80 lbs of chicken - 9 ways

Fresh chicken breasts are only $1.69 / lb! Use promo code WAYBACK. Valid until 11:59pm PST 8/9/17.
 Sign up for Zaycon Fresh to get your unbelievably fresh meat!  

Often I am asked how do I save money for my family. Our food budget is something that I rarely skimp on because I think it's one of the best investments we can make for ourselves. However, there are a ton of ways to be able to save money without skimping on quality.

I learned about Zaycon Fresh a few years ago and am a believer! We order chicken breast, chicken fritters, pork tenderloins, wild Alaskan Salmon and a few other meat products. The chicken breast comes fresh and straight from the farmer, so it ends up being a lot fresher than what you buy at the grocery store. For example, my last case of Zaycon Fresh chicken breast had a bar code with a time stamp for the butcher date that was 3 days prior to my receiving it. I recently went to my local grocery store to see what their time frame is - and their chicken was 15 days old and also had 3% water injected. It's really not much of a discussion on which chicken I prefer to buy!

What is Zaycon Fresh? It's super easy. You sign up, enter in your zip code and it will populate "events" near you. Each event will bring fresh or frozen meets to an agreed upon place and time. You place your order for what you'd like and then on the day of the event you bring your order slip and they put your case of bulk meats in the trunk of your car for you. You don't even have to get out of the car! Throughout the year they will offer different products; such as delicious bacon, fresh ground beef, fresh chicken breasts, frozen breaded chicken fritters (I like to make this), select steaks, even turkey and ham! Our all time favorite is their salmon. They are constantly adding more.

When you sign up, they'll send you non-spammy newsletters letting you know what they're adding, great recipe ideas and you can refer friends to get credit for your next purchase. Truly, I haven't bought meat any other way for a long time now.

Ok but then the question comes up with what do I do with 40 lbs of fresh chicken breast? Friends, let me show you what I did for this last order, which I am using to prepare for Baby Boy due this summer.

First, when I receive my chicken I cut it down to different sizes to help spread the meat a little further. Each lobe of chicken breast becomes a cut of breast, a tender and I slice the breast to an even thickness and save the top portion as a "cheek," which is great as Chicken Parmesan Cutlets.  For our family of 2 adults and 2 small kids I package a dinner meal either as 2 breasts, 5 tenders or 6 cutlets. I also use a Foodsaver instead of freezer bags. For each of the recipes below I used 1/4 c of marinade per "dinner package." Some of the recipes are larger than others so adjust the ratios as you need. 

Without further adieu, here are my most recently used recipes:
Brown Sugar Balsamic Chicken

I used about 1/4 c of marinade per 2 breasts.

Lemon Garlic
Chicken TacosUsing a grinder attachment, grind your chicken breasts
taco seasoning recipe

Chicken Enchiladas
1 large can of enchilada sauce
directions: boil your chicken breasts, shred them either with forks or with the paddle attachment on your kitchen aid, pour the sauce in! Freeze the meat as is or prep into enchiladas and freeze individually.

Tangy Teriyaki:
2T of grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup Kikkoman Teriyaki Sauce
makes enough for 2 breasts

"Hawaiian Style"  / Moana1 can of sliced pineapple
2 cups of orange juice
4T ketchup
4T soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2T of grated fresh ginger
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c Balsamic Vinegar 

Tangy BBQ

1/2 c Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce

4T ketchup 

2Tbrown sugar

4T balsamic vinegar

1 cup chicken stock

Lime Sweet Thai Chili1 c stock
1 bottle sweet thai chili sauce

1/4 c lime juice

Spiced Rub with Apple Cider Vinegar2t paprika
1t chili powder
1t cumin
1t thyme
1t salt
1t garlic powder
1t pepper
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
Mix all of the ingredients, pour over 12 chicken breasts and rub it in. It should be a loose paste.

Ready to save some moolah? Sign up here! 

Parmesan Chicken Cutlets

Every 4 months, 80 lbs of chicken breast waits on my kitchen island. I spend a whole day, sometimes with
my mother in law, sometimes by myself, processing all that meat into packages of unseasoned, marinated, shredded or ground meat. I have over 50 meals started, and it costs me $135. 

I order a lot of my family's meat through Zaycon Fresh. The chicken breast comes fresh and straight from the farmer, so it ends up being a lot fresher than what you buy at the grocery store. For example, my last case of Zaycon Fresh chicken breast had a bar code with a time stamp for the butcher date that was 3 days prior to my receiving it. I recently went to my local grocery store to see what their time frame is - and their chicken was 15 days old and also had 3% water injected. It's really not much of a discussion on which chicken I prefer to buy!

