$5 Chicken Week

September 26, 2013

Every once in a while, when I am needing to be extra frugal or when I am running low on chicken broth, I do a $5 chicken week. I got this idea from my mom and aunt. They are experts at eating on a dime and they are "foodies" too! I tag along with my mom to Costco (We haven't become members yet) and I buy a $5 rotisserie chicken. They are delicious and cheap and can feed our family for a week (usually)! 

$5 Chicken Week

This is how we do it:

Night One: Eat Rotisserie Chicken 

After dinner that evening, pick off all the remaining meat from the bones. When I do this I pull apart all of the bones and try to get every last bit of meat. You should have quite a bit left. Refrigerate or freeze the left over chicken. Take all the bones, skin, and extra gooeyness and put in a crock pot. Fill the crock pot with water until the bones are covered. Heat on low over night, or all day depending on when you start this. You will have delicious chicken stock the next morning! 

Throw out all the bones and skin, I use a strainer to do this. Freeze the chicken broth for future use. Anytime a recipe calls for chicken broth, I just pull out a plastic container of it from my freezer. Even today I am making chicken and noodles in the crock pot and it was wonderful to have it on hand. Remember every penny counts! 

Night Two: Chicken and Rice Soup

I usually use some of the chicken broth and left over meat to make chicken and rice soup. It is comfort food for me. All you need is some of the meat, rice, and broth and I add my favorite seasonings to make a great meal! 

Night Three: Chicken Fried Rice 

With some of the left over chicken I make chicken fried rice. I add egg for more protein. It is easy and a great way to use up left over veggies (or frozen veggies) and rice. 

Night Four: Chicken Mexican Casserole

 If there is still meat left over, I make this chicken mexican casserole. It doesn't call for much chicken and it is oh so yummy! 

Night 5: ?

I don't always have left over chicken at this point, if we my husband eats a lot of the chicken at the beginning of the week. Sometimes instead of just eating the chicken on the first night, we will make paninis with the chicken so it lasts longer, or a Chicken chili to help make the chicken stretch through the whole week. Or I'll use the broth and throw together some veggie soup from whatever is left in my pantry or freezer.

I am not great about taking pictures of my food while I am cooking. I am trying to get better. If any of you had read this post about the Crock Pot Chicken and Noodles or the Meatball Sub Casserole, I added pictures. They both were super easy and yummy!

Here's to many more weeks of being organized and meeting my goals of eating on a dime, or in my case $40 a week!

MCAD Momma

MCAD Momma

When I was thinking about writing again on a blog, one of the main reasons I wanted to write had nothing to do with food. I wanted to write a little bit about Lucy's story and write about Mike and my stresses as parents of a baby with MCAD. Part of the reason I want to write about this is I feel I didn't, and still don't, have a place to go to seek advice. Even our doctor didn't have answers or know what to expect. Don't get me wrong, we have a fabulous doctor at Riley and Lucy is doing wonderfully. It is just difficult when you go to your monthly pediatrician appointment and they are giving you advice, and then telling you not to follow it because they aren't sure for "our case". I guess it is harder to explain, and easier to start at the beginning. My hope is not to complain because we are blessed! Lucy is fantastic and I wouldn't change a thing about her! Our normal pediatrician is fantastic and has been doing her own research for us. My main goal is for other moms and dads who are out there like us, that they may know that there are others dealing with this newly tested deficiency.

*I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post. This is for other MCAD parents out there or anyone interested in our story. 

