Recipe: Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole


This is a really good dish I found on Allrecipes. It's easy to make and can be modified to feed a large or a small crowd. At the bottom, I've included my tips for improving the recipe and cutting it to serve less people. (It's only my husband and I, so we have to think small.)

Ingredients
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into bite size pieces
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups cooked white rice
2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
3 slices soft white bread, cubed

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

To Cook Chicken: Season chicken with salt and pepper to taste, place in a microwave-safe dish, cover and cook in microwave for 5 to 6 minutes. Turn and cook another 2 to 3 minutes or until cooked through and no longer pink inside. Let cool.

In a 9x13 inch baking dish, combine chicken, rice and soup and mix well. Top with cheese, then with bread cubes.

4 Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly and bread is crunchy. Serves 6.

The Duchess' Tips and Variations:

Several reviews of this recipe have mentioned that 2 cans of soup are truly needed to keep the casserole moist, so if you're making the full amount you may want to consider that. I cut the recipe in half and still needed the whole can. I also added a handful of frozen, chopped broccoli for flavor and so we could eat some veggies. Also, since my microwave was occupied cooking the rice while I prepared this, I boiled the chicken instead of cooking it in the microwave. Worked out fine.


To cut this recipe:

Reduce the number of chicken breast halves to 2. I used thighs instead, which work well, but since they are smaller than breasts I used 3. Also, I only used 1 cup of cheese and 1 cup of cooked rice. This smaller casserole fit nicely in an 8-inch square pan.

Is It Really Yours?


I frequent a certain Internet message board that is populated with people like me - young, up-and-coming women who are just starting their lives with new marriages, careers, children. I read most everything that is posted on there, and I've learned a lot about their lifestyles. Almost daily, I am amazed at the luxuries on which these women spend their hard-earned cash. And I'm even more amazed when I hear about their relatively modest incomes.


An administrative assistant, whose husband doesn't work, spends $75 online for a package of fancy lotions and soap.


A woman whose husband has cancer is quickly drowning in medical bills, but she buys $25 salon-brand shampoo and eats out almost daily at $7 a pop.


Fancy cars bought with long-term loans or even worse, leased. Haute couture clothing. $300 spent every weekend on mindless entertainment. The list goes on.


So how can these gals afford these fancy things? Do they have rich husbands? Are they trust-fund babies? No. The answer I've found in most cases is credit cards. Yes, these indulgent little baubles can be had for a simple swipe of the plastic. No worries - the bill won't come till the end of the month, and the minimum will only be $100!


I'm being sarcastic, of course. My first reaction is to lecture these girls when they moan about not having enough money for a down payment on a house, and in the next breath gush about their latest find at Tiffany. But then I stop and pity them. They simply aren't educated about good financial habits. And neither is the majority of America, with the average citizen carrying an $8,000 balance on their credit cards.


Good financial habits don't involve paying with plastic at all, unless it's a debit card. Good financial habits mean scaling back until your credit card debt is paid off. It means bypassing that great sale at the mall and heading to the park for a nice walk and a picnic by the water. It means eliminating the expenses you don't care about so you can focus on amassing the buying power to purchase things that matter.


But it's hard to do this. Anyone who has a TV, or surfs the Internet, or reads magazines know that Americans are barraged with ads for frivolous goods every day, from restaurant food to "miracle" household cleaners. It's tough to block them out because their messages are persuasive, all dressed up with pretty colors and glossy paper. However, it's not impossible.


Right now, the financial goal of my husband and I is to get through these next few months while not totally depleting our bank account. My husband is a graduate student and he's not going to have a paid position this summer at the university. He's also taking classes, so he doesn't have time for a temporary job elsewhere. So we're going to live solely on my middle-range income for a while.


We've had to give up some things that we enjoyed, like a nice meal out every Saturday night. We haven't seen a movie in quite some time. We're making economical meals, like spaghetti, rather than the fancy European-style gourmet dishes that I love to cook. But it's OK, because those things matter less to us than having a financial leg to stand on. We remind ourselves what the alternatives would be (living paycheck to paycheck, being broke) and that keeps us on track. I even maintain a "success diary" detailing what we've done to save money. Going back and looking at it is a real motivator!


So in order to spend your money wisely, you have to sit down and decide what your goals are. Maybe you want to buy a house soon. Maybe you'd like to replace your car. Perhaps you want to pay off your debt, build up your savings, or just get new carpet for the house. It doesn't matter - it's YOUR goal, and don't worry if anyone else thinks it's stupid.


If you have trouble or get discouraged, hang a reminder on the fridge, like a picture of the car you want, or a house that you love. Hang them everywhere if you need to. Even put one in your wallet. Remember, it can be accomplished.

Consumer Feedback: Does It Pay?


Where would companies be without consumers? It's in their best interest to keep us buying their wares, so most manufacturers want to hear our opinions and are interested in what we have to say about their stuff. Yes, those oft-printed (but rarely used) 800 numbers on the backs of the syrup bottles and on the tomato-sauce labels are there for that express purpose, with eager operators waiting to take calls from us, the customers. Smaller companies, at the very least, have addresses to which we can send snail mail feedback. (How old-fashioned!)