So today I want to share with you one of the ways that I meal prep when I am processing all of this meat. When I prep the breasts to freeze I cut them into 3 separate ways (after trimming the fat off) - a tenderloin, a breast and a cutlet. A cutlet is made by laying the breast down on a cutting board and cutting through the middle of the breast, horizontally.

I like to make my cutlets really small; they are really more like a chicken coin than a true cutlet.  It's about the size of your palm. Cutting that small bit off a breast makes the breast thickness more uniform so that it cooks easily and the "coins" are really tender. They are perfect for Chicken Parmesan Cutlets!

For the breading:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 1 tablespoon of paprika 
• 1 tablespoon mustard powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1/2 c of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

This will bread about 16 small chicken "coin" cutlets. 2-3 cutlets per adult is a standard serving. The remainder can be frozen between sheets of parchment paper and bagged in freezer bags once fully frozen.

Instructions:

1. Prepare three small mixing bowls. Fill one bowl with 3/4 cup flour, fill the second bowl with 1 1/2 cups of Panko, 1 T paprika, 1 T mustard powder, salt & pepper, and the third bowl with the beaten eggs. Set the 1/2 c of freshly grated Parmesan aside. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Dip each chicken cutlet first into the flour, then into the beaten eggs and then into the Panko mixture.
*If you are prepping for a future meal, skip the baking portion and read the instructions at the end.*

3. Place onto a greased broiling pan or cookie sheet.

4. Bake at 425 degrees F and bake for 15-25 minutes, until the chicken is fully cooked. Flip half way through.

5. Remove from the oven and give each cutlet a good sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
6. Voila! I love to serve mine with my lazy girl gnocchi (using left over mashed potatoes!!) and spaghetti sauce. 

**If you are going to freeze these, after step 2 place them in between two squares of parchment paper and freeze them on a cookie sheet. After they are frozen, store them in a freezer safe ziplock bag.**

Get started on saving your family money but not compromise the quality of your meat! Zaycon Fresh is where it's at. Sign up here! Also - check out my favorite Zaycon Fresh product - Wild Alaskan Salmon - and how I love to prepare it!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate links help keep this blog going and using them is at no cost to you! All images, opinions and the recipe are my own. 

Salmon: 2 ways

Unless you are, or are friends with, a fisherman, good salmon is really hard to find. Especially outside of the Pacific Northwest. I count myself as very fortunate as sometimes being the very blessed recipient of a friend's end of the day catch. There are so very few things better in this world than salmon caught that day. But most of us don't ever get that.

In my humble opinion a very close second to fresh caught salmon, and light years beyond what you'll find at the store, is Zaycon Fresh's Wild Sockey Salmon filets. I've ordered 3 cases (25 lbs each) in the last year. This allows me to cook salmon almost weekly and on a budget!

"Wild" seafood is also somewhat of a hot topic right now. I'm always researching my food to make

sure that I am, at the very least, aware of what is the quality of the food I purchase. The price of Zaycon Fresh's salmon can't be beat, and I was initially a little wary about it. I bought my first case,
fell in love with my first filet and started to do a little bit of digging on it. Was it really what it's advertised to be? I contacted the fishery, using the clearly marked label on my case that I received, and was able to track down where my salmon had been caught and when. Isn't that pretty awesome that in this day and age we can find that information?

What is Zaycon Fresh? It's super easy. You sign up, enter in your zip code and it will populate "events" near you. Each event will bring fresh or frozen meets to an agreed upon place and time. You place your order for what you'd like and then on the day of the event you bring your order slip and they put your case of bulk meats in the trunk of your car for you. You don't even have to get out of the car! Throughout the year they will offer different products; such as delicious bacon, fresh ground beef, fresh chicken breasts, frozen breaded chicken fritters (I like to make this), select steaks, even turkey and ham around the holidays! They are constantly adding more.

When you sign up, they'll send you non-spammy newsletters letting you know what they're adding, great recipe ideas and you can refer friends to get credit for your next purchase. Truly, I haven't bought meat any other way for a long time now.

And now, on to my two favorite ways to prepare salmon these days. YUM! When you thaw a filet, cut it in half and reserve one half for the second recipe below. Now you can have salmon twice in one week!

Honey Lemon Baked Salmon

This is my favorite go-to. It's easy, I have all of the ingredients on hand and it goes with most sides.

• Half a salmon filet, thawed.
• 3T cup of honey
• 1T minced garlic
• 1T lemon pepper seasoning
• juice from 1/4 of a fresh lemon

1. Warm the honey briefly in the microwave (about 10 seconds should be enough). Mix in garlic, lemon pepper and lemon juice. 

