Need To Feed A Crowd On A Small Budget?

There are many times I need to feed a crowd on a limited budget, like EVERY NIGHT of the week...(if you saw the way my children eat you would agree). So in order to fill those tummies with some scrumptious mouthwatering food I like to make a big o'l pot of arroz con pollo. Don't let the name scare you, it just means chicken and rice..and it is yummy!!

So here's what you need:

• 1 whole fryer chicken
• Optional: you can keep the neck and gizzards to boil with the chicken, this adds lots and lots of flavor
• 1 onion cut into chunks
• 5 garlic cloves whole
• 4 cups of uncooked 20 minute rice
• salt, pepper and garlic to taste

Place chicken in a pot and fill with water until it covers the chicken, add spices, onions and garlic. Cook over medium high heat for about 30 min. then bring heat down to a simmer and cook for a couple of hours or until the meat is falling off the bone.Take chicken, onions and garlic out of the pot and put it on a plate and allow it to cool for a while. Now add the rice to the chicken broth and cook according to directions. In the meantime, pull the chicken off the bone and add the meat to the cooked rice. Stir well and add more seasonings to taste, this is when I generally add a spoonful of butter, well "futter" (fake butter for our dairy free family) and mix well.

This dish pairs well with a salad and refried beans.

**Note: The left over chicken bones will make a great stock. Put the bones in a pot,add water and cover with any extra veggies that you may have along with some salt and pepper. Then bring to a boil then simmer for two hours. Remove any veggies and pour into a freezer container and freeze! 

This is naturally a gluten free recipe and also dairy free if you use a dairy substitute.

Tamales: Awesome...that's all I need to say about that!!

A few people from church have been asking for my recipe for homemade tamales...so...here it is:

Tamales are, by nature, and extremely labor intensive and time consuming meal to prepare...however, sooooooooooo worth it!!  This would be a great opportunity to cook with your children or grand-children or any children near you.  This will make a large amount so either have a large family, invite company over or get out your freezer bags.

Make sure you have a steamer or pressure cooker before you even begin.

Tamale Filling

• 1 Pork Roast (It is good if it is a little on the fatty side...you will need the juice that renders later)
• 2-3 cans of Hunts Spicy Red Pepper diced tomatoes (or plain if you would like)
• One diced white onion
• One diced green bell pepper
• 5 diced garlic cloves
• If you have any "left-over" bacon grease you can add (optional...unless you are from the south, like myself!!)
• Garlic powder, chili powder, salt, pepper (These are all "to taste") 
• (Also, for my Gluten Free Friends, aka "GFF's", use McCormic Brand spices as they are one of the only brands that is Gluten Free) 

Place all ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low until meat is falling apart (about 10 hrs.)  Then shred all of the meat with a fork and leave in juice until ready to fill tamales.  Next, gather these ingredients... 

Tamale Casing

• masa
• corn husk
• about a cup or so of water

(1) Mix the masa using the drippings from the meat first.
(2) Then add water if needed.
(3) While mixing the masa submerge the husks in water to soften them.
(4) Lay out a corn husk and spread masa on the upper half of the husk about the thickness of a quarter. (If masa doesn't spread well, i.e. "somewhat smooth but sticky", add more liquid to it)
(5)  Place a portion of the meat in the center of what you have spread on the corn husk vertically.
(6) Lay one side of the corn husk over the center and then fold back the corn husk leaving the masa partially folded...then repeat on the other side...you should have something now that resembles a unwrapped tamale laying on top of an empty corn husk.
(7) Roll the tamale up in the corn husk and then fold the bottom portion of the husk upward to seal off the bottom.
(8) Repeat numerous times (Don't you just love how specific I am being...it really just depends on the size of the roast.)

Cooking the Tamales


(1) Place the tamales open-end-up in a steamer.
(2) Allow them to steam until masa is somewhat firm and "browned" on the tips (this will mean that the portion inside the husk is cooked but still soft and moist.
           **Note: I find it better to steam these in small batches unless you have a large steamer.

Eating the Tamales


Really...at this point after you have been smelling the meat and the tamales for hours on end...I really don't need to describe how to eat them.

Yummy, Super-Easy Peanut Butter Cookies (These are gluten and dairy free...but you would never know it!!)

Here's what you need...

1 cup of peanut butter (I use chocolate peanut butter)

1 egg

1 cup of sugar

Mix ingredients together and spoon onto a baking pan then bake at 350 for about 10 min.

Enjoy!

I Will Ever Love and Trust Him

When God calls you to surrender it all to Him you never know what He has in store for you. The following week God completely shook things up in the Rogers' home. Our week started out like usual, school at 9 am lunch at noon, little ones napped while the big kids had reading time. I specifically remember something in particular that week that I had noticed before but simply fluffed it off. My youngest son Micah usually liked to sit in the floor and rock, nothing unusual for him, but that week he didn't want to stop. Nothing I did would distract him. But in the hustle and bustle of the day I tucked it away .


Well to make a long story short I began to feel concern over this and a few other things concerning Micah. After several phone calls and an hour long consultation with a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor, my fears had become a reality as she diagnosed him with high-functioning autism.

I remember asking the Lord "Why?"...I remember asking "How?" (as in how did this happen) but what I had failed to ask the Lord was "What?" What was the Lord trying to teach me.....

Then Sunday rolls around and where do I find myself.. ..at the alter, of course, pleading with the Almighty to take it away from him. I would love to tell you that as I stood up and looked over at Micah he was healed...but I would be lying.What God did, and is still doing, is so much greater.  Now, don't get me wrong, I would LOVE for Micah to not have these issues but, more than anything, I want God to be glorified.

As I left church that day I realized that God was doing a great work in my life and in the life of my family. He was putting "a thorn in our flesh", so to speak, in order that we might grow in our walk with the Savior. Oh... but that is not all:

• He showed me that he is in control of EVERYTHING!
• That His grace is sufficient
• That His power is made strong in my weakness
• and that Micah and the rest of my beautiful children truly are "fearfully and wonderfully made" crafted and molded specifically how he planned and purposed each one of them to be
• and that each smile, each giggle, each tear, each spill and each boo-boo kissed are a gift that God gives me and that each of them are a JEWEL in my crown
• And that I am truly Crowned With Joy

Well as the weeks have passed and as we have learned that Micah has allergies to gluten,casein and soy and treatment for his autism has begun we have seen the amazing power of God even more...... our doctor believes that over the next couple of years that Micah will overcome autism and simply be a "little man" that simply can't eat ANYTHING....Just kidding!  But he will have to live on a very restricted diet! Isn't our God good?

I'll leave you with this...no matter what your going through our God is greater, no matter how alone you may feel our God is a strong tower, no matter how depressed you may feel in our God there is found joy and no matter how defeated you may feel you need to know that you can "Ever Love and Trust Him"!