Delicious Rotisserie Chicken on my $0 Budget

Sorry for the limited posts lately. I am having a tough time balancing work, home, being a mom, exercise and my blog.  So the blog has fallen behind. I have a huge backlog of posts on my $0 budget so they will continue to come well into February. Please stop by and see what I did with my $0 budget over the next couple of weeks.

For those of you who know me this is not something new, but for everyone else...I hate touching meat. I do not like thinking about where it comes from; I would love to believe (and I do try to convince myself this) that meat grows in those white Styrofoam containers with plastic wrap around it :). I am not a vegetarian but I can understand why people are. Unfortunately, I also hate most types of beans so that definitely eliminates vegetarianism for me.

Why am I telling you this? Well with my $0 budget month, I cleared out the majority of my freezer and ended up finding two whole chickens. Do not ask me why I bought the stupid things to start out with, when I had no clue how to cook them and absolutely no desire to touch them. I do actually know why I bought them and this will just reinforce to you how cheap I am...the grocery store was having a sale for $4 for the ugly things. I saw it as though, I could buy one boneless chicken breast for the same price and this would feed the 4 of us. So I snatched up two..because dealing with the thing wasn't enough once, I had to do it twice :)

I am honestly proud of myself and thrilled with how they turned out. So thrilled in fact, I took pictures when I made the second bird. I am by no means going to start sharing my daily recipes and photos of my cooking with you. So don't worry :) I officially am not a food photographer! My photos look horrible but this was the best chicken I have made so I had to share. I will never buy a store bought, precooked chicken again!

Source Food Network- you can see my finished photo later. It isn't this pretty.

I got a new toaster oven about 6 months ago and it came with a rotisserie feature in it. At the time I thought it would never be used...but I love it now. I have made these chickens and the best pork roasts with it. Yum.

I go this chicken recipe from the food network here.


Recipe:
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon celery salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 whole chicken


Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Rub dry mix over the entire chicken.

 Secure chicken on rotisserie spit. Cook on the rotisserie (I broiled at 450 degrees) until fully cooked (180 degrees internal temperature) for approximately 1.5 hours. 

I cannot describe how good this was!

See this is why I will not post recipes...that chicken looks pathetic :) Doesn't the Food Network photo look so much more appealing.

I am just happy to be able to use those chickens up from the freezer. Had I not have done my $0 budget month, they would have sat there and never been used. Now I know I can do it and I might try some other recipes.

Do any of you have great rotisserie recipes? I would love to hear them!

Have a great day and happy cooking,
Stephanie

$0 Budget Month Guest Post: Smart n Snazzy

Hi there!  Thanks so much, Stephanie for having me guest post during her fabulous $0 Budget Month series!  I'm Lia from Smart n Snazzy, where I focus mostly on DIY, fashion, beauty, and decor, but I also post about whatever strikes my fancy.  I'm a wife and mother of two beautiful kids, and I work full time as a Data Analyst in Denver, Colorado.

I like to say that I have expensive taste but a limited budget.  Having a family to help support doesn't really allow for us to buy what we desire, so we have to make do.  I like to invest in classic pieces, and skimp on the trends.  A lot of the time, I'll make pieces inspired by high-end designer items for only a fraction of the cost.  And sometimes, I make things using what I've got on hand!  Here are a few examples.


When I laid eyes on the beautiful Kate Spade City Lights Bracelet, I knew I had to have it.  But its price tag is not anything I'd be willing to spend.  So I made it instead.  Here's my version, and here's the original post:

Inspired by this gorgeous Dannijo Studded Stingray Cuff Bracelet, I created one in a similar fashion to that of the City Lights bracelet.  Click here for the original post:

Finally, and yes I know I was on a TOTAL bracelet kick, I saw the whimsical Anthropologie Earbuds Bracelet and was completely enamored with it!  So I rounded up the supplies and made my own.  Here's the original post:

I hope you love and have been inspired to recreate some of your favorite pieces using some unconventional materials!  I always try to think outside the box and am so proud when I do!

A huge thank you once again to Stephanie for having me on Full of Great Ideas!  Please stop by Smart n Snazzy and say hi!

$0 Budget Month Guest Post: I Think I Can Squared

Just call me cheap. Or the lady that ends with WAY too much stuff from buying sprees at Hobby Lobby.

 Ok, cheap is easier.

I love crafts that don't cost a fortune. Blame it on my days as a daycare teacher where I had to pay out of pocket to keep the kiddies entertained :) I also go for cheap fixes for decorating because I'll admit, I hate doing it.

Here's some of my faves(ok, my faves that I actually blogged about)
 Reused candle holder  

Door wreath

Redoing a picture frame

April is a stay at home mom of 3 kids, ages 14, 12, and 5 and a zookeeper to an assortment of pets. She enjoy saving money, reading, sleeping, and doing way too many crafts. In her spare time, she blogs at I Think I Can, I Think I Can.

$0 Budget Month Guest Post: NMCreatrix

I am an artist and recycler, and I have taken a pledge (from Full of Great Ideas) to not make any non-essential purchases during the month of January. I will be retiring in February and think that going a month without any non-essential purchases will be a way to get ready for it. I have been gearing down for this for all of 2011, but the holiday season got me a little off track.

Part of the process is deciding which things are essential and which are non-essential. I am sure that it will be an on-going issue. Since creating art is an essential for me, I plan to use what art materials I have on hand and not purchase anything. That also helps reduce my stash!

