Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup

I just love Skinnytaste recipes. I've made this Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup several times.

What you need:

• 2 tsp olive oil-on hand
• 1/2 cup onion-$.25
• 3 cloves garlic-$.05
• 8 oz can tomato sauce-$.28
• 3 cups low sodium fat free chicken broth-I used the broth from boiling chicken breasts from another recipe-$0
• 1-2 tsp chipotel chili in adobo sauce-I don't use this
• 1/4 cilantro-didn't use
• 15 oz can black beans (I used the dry beans (about 1/3 a bag) I made up before hand)-$.33
• 14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes-$.58
• 2 cups frozen corn-$.50
• 1 tsp cumin-on hand
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano-on hand
• 2 8oz skinless chicken breasts-1/4 of a $9.58 package=$2.40
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions-$.24

optional

• 3/4 cup red fat cheddar cheese-not included in calorie count
• sour cream for topping if you want-not included in calorie count
• I threw in a chopped red chili pepper from my garden, you could also use a few red pepper chili flakes

Total was $4.63 or $.77 a serving

I find it's best for me to make this recipe up the night before and then throw the chicken breasts in (raw) in the morning when I put it in the crock pot.

I made this for dinner along with some corn bread (not low cal unfortunately! I need to find a good low cal recipe for that!) and we only had about 1/2 a serving left. That's quite a hit in our house.

Taquitos 2 Ways

This is definitely not a pretty picture for these taquitos but I just made them real quick before going over to a friends for a "whine and wine night" (talk about fun!). I figured I should probably feed the family so I made these up before I left. Both recipes are put together the same way and use some of the same ingredients.

(top 5 are the vegetarian ones-I stole one to try)

Baked Chicken Taquitos

What you need:

• 3 cups shredded roasted chicken (I used 2 chicken breasts that I had boiled and shredded before hand)-1/4 of a package that was $9.58=$2.40
• 1 tsp ground cumin-on hand
• 1/2 tsp salt-on hand
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder-on hand
• 1 cup shredded mexican cheese (I use pepper jack)-$6.13 for 18 oz  ($1.36 for 4 oz used) 
• 12 corn tortillas-$1.78 for 30 (I used the rest for another recipe)=$.71
• cooking spray (I used 1 tbsp olive oil)-on hand
• toppings of your choice, such as guacamole, sour cream or salsa (not included in calorie count)-didn't use

Total is $4.47 or $.37 each

Vegetarian Baked Taquitos 
What you need:

• 1/2 cup cooked black beans-I've started buying the bagged dry beans, they are less expensive and you know what is in them- this is about 1/4 of a bag which is $.98=$.25
• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels-I had these on hand but you can get a small bag for $1.00=$.25
• 1 cup shredded mexican cheese (I used pepper jack)-$6.13 for 18 oz  ($1.36 for 4 oz used) 
• 1 tsp ground cumin-on hand
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder-on hand
• 1/2 tsp salt-on hand
• 12 corn tortillas (I used 6)-$1.78 for 30 (I used the rest for another recipe)=$.36
• cooking spray (I used 1 tbsp olive oil)-on hand

Calories and total price are for 6 servings=$2.22 or $.37 each

I learned real quick to NOT skip the step of warming up the corn tortillas in the microwave with some wet paper towels. If you skip that step your tortillas will break all up. (Thus only using 6 for the Vegetarian ones, that's all I had left!)

I also brushed the tops with a little bit of olive oil since I don't use cooking spray

These would be really great for a party. Nice and inexpensive and not too high on the calories. I tried one of each and they were both great!

Pan Roasted Lemon Chicken

This recipe for Pan Roasted Lemon Chicken just looked so delicious! I think this is the second recipe I've made from Damn Delicious (love the name too!)

This recipe starts with chicken thighs. The first thing I noticed though was that she leaves the skin on. I debated with myself back and forth on that. I haven't ate chicken skin in YEARS. Everyone knows that's the first thing you do when you are trying to be "healthy".  I wondered if the recipe would still turn out ok without the skin or not. Finally I just did what I always do and took the skin off. Amazingly it turned out just fine!

This recipe calls for 8 chicken thighs. I had a value pack and there was actually 9 in the pack so I got a serving of 9 out of this recipe. I did not increase any of the other ingredients and still had plenty of the rub for all the pieces.

So what do you need?

1 1/4 cups chicken stock-I used the broth from some previously boiled chicken breasts. If you had to buy this it would be one can which runs $1.00 or less.

