Crabby Housewife

Make Ahead Grilled Chicken for the Week (freezer meals, too!)

February 16, 2018 October 21, 2015 By Crabby Housewife Leave a Comment

Grilled chicken is such a versatile and healthy food to have on hand. One of the things I love about chicken is that when cooked correctly you can keep it in the freezer or fridge to have the basis for quite a number of quick meals you can throw together on the run. Here are some ideas:

Microwaveable brown rice, chicken, cabbage, soy sauce (heat it all up in a skillet). So good!
Cabbage and grilled chicken chunks. I like with soy sauce and some onions.
Chicken soft tacos. Use low carb or whole wheat tortillas, add toppings like shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese and sour cream.
Grilled chicken salad with bagged salad and chunks of grilled chicken. We love to throw in some berries for added nutrients or even have fresh spinach as the base.
Grilled chicken by itself with any side.
Grilled chicken breasts with Monterey cheddar, diced tomatoes and bacon pieces on top.

If the chicken is precooked, I can have most of these meals together in under 10 minutes. Example, pull diced chicken from fridge, nuke frozen rice, throw rice, chicken, cabbage and soy sauce in skillet and heat through. Or, nuke precooked bacon for 1 minute or so until crispy. Add Monterey cheddar to top and nuke for a minute or so to melt cheese and heat chicken while you dice tomato. Add bacon and tomato to top. Dinner is ready!

Make Ahead Grilled Chicken Recipe

Author: Crabby Housewife

Ingredients

Chicken breasts with visible fat removed.
Garlic powder
Paprika
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Parchment paper

Instructions

Although you can grill this chicken on a grill or stove top, I actually prefer to bake it for the most part so it stays moister and tender when freezing, reheating, etc.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Grab a sheet of parchment paper and line as many baking sheets as you'll need depending on how many chicken breasts you are cooking. Keep in mind that juices will escape, so you want something with sides.
Trim the fat from the breasts.
Place side by side on top of parchment paper.
Brush on olive oil to both sides.
Sprinkle on salt, pepper, garlic powder (wait on paprika as it tends to take on a burnt quality in skillet).
Now, preheat a large family size skillet on the stove top.
You'll likely need to cook the breasts in batches, so start with your first batch.
Grill each side of each breast for about two minutes or until the outside is browned.
Transfer that first batch back to the parchment paper and start second batch of breasts to brown.
While the second batch is browning, sprinkle on just a bit of paprika to add color.
Cook breasts for 20 minutes in oven. Since you're cooking in batches, you may have them coming out at different times. You want an internal temperature of 165 degrees according to FoodSafety.gov.
You can also cut through the center of the thickest breast and make sure there is no pink. Chicken has a flaky texture when cooked through. It should not be smooth or shiny.
Allow to cool for about 30 minutes and then refrigerate, freeze or predice for salads and dishes.

Healthier Popcorn in a Snap

February 16, 2018 October 20, 2015 By Crabby Housewife Leave a Comment

One of my favorite foods is popcorn. There is something about the taste that takes me right back to family nights as a child. My mom would pop a big batch of pop corn on the stove, melt some butter of it, salt it and we’d have a treat to eat while we waited for The Muppets to come on. Can you believe this show is back on the air all these years later?

However, we’re all busy these days. Creating a batch of popcorn on the stove is time consuming and I also don’t want to mess up my Pampered Chef pot by cooking popping corn in it. Microwave popcorn is fast and simple but I worry about the chemicals in it and I don’t particularly like the taste of any of the microwave popcorn brands out there. They have that weird chemical taste that tells me it isn’t so good for me.

For years now, I’ve made my own microwave popcorn bags and as I popped up a small batch tonight, I realized I should share this trick with all of you. You may or may not have tried this yet. It is so simple, you will be amazed, and the taste is just like stove top popped popcorn.

As an added bonus, you can use healthier fats, such as the super high quality olive oil I’ve been using that my parents brought me back from their trip to Spain. You can also use real butter for a topping, which is healthier than margarine (it’s real, folks; margarine is not). It’s better for the environment as the paper bags are biodegradable.