2. Line a baking dish with tin foil. Place the fish, skin down, in the baking dish. Pour the honey mixture over top. Allow to marinate for 20 minutes, up to 24 hours in the fridge. Prior to baking, spoon the marinate back over top of the salmon again.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Bake the salmon until it flakes easily with a fork, about 8 minutes. Most recommend about 4-6 minutes per 1/2 inch of thickness. 

Thai Inspired Salmon

This recipe is adapted from ifood real. I went out on a limb and thought that spicey salmon might be tasty. We gave it a shot for my birthday dinner and it was a hit. The marinade is great for chicken too!

• Half a salmon filet, thawed
• 1/2 cup Thai sauce, recipe below

To prepare Thai sauce:

• 1/2 cup maple syrup (the real kind, if you can get it)
• 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce (I use Sun Luck brand)
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 T cornstarch
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes 

Mix all of the ingredients until combined. Add to a small saucepan and cook until boiling. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before pouring onto fresh meat. Refrigerate leftovers.

To prepare the salmon:
1. Pour 1/2 cup of the cooled Thai sauce over the uncooked salmon. Allow to marinate for at least two hours. 

2. Before cooking, coat the meat again with the marinade sauce.

3. Broil or grill until the meat flakes easily with a fork. My favorite is to grill it!

Honorable mention: Cilantro Salmon burgers by Alaska from Scratch. Oh lawd, it's changed my opinion on burgers.

So are you ready to order some salmon?  If you're interested in learning more about how to determine if your salmon is truly wild, sustainably caught and basically not messing around, here are some resources:

• http://www.seafoodwatch.org/seafood-recommendations/groups/salmon?q=salmon&type=sockeye
• http://www.thehealthyeatingguide.com/farm-raised-salmon-vs-wild-caught-salmon/

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Signing up for a Zaycon Fresh account is free, but you'll be amazed at the quality of all the different kinds of meats and products you can find through them. If you loved this post and want to learn more about Zaycon Fresh - feel free to sign up using my referral code. I'll get a tiny kickback and you'll get a ton of delicious meat to stock your freezer!

Copycat Crispy Chicken Caesar Wrap

This didn't take a secret lab with multiple testings to uncover the perfect copycat recipe, but hey, when you got it you got it. And let's just say that from the time that I made these for dinner on Thursday, in the 5 nights that have passed since...we've had them for dinner or lunch 3 more times. So log this one away for an easy, short ingredient, 20 minute dinner or lunch recipe. You'll be happy that you did!

You will need:
Tortilla
Breaded chicken strips Strips (Zaycon Fresh has the yummiest!)
Your favorite cheese shredded - hubby likes Pepperjack, I like Asiago
Romaine lettuce
Creamy Caesar dressing (sometimes I mix it up and use Wishbone Spicy Caesar!)

You'll do:
1.Prepare the breaded chicken strips according to package instructions
2. Cut your tortilla in half and smear a good amount of dressing onto it.
3. Layer the lettuce, a crispy strip (or two!) and a sprinkle of cheese.
4. Roll it!

And that's all it takes. Wrap them up as to-gos for the car or for a lazy night in.

Zaycon Fresh is my #1 source for purchasing our meats, and we've ordered the breaded chicken fritters every time they've come available. They come pre-cooked, so all you need to do is crisp them up in the oven. For a limited time, pay $2.56 per pound with promo code FRITTERS2018 at check out.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. 

Apple Cider Chicken

This apple cider chicken recipe is one of my favorite go-to recipes. It's filling but light, creamy and a touch of apple sweetness. Truth be told, I first made this dish when my dear friend Gretchen welcomed her now big-boy Max, and ever since then it's been a tradition for me to bring to a friend with a new baby. After all, what better way can you help a new mom than by bringing her food? When I was waiting on Ruby (who was born 5 days past her due date) I made this meal twice! I wished so hard that it would give her the hint that it was time for her to make her grand appearance.

For the apple cider chicken, you will need:
1/2 lb of butter, plus 1/4 lb and 1/4 lb for sides
8-10 chicken tenders, or 4 large chicken breasts
3/4 cup of apple cider (the real stuff, not apple juice)
1/2 lb of blanched green beans
1 lb of mushrooms
1 pint of heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
Salt and Pepper
A loaf or two of easy dutch oven artisan bread (you'll need to start the dough at least one day before you make this chicken)

You will do:
1. Blanche the green beans and set aside.
2. Melt the 1/2 lb of butter (in small cubes) in a large pan. Add chicken and cook until both sides are browned.
3. While the chicken is cooking, cook the fresh mushrooms in a small pot with 1/4 lb of butter until they are soft. Heat up the blanched green beans in a separate pot with the remaining 1/4 lb of butter.
4. Once the chicken is cooked, keep it in the pan and pour in the apple cider. Bring to a boil and cook until the liquid is reduced and is a nice glaze on the chicken.
5. Slowly add the cream and stir often to create a nice sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. Add the nutmeg and cinnamon at the very end.

