Chicken, broccoli, and whole wheat penne pasta in garlic alfredo sauce

Whats for dinner, thats right its chicken again. I got another package this time it was tender strips. I started out by grilling it on my george foreman, I seasoned it with garlic and onion powder. At the same time I boiled my noodles. I got my pan out and preheated the oven, I believe pan is a 13 x 9". I emptied two jars of the garlic sauce I got in the pan, poured a little milk in the jar closed the lid up and shook it a bit and then poured it in the next jar and did the same thing. Here is the jar of stuff I used.

I then poured the milk mixture into the pan with the rest and put a few teaspoons of minced garlic in it too and stirred it around. By now my chicken and pasta was done. I drain the pasta and put it in the pan and stirred it in the sauce, I cut the chicken up into small peices and added it too. Then I added a 16 ounce bag of frozen broccoli florets and stirred it in. I topped it off with shredded mozerella cheese and baked it at 350 for about 25 to 30 minutes. Here is before the oven

Here is after.

I had leftover chicken too, I just froze it for later use. This makes a lot, I served four people and still a little less than half left over for tomorrow. If you have ever had pizza huts pasta dishes its kinda like that. I served mine with garlic bread. What have you made lately?

Getting every pennys worth out of that expensive chicken

Do you ever go to the grocery store and realize that the price has raised on something in just a few days? I went the other day to get a chicken. I looked and looked but couldnt find a whole chicken that was cheap, I ended up with one that cost about $5 bucks and it was small. Which I could have spent the same amount on a cooked one at the bakery, but I wanted to cook it myself. So I got the expensive chicken and I dont know about you but I try to get as many meals out of one chicken as I possibly can. The first night I cooked it, I baked it. I rubbed the skin with olive oil, cut an onion up over it and cut up some fresh thyme and rosemary and put it on it too. I baked it several hours at about 350. I took the chicken out of the pan and threw some diced sweet potatos in there and stirred them around in the grease a bit and baked those too. It was awesome even though it was a little greasy. The next day I boiled the whole carcass until the meat fell of the bones. I stripped the meat off, discarded the bones and had chicken nachos for lunch and made my sweetie some chicken noodle soup with the broth, some chicken and some egg noodles. Then I reheated the chicken and broth left in the pan and added some more water. I cooked it until the chicken seperated and was stringy and then I added some dumplings. I make mine out of flour that I mix in some garlic powder, onion powder and pepper. Then you add milk to make a dough and drop it in the boiling broth. Cook it until the dumplings are done. I must mention that it made a lot and I just finished a bowl of the chicken and dumplings, and have another good bowl left in the pan. So out of one chicken I made four different kinds of meals and I still have some left for another lunch tomorrow. Another favorite way to use the chicken and broth is to make chicken noodle soup. I just add veggies like corn or peas and carrots and throw in some egg noodles. What ways do you use food over and over again?

Making suet blocks

I made a suet block for my chickens today, you could use the same process for birds though. I started with an empty milk container.

I then cut the bottom off, making about an inch or so deep so it will fit in a suet hanger.


Then I made my mix. Like the post on chicken treats I started with a fat. I again had sausage grease and some bacon grease. I melted them together and added sunflower seeds, crushed egg shells, scratch, meal worms, some leftover banana from breakfast that I cut up and some pancakes that I also cut up. I then added corn meal until it became pastey and thick. For birds I would use the particular seed for what ever bird you are attracting.

Then I put it in the box.

I had some extra so I put it in ice cube trays. Then you freeze it for a bit until it sets up nice and put it in a zip lock bag. These come in super handy when you need to put the chickens up early and keep them occupied. Im gonna hang this block in the pen next time I need to go somewhere and leave them in the coop. Do you have any special treats you give your chickens?

Chicken treats with added protein

My chickens love thier treats, especially now that the bugs and green grass are dying out. So to make up for the lack of protein in thier diet I make treats. I started by keeping some fat from stuff I used, I had sausage grease leftover, but you could use any fat available. I would use a used fat so you dont waste any, like mine was a by product of cooking the sausage. I also had some butter I had put in the microwave to melt for a recipe and forgot about over night, Im smooth I know. I melted the two fats together and ended up with a fair amount.


Next I added some freeze dried meal worms that I got at tractor supply

Is it odd that I think they smell kinda good? Next I added scratch

I also added some sunflower seeds too. The sunflower seeds and the meal worms say on the package that they have 15 percent and 56.58 percent crude protein respectively. You could also add diced meats that you have left over as long as its not rancid. I then added cornmeal until it got grainy looking, and I didnt get a picture taken because I had to take care of Levi. When I came back to the kitchen maybe 30 minutes later it was already setting up, so I figured I had enough cornmeal in it. I then put it in ice cube trays and placed it in the freezer.

I put these in a ziplock bag and keep them in the freezer. My chickens went nuts over these and have layed more eggs since I have upped the protein they get. I have live meal worms that I keep specifically for my turtle and the chickens, but I thought it would be really horrible to put them in this then freeze them, plus what if the crawled out of the tray before they froze? So thats why I used already freeze dried ones. You could also add crushed egg shells in this. I keep my chickens egg shells, not store bought egg shells. If you rinse them out after you use them and let them dry completely you can crush them and feed them back to the chicken for calcium. The store bought eggs have who knows what on the shell so I dont use them.