Tag: Healthy Recipes

Lemon Chicken Thighs with Olives: Budget Friendly Slow Cooker Recipe

Lemon-Chicken-Slow-Cooker-eMeals

The older my kids get, the more busy we get.

I’m telling you, if you have babies right now? Enjoy those evenings at home.

You might be covered in spit up and dealing with colic, but that’s nothing compared to being dance mom, homework mom, baseball mom all in the span of 3 hours!

I wouldn’t trade it for anything though.

However, home cooked meals can be tough to juggle with a packed schedule.

Making them healthy adds an extra layer of complexity that sometimes leaves me just screaming for Chipotle (let’s be honest…I scream for Chipotle a LOT. It’s good stuff).

Thankfully, between the slow cooker and my favorite meal planning service, I am lucky enough to have a fine repertoire of good and healthy meals that can be thrown into the slow cooker in the morning (btw, have you seen this AWESOME deal on this slow cooker today? Wowza!) and ready to eat somewhere in between the chaos of the evening.

This evening, I actually made my famous lasagna recipe in the slow cooker and it turned out AMAZING!

I think next on my list of healthy slow cooker recipes is this AWESOME Lemon Chicken Thigh with olives recipe.

I love that the ingredients are clean, simple, easy and CHEAP. Best of all, I love that every ingredient is guaranteed to pack a flavor punch! No dry and boring chicken here.

Who says healthy, clean eating has to be flavorless, boring and time consuming?

No way!

Check this out! I can’t WAIT to try it!

Slow Cooker Clean Eating Meal Plan: Lemon Chicken Thighs with Olives Recipe

Ingredients

  • 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ teaspoon pepper, divided
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 lemon, sliced
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¾ cup pitted green olives

Instructions

  1. Sprinkle chicken thighs evenly with salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.
  2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add half of chicken.
  3. Cook about 3 minutes per side, or until browned.
  4. Transfer to a slow cooker.
  5. Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to skillet, and repeat procedure with remaining chicken.
  6. Transfer to slow cooker, and add lemon slices.
  7. Combine broth, juice, flour and cumin, stirring with a whisk.
  8. Pour broth mixture over chicken.
  9. Top with olives and remaining ¼ teaspoon pepper.
  10. Cover and cook on low heat for 6 hours.

Find more great eMeals Clean Eating Meal Plans!


 

Lemon Chicken Thighs with Olives: A Healthy Budget Friendly Slow Cooker Recipe
Ingredients
  • 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ teaspoon pepper, divided
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 lemon, sliced
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¾ cup pitted green olives
Instructions
  1. Sprinkle chicken thighs evenly with salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.
  2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add half of chicken.
  3. Cook about 3 minutes per side, or until browned.
  4. Transfer to a slow cooker.
  5. Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to skillet, and repeat procedure with remaining chicken.
  6. Transfer to slow cooker, and add lemon slices.
  7. Combine broth, juice, flour and cumin, stirring with a whisk.
  8. Pour broth mixture over chicken.
  9. Top with olives and remaining ¼ teaspoon pepper.
  10. Cover and cook on low heat for 6 hours.
3.2.1255

 

 

Lighter “Yellow” Potato Salad

I am trying to eat healthier. Really and truly I am. 

Deprivation to me though is like an invitation to do really really well for a day and really really horrible for a week, so I try to have my cake and eat it too by making lighter versions of the recipes I love.

The thing is, I hate the taste of food that is clearly just a substitute for the real thing!

So my substitutions not only have to be of the healthier variety, they also have to either mimic or enhance the dish to pass my high standards.

This recipe does both. 

I am a mustard potato salad kind of girl. Well make that, mustard with a healthy 1/2 cup of mayo. 😉

Not very healthy!

So I decided to attempt to cut some of the mayo out by using Greek Yogurt in my favorite potato salad recipe. I used this recipe as a base and built on it. I didn’t have some of the ingredients she asked for in this recipe, so it’s a pretty big departure, but it’s still worth crediting as my source.

Lighter “Yellow” Potato Salad

Ingredients:

  • 4-5 Yukon Gold potatoes (I peeled, cut and boiled them first…I have tried the other method she describes in the past and it’s never successfully worked for me)
  • 2 Tbsp Mayo
  • 3 Tbsp Greek Yogrt
  • 1 Tbsp mustard (I personally would increase this to 2 next time)
  • 3 Tbsp chives
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together and chill before serving.

Be sure to check out all the frugal recipes here on Family Friendly Frugality!

A Healthier Flash Fried Chicken Recipe (Really)

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Fried Chicken. 

My previous attempts at making “healthy” fried chicken were always super disappointing.

The kind that’s cooked in the oven never came out crispy enough for me.

Now, that’s probably my fault and someone out there probably has a recipe for oven baked fried chicken that will knock my socks off.

I’m not sure I’ll ever fry my chicken any other way though.

This recipe has been adapted from this cookbook: Now Eat This!: 150 of America’s Favorite Comfort Foods, All Under 350 Calories

It uses chicken thighs, which are quite cheap.

It also uses grapeseed oil, which isn’t all that cheap. I cut the oil in half for this recipe though and was able to get away with using just 1 quart. You could likely use even less oil as long as you have enough to cover up to about halfway on the chicken (since you flip the chicken halfway through the frying time).

The chicken DOES NOT cook in the oil, so you don’t have to worry about very much oil seeping into the chicken. It’s just to get that crispy, yummy crust.

This chicken has only 204 calories compared to 549 calories in traditional fried chicken. It also cuts the fat grams down from 30 to 10.9!

Flash Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • salt
  • 4 skinless chicken thighs (I actually took the skin off myself to save money)
  • 1 quart Grapeseed Oil
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons celery salt
  • 1 tablespoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 2 cups low fat buttermilk (I make my own buttermilk. 1 tablespoon of white vinegar then add your milk up to the 1 cup line. Let sit for a few minutes)

Directions:

  1. Heat the chicken broth in a big pot and season generously with salt
  2. Add your chicken to the pot and bring the broth to a simmer. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the chicken is tender and cooked, around 40 minutes.
  3. Remove the chicken and pat dry.
  4. Meanwhile, in a large deep pot heat your grapeseed oil to 400 degrees
  5. Set a wired rack over some paper towels
  6. Mix together your flour and seasonings in one bowl and add your buttermilk to a second bowl.
  7. Dip the chicken (one piece at a time) into the buttermilk and then into the flour. Repeat to double coat the chicken. Shake off excess flour.
  8. Fry the chicken 2 pieces at a time. It will take around 30 seconds to 1 minute per side.
  9. Drain on the wire rack and serve hot.

As always, be incredibly careful when cooking with hot oil. Grapeside oil is used in this recipe for it’s very high smoke point. Keep children out of the kitchen when cooking with oil.

This chicken is crispy and flavorful and sure to be a huge hit!

Enjoy!

Be sure to check out all the frugal recipes here on Family Friendly Frugality!

Homemade Applesauce (With A Twist!)

Applesauce w/ a Twist!

Guest Post by Cheryl Siens

What do you consider Fall weather?  After the scorching summer we have had in Texas, I was getting the Fall decorations out when the temperatures dropped into the low 90’s! Today, the high was in the 70’s and we are wearing sweaters. 😉 This kind of weather makes me want to pull out all of my “cold weather” recipes.  Since I found apples on sale last week, I had to start with applesauce.  This is a very kid friendly recipe.  My daughter was making it, with apples that I peeled and cored, when she was 8 years old.  It’s a Fall tradition  at our house.  Let me know what you think.

Homemade APPLESAUCE (with a twist!)

Ingredients

  • 8 – 10 medium apples (you can use more or less – it really doesn’t affect the recipe too much)
  • 1 bag Red Hot candies (or several boxes if you can’t find a bag)
  • 1 cup water

Directions: 

Peel and core apples, then chop them into fairly small pieces.  Put in crock pot, top with Red Hot’s and a cup of water.  Cook on low for about 8 hours.  We like them in large chunks, but you can mash them with a potato masher or spoon them out of the liquid and put them in the blender to make a saucier consistency.  If you like wassail or spiced cider, try dipping some of the juice into a mug.

It is delicious!

Be sure to check out all the frugal recipes here on Family Friendly Frugality!


Are you interested in guest posting on Family Friendly Frugality? Please email me heather @ familyfriendlyfrugality.com. I’m looking for anything in the family friendly/frugal niche, but specifically how-to’s, DIY posts and RECIPES! Must be original content not posted elsewhere.

 

Weight Watchers Friendly Chicken Divan

So as you know, I’m on Weight Watchers (are you sick of me talking about it yet?) and I’m searching for some staple recipes to round out my menus from week to week. I like my eating to be as thoughtless as possible, so you’ll see me testing a lot of recipes for awhile and after that it will probably die down a bit (unless you all just beg me for more, well I’d have to do it! Anything for my readers!).

