It does take more time to pick all the chicken off the bone, but it's worth it for me! Here's what it looks like:

And if you are super frugalicious, you can make your own chicken broth out of the bones and liquid. To do that, you stick the bones back in the crockpot with about 4 cups of water and heat on low overnight. Scoop out the bones and pour the liquid into a freezable container. Put in the fridge for a day and scoop off the layer of fat on top. Freeze (or refrigerate) the rest!

I got this cookbook for Christmas and found another awesome way to save money with meats. Instead of buying the lean or extra lean ground beef, buy the regular ol' ground beef. Follow this method and your regular ground beef becomes lower in fat than extra lead ground beef (according to the Canadian Beef Council). Check it out:
-Cook broken up ground beef in skillet until brown.
-Remove it from the skillet and let drain in a bowl lined with three layers of paper towels (or I drain it using a strainer).
-Microwave 4 cups of water on High, until VERY hot.
-Place the beef in a mesh strainer or colander and set it over a large sturdy bowl.
-Pour hot water over the beef and let drain 5 minutes. See?:

Whew, how's that for a blog? I'm BAAACK!

Chaeli

4 comments:

Katie said...

Ew! Too many meat pictures! :)
Haha, just kidding! I'm glad you're going to keep pressing forward. P.S. I've been meaning to call you and chat sometime soon!

Chaeli said...

Oh katie, do the meat pictures make you nauseous? So sorry!! YES, call me!

Trisha said...

Do you like your cookbook? I've been trying to make new recipes lately.
Good idea about the chicken. I think I'll try it!

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