Serve this chicken with green beans, mushrooms and that hearty bread. You can't skip on bread with this meal - it's so delightfully sinful to dip the bread in the remaining sauce.

As a growing family of 4 I make it a goal to source the best quality meat at the best prices. That's why I buy all of our meat through Zaycon Fresh. Every 6 months I order 80 lbs of fresh chicken breasts and I cut them into individual dinner serving sizes and freeze. We've saved hundreds of dollars in the price of meat as well as I always have the convenience of not having to go to the grocery store to purchase meats. Sign up for Zaycon Fresh and see all the different meats you can buy - beef, pork, chicken, sausages, bacon, turkey and more! By signing up for Zaycon Fresh I get a referral bonus, so thanks in advance for helping me feed my family!

No "Cream of ____" Chicken Pot Pie

Who wants to learn how to make chicken pot pie without using 'cream of ________'? I know that in a lot of southern recipes that this ingredient is a must, but in the attempt to making as much as I can from scratch, I knew there has to be a different way. After all, chicken pot pie has been around long before canned foods ever ever invented. I also find a deep sense of satisfaction in creating a dinner from ingredients that I can already find in my well stocked kitchen. 

So after a little bit of research and some tips from other very good cooks (Ina Garten and Motherhood on the Rocks) I came up with my rendition of chicken pot pie - no canned soup!

Note: this recipe is enough for 2 individual servings.

You will need:
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (We love Zaycon Fresh chicken breasts, read at the bottom of the post why!)
salt, pepper
olive oil
salt
pepper

1/4 onion, thickly sliced

1 carrot (or 5 baby carrots), thickly sliced
1/2 cup of peas
1/2 cup of corn
1 cup of chicken broth (here's a really simple recipe for how to make broth in a crockpot)
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp thyme
1/4 c of flour
1/2 c milk or cream
Pie crust - make it yourself! Here's my favorite pie crust recipe using a food processor. I omit the sugar and use salted butter. If you want to make a really great crust, I love this buttermilk pie crust. You can sub soured milk (1T vinegar to 1 cup of milk) for the buttermilk.
This will make 2 pot pies in 16 oz size Corningware Ramekins.

You will do:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil onto your chicken breast and season with salt and pepper. Place on a tinfoil lined baking dish and bake until done - about 20 minutes or so.
3. Remove the chicken breast from the oven and shred or chop. Alternatively, if you have left over chicken from another meal use that!
4. Meanwhile drizzle a little more olive oil in a pan and gently sautee the onion until it is translucent. Add your carrots, peas and corn. Sautee for a few minutes.
5. Pour the chicken broth over the veggies and bring to a quick boil, reduce to medium and allow to cook until the carrots are soft.
6. Season with garlic powder, thyme, salt and pepper (to taste).
7. To thicken the filling, add a little bit of flour at a time. Stir quickly and efficiently so that you don't get clumps. This probably won't take the whole 1/4 cup - it may only be a few tablespoons. It depends on how much of your stock has evaporated.
8. Add the chopped chicken.
9. Simmer for a few minutes to get everything nice and happy. Then stir in the cream until it is well incorporated and remove from heat.
10. Spray your ramekins with non-stick spray and pour in your filling. Don't fill it to the brim, leave a little bit of room.
11. Meanwhile, prepare your pie crust. Alternatively, you can use pre-made pie crust but home made is soooo much better.
12. Lay the rolled out crust on top of your ramekins and run a rolling pin over the top to cut off the excess.

Use a fork to crimp the edge all nice and pretty, and sprinkle with a little bit of sea salt. Cut 3-4 slits into the crust.
13. Place back into the 350 degree oven and cook for about 25 minutes, or until the crust is golden and you can see the filling bubbling underneath.

As a growing family of 4 I make it a goal to source the best quality meat at the best prices. That's why I buy all of our meat through Zaycon Fresh. Every 6 months I order 80 lbs of fresh chicken breasts and I cut them into individual dinner serving sizes and freeze. We've saved hundreds of dollars in the price of meat as well as I always have the convenience of not having to go to the grocery store to purchase meats. Sign up for Zaycon Fresh and see all the different meats you can buy - beef, pork, chicken, sausages, bacon, turkey and more! By signing up for Zaycon Fresh I get a referral bonus, so thanks in advance for helping me feed my family!