Lemon Pepper Tilapia and Potato Wedges ~ Eating well on a BUDGET

I love fish, I love fish so much that I once ordered cod from IHop.... no it wasn't a good idea. Naturally I think that tilapia is yummy, I like how quick and easy it is to pan fry and its not too incredibly expensive, I think I paid $11 or $12 for a 2 lb. bag of individually wrapped fish.

We have a pretty strict food budget and I'm trying to stay within my budget but still eat good food. In the previous post you can see what my meal plan was for the next two weeks. It completely covers dinners for the two weeks and most of the lunches and breakfasts although I do plan on spending about $25 or so to stock up on milk, bread and cereal because we go through these quickly. I'm hoping to make this a series of the yummy meals I prepare on a daily basis. I hope to just give you an idea of what can be made with a well stocked pantry.

Lemon Pepper Tilapia and Rosemary Sea Salt Potato Wedges

Ingredient's
Frozen Tilapia Fillets
Lemon
1 tsp. coconut oil
lemon pepper

2 large Russet Potatoes
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp dried rosemary

I started with the Potatoes because they take 40-45 minutes to bake in a 400 degree oven
Rosemary Sea Salt Potato Wedges:
Rinse any dirt off of your potatoes, cut into wedges about a 1/2 inch thick, pour olive oil into a large bowl add salt and rosemary, drop cut wedges into bowl, toss/stir to season. Bake in a single layer on a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper. I did sprinkle some fine salt over the tops of all of them before baking in a preheated oven (400 degrees) for 40-45 minutes. Turn the wedges over at about half way (20 minutes) to cook evenly. Serve warm with favorite sauce.

Pan Seared Lemon Pepper Tilapia
Run unopened tilapia package under some cold water for 30 seconds or so, it helps get it out of the package easier. Heat a nonstick pan on the cooktop, add coconut oil. Place tilapia on the frying pan, cut lemon in half and drizzle half of the juice on the fish. Sprinkle lemon pepper on top of fish. After about 3-4 minutes get a spatula and flip the tilapia over and cook other side for the same amount of time. I like to season both sides with lemon pepper but its just a personal preference. A cooked fish will no longer have a pink line (it will be brown) in the middle and it is flaky, if you need to cook it longer then do so. Enjoy!

Menu Planning Binder : Getting Organized

 Two nights ago I finally got around to budgeting the next several months out. It took me at least an hour and a half to get to the month of March, but it is such a relief to know where all of the money needs to go each paycheck.

 Last night I figured out my dinner menu for the next two weeks and created a grocery list based on sales between our two local stores to get everything I need. Today I went and bought everything and did a pretty good job in that I had $75 budgeted for groceries and I only went over by $2. At least several of the things I bought will last for more than just the two weeks and will add to the next several weeks dinners.

When I'm really organized I make freezer meals, and they make the world such a better place :). Smiths and Kent's had fresh chicken for 1.79 lb, so I picked up $8.31 of chicken breasts and made 5 freezer meals and saved a breast to split in half for Sundays parmesan chicken. Only one of the freezer meals is on this weeks rotation so the others will be there for the next couple weeks when I choose to make them. (2 Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken, 1 Honey Garlic Chicken, 1 Café Rio chicken, 1 Chicken Gyro meat)

My husband has just about a lifetime supply of binders filled with old school stuff, I think this one had a criminal justice class from 2006 when we were first married. I threw it all away... why we even moved with it is beyond me. Now it is my "Menu Planning Binder" complete with calendar pages until June. I found this super cute printable calendar here Miss Tina Digital Art and it works perfect for my monthly dinner menu.

If your curious as to what I have planned for the next two weeks or so here is a list of what we will be eating, starting tonight.

 

Ham and Cheese Sliders

Sloppy Joes

Crockpot Parmesan Chicken

Hawaiian Chicken

Taco Soup

Tilapia with rice

Crockpot Vegetable Lasagna

Navajo Tacos

Hamburger Helper

Teriyaki pork

Fettuccini Alfredo

Cheesy Potato Soup

Burritos

Pizza

Spaghetti

 

 

If you hate meal planning here is a link Free Time Frolics  to a great page that helped me create my menu and give me a list to pick from for the next couple weeks.

 

 





Chickens like walnuts

 These crazy little scavengers have taught me several things about what a chicken likes to eat. Aside from the obvious bugs they have really enjoyed all of the walnuts my neighbors trees have dropped into our yard. When I let them out to roam I sometimes walk over to where there are unopened nuts and step on them to crack them open for my birds.

 Other random things I have taken out to them are dry baby food cereal that I've mixed with some water, spinach that has wilted in my fridge, the left over carcass of our Christmas turkey, dry oats that I found weevils in, and almost any of our left over food as long as it didn't contain chicken.

 Its nice to know that the walnuts are being put to some good use. I personally don't care for them even though they are really good for you. My son is allergic to walnuts so I can't even sneak them into food like pie crusts if I really wanted to.

What random things have you discovered that your chickens like to eat?

My Chicken Coop this Winter

This is my chickens coop this winter, it isn't the prettiest thing but it is super functional. The coldest that I've noticed it has been is around -8 degrees here in Brigham City this winter, but I haven't had a problem with frost bite yet.


 I have a whole bale of straw in their covered run area to keep the ground comfortable for the girls.

 On days they have to stay in there coop all day I throw a handful of oats into their run and they enjoy hunting in the straw for the oats.

 I have a total of 6 hens, they share an actual coop that we bought that was meant for only 4 hens, but that is why we added the additional covered run area so they wouldn't be so crowded.

 If we had left it as it was they would have been at each other all day because there really isn't that much space for them to all be out of the coop at once in the original coop and run. I attached a hook to the underneath of the coop to hold their hanging feeder. It gives them space to eat around it and keeps it off of the ground.

 We don't have electricity in the coop, so at least three of the girls have molted this winter and only two of the girls have layed all winter long. My two best layers are they white leghorn and my golden sex link, both are pictured (slightly) above. All of my chickens except two lay different colored eggs, I have only two of the same breed, buff orphingtons, and they have not laid all winter along with my easter egger and my black hen.

 I've put random pieces of old stumps and branches in the pen for them to perch on and also a ladder-ish piece that I screwed together with old pieces of fencing we had lying around.

 they have all been really healthy and I haven't noticed an extreme pecking order problem, they know their ranks but nobody is loosing feathers over it.

Warm chickens, super fertilizer

Its getting really cold here in Brigham City and naturally I have been concerned about how warm or cold my hens are during the day and night. I have read several helpful articles about what temperatures these birds can take and what to look out for. Above is a picture of part of their coop, because we bought six birds and miraculously none of them have died (not many predators in Brigham I guess) we added a larger additional covered run for them to spread their wings in. So the box with the window is where they sleep and nest, other than that they prefer to be out in the run or in the yard. I haven't been covering the opening to the coop strictly for ventilation, if it gets moist in the coop there is a higher chance of frostbite in their combs and wattles. This coop was meant for 4 hens but the six of them fit in really well and there is actually room for others if we needed/ wanted. I read that a 5 lb hen puts off about the equivalent of 10 watts of heat so with 6 hens were getting 60 watts of heat going on in the small space and if they were really cold I know that they would be huddled very close together to maintain more warmth.
 Today I picked up a bale of straw for the coop, it was $3 at our local country store so really not too bad. I spread most of the bale in the big open area that you don't see in the picture, and then added some to the nesting boxes. I think hay is awesome at keeping animals warm and comfortable in the winter and it is so much cheaper than getting wood shavings. What's also nice about hay is that it will keep the hens busy looking for all of the seeds that are in the bale. I initially used fallen leaves in the run and nesting boxes and they have all been torn up into nothing so they lasted maybe two months or so before needing replacement. The straw should last longer, definitely through the whole winter I imagine and then in the spring I will have amazing organic fertilizer I can till into my garden. For $3 I get a warm bedding/ chicken run material, something to keep the birds busy when snowed in, and an all natural garden fertilizer. If it isn't completely broken down in the spring I will just add it to the compost bin and let it continue to break down till it is a usable material. Its a screaming deal and its so simple!

A boring post about the fruit plants in my yard

Our four fruit trees that we planted this past fall have all survived the winter! wahoo! My princess peach tree should be blooming any day now, although it is fricken freezing in Utah again. The other three trees are either starting to get there leaves or have visible buds growing on them.

 I am waiting to see any life in the grape plants that I planted last fall, so far they all look like dead sticks in the ground. My neighbors huge grape vine looks dead still too so I'm crossing my fingers that they will all spring to life again once the weather decides to be decent for more than two days. If that is the case I will have soooo much grape juice to make in 3 years :) (seriously I planted like 40 grape starts). If they don't come back I will pick up a new vine from the local nursery next year and try again.

 My other neighbors let me dig up some of their extra raspberry canes and they are really doing well for the shoddy job I did digging them up. The canes are a thornless overbearing variety, and I am so excited about them.

My son picked out a blueberry bush the other day when we were at walmart, I've always wanted to grow one, but Utah really isn't the place to do that. So we picked up two bushes... but I've planted them both in bright yellow containers with the acidic soil that they need. I mixed half peat moss with an organic potting soil to plant them in. If I can keep them alive and happy I'll have to let you know. Since they are picky little buggers I have been collecting rainwater to water them with in the future. Lately we've had more than enough rain to keep them well fed. I also mulched them heavily with pine needles so in the summer months that will help keep the water from evaporating so fast.

My bare root strawberry plants that I picked up from walmart still look dead but I think they could be waiting for warmer weather too. So basically you can see that I am anxious for warmer weather and the possibility of my budding "Garden of Eden" I've got going on.

Lentil Flour Brownies

I had heard once that you could make brownies with lentils; if you look it up you find lots of brownie recipes made from lentils, but they want you to cook the lentils first and I just wanted to grind mine in the mill and use lentils in place of flour. In case you are wondering I just have a stock pile of lentils and I wanted to use them :). So there wasn't any recipes for milled lentil flour brownies and I tweaked a couple recipes and put one together, and they actually taste great. I was worried because the batter definitely tasted beany but the brownies taste good and normal!! I'm no expert but this I believe is completely gluten free.

 I milled the plain lentils in the kitchen mill, it made very fine dusty powder

 this is how they looked before I put them in the oven (I had just put them in the oven and hurried and took them out for a picture so they are a bit shiner than when they went in)

 they puffed up nicely in the oven

 Milled Lentil Brownies

Recipe

• 1/2 cup mostly melted butter (too lazy to melt the whole thing)
• 3 tbs Agave
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbs vanilla
• 4 tbs cocoa powder
• 1 cup Lentil flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• handful of semi sweet chocolate chips

preheat oven to 350 degrees, mix butter, agave and sugar, add eggs and vanilla hand blend again, add cocoa powder, lentil flour, baking soda and salt blend until smooth. pour in desired pan, I used a silicon baking pan (I'm out of cooking spray) its smaller than a 13x9 so an 8x8 pan/ pyrex would work best or they will be paper thin. Cook in oven for 25 min, cut, cool, enjoy!

There you have it, not the most unhealthy but also not the most healthy... baby steps. I adapted part of the recipe from here http://grainfreefoodie.blogspot.com/2012/01/almond-flour-brownies.html she used almond flour and a couple different ingredients and volumes than I did.






 why not put some ice cream and chocolate syrup on top?

 Kid tested and approved - although Makayla didn't like the addition of chocolate chips on top.. ok.