Fall - Money & Time Saving Reminder

What a treat it was to wake up this morning with a little chill in the air. It looks like Fall finally fell. That got me thinking about all the wonderful comfort foods that accompany the season and I needed to spend some time in the kitchen today anyway.

I have a couple of time and money saving tricks that I've used for years. The one that serves me best is cooking in bulk. Since I'm having a small surgery tomorrow and might not feel like cooking for a few days, today was the perfect time to pull out all the stops. I only spent 45 minutes in the kitchen but here's what I've done:

• The crock pot is doing its own thing with a massive quantity of stew
• The stove top cooked a pot of rice while I got chili cooking in another pot
  
• The oven whipped out a pan of brownies, 18 muffins and a pone of cornbread
• The refrigerator now holds a good supply of chicken salad for sandwiches or stuffed tomatoes or stuffed avocado halves

And, I'm out of the kitchen until later on when I'll package meal-sized portions for the freezer. I love cooking like this because mealtime becomes just a matter of heat and eat and the cost savings is huge. Here are the links for my chili recipe and the crock pot stew. The chicken salad is outstanding and really quick to put together. Here is that recipe:

Chicken Curry Salad

• Chicken - 1 can - 9.75 oz - drained
• Granny Smith Apple - 1 - washed, not peeled - diced small
• Celery - 2 stalks - chopped fine
• Mustard - 1 tsp
• Curry Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Mayonnaise - enough to moisten

That's it. Mix it all together. Makes great sandwiches or serve as salad on tomato flower, avocado half, pineapple rings or lettuce leaf.