I love anything served in a muffin cup these days and I thought of this wonderful idea of ham and cheese muffin cups. I have been been looking across Pinterest and my cook books to see if I can find anything. The muffin cups are pre-portioned, individual serving size for everyone. We have a lot of precooked ham, since our freezer when out about a month ago and I have been searching for some yummy recipes to make with ham to add to our rotation. I found a ham and cheese pie recipe and scaled it down to individual muffin cups. Yes this was a huge hit at my house.

Ingredients for Ham and Cheese Muffin Cups:

2 cups Homemade Biscuit Mix (you can use store bought package of 5)
1 1/2 cups finally chopped cooked ham
8 oz cheese (shredded or finely cut)
1 1/2 tblsp Onion (I sautéed mine for a bit)
2 eggs
1 Pinch of nutmeg

How to make Ham and Cheese Muffins:

1. Make the homemade biscuits according to directions. Cut out biscuits and cut them in half. Roll into a ball and stretch them or roll them out until they will fit inside a muffin cup. Spray muffin tin to avoid sticking. Using the homemade version I was able to make 12 biscuit cups. With the store bought you may only be able to make 10.

2. Finely chop the onion and start to sauté it now. This will be ready when you combine it all together. Cut up the ham and cheese. Since I had an 8 oz. block of cheese, I didn’t feel like grating it. I just cut it up into small pieces and threw all together.

3. Add the ham, cheese, eggs and onion all in a bowl and mix thoroughly. I just sprinkled a little nutmeg on top for an added layer of flavor. (My secret ingredient) If you have fresh grate just a little on top.

4. Now fill the biscuit lined muffin tins with the ham cheese mixture. If you have two empty muffin tins left, you can still put the mixture in there and they should pop out when done.

5. Bake at 350 for 22 minutes. To see if they are done make sure they are bubbly and brown around the edges. If not leave them in a couple more minutes. We served these with some pork and beans and corn for a quick and easy meal.

I was amazed at how little ham this recipe actually uses and great for a five dollar meal. This would be a wonderful recipe for leftover ham or even a great breakfast dish. We usually have a few leftover, so I will freeze the extras. Now I have a little something on those nights I don’t want to cook. That is what makes cooking in muffin tins so great. My daughter, who doesn’t like ham, even liked this recipe. If you put anything in bread for her, she will eat it. Little Face didn’t get to try it, since he passed out at 6:00 that night. We brought him to the table and he put his head on the table and slept.

Take a look at my Simply Homemade Food page for more ideas on how to make food on your own. This will help stretch your pennies a little farther and help you eat healthy. Take a look at my easy and simple recipes for more ideas on what to cook for dinner tonight.  PLEASE like Pounds4Pennies on Facebook. Yes I am begging! Follow me on Pinterest for more inspiration daily.

For the last two weeks I have helped you make two slow cooker meals using only one chicken. Since you are still here, and you didn’t kill anyone with the previous healthy slow cooker recipes with the chicken in a pot and amazing chicken salad. Today I am going to share with you the last of the slow cooker meals series, how to make chicken stock from the leftovers of the previous chicken meals. After making this recipe you may never buy chicken stock again. It is so easy to make this rich flavorful chicken stock.

Ingredients for slow cooker meals – Chicken Stock:

Bones from healthy slow cooker recipes Chicken in a Pot
leftovers from inside the chicken (if you had any)
leftover Juice from Roasted Chicken in a Pot
1 cup carrots
1 stalk celery
1/2 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon each of rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano
Water
salt and pepper to taste

1. This chicken stock recipe can be done in the slow cooker or on the stove. For the purposes of this post I made it on the stove, since I forgot I was doing this for the blog. Place all of the ingredients above in a pot. No need to worry about cutting anything really fine, since these are just for flavor. Pour at least 4 to 6 cups of water in the pot. Enough to cover everything in the pot.

2. Allow to cook for an hour on the stove, or in the slow cooker cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. This just needs to simmer for a while.

3. Let the pot cool for an hour or two with the lid off. Then place the whole pot in the fridge and forget about it overnight. Share this post on Facebook that this is the best secret how to defat chicken stock.

4. When the pot is taken out of the fridge, there will be an nice solid layer of fat at the top. Yuck. Now just break it the fat layer and throw it away, or get a large bowl and place a colander on top drain off the broth. Dump the entire pot of broth into the colander. Since the fat is solid, it will not go through the colander. You might want to PIN this! 