A week after Lucy was born, Mike had gone back to work and I was at my mom's taking advantage of a sleepy newborn relaxing. I got a phone call from our pediatrician and she was being VERY friendly. I had only met her once before, and she was calling to let me know that the "blood" test had come back positive. I was confused, "What blood test?", "Positive for what?" She kept saying, "You just need to make sure Lucy eats." Thoughts raced through my mind, "I am feeding her! She's a newborn. All she does is eat!" I instantly put the doctor on speaker so my mom could listen,  I was on the verge of hysterics. She told us that she was sending us to Riley and they had already made an appointment for us for the next week. She told us it was called MCAD, and that it could have been a false positive so we had to get more blood tests. She was so kind on the phone, to the point it scared me more. I wanted to know Is she going to die? Is she going to be disabled? How can my perfect 7 pound baby girl have a positive test result. 
After the tears dried some, my mom and I got on the computer and started researching MCAD. (This was after a hysterical voice message I left for my husband at work.) Researching was probably one of the worst things I could have done. Instantly information started popping up about comas, death, liver failure, and seizures. MCAD is short for Medium Chain Acyl-Coenzyme Dehydrogenase deficiency (or disorder depending on who you speak with). Basically Mike and I were both carriers for a MCAD gene, so we had a 25% chance of having a baby with it, and we did. We will have a 25% chance with every pregnancy. Both parents have to have the gene to have a baby with it. You can read more about MCAD here. My family prayed a lot, and we endured a time of waiting until our Riley appointment, where we would get more information on MCAD.  Lucy couldn't break down Medium Chain Fats. What is a medium chain fat? I had to learn a lot. One thing we knew for sure, Lucy needed to eat every 4 hours. Lucy was eating every hour at this point so it didn't seem difficult, other than Mike and I were afraid to sleep just in case, so we set alarms and endured a long week of waiting. Fast forward to our Riley appointment where we met our doctor, who is a geneticist, and he is awesome! My mom joined Mike and I on our first trip to Riley, as I was physically ill thinking about what information may be coming; Mike and I agreed we wanted more ears for listening. Our fears were instantly relieved as the doctor went on to tell us out of all the metabolism disorders out there, this was the one you would want as far as being able to manage it. He also told us that Lucy should grow up to live a long healthy life, as long as she eats. 

Main Things We Learned:

From newborn until 6 months she had to eat every 4 hours, from 6 months to a year she will have to eat every 6 hours, and we are HOPEFUL that we can go 8 hours when she turns a year old. 

 Mike and I set alarms every night. 

We also give Lucy carnotine 3 times a day to help her body rid the extra fat that may have built up in her system. 

She needs to eat a low fat diet. 

If she gets any kind of stomach bug, that is BAD and we may have to take her to the hospital to get an IV. 

She won't ever be able to fast for long periods of time. 

As an adult she will be able to go 12 to 14 hours without food (hopefully not by choice!). 

We keep Gatorade in the house and in our cars just in case Lucy gets ill. We give her a little in a syringe, and if she keeps the gatorade down we don't have to rush to the ER.

We have had a few scares with Lucy getting sick or her refusing to eat because of teething. After giving her a little gatorade we have avoided hospitals so far! When she refuses to eat, it is very extremely stressful, especially if we are at the 6 hour mark. We pray A LOT, and we try nursing, bottles, and if we have to the gatorade. 

We do have a letter from Riley that explains what MCAD is and what the hospitals need to do in case of an ER visit. We keep copies of this in our cars, and digital copies on our phones.  Because this is somewhat new to the newborn screening, many people don't know much about this or how to treat it. 

The Fatty Oxidation Disorder website has been helpful. You can find it here. 

We did find out Lucy has the "Milder" mutation of the MCAD gene. This is good news. Also we have been very lucky and blessed that we haven't had any complications with her deficiency. My goal for this post was to be helpful for all of those out there looking for SOME kind of information on MCAD. I know we are very lucky that our hospital tests for MCAD, as 1% of SIDS deaths were caused by this. We don't know what the future brings, but I pray this is encouraging to parents out there seeking help. 

Thanks for Reading, 

Sarah 

Grocery Goals

So it's been while...

A few updates on the Hosking family. We had a baby! Lucy Mae was born December 3, 2012 and our life has been happily turned upside down. I joyfully battle the daily tasks of my role as mom and continue to take care of our home. Every day our eyes are opened to how blessed we are by this little miracle.

Here is the most recent picture of Lucy (9.5 Months old)

I have been thinking about this blog for a little while now and whether I should start an all together new one or continue this food blog. I realized I am still battling trying to eat healthy on a budget BUT I have found some ways to feed our family that I may share. With the help of close family, friends and Pinterest, my exploring of how little I can get my food budget each week and still love the food I eat has been somewhat successful...some weeks!

Last week I have to admit I spent $72 dollars on groceries, which my goal was $40. We were out of some key items though like eh-em....chocolate chips....Okay but really I did have to buy some more expensive foods to fill some voids in our pantry. AND because of the expenses last week, I was able to successfully buy groceries this week for a grand total of $36 dollars! I found a few dinner recipes on Pinterest I have been wanting to try like this Chicken Taco Soup, and Crock Pot Chicken and Noodles, and I am most looking forward to this evenings Meatball Sub Casserole. I bought ground beef, and chicken this week and still met my goal of being under $40. Now I do need to go back and find some italian bread and frozen egg noodles (Apparently it's not great to shop on Mondays as many things are out of stock...I'm still learning.) So I may be a few dollars over my goal, but the glorious thing about goals is it's just that, a goal, our budget allows for more but I am trying desperately to save as much money as we can so that we can go out to eat more (Remember I am a Foodie), and well do what Mike and I love most and that is to travel!