Now, I've called these "consumer hotlines" occasionally when dissatisfied with a product, but I was curious as to what would happen if I called or wrote these companies with praise, or with questions. So I selected a few items that I use regularly (and like), and decided to contact their manufacturers and share my thoughts. Over the next few days, I'll be cranking up the letter-writing machine and wielding my phone, and I'll share the results of my experiment here.


The frugal advantages to such efforts are twofold. First, consumer opinions enable manufacturers to develop products that better suit their customers' needs. If Fleischmann's Yeast, for example, begins selling yeast in larger packages like I want them to, I would probably be able to buy more yeast for less money, given the fact that "family size" packages are often better values. Plus, it would keep me from making special trips to the grocery store just to buy yeast, as I often find myself doing on bread-baking days. So, larger packages would mean greater value.


Second, companies often reward customers who care enough to share their opinions. Receiving consumer feedback helps them keep their professional, expensive market research to a minimum, so they're usually glad to send coupons for discounts, or even free products.


I only started my experiment this morning, but already I've gotten favorable results. I called the toll-free number for Oil of Olay to ask them if their Complete moisturizer with sunscreen came in anything higher than SPF 15. The very polite rep on the other end said no, but she promised to pass my comments along...and then offered to send me a coupon for $2 off my next moisturizer purchase! Since I use Oil of Olay moisturizer every day, and it can get quite expensive, the coupon will be a big help to me.


So like I said, I'll post the results of my experiment as they come along, and I invite you to get feedbackin' too! You can post your results in the Message Boards.

Recipe: Cornbread


Good old-fashioned cornbread is one of the easiest and cheapest complements to your main course. What's more, it's easily customizable - you can add cheese and chili peppers for a Mexican flavor, or canned corn for a bolder flavor. This recipe is from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book.


Ingredients:
1 c all-purpose flour

1 c yellow, white or blue cornmeal

2-4 tbsp sugar (I always use just 2)

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 c milk

1/4 c cooking oil or shortening, melted


In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl beat together eggs, milk and oil or shortening. Add to flour mixture and stir just till batter is smooth (do not overbeat). Pour into a greased 9x9x2-inch pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or till golden brown. Makes 8-9 servings.


Mexican variation: Add 1 4-oz can diced green chilies and 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese to batter before baking.

Hey! Visit the new message boards!

My Goals


First things first. I guess I should begin by explaining why I'm writing this journal. I'm doing it because at this point in my life, my goal is to save money. Not for any particular item or goal, but just for my personal sense of well-being and security. I'm a newlywed, 24 years old, no kids, two cats. I make a pretty decent salary for someone my age writing for a magazine. It's enough to support myself and my husband, a full-time graduate student, with no problem. But we're not without difficulties. My husband Mark was a Ph.D research assistant at his university, but he's made changes in his study plans and therefore has lost his assistantship salary for the summer. We live in a top-floor apartment with big windows, and our cooling bill goes up to about $200 a month in the long hot Texas summers. Once Mark graduates and gets a full-time job somewhere, we'd like to purchase a house. We need new cars, new bedroom furniture, and to declaw the cats. None of this is immediate, but they're all things that we can't do without a little money in the bank.


But the main reason that I'm doing this is because I'm tired of spending. We live in a culture that is obsessed with spending money. When we watch our favorite TV shows, commercials urge us to buy overpriced fast food, nonnutritious processed snacks, or expensive toys. While reading the Sunday paper, we come upon big glossy sales ads promising that we can save tons of money if we'd only buy this newfangled appliance, or that fantastic car. No wonder the average American has an $8,000 balance on his credit card.


So I'm rebelling. I'm going to see exactly how little I can spend and still live a happy, fulfilling life. Bear in mind, this journal is not going to be about deprivation. My husband and I are hardly deprived. We have cable TV. I buy department-store makeup and the occasional new outfit. We do purchase "luxury" items that we really love, like name-brand sodas in a can and whole-bean coffee. So we're not over here miserable or anything. I'm hoping to dispel the notion that you have to spend to be happy, or have money to be happy.


With that, let me go over the basic things I, The Frugal Duchess, hope to include in my journal:


Recipes. Food bills are some of the easiest household expenses to minimize. As a rule of thumb, I'm going to try to limit it to recipes that cost $3 or less per person, unless it's just fabulous or it's a holiday.


Money-saving tips. Things I do to save money here and there.


Other sites with good stuff. Mostly sites about frugality, saving money, financial articles, et cetera.


Scam warnings. Stuff about fraudulent work-from-home schemes, bla bla bla, you know.


General bitching. Saving money isn't always a walk in the park. I reserve the right to complain.


Thanks for reading. I hope to see you back here.

Hi all! This is the first post in my official frugality journal. I work full-time, make a decent salary and am very happily married; however, I feel that my husband and I could be saving more money than we are currently putting away. Sooo, this journal will be about my trials and tribulations - as I pass by that expensive yet so perfect pair of shoes, as I try to save money at the supermarket, as I (hopefully) watch my bank account grow. Enjoy! Soon I will have messageboards, guestbooks and places for you to comment.