5. Now there is a nice bowl of the best chicken broth in the world. This is way cheaper and better tasting then the store bought stuff. The best way to preserve stock is to freeze it to make additional slow cooker meals. Try to freeze the chicken stock in 1/2 to 1 cup containers or freeze in quart freezer bag for easy use in any recipe or slow cooker meals.

Use this stock to make other slow cooker meals such as: stew, soups or chicken tortilla soup.

So if you have been following along here is a sample of the fabulous healthy slow cooker meals you can make using one chicken.

Healthy Slow Cooker recipes: Chicken in a Pot

Amazing Chicken Salad

Homemade Chicken Enchiladas

Easy Chicken in Biscuits 

Tequila Lime Chicken

Biscuit Empanadas – Use Chicken instead of Beef

I will be showing you how to make 3 healthy slow cooker recipes using only one chicken in a three part series. I am so frugal I can make three meals out of one chicken. Crazy right? I am so in love with my slow cooker right now, I just had to share some healthy slow cooker recipes with you. That little slow cooker didn’t get much rest this weekend. I think I used it everyday, and it was a three day weekend! 

The first in the series of healthy slow cooker recipes is slow cooker roast chicken. This is to help those super busy moms who need help to stretch your budget and provide healthy meals for your family.   I usually post our meals when we are trying to feed all five of us, since the dynamics of our home change on a daily basis with our little blessed family. Sometimes there are five or four or only three it really depends on the day of the week around here.

3 Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes 1 Chicken

Ingredients for slow cooker roast chicken:

1 whole chicken (around 5lbs a little more or less is OK)
1 stalk celery
2-3 medium potatoes
1 cup baby carrots (Cut in half if you like smaller bites)
1 medium onion chopped
1 lemon quartered
3 table spoons butter softened
1 teaspoon each rosemary, thyme, sage, garlic salt
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Slow cooker

1. Chop all veggies and place in the bottom of the slow cooker. Sprinkle with a pinch or two of salt after each layer of veggies.

2. Make sure there is nothing inside the chicken. If something is there, stick your hand up the bird and get it out. Don’t throw it away save it for the third dish. Now fill the chicken with the quartered lemon. This keeps the inside of the bird steamed and moist.

3. Mix the rosemary, thyme, sage, garlic salt with the butter together to make a butter paste. Get your hands dirty and rub that chicken. No need to message it, just coat the top with the butter and seasoning mixture evenly.

4. Place the chicken on top of all the veggies in the bottom of the slow cooker. Don’t worry it will fit.

5. Leave it alone. Do not open it for 8-10 hours on low. Seriously no lifting the lid. The last hour before you serve kick it up on high (optional). 

6. Serve chicken and veggies together for a delicious roast chicken and veggie dinner. Use the gravy at the bottom to serve over the chicken and veggies if you wish. This is one of the best healthy slow cooker recipes, since the ingredients are so simple to eat and serve.

This entire meal in under $5 when you consider one chicken is used to make 2 other meals.

Save all the leftovers and do not throw any part of the chicken away. Not even the bones. This is for the final meal in my healthy slow cooker recipes series. With five of us we still had plenty of leftover chicken for another meal. Two of the kids get the drumsticks and one likes white meat. We usually half the breasts when we serve and the little tenders under the breast are great for the one who likes white meat. I usually eat half a breast and whatever little face can’t finish with his drumstick. Hubs usually eats a whole breast. With the other hearty veggies, this fills us up. Add some rolls or bread to the meal if you like. 

My husband said he never would want to bake a chicken again, since the chicken comes out so juicy and tasty. I wish I could make these pictures scratch and sniff so you could smell this chicken. One of the easiest healthy slow cooker recipes to try is Roast Chicken. If you have never cooked a whole chicken before, this is a great one to try first too. It is pretty much fool proof and you don’t have to worry about killing anyone, because anything that cooks for 8-10 hours has to be done, right!

This yummy fish tostada recipe is so easy to make and a great addition to your regular menu. You have gotta try these out. I can’t believe I didn’t think of these before.

You can buy premade tostada or you can make them yourself using a little bit of oil and corn tortillas to make crispy tostadas. They are so much tastier when you make them yourself. 

Ingredients for Fish Tostada recipe:

1 package of fish sticks (fried shrimp or grilled fish) $2.50
1 package 10 or higher corn tortillas $1.00
2 Tablespoons of oil
Lettuce $0.25
Tomatoes $0.25
Sour Cream (Plain Greek Yogurt) $0.75
Salsa, tartar sauce, mayo and hot sauce, lemon

1. Heat the oven according to the package directions for fish sticks. Cook the fish sticks according the package directions.