Healthier Popcorn in a Snap

Author: Crabby Housewife

Ingredients

1/4 Cup Popcorn Kernels
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil or oil of your choice - coconut, canola
1 Pinch of Salt
1 Brown Paper Lunch Bag

Instructions

Open the lunch bag and place kernels in the bottom.
Add the oil, drizzling over all the kernels.
Hold the top closed and give the bag a little shake to distribute the oil.
Sprinkle on salt.
Fold the top of the bag over several tips. I also like to just give it a tight squeeze.
Microwave for 3-4 minutes (listen for the kernel popping to slow almost to a stop and you'll know it is ready).

A Few Proven Tips

As I said before, this is a recipe I’ve been using for many years. Over time, you start to pick up ways to get a better bag of popcorn. Here are some of my favorite tips:

The most expensive popcorn isn’t always the best. I have tried this recipe with Orville Redenbacher popcorn. You’d think that would pop better since it’s expensive. It doesn’t. I’ve also tried it with the white popcorn, etc. I find the best popcorn is Kroger brand (or store brand) yellow popcorn. That’s right. The cheapest bag you can find. It pops just as well, has less kernels when finished, and tastes great.
Butter is a wonderful topping, but you can also add some cinnamon and sugar for a sweet treat or some Parmesan cheese for a savory dish of goodness. I sometimes purchase the powdered white cheddar and add that, too, but again you are essentially sprinkling on processed crap. Still, sometimes we need the processed junk or our taste buds, right? Okay, maybe not, but I do it sometimes anyway.
Don’t stop the microwave when the popping slows, but when it almost stops. If you stop it too soon, it will not pop all the way and you’ll wind up with a tiny handful of popcorn. Not the end of the world, though. Just pop another bag if this happens to you.

These paper bag popcorns are the perfect size for one person. If you are serving a family, let everyone pop their own and then transfer to another paper bag for eating as the initial bag will be drenched in oil. Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Pumpkin Pie Dip Sugar Free Gluten Free and Good

December 23, 2016 October 19, 2015 By Crabby Housewife Leave a Comment

As a frugal mom, avid couponer and cheapskate queen, I have a handful of sites I visit on a daily basis to see what is on sale, etc. One of those sites is Hip2Save. When I popped on there today, I saw this yummy looking recipe for Pumpkin Pie Dip.

You make this dip with just three simple ingredients and serve with vanilla wafers. This would be a tasty treat to take to a church gathering, serve at a get together or just for everyday yumminess.

However, right now I’m trying to limit my carbs and it had just too much sugar in it for me. The good thing? This recipe would be so very easy to make low carb.

Instead of regular Cool Whip, sub sugar free or make your own heavy whipping cream from scratch (I like the taste of Cool Whip for recipes like this, though).
Pumpkin is great for you. It is full of fiber and while it does have carbs, they are healthy carbs. You don’t need to change this ingredient at all.
Instead of regular instant pudding, sub sugar free instant vanilla pudding.
Instead of regular vanilla wafers, purchase sugar free ones or better yet use some sliced up apples or make your own gluten/sugar free cookies.

Colin, over at Hip2Save suggests adding a pinch of pumpkin spice to the mixture. You can see this is a very simple recipe. Thanks for another fabulous post, Hip2Save. Keep up the good work and we’d love to see more recipes. By the way, if you haven’t checked out that site, it is definitely worth a visit, or two, or three.

Why You Should Never Give a Friend the Cold Shoulder

March 25, 2016 October 16, 2015 By Crabby Housewife Leave a Comment

I had a very good friend all through high school. We spent nearly every day and most weekend events together. While she wasn’t my best friend, she was a very good friend and someone I cared very much about. We ran in the same friend group, and I really liked her as a person. Then, things changed.

The Friendship Ends

She went away to school, broke up with her boyfriend (who was still a friend of ours) and met someone new. We tried to maintain our friendship, but frankly her new boyfriend seemed like an arrogant jerk to me. Although I thought I covered my thoughts of him, maybe I didn’t. Perhaps there were other factors, such as the awkwardness of the break up. Whatever the case and circumstances, she broke off our communication and I never really knew the reasons why.