My grocery list this week:
Chicken Breasts (Now two of the recipes this week called for up to 7 chicken breasts, which is expensive. I chose to save money and only buy 3 HUGE chicken breasts. In the Chicken taco soup I used 1 and 1/2 and it still was delicious and there was plenty of meat - even ask my husband! I plan on using the other breast and a half for the chicken and noodles later this week).
cream of chicken soup - 59 cents
frozen egg noodles (still need to buy)
1 loaf of italian bread (still need to buy)
8 oz Cream cheese - $1.29
Shredded Mozzerella Cheese - $2.99
2 lbs Ground Beef - $5.05 (I'm going to make homemade meatballs for the casserole instead of paying the price of frozen ones, I used this recipe and they are delicious - YUM!)
Pasta Sauce - 99 cents
sour cream - $1.29
16 oz Tomato Sauce - 58 cents
eggs - $1.29
olive oil - $2.99
tortilla chips - $1.19
Broccoli - $1.59
potatoes(5 lbs) - $2.49

bananas - 44 cents a lb

jiffy corn bread mix - 52 cents (This wasn't on my original list)

Last week I spent over my budget and I knew this week I needed plastic wrap and dish detergent, but I really didn't want to pay the price I usually do on the brand names, so I decided to try out some cheaper options. 
Plastic Wrap - $1.49
Dish Detergent - $2.49

Homemade Meatballs:

These were super easy to make, and if you notice the missing one you'll know I couldn't resist. They are delicious! So yummy that I almost don't want to put them in the casserole. I didn't have the garlic salt it called for so I used regular minced garlic. I also didn't have onions so I used dried minced onion. I have trouble following recipes. I can't follow recipes. I don't like to follow recipes, but these are fantastic! 

People often wonder how we live off of the $40 a week on groceries, or close to that. It isn't easy, it takes planning, I mess up a lot, and we have fantastic family and friends that feed us from time to time. I will write more about that soon!

Thanks for reading! 
Sarah

I promised pictures of the meatball sub casserole, see here:

I made the Meatball Sub Casserole, and it was a hit with the family. We are still eating left overs days later, too! I forgot to take a picture of the chicken and noodles, but everyone loved it and it fed 5 of us and I have left overs in the freezer. The only difficulty with the Chicken and Noodles was cleaning out the crock pot. Some of the noodles stuck to the sides. It is soaking in the sink still waiting to be washed.

Soul Food

I found this drafted post from before I had Lucy. It's fascinating to me to read this and see how different my life is now. I felt that I should post this even though it is years old, if nothing but for me to be able to look back and see my heart.

"Have you ever had the feeling that you were meant for more? Not in a selfish way, like I am meant to be famous and have billions of dollars and everyone will know my beautiful face; but more like you have this deep feeling that you can't deny that you were meant for something HUGE. Well that is how I feel. I am not sure if this is the Lord trying to direct me, but I have had this feeling since, well, forever.

I am not sure what this something huge is that I am to be a part of, but after a recent conversation with my mom I know I want to do everything in my power to figure it out. While I continue to persue teaching, and continue to get denied contracted positions I can't help but feel that I am where I am for a reason. I get to the point where I am praying hopeless prayers about my career and then the Lord delivers another interview or another opportunity for me to excell in teaching. I take that as a sign that I am supposed to move forward in this career, that maybe I am needing to be humbled or that I am helping someone in need in the position I am in. Well I can say that the Lord knows how sick I am of being stuck in position after position that financially and emotionally is eating away at me. AND I know that I need to wait on the Lord's timing, and I need to be happy I have a job in this wishy washy market, but I can't help but wonder if this is the Land Between where I am supposed to be having some amazing spiritual growth, or if I am missing opportunities that I am blind to because of this "idea" that I am supposed to be a teacher.

I will find the joy in each day. I will try my very hardest not to worry about where I am supposed to be, and just be. I will continue to wait on the Lord (but please hurry,will ya?) And I will stay faithful in prayer."