2. On the stove over medium heat, heat the oil in a skillet to cook the tortillas into crunchy tostadas.

3. Cook the tortillas until they start to brown a little on the edge about one or two minutes and flip over. (If you have the premade tostadas you can heat them in the oven for a couple minutes before the fish are done.

4. Start cutting the lettuce and tomatoes and any other additional toppings you may choose.

5. Now start to assemble your fish tostadas. Layer lettuce then crunchy fish then tomatoes and last any sauces you want to enjoy on a fish tostada.

Here is a Fish Coupon from Gorton’s you can print right now to save on making this awesome fish tostada recipe.

Isn’t this fish tostada recipe easy? This is better than having boring fishsticks or tacos. Check out other yummy meals under five dollars at Pounds4Pennies.com! I am always trying to help you save money with Coupons and Deals, and eating healthy easy! The prices above reflect my rockbottom stock up prices. 

I like to cook a nice grown up meal at least once a week for the family. I like to eat something nice, since we don’t get the chance to go out to eat very often. This week I picked Easy Chicken Cor Don Bleu. Here is another fabulous meal under $5.00 and under an hour. This can be made on a week night. You could even prep the chicken the night before and have it ready to go when you get home. You could also pre cook the rice and have it in the freezer and just heat it up. This is how I always have ready rice and I don’t need to spend extra money on precooked rice.  I precook it myself. I guess that is how I am so frugal!

Easy Chicken Cor Don Bleu

Ingredients:

2 Large Bone in Chicken Breast @ $0.99lb ($1.98) Each breast was 1lb
2 Cups Milk ($.34) separated
2 slices of Ham ($0.30) I used lunch meat
2 Tablespoons Canola Oil ($.30)
2 Cups Breadcrumbs (FREE) I toast the ends of the bread and grind them up
1 wedge of Swiss Cheese (XX)
1 Can Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup ($0.40)
2-3 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese ($0.25)
Seasonings you like: salt, pepper, garlic
1 Cup uncooked Rice ($0.20)
A few toothpicks to secure chicken
1. Cut the breast and tender from the bone. If you are using boneless skinless you can skip this step. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Put the rice on to cook on the stove top.

2. Get out your meat tenderizer for this one! Cover your chicken with plastic wrap and pound your chicken to about ¼ – ½ thickness using the flat side of your mallet. You can take out a little of your frustration on that chicken. This is cooking therapy in my book! We may be having this one more often.

3. If you have sliced Swiss cheese you can use that, but I had the little wedges of cheese I bought a while back. Smear the Swiss cheese evenly over the chicken. Be generous and use it all!

4. Now lay a slice of ham on each breast. And roll baby roll. Secure chicken rolls with toothpicks.

5. In two separate bowls pour 1 cup milk and in the other breadcrumbs. Coat the chicken thoroughly in milk then in the breadcrumbs. For really crunchy chicken dip in milk and coat in breadcrumbs again. This really makes this dish! (if you have those little tender pieces leftover dip them in the milk and breadcrumbs like above)

6. In a skillet pour in the oil and heat on medium heat. Brown the chicken on the outside until golden. I did around 3 minutes on each side. Browning 3 sides. Also throw those tender pieces in there to brown too.

7. Remove chicken and place on a paper towel. In a small saucepan, pour in the soup and 1 cup additional milk and heat through. Once the rice is finished cooking, place in a 9X9 baking dish then place the chicken on top and pour the soup mixture over the top and bake for 15-30mins. Take out and serve with an additional vegetable.

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All the prices reflect my rock bottom stock-up price. I will buy bone in chicken breast for $0.99 lb. rather than buying boneless skinless breast for $1.99 lb. This is a 50% saving in meat. You get more meat if you buy the breast this way. Under the breast is the chicken tender. It is a little sliver of white meat used to make chicken tenders.

I will sometimes cut them up before I freeze them, but most of the time I will freeze two breasts in baggies. One is in a ziplock bag and the other is not. That way if I want to use just one breast I can. I will then use the bones to make the stock. Here is the Food Saver I use and the bags. These are great coupons to print now!

I may be compensated by clicking on any of the above links.

I know you have some fabulous things you have been working on this week. Link them up below to share with others: