Buffalo Chicken on the Cheap

Fall inevitably means a few Sundays of snuggling on the comfy couch and watching some football. And along with a day of fine athletic prowess and a few cute QB’s, you need something yummy to eat! We recently realized how cheaply we could have a meal of buffalo chicken and a follow up meal that’s equally as delightful and really quick.

You’ll need:

6 Pack of Chicken Legs – $2.10

Buffalo Sauce – We got ours on sale for $ 1.65 (It was the least expensive regardless, but it’s really good)

Celery – $1. 98

Buttermilk Ranch Packet – $1. 68

Buttermilk – $.31

8 oz. Jar of Fat Free Mayo – $2.89

All you need to do is skin the chicken legs with a pair of kitchen shears, and lay out on a cookie sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes. Brush with buffalo sauce or toss in a bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.

Pair with celery and the homemade ranch for a delicious gameday worthy meal! The whole meal is $1o.61(plus tax) for two and you’ll have plenty of buffalo sauce for another go round and ranch for a salad or two.

Act 2:

You’ll need:

Your favorite Pizza Crust Recepie

Olive Oil

Garlic Powder

Buffalo Sauce

Two Leftover Chicken Legs

Italian Cheese Blend – $2.00

Chad and I assume that everyone has garlic powder and olive oil, probably because they play such a big roll in our kitchen. We also happen to keep the basics for pizza crust on hand because pizza is such a great way to take care of leftover veggies; which means this meal only cost us $2.00 this time around… probably $6.00 at the most with the addition of the other ingredients. For this pizza all you need to do is brush your favorite crust with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with garlic powder. Next, lightly drizzle your crust with buffalo sauce, add deboned chicken, and top with cheese. Cook according to the crust recipe’s directions. We did ours at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.

What are your favorite pizza toppings?

Hello, Pumpkin!

Growing up we always ate our pumpkin bread from Folgers coffee can molds. I don’t really know if this was because we didn’t have bread pans or just because round bread is AWESOME! Here is the recipe for a delicious good time, it makes three loaves so make sure to share! If you don’t have Folgers cans never fear, we used bread pans this time and it worked like a charm! Add some apple cider and enjoy!

Pumpkin Bread

1 Can of Pumpkin

3 Cups of Sugar

3 Cups of Flour

1 Cup of  Oil

4 Eggs

2 tsp. Cinammon

1 tsp. Nutmeg

1 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. Baking Soda

Method: Beat Eggs, add pumpkin and oil. Mix dry ingredients and add slowly to egg mixture. Bake for 1 hour @ 350 degrees in three well greased #1 coffee cans or bread pans.

Jerky Trial #1

“You don’t need a dehydrator to make great beef jerky.” Somebody told me that and it caused me to pause. I don’t know why I never thought about all the many ways to make jerky, it just never crossed my mind. So I started to ask questions, so how do you do it in the oven, do you use a marinade, what cut of meat do you use, etc. Then I decided since I love eating the stuff so much why not dry my own and here’s exactly how I did it.

The Essentials: Beef. Seasoning. Method of Drying.

I picked out an Eye of Round cut from the grocery store. I had the butcher slice it up for me an eighth of an inch thick, this is about the thickness of bacon. Next I prepared the overnight marinade which consisted of Worcestershire Sauce, Soy Sauce, Onion Powder, Brown Sugar, Pepper, and Liquid Smoke. Poured that over the meat and let sit in the fridge over night.

The next day I took them out of the bowl and patted dry with paper towels, then strung them across wooden skewers and hung them on the oven racks.

At this point I set the oven to 200 degrees and cracked the door open with a wooden spoon. It took four to four and a half hours but it was well worth it. The jerky tastes good but next time I plan on tinkering my seasonings and making it spicy. But for my first run I’ll give it a score of “Good”. Lots of room for improvement here.