It's a new year!

Happy New Year!  Hope the holidays were good to you.  We had a good Christmas here.  Until Christmas night when we were having supper at a Chinese restaurant and the 12 year old had an allergic reaction to crab!  Fun times! She had cracked some crab legs and gotten that juice all over her hands.  Then she got tired on the way home and was lying in the back seat rubbing her eyes and BOOM! We already knew she was allergic to shrimp, as am I, but she had no trouble eating crab or clams or fish.  But the doctor wants her to stay away from all seafood now and maybe give it a try in a couple of months.  And yes, she is wearing One Direction pajamas. If only they'd had Donny Osmond pajamas when I was 12.

Anyway, the holidays are over and our houseguests have moved on so life is getting back to normal, which for us is one problem after another.  Currently we are having car problems and also it's been so insanely cold.  The kids are home from school today because of the weather.  At this rate they will be in school until the 4th of July!

So we are back to our old way of cooking and doing things.  I usually buy a chicken marked down or at Aldis so it's around $4. I boil the chicken at the beginning of the week and we have enough meat for 2 meals and also about 8 cups of broth.  One of our favorite easy chicken recipes is Chicken Croquettes.  I try to make these when we've got leftover mashed potatoes so we can make potato patties to go with them.

Here is the recipe!

Chicken Croquettes

2 cps leftover chicken, chopped in the food processor

1  cp seasoned bread crumbs

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cp chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp poultry seasoning

1/2 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

Saute the chopped onion and garlic in a skillet sprayed with Pam until soft.  Mix the chicken, bread crumbs, eggs, and onion mixture together in a bowl.  If it seems really dry, just add another egg. Add the seasonings and mix well.  Shape into patties.  I make mine kind of small so we get about 8 patties out of this.  Heat some oil in a large skillet and fry the patties until they are golden brown.   

I also like to press my patties into some Panko crumbs before I fry them because it gives them a nice crispy coating.  I also just use the heels of my loaves of bread to make bread crumbs if I don't have any of the other kind.  You can change up the seasoning if you'd like, or add hot sauce, or whatever.  But this is a really inexpensive dish to make and the kids love it.   Stay warm out there!