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice- I used 2 small lemons $.84

3 teaspoons lemon zest-the same lemons-used the zest from the squeezed lemons

2 tablespoon olive oil-on hand

1 tablespoon whole grain mustard-I didn't have this fancy mustard so I just used some dijon I had in the fridge, worked just fine!

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano-on hand

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme -on hand

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt -just used the regular out of my salt shaker

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs-my pack came with 9 for $7.17

Total cost=$9.01 or $1.00 a serving (for 9)

141 calories per chicken thigh

The chicken was really moist and had a nice sauce from cooking. I'll definitely be making this one again!

 

Garlic Chicken & Carrots

This recipe is actually called Clean Eating Wok-Style Garlic Chicken and Carrots.

I'm just calling it Garlic Chicken & Carrots since I got rid of my Wok years ago. We got one when we got married and used it about two times. It took up a lot of the room in the cabinet so eventually I donated it.

So my meal was cooked in my trusty old cast iron skillet. I cook almost all my meals in this skillet.

This is not the best picture since I forgot to take one of just the chicken.

This serves 6

6 cloves of garlic-I had this on hand but we'll call it $.50 for good measure
1 small yellow onion-also had on hand we'll say $.50
3 large carrots-had in my food box, we'll say $1.00
2 tbsp olive oil-on hand
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts-$3.37 (about 2 breasts)
1/4 cup parsley-$.15
I also added one zucchini that I had from my food box

Total price is $5.52 or .$.92 a serving

Calories from Lose It calculator

I served this with some brown rice and that was a great combo. (Also a Greek salad and corn-obviously)

White Chicken Enchilada Casserole

This White Chicken Enchilada Casserole was really good!  I actually totally blanked on buying the beans. I live about 13 miles from town so it's a bit of a chore to just "run to the store" when you forget something. I decided to just leave out the beans and see what happened.

I made this 8 servings but it should have been cut smaller. Probably 10 would have been better.

3 tablespoons butter-$.28
3 tablespoons flour-on hand
2 cups chicken stock-on hand (I boiled my chicken then saved the broth and used that)
1-4 ounce can chopped green chiles-.88
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin-on hand
1 cup light sour cream-$1.30
flour tortillas-called for 24. That seemed like way too much so I cut it down to 12-$2.00
2 cups shredded cooked chicken-$3.37 (about 2 breast out of my 6 pack)
2 cans northern beans (omitted)-$0
3 cups shredded pepper jack cheese-$2.68
1 avocado-from my food box, we'll say $1.00 since they have them for about that at my store
1/4 cup cilantro leaves-$.14

Total-$11.65 so $1.46 a serving if you do 8 servings. I actually ate just 1/2 of one of those left over pieces for my lunch and it was plenty with some veggies.

Calories from Lose It calculator

Which, is quite a bit but not so bad if you cut it in half.

Easy Baked Paleo Chicken Tenders

I don't eat Paleo but I like to try some of their recipes since they usually do not have any (wheat) flour in them. I always play around with the idea of going gluten free but so far I can't seem to stick with any kind of restriction type diet. I'm more of a eat a bit of everything in moderation girl.

I mostly just picked these because they looked good and I thought the kids might like them.

Easy Baked Paleo Chicken Tenders from Allergy Free Alaska

Mine of course, look nothing like the original recipe picture. I'm guessing that is because I forgot to pat my chicken dry and that I did not have any spray olive oil. I recently stopped using PAM because I've read that it is not that good for you. I need to buy myself an olive oil mister.

Here's my breakdown:

Serves 6

2 pounds Chicken Tenders $6.46
1 cup almond flour-$1.68 (I bought a pound of bulk almond flour at Winco and this was about 1/4 of a pound.)
1 tbsp Flax Meal-had on hand (probably could just leave this out if you didn't have it)
1 tsp paprika-had on hand
1/2 tsp garlic powder-had on hand
1/2 tsp sea salt-used regular salt-had on hand
1/2 tsp dried parsley-had on hand
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning-had on hand (this stuff has been in my cabinet FORever)
ground black pepper-had on hand
2 eggs-$.25
olive oil in a sprayer-didn't have just wiped a bit on the pan-had on hand

Total cost $8.39 for $1.40 a serving. Calories from Lose It calculator.

Everyone in my house liked the chicken and we didn't have any left overs. That's always a sure sign of a good recipe in our house.