The most recent obsession of mine is Gina’s Skinny Taste website. Not only do her recipes look gorgeous, they also taste amazing.

I love chicken paired with broccoli, and this recipe adds oodles of cheese (I’m sure oodles of cheese is a keyword, best bold it so all the search engine peeps can find it.)…so it sounded like a dream come true.

Gina’s Chicken Divan is divine, but next time I do think I’ll leave the wine out of it. It was too strong paired up against the swiss cheese (which isn’t a flavor that I love to be honest), so next time I’ll just use chicken broth (did you know you can substitute chicken broth for white wine in most cases? Unless you are looking to get intoxicated, in which case…chicken broth will NOT work.)

So here’s my latest weight watchers recipe in pictures. You can see the full directions and ingredient list on Skinny Taste. I made no substitutions in this one, so I don’t feel right posting the recipe here (also I like to share the link love). I do have to admit that I could not find the low fat versions of the cheeses though, so I had to adjust the points accordingly.

Chicken Divan courtesy of Skinny Taste

Lots and Lots of chopped up broccoli. Chopping up broccoli is messy.
My mother in law gave us an electric grill for Christmas. It gets a lot of work nowadays. Love those grill marks. They make even plain old chicken look delicious!
Don't have a way to measure 2 ounces of wine? Grab an old baby bottle, make your husband take a picture and sit back and wait for CPS.
While you are pouring wine into baby bottles, your daughter gets stuck in a laundry basket (of course you have to grab the camera before you help her out).
And your son flashes you those big hazel eyes and says "Can I just eat candy instead?"
Anything topped with breadcrumbs AND cheese has to be good...right?
Melty, bubbly goodness. Yum.

This recipe was awesome as is, and I definitely will be changing it up a bit next time…maybe subbing the swiss cheese for something else as well? Regardless, a hit in my book.

You can read the full recipe right here.

Enjoy!

Kid Friendly Couscous w/ Chicken & Veggies

Tot Tuesday is a weekly feature where I highlight a special kids activity, frugal recipe for kids, kids tutorial, etc.

So it’s a new year and many of us have resolved/planned/decided (no matter what you call it!) to eat healthier. This doesn’t start and end with us adults though. Our children need to be eating healthier too! In an effort to expand my little ones palettes, I have resolved to try a new recipe every single week with them, whether it’s ingredients they enjoy or not. You just never know when something is going to spark an interest or open a window!

So this week, I decided to pull out one of my favorite kid cookbooks: Superfoods-For Babies and Children by Annabel Karmel.

I bought this cookbook originally when I first decided I wanted to try and make my own baby food. The book has recipes all the way up to the elementary school years however. I have several children’s cookbooks, but I do have to say that this one is my favorite.

Since this resolution (feeding the kids one new recipe a week) was kind of a new one, I had to work with what was in my pantry and fridge. I flipped through the book and found a neat little couscous recipe and decided it was worth a shot.

Now my kids have never had couscous (in fact I haven’t either…), but on a whim awhile back I purchased some. My son is not a fan of pasta or rice, so I thought it might be worth a shot to see if he would eat couscous (I’ll spoil the ending on this one…no. My daughter did though!).

Feel free to omit the chicken in this recipe and use it as a side dish.

Kid Friendly Couscous w/ Chicken & Veggies

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup unsalted chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup couscous
  • 1 tbspn unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup diced onion (diced very small)
  • 1/2 cup diced zuchini (diced uniform to the onion)
  • 2 tomatoes peeled and diced (I used canned tomatoes)
  • 1/2 cup cooked chicken diced uniform to veggies
  • salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring the chicken broth to a boil. Pour over couscous (be sure to do this in a bowl with plenty of room) and let sit. Fluff with a fork when the liquid is absorbed.

2. Melt the butter in a pan and cook the onions and zucchini until fork tender. Add the tomatoes and heat through, about a minute.

3. Take the pan off the heat and add the couscous, combining the veggies and couscous.

4. Add the chicken, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

My daughter really enjoyed this.


My son wanted no part of it! My daughter is definitely our more adventurous eater, but I’m still glad I presented the dish to my son. I think it’s important to expose even the pickiest eaters (especially the pickiest eaters!) to a wide variety of foods on  a regular basis.

He really enjoyed his yogurt at least!

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