I wrote her a long letter telling her if I’d done anything I was sorry and how much I cared about her and our friendship and she never responded. I can take a hint, so I dropped it, but I was hurt. I was deeply hurt and couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t at least tell me what I’d done to merit being dropped as a friend without so much as a goodbye.

Looking on the other side of things, I realize there were other factors at play. An ex-boyfriend who still wanted her back, a new boyfriend who she wanted to please, and her propensity to be a people pleaser. Over the years, I would sometimes think about her when looking at old photos or eating somewhere we’d hung out as teens. I was still pretty mad at her. She’d gone against the girl code. She’d chosen a guy over one of her best friends.

Bumping into Her

A few more years passed and I heard she’d gotten married and had a couple of boys. I had two girls and one day was at Kings Island with my family. My husband bumped into her and brought her over, all excited (he forgets any bad thing anyone ever does to him or to me, which is probably a blessing). She stood in front of me and all I could think about was how angry I was at her. I was so mad, girls. I can’t even tell you how angry I was. I had always been a good friend to her. I didn’t deserve the way she’d treated me.

So, I did what us women can be so good at. I gave her that polite, but cold shoulder greeting. The hug that tells her you don’t really want to hug her. The questions that tell her you don’t really care. “Oh, are these your boys?”, “How have you been?” Women know exactly what you are doing when you treat them that way. It is a signal and they know it and so do you.

I was very cool but very polite, because a southern lady must be polite, right? Well, I am here to tell you that I was wrong and that I was about to learn a big life lesson about forgiveness.

I have always struggled with forgiveness. It’s hard for me. I will let a lot of little things go, but if you wound me deeply, I never forget it. It is definitely a weakness of mine and one I have worked on and am still working on. I suspect I will always struggle in this area.

More years went by and I thought to myself a couple of times that she’d deserved the cold shoulder I’d given her. I also felt if she really cared, she would have reached out after seeing how hurt I still was (like she was a mind reader, right?). I pushed away the memories of good times we’d had together, how easy she was to get along with, and what she’d been through that likely led her to cut us out of her life that way. I sort of smugly congratulated myself on being polite but letting her know what I thought of her.

Aren’t I nice a person? You see, I might have been polite on the outside, but inside I was having the ugliest, most hateful thoughts you could imagine.

A Big Lesson for Me

These days, there is a group on Facebook of alumni from high school. You can keep up with what people are doing, see pictures of their kids when you friend them. It’s a lot of fun, right?

It is until your husband tells you that person you so smugly gave the cold shoulder passed away. That the dear friend you shared your deepest secrets with, stayed up all night telling your future dreams, and who always had your back is gone. That she suffered and you never had a chance to even offer the least bit of comfort to her. There is no more chance to make it right. No chance to bump into her and greet her warmly and with love and kindness instead of that smug cold shoulder.

What I would give to go back to that day and throw my arms around her and tell her how glad I was to see her. To have spent a few more minutes talking to her and to have embraced forgiveness instead of bitterness.

Who are you holding a grudge against right now? Who has hurt you and you haven’t forgiven them? Is there someone you need to make things right with? Don’t wait until it’s too late.

The Trick for Opening a Can that You Can’t Live Without

March 25, 2016 October 15, 2015 By Crabby Housewife Leave a Comment

I’m always amazed at what pops up in my Pinterest feed from day to day. It often inspires me to start a new project, learn a new hack, or cook a new meal. What in the world did I do for inspiration before I had Pinterest?

Today, when I visited Pinterest an article by Off-Grid.info caught my eye. The article was “How to Open a Can Without a Can Opener (Amazing).” Of course, I had to find out what this trick was. How many times have I struggled to open some huge can that didn’t want to fit up under that tiny can opener wheel?

Okay, so this turned out to be actually more of a survival technique, but in a pinch you could use it for regular cooking. The article outlines the method and shares the YouTube video below. Check it out and let me know what you think. I think the next time I have that giant can of green beans from Sam’s Club, I just might try this out.