Southwestern chicken burritos

Last week, I bought something not on the list for lunch emergencies, an Amy’s burrito. Love those things. So when we had some leftover chicken at the end of the week, I realized we had everything on hand to create our own burritos cheaply and with mostly all organic ingredients. Now, when we’re out of leftovers, we can still have a healthy, easy meal to take to work.

Southwestern Chicken Burritos

3/4 cup brown rice, dry
1 large tomato or 2 medium
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 tsp McCormick’s Spicy Seasoning
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 medium potatoes, peeled if not organic, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 ear corn, kernels cut off
1 can black beans or mixed blend, rinsed and drained
1 1/4 cup diced chicken
3/4 cup shredded cheese (we used Mexican blend)
8-9 flour tortillas, burrito size

Cook rice according to directions. Bring separate pot of water to boil. Score tomato and cut out stem and drop into boiling water for 60 seconds. Remove and run under cool water. Peel skin, squeeze tomato over garbage to expel most of the seeds. Finely chop and put in medium skillet. Add chicken broth and seasonings and cook until liquid has reduced slightly and thickened, about 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, in remaining boiling water, cook potatoes until tender, about 15 minutes.
Add corn to tomato sauce as it cooks. When potatoes and sauce are done, mix chicken, rice, potatoes, corn, beans and sauce in large bowl. Taste for seasoning. Let cool slightly.
Mound about 1 1/2 cups filling in each tortilla, then sprinkle with about 2 tablespoons cheese. Roll up and place in glass dish. Cook at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, or until tortillas brown slightly. Let cool and then roll up in foil.

Chicken, 3 ways

A little while ago I learned of a Georgia company that sells chicken that’s not only local, but fed a vegetarian diet and treated humanely. That definitely fits in with how we’re trying to eat, but most of the cuts are not as budget friendly as I’m used to. But with the help of a coupon and sale at Kroger, I managed to pick up two whole chickens recently for $6.50 each, a great deal considering all the food we’d get out of them. Not quite as easy to work with as boneless, skinless breasts, maybe, but both my wallet and conscious could be happy.

For the first night, my brave husband cut the chicken into pieces, putting the back aside for later. Then we rubbed it all over with a little oil and spices (we love Penzey’s blends) and set it under the broiler. One smoke-filled apartment later, we had dinner! (Our tiny apartment oven has issues.)

After dinner, I cut up the extra meat, putting aside the dark pieces for my husband (and dog) and dicing the white into a bowl for the next day. And later, I put the extra bones and the reserved chicken back into a soup pot with a halved onion, three carrots and 8 cups of water. A few hours later …. broth!

Tonight, I made Cooking Light’s Spicy Southwestern Chicken Salad, which was delicious. And as a bonus, it left us with three-fourths of an avocado and half a red pepper. So I mashed the avocado, diced in some pepper, added a splash of lemon juice and dash of salt, and we had some makeshift guacamole to start. It was pretty yummy, if I do say so myself. We didn’t have any chips on hand, so we just sliced up some tortillas and baked them for about 8-10 min. at 300 in the toaster oven.

This is getting long, so click below for the chicken salad

Budget grocery shopping

I was so pumped this week when we came up with a meal plan based around our CSA box and discovered we’d only need to buy 8 items at the grocery store. (I know, it doesn’t take much to get me excited.) So, in addition to the strawberries, chard, beets, broccoli, garlic and onions that we got from a local, organic farm, we bought bacon, red onions, peaches (from Georgia!), carrots, eggs, bread, raisins and oatmeal (the last two for a batch of granola). All together, it cost exactly $50.05, right on budget. Of course this morning my husband discovered we were out of rice milk, but that will just be a few dollars more.

We plan most of our grocery shopping around our weekly dinners (which you can see at the column on the right), since we almost always take leftovers for lunch. When we make a particularly big batch of something, it goes into the freezer in individual portions for later. Also in our freezer is homemade chicken broth, meat I pick up on sale (right now some chicken and fish), homemade rolls, bags of vegetables, shredded cheese, milk, tortillas and other odds and ends that are helpful when we need to throw something together.

Here’s some of this week’s box. The garlic looks kind of funky just out of the ground, huh?