Chicken With Biscuits, Candied Sweet Potatoes

Hi Everyone!

I hope you're having a GREAT day!!

Thank you for all your comments about mom's article, "Hard Economic Times". We had a bigger reader response on this than we've had on any other article, so we are glad to know we aren't the only ones who think "the world has gone crazy". :-) A few readers were under the impression that we have never been laid off or had "hard times", but we've certainly had our share.

The point of the story was to illustrate that learning to make better financial decisions makes it easier to deal with financial hardships that come along from time to time. This is especially true when times are good and people have extra money. If we set aside some of the money in the good times or use it to strengthen our financial position rather than buy more "goodies" that we don't really need, the hard times that follow will not be so hard. Even if you're caught in difficult times now, there are things you can do to make the situation easier and this article was meant to get you thinking about how to do that.

Also, we do understand that some people have bigger challenges that the average person-- If you're disabled or are struggling with a life issue that makes it more difficult financially, it can be discouraging, but if you keep trying, eventually thing will improve.

In the coming weeks, we'll include newsletters to help if you're dealing with unemployment or if you just want to improve your financial outlook.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

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If you would like to reprint any of the articles, tips or recipes from our newsletters for your newsletter (print or on-line), website or blog you may as long as you credit and link back to www.LivingOnADime.com .

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Today's Tips:

• If your bread gets dried out, don't toss it out. Spread it with some butter, sprinkle with garlic powder and Parmesan cheese and broil until brown. You could also spread it with butter, cinnamon and sugar and broil.
  
  
• When cooking veggies, always remember to start anything that grows under the ground in cold water (for you city slickers like me, that includes things like potatoes, carrots and beets) and start anything that grows above the ground in boiling water (peas, beans and greens).
  
  
• Add 1/2 tsp. of bacon grease or other grease to the water when you boil your sweet potatoes. It will help prevent that hard to remove substance that sticks to the side of the pan. This works for other root veggies, too. Those are the ones grown under ground. ;-)
  
  
• Never cover anything that is cooked in milk unless you want to spend hours cleaning your stove after it boils over.
  
  
• Keep a measuring cup in each of your flour and sugar canisters. I almost never have to dirty a measuring cup anymore. I also use an ice cream scoop (It measures 1/4 of a cup) to measure liquids. The lever on it that you use to scrape out the ice cream works great for scraping out things like honey or syrup.
  
  

Today's Menu:

Oven Fried Chicken With Biscuits*
Candied Red Sweet Potatoes*
Celery and Green Pepper Sticks
Honey Spice Snaps*

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Today's Recipes:

*Oven Fried Chicken With Biscuits

4 -5 Tbsp. margarine (not butter)
4-6 pieces of chicken
1/2 cup baking mix
Salt and pepper
1 can refrigerator biscuits

Melt margarine in a 9x13 pan. Roll chicken into the margarine, then into baking mix and place back into the pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake at 375° for about 45 minutes until the juices run clear.

About 5-10 minutes before the chicken is done, push the pieces of chicken tightly against one side of the pan and lay biscuits into the pan on the opposite side. Finish baking until the biscuits are brown.

Note: It's okay to lay the biscuits in the margarine and all in the bottom of the pan. That makes the biscuits margarine soaked and crispy. Oh, yum!

*Candied Red Sweet Potatoes

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup margarine
3/4 cup red cinnamon candies (red hots)
2-3 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced to 1 1/2" thick

In a large skillet, heat sugar, water, candies and margarine to a boil. Carefully place sweet potatoes in a single layer in the hot syrup to cover the bottom of skillet. Cover and cook over medium heat until done and syrup is thick (about 1 hour). Baste several time with syrup while cooking.

Note: These can be prepared ahead of time and warmed up.

*Honey Spice Snaps

1 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1/4 cup honey or dark corn syrup
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1 1/2 tsp. soda
2 1/4 cups flour

Cream sugar and shortening. Add egg and honey or corn syrup. Mix well. Add dry ingredients. Mix well. Shape into balls about the size of walnuts. Dip half of the ball in water and then into white sugar. Place sugar side up on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

Make Meals in 30 Minutes or Less

Dear Readers,

In today's newsletter, Jill shares lots of tips to make meals in 30 minutes or less!

In case you missed it, the Christmas Sale started today! Dining On A Dime print books are up to 50% off and include some special Christmas bonus items you and your family are sure to love! We are having the sale now to make sure all of the books arrive in plenty of time for Christmas. Learn more here!

Have a great week!

-Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

Permissions:

If you would like to reprint any of the articles, tips or recipes from our newsletters for your newsletter (print or on-line), website or blog you may as long as you credit and link back to www.LivingOnADime.com .