Some of my ideas include making postcards, ATC {artist trading card) Buisness Cards and product hang tags for my wares. I use recycled cardboard boxes, paint and embellish them, and then cut to the size I need. I apply tags that I downloaded  that I have customized with my company information. This gives the recipient both a small work of art and my business information. See my prior posts  here and here for July.

These are postcards for a mail art swap that I was involved in for October. These use recycled materials and supplies that I already had on hand. Only cost was the postage.

Shari Adkisson
http://nmcreatrix.blogspot.com/

www.etsy.com/shop/nmcreatrix

$0 Budget Month Guest Post: Never Home SAHM

I would like to welcome Mikita from Never Home SAHM to Full of Great Ideas.  Here is Makita's great frugal idea for organizing those dreaded headbands..perfect for all you who have daughters!

Here is what Mikita had to say:
"I was recently having a chat with another Mom of girls and she said, there is really no good way to organize headbands.  I agreed, as I remembered how my daughter's headbands have taken over the dresser and floor and bathroom!

I also took this conversation as a personal challenge to find a way to organize them.  Luckily, I have fallen in love with a little site called Pintrest.  If you don't know about it, send me your email and I will invite you to join. *Warning* the site is addicting, seriously, you will be hooked!  You've been warned!

Anyway, so I can't take credit for the idea itself, but I can take credit for my version of how I did it.  You need rings that are hooked together, any rings.  I used a silver looped belt that was in my daughter's closet.  You could use shower curtain rings, linky baby toys that most people use to hang toys on a car seat.  Just hook them together and hang them on a wall, I used push pins and put one of the loops on the pin.

My loop organizer holds headbands and scarfs by threading them through the loops! So easy.  I also tied a ribbon on one of the loops and clipped on bows and barrets!

Publish Post

So easy and free way to organize them!"

$0 Budget Month Guest Post: Chic Done Cheap

Hi! I'm Maizie from Chic Done Cheap. Chic Done Cheap is all about living the luxe life for less: whether you're barely getting by or just looking to save more money. My blog is a mix of DIYs, saving money ideas, interior design and fashion. Visit Chic Done Cheap, here. For chic tips on the go, follow me on Twitter: @chicdonecheap.

Here are some chic projects to get your 2012 started off right.

Never too cool for school-DIY covered pencils

Coffee Break Craft- Floppy Disc Coasters

Crayola coral

-Chic Done Cheap

$0 Budget Month Guest Post: House Wife in Town

Hello Everyone,


I contact Laura at House Wife in Town and asked if she would be willing to share her 31 Days to Happier Children series with you. I love this series and it fits so well with this month, not because it doesn't costs anything, but because we have so much more time to grow as a family this month. As you might (or might not) remember from my last 1 month $0 challenge, the best thing we got out of it was not saving money, it was the time we spent together. Please be sure to stop by and see what Laura had to say in her 31 Days to Happier Children.

Happiness is a choice. "We choose to count our blessings. We choose to head outside and look for contentment and joy in nature. We choose to eat food that encourage optimism. We choose joy." taken from this post back in October introducing my 31 Days to Happier Children series.

So much of our daily life is about the habits we have -- how we spend our time, what we choose to eat and drink, when we sleep. Have you noticed that some habits lead to happiness and others don't? It's a pretty simple formula -- get happy by making happy habits. And teaching your children to do the same! Add in gratefulness for what you have, quick forgiveness when others wrong you, empathy, and understanding how your personality and love language affects your relationships, and you'll have to fight to be UNhappy.

When I set out to write about happy kids every day for 31 days in October, I didn't know I'd get over  44,000 pageviews and pins all over Pinterest. Many people are obviously looking for answers for themselves and for their children. We want to spend more time with our kids, but really -- we want our time spent to be effective. We want our words to really impact our children for good. We want our parenting to be dynamic, with positive outcomes. I want all that too. And writing all thirty-one days, on topics from eating your vegetables to traveling together to focusing on marriage, helped ME put things in perspective and see what our family needed more of to be highly functioning. 

Writing this series HAS helped my family become happier. And now I've got it as a resource to come back to. I can ask the questions: How are we doing lately? Am I making it a point to put on my oxygen mask as a mom? Are we still focusing on emotional intelligence in our interactions with each other and with our friends? Did we laugh together today?

Happiness is worth so much more than money. You can't put a dollar amount on it. Especially when you see the research behind it. Check this out:

"Optimism is so closely related to happiness that the two can practically be equated. And guess what: optimism is a teachable skill. Hope, faith and optimism are all positive emotions about the future, and so are essential parts of a happy childhood. That is enough for me, but if a happy childhood isn't your first priority for your kids, think about these other benefits reaped by optimistic children. Compared to pessimistic people, optimists are:

• More successful in school, at work, and in athletics
• They are healthier and they live longer
• They are more satisfied with their marriages
• They are less likely to suffer from depression
• They are less anxious..."

quoted from an article entitled "The Benefits of Optimism" by Christine Carter, Ph.D. at the Greater Good Institute

Don't be alarmed -- my kids aren't happy all the time. If only! But I really believe that the habits we are forming have made a difference in our level of happiness. So I can say that our family continues to learn happiness, from living intentionally and continually making positive lifestyle choices. It's not a quick fix, it's a way of life. And we'll be reaping the rewards for a long time.

To read all 31 posts in my series, click here. And let me know what you think.