Frugal Fridays - Eat Your Veggies!

Both of my recipes for today's Frugal Fridays entry have vegetables that feature prominently, but in such a way that kids will be eager to eat them anyway. Reminder of the Frugal Fridays rules - one meal, four people, under ten dollars. Let's go!

Ingredient Prices
Chicken leg quarter - $0.25
Potatoes - $0.15
Mayonnaise - $0.22
Cheese - $1.00
Flour - $0.45
Sugar - $0.12
Shortening - $0.40
Milk - $0.14
Margarine - $0.25
Brown sugar - $0.19
Egg - $0.09
Cocoa powder - $0.36
Chocolate chips - $1.20

Ingredients of negligible cost
Salt, pepper, baking powder, vanilla, baking soda - pantry staples
Zucchini and squash - free garden produce

Total Price: $4.82


On to the Meal!

Potato Chicken Pockets are a fun food to make and eat, and they taste great. Add to that the fact that they are very inexpensive, and you've got a winner recipe!


Potato Chicken Pockets
1 chicken leg quarter
2 medium baking potatoes
1/4-1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Biscuit Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk

Place chicken in pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, cook until chicken is cooked through. When chicken has cooled, remove meat from bone and shred.

Peirce potato skins with fork. Cook in microwave according to manufacturer's instructions (or use leftover baked potatoes).

Mash potatoes coarsely. Add chicken and mayonnaise. If too dry, use a little of the chicken broth, from when you boiled the chicken, to moisten the mixture. Stir in shredded cheese, then salt and pepper to taste. If desired, you can also add stuff like Italian seasoning. Set aside.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening using pastry blender or criss-crossing 2 knives, until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Stir in milk until dough leaves side of bowl (dough will be soft and sticky).

Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead lightly 10 times. Separate into 8 sections. Roll each out into 4- to 5-inch disks. Place about 2-3 tbsp. potato mixture onto each disk of dough, then fold over the dough and seal. Place pockets onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 15 to 20 minutes.

Makes 8 pockets, 2 per person.

These are good served with ketchup or Italian dressing.


On to Dessert!

This is the time of year when everyone with a garden is looking for zucchini and squash recipes, myself included. I'm actually not growing any zucchini, but I had some in the freezer from last year, and my parents have lots of zucchini in their large garden. I found a recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cookies, and doubled the chocolate by adding chocolate chips.


Double Chocolate Zucchini Cookies
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups grated zucchini (I actually used some zucchini from my freezer, and some squash from my garden)
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.

In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Fold in the grated zucchini. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.