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Make Meals in 30 Minutes or Less
by Jill Cooper

I was having dinner at my son's house the other night and my daughter-in-law had fixed "old fashioned" baked potatoes. You know, the kind you make in the oven and not the microwave. Boy, they were good. It seems that so many things taste better slow cooked in the oven.

We started talking about how much longer it took to cook them in the oven compared to the microwave. That started me thinking. Yes, it does take longer in actual cooking time but in some ways it is easier. When I bake potatoes in the oven, I get them ready and in the oven an hour before dinner and then just forget about them until dinner is ready. Then, all I have to do is set them on the table and dinner is served.

When I microwave them, I tend to start cleaning them and preparing them at the same time that I'm trying to make a salad and heat up the veggies. While I'm doing all of that, I have to remember to keep turning the potatoes and if I am cooking several, I have to put a few in the microwave and when they are done, pull them out and add more, all of this at the same time that I am trying to prepare the rest of the meal.

Why is it that, even though we have faster methods of cooking our meals, they seem to have become more frenzied and hurried than years ago? Then it dawned on me -- With the introduction of the microwave and the idea that meals can be prepares in 30 minutes, most people do nothing to prepare or plan their meals until 30 minutes before they are going to eat. So 30 minutes before dinner you find yourself trying to thaw something, cook it, and slap it on the table and at the same time talk and deal with tired, hungry, cranky kids. Let's not forget how exhausted you are at this time of day, too.

We need to warm up our ovens and start using them again the way our grandmothers use to do. Here are some tips and ideas that prove that cooking meals in a conventional oven instead of a microwave can be just as quick and easy, not to mention how much more delicious they taste and smell.

I think we underestimate the power of coming home and smelling something yummy cooking. We automatically seem to relax, feeling that "all is well with the world". I really think it can change the whole atmosphere of your home for the evening.

I am not living in a dream world. You can fix meals the way our grandmothers did. I hear some readers saying, "Our grandmothers weren't ever as busy as we are and so they had time to fix large meals." I can hear our grandmothers chuckling at that statement. My husband's grandmother had to help on the farm from early in the morning until evening. She took care of a large home garden, canned, cleaned house every day, did laundry without a washer or dryer and still provided meals not only for her family, but up to 20 farm hands as well. She had to do it all without a refrigerator, microwave, or a grocery store and the nearest water was a mile away from her house.

My mother-in-law would go to work as early as 7 am and work until 9 pm 6 days a week, but she still managed to make three large meals each day. If you're thinking, "That's great if you want to spend all your spare time in the kitchen," consider that they spent less time in the kitchen than we do with less of the conveniences and still managed to have well balanced delicious meals each day.

What was their secret? -- They had never heard of 30 minute meals. Even if they had they would probably have laughed and wondered who would spend so much time on a meal? They knew that the key to a quick meal wasn't how fast you could cook, but how organized you were. You can easily have a meal on the table in 15 minutes if you are organized and plan ahead.

No, this doesn't mean you have to microwave or fry everything to have a quick meal. Slow cooking something in the oven not only makes things taste better but sometimes is quicker.

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Get this or other great deals this week! Read about the Christmas Sale here!

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Our grandmothers' secret to quick meals:

• Keep your meals simple.
  


• Be organized.
  


• Decide what you are preparing the night or the morning before.
  


• Thaw anything you need the night or the morning before.
  


• Prepare as much of the meal as you can during the slow time of your day and when you are most refreshed. (This is very important.)
  


• Slow cook meats in the oven or in a crock pot.
  


• Keep your kitchen clean so you have an uncluttered work area.
  

Here are some ideas on what to prepare. These aren't elaborate gourmet meals. If you are too busy to cook dinner, then you are to busy to make gourmet dinners. Stick with the basics and keep it simple like our grandmothers did.

Roast: Place a roast in a crock pot or pan. Peel five potatoes and carrots and drop them in with it and turn on the oven. This takes five minutes. Clean and cut broccoli, celery and cucumbers for a salad -- five minutes. At dinner time, chop lettuce and tomato for the salad, adding the already prepared veggies. Then put the meat and the fixings on a platter -- five more minutes. Voila! Dinner in 15 minutes.

Stew: It takes me seven minutes to cube meat*, peel five potatoes, carrots and onions, toss it into a pot and to season it. At dinner time, I put bread or dinner rolls on the table -- one to two minutes and I have dinner in nine minutes.

*Ask your butcher to cube or slice all your meat for you. They usually charge nothing or just a few cents per pound. It saves not only time in cutting but in clean up too.

Chicken: Toss a chicken in a pan or crock pot -- two minutes. Clean potatoes to put in with chicken or to bake in the oven -- three minutes. At dinner time, warm a veggie -- two minutes. Slice some fruit -- three minutes. Dinner in 10 minutes.

Lasagna: Put noodles in a pot to boil -- one minute. Fry hamburger, get out cheese, tomato sauce and the rest of the fixings; mix sauce while noodles boil, 7-8 minutes. Layer everything -- two minutes. Cover and put in the fridge for dinner the next day or that evening. Put the lasagna in the oven to heat while getting out of your work clothes, checking the mail, etc. Set the table and cut a salad -- five minutes. Dinner is served; 15 minutes.

Beef stroganoff: Make your beef stroganoff in your crock pot. (If you don't want to use a crock pot, this recipe usually takes very little time just stirring it up in a pan.) Dump everything but sour cream and noodles, into the crock pot -- three minutes and simmer all day on low. Clean carrots, celery sticks and broccoli for a relish dish (five minutes) and put it in the fridge. At dinner time, boil egg noodles (5-7 minutes). While they are boiling, add sour cream to sauce and set the table. Total time: 15 minutes.

Chili: Mix everything in a pot the night before. Depending what you put in, it should take 5-10 minutes. Simmer throughout the next day.

Soup: Do the same as with the chili.

These are just general example of ways to fix meals easily and quickly. It isn't really a matter of time as much as it is a matter of being organized and getting things done before you are too exhausted to think.

If you have meats thawed and the ingredients on hand, most things can be tossed together in about the same time as it takes to order and wait to get your food at a fast food place.

Also, remember when you have your oven going to try to cook more than one thing in it. For example, if you are going to be baking a casserole, bake a pan of brownies, muffins or baked apples at the same time.

Great Soup Recipes and More! - January 1, 2009

Dear Readers,

Happy New Year!!!

The New Year's Sale is off to a great start! We're offering all our print books for at least 50% off and if you buy all 3, they're 63% off! We still have some early bird specials left, so don't wait too long! If you have been waiting for a copy or want to stock up for 2009's weddings, birthdays, graduations, etc., this is your chance to get a lot for a little! Check it out here!

Today, mom offers more thoughts on healthy eating and also gives you several great recipes! I hope you enjoy them!

Don't forget to check out the blog. If you want to get organized, we have posted some great tips to help you get started.

The blog's site feed is fixed. If you previously subscribed to the blog site feed, you may need to resubscribe. You can now subscribe for e-mail updates on the blog, too, if you like. (These updates are separate from the newsletter.)

Have a great New Year!!!

-Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

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Happy New Year!

I can see you now, frantically trying to do waist bends and stretches while you are reading this. To everything there is a season, one to gain weight and one to lose. We have just passed through the gain weight one and are running, jumping and stretching into the lose weight one.

I just read a little saying that said "I have been on every diet. By eating them all I might get full and satisfied."

I have never been big on dieting, nor have I tried any of the latest "buzz" diets. The latest focus has been eating "healthy" and even that I'm not sure about. (Oh boy! I can see my Inbox filling up now!) But seriously -- please hear me out. I have watched so many dieters become frustrated because they're eating lots of healthy food but still gaining weight. So often we associate "healthy" with "no calorie" and that is where we go wrong.

We eat things like nuts and raisins by the handful because they are good for us, but what we don't always realize is that two handfuls of those can have as many calories as a candy bar or a bowl of ice cream.

Is it a wonder, then, that people can't figure out why they or their children are overweight, even as they stuff themselves with granola? We pour glass after glass of juice and milk down our children's throats because we know those things are good for them. If a little is good, twice as much is even better right? Wrong. It's just excessive calories.

The main thing we need to do is to watch our portion control and make sure we eat three well thought out and planned meals each day. That is the real secret to eating healthy.

If you don't think this is true then consider why so many people have such success with certain well known diet plans where you order your food from them. You can eat things like lasagna, chocolate cake and waffles and it's OK because you only eat the portion they send you. They control your portion sizes and teach you to understand reasonable portions. You also don't feel like binging on these plans because they are so well balanced that your body doesn't crave any certain food. You can do the same thing at home.

I know, that we need to be careful with some things. I know all about the no fat, low carb, high protein, all the sugar you can eat diet (That's my favorite diet. I invented it! HA!HA!) and "awful" fast foods. I credit our readers with enough sense to know that. I think what you will find is that by controlling your portion sizes and using a food pyramid to get your proper servings of everything all those things will balance out.

If you are on a low carb diet and it is working for you, great! Stay on it. If you are on a high protein diet and it is working, super! Stick to it. But if you have tried everything out there and have not had lasting success, rethink your eating habits. Remember just because "they" say this is the way you should do something doesn't mean it is. Research for yourself and find out what is best for you. I once heard it said that just because a million people say a wrong statement that doesn't make it right. Do what is best for you.

