Crockpotting through the year

2014 was a terrible year for me. I had very high hopes that the year would be wonderful, but even from the beginning it started out really bad. Thankfully half way through the year things started getting much better, and have continued improving. I moved from Tennessee back to Arizona, I got a job as a teacher's aide at the local high school, and I was given a house to live in rent free. I finally was able to get medical insurance and have been getting all a full work up and finding out why I have been so tired. Since school started in August I have felt like an inadequate mom because most nights I just have not had the energy to cook for my kids. Now that I know why I had no energy, I have made a plan to correct the issue. This week I have made a plan on how to correct this, and save money in the process. I made a menu plan for the whole month. 4 days a week will be crockpot meals, 3 days a week I will actually cook. Since my family is a family of 3 (with 1 growing boy stomach, and 1 bird like stomach) 31 days of meals really isn't necessary. Most of these crockpot meals will be enough for at least 2 meals, if not more. I'm ok with this. I'm thinking the food I purchased today will be enough for 1.5-2 months. So here is my meal plan for the month. 

I decided today would be Creamy Italian Chicken with rice, cheese and tomato. I got to say, YUMMMMMM!!!!!I first found this recipe on the website Sparkpeople.com. Those that are trying to lose weight can use this recipe and modify it just a touch to make it healthier. After a conversation with my sister I realized that I can add the extras to it to make it like a Hawaiian Haystack. Definitely a win on both account.This morning I put the chicken on to cook this morning before I left to go shopping, and added the final touches after I finished bagging all my meals. Man was that a workout!!! Here's the Recipe. 

Creamy Italian Chicken

Cooking Time - 6-8 hours on low (can be longer if necessary)

                           4-6 hours on high

Ingredients:

2 lbs Boneless, skinless chicken breasts -    $4.00

2 cups chicken broth -                                  $1.00

1 cup Wishbone Italian Dressing -               $0.50

1 pkg Philadelphia Cream Cheese                $2.19

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup                      $0.75

                                Total cost                      $8.44

Directions:

Place chicken, broth, and dressing in crock pot and cook until chicken is tender. About 30 minutes before serving, cook rice (I use my awesome rice cooker). While rice is cooking, shred chicken and add soup and cream cheese to the crock pot and mix well so there are no lumps. Sometimes I will remove the chicken while I shred it, sometimes not. Today I was able to use a spoon and shred it against the sides of the pot. Allow to heat through once again before serving. I usually put about 1/2-1 cup of rice on plate/bowl, about 1/2 cup of mixture, 1-2 oz of cheese, and a couple of tomato slices diced. If I am really making it into a hawaiian haystack then I will also add celery, pineapple and the chinese noodles.

The total cost for today's meal was less than $10 (Including the cost for rice, cheese and tomato) and I have enough of the chicken mixture for at least 1 more meal, if not more so in reality I only spent about $5 for tonight's dinner. I love a bargain. I hope you enjoy this dinner as much as my family does. My bird eater actually ate 2 servings.