Cutting back on portion sizes not only helps you to lose weight but to save money, too. For many of us, this means lots of money. Here are some examples of what I mean:

Instead of putting 2, 3, or 4 slices of meat on your sandwich, use only 1. With the lettuce, tomato and everything else on there you probably won't notice the difference. Do you know you only need 2-3 servings of meat, fish or poultry a day? Some of us get our whole day's worth of meat (or more) in just one sandwich.

Just think how much you will save on your grocery bill if you cut not only your meat intake, but everything in half. Logically, that means you will cut your groceries by 50%. I don't mean to say you should starve your family, but if you are all overweight, cutting back will improve your health and save lots of money.

When planning how many servings of each food group you need, don't forget those hidden things. For example, 1/4 cup of spaghetti sauce equals one vegetable serving. If you chop up an egg in your tuna salad you are getting double protein. That bowl of cereal holds part of your child's milk serving for the day. Remember that when you think about giving him 8 more glasses later to make sure he gets enough milk.

I have said it a million times, but I must say it once more. Cut back on the milk and juice! Check and see how much each person in your family needs a day and give them no more than that. Don't forget that a slice of cheese, a container of yogurt or the milk in cereal each provide one serving of dairy and you need to count it as such. If your child is supposed to have two to three 8 oz. servings of milk today, remember that he has already gotten 4 oz. in his cereal alone.

In place of a menu this week I am going to give you some "healthy" soups (see I'm not totally against healthy ;-) that you can simmer all day if you like. They are easy to make, to freeze or to use for 2-3 days after you make them at mealtime or in lunches. Don't be afraid to experiment with them and add your own favorite spices.

You can use canned soups it you like. On a cool winter's day, a nice hot bowl of canned chicken noodle soup can really be good when served with crackers, fruit and mom's love. Add some of your own ingredients to make it seem more homemade, like that small container of frozen cooked chicken, or add that leftover ham to canned split pea soup. Any leftover veggies can be added to canned vegetable soup. You can add your own spices to canned soup, too.

I'm not sure why, but sometimes gently simmering canned soup in a pan for 5-10 minutes somehow adds to the flavor a little, rather than just nuking it in the microwave.

As I write this tip, I think of the old saying, "Waste not want not." Tie up your onion peels, carrot peels and celery tops in a cheese cloth to cook and make vegetable, beef or chicken stock.

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New Year's Crazy Book Sale!

50-63% off all print books!
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(Ends Thursday, January 8th)

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Today's Recipes:

This first recipe calls for barley. For years I didn't know what barley was until I had this soup. Don't be afraid to try it. It is good for you and tastes good too, even to a picky eater like me. ;-) This soup is about as low-cal, healthy, and filling as they come. You can find it easily in any grocery store in with the rice. It's a nice change to barley from rice and noodles.

Chicken Barley Soup

1/2 cup barley
1 stalk celery, sliced
1/2 carrot, diced
1/4 cup onion, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup chicken
1/4 tsp. turmeric (optional)
salt and pepper (to taste)

Rinse and cook barley in broth as instructed on package. Halfway through, add vegetables, chicken and seasonings. Makes 2 quarts.

Here's a basic vegetable soup. You can add to it or take away according to what different vegetables you have on hand or what your family prefers. Certain vegtables take longer to cook than others so you will need to adjust the time when you throw them into the pot to cook. For example, potatoes and carrots will need to start cooking an hour or hour and half before serving while peas can go in 30 minutes before.

Don't be afraid if you have to dump everything (except rice and noodles) in to simmer all day. I find that most stews and soups can handle it all going in together and simmering for several hours.

Vegetable Soup

You are basically making soup stock in this step. If you have canned or frozen stock, you can use that and skip this step.

1 beef soup bone
2 quarts water
2 Tbsp. salt
pepper, to taste
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp. allspice

Simmer 2 hours. Remove bone, cool and skim fat.

Add:

3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 (16 oz.) cans whole peeled tomatoes*

Simmer 2 more hours. Remove bay leaves. You can throw in a handful or two of rice, noodles or barley that last hour of cooking and add any leftover veggies like corn, peas or green beans.

To "spice" up your life and this soup add:

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce
1/2 tsp. oregano, dried
1/2 tsp. basil, dried
1/4 tsp. chili powder

*If you are out of canned tomatoes add tomato juice or V-8 instead.

Egg Flower Soup

1 green onion, chopped (top included)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 tsp. salt
dash pepper

Stir onion into eggs. Heat broth to boiling in a 3-quart saucepan. Add salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture slowly into broth, stirring constantly with a fork. Boil about 5 minutes until eggs are done. Serves 4-6.

Be sure to check out Dining On A Dime for some of our other great soups like Beef Barley,Tomato and Bacon-Bean.