Missing this.

The Whole Chicken.

{A post that could be subtitled, menu planning, leftovers, tight wad, hospitality, animal feed, or homemaking.  You choose.}

Warning:  There may be blood and guts involved. Read at your own risk. 

I like to buy whole chickens.  And this post is about the why and the how of it all.  Those who read recipe blogs know that this is no new idea, but because of our South of the Border status, our situation is unique and perhaps interesting looking in from the outside. 

I buy a whole chicken or several reasons, the first being because it’s a goo bit less pesos per kilo than other cuts of chicken.  Here at the butchers, I can buy by  the whole thing, but they will cut it up any way that I like.  The just weigh it first, head, feet, guts and all.  These week the chicken weighed 2 kilos {4.5 lbs-ish} and I asked for the legs and wings to be cut off and placed separately.  The head, tail, feet and innards where already taken off, so I was left with the breast, backbone and thighs still together. 

Once I arrived home, I rinsed the body and the legs and wings.  This is not a common practice to the land north of here, but here it’s a must.  Our chicken {who was still clucking this morning} comes complete with a few feathers and smudges of dirt and blood.  Not very appetizing! 

The guts and other unwanted parts, I placed on a big pot to boil with lots of rice and a little salt.  Later I added cold tortillas {as opposed to fresh} and this fed our dog for three days.   Again, I know not common place to most of my readers, but I dare say in most of the world dogs eat chicken {and other} bones.  He is huge {a Doberman} and this does a wonderful job of filling him up.  Plus what we save on dog food for those few days more than pays for the price of the whole chicken. I also give skins and things to the cat….his usual diet are the rats and lizards he catches, so I figure a bit of chicken won’t do him any harm either.

Anywho, our chicken is now clean and the unwanted parts are taken care of.  On to the good stuff:  our menu for the week! {Just the main meals that we eat around three in the afternoon.}

Monday {the day the chicken was purchased}:  Fried chicken {legs and wings} and leftover vegetable soup from Saturday’s meal. 

Tuesday: Roasted crockpot chicken {the body} with potatoes.  Complemented with refried beans. Afterwards, I shredded what was left of the chicken to use for other recipes during the rest of the week.

Wednesday: Garbanzo soup {or that’s my name for it at least.  Details and recipe further down.}  Like most soups I tend to make, this one seemed to multiply.  We were destined to be eating it for the next five days, so….

Thursday:  We invited family over.  Knowing that the garbanzo soup would not be enough in and of itself, I made tinga for tostadas with the rest of shredded chicken.  Tostadas are great for using up the little things that are laying around in the fridge.  Cold tortillas {fried to make the actual tostada} refried beans {from Tuesday}, tomatoes, the last bit of salsa, queso fresco {leftover from the Garbanzo soup} avocados, and lettuce.  We were eight in all for lunch and out of everything, there’s only about a half cup of soup and a few beans left. 

So there you have it.  Four unique meals from one chicken.  If we hadn’t of had guests over, it would have lasted for a couple other meals {I was planning on chicken salad on croissants and enfrijoladas stuffed with chicken}    for our small family, but I don’t regret the company in the least.

{A side note on menu planning. I write a simple menu in a notebook at the end of each week [for the following week] and make my shopping list from that.  Something else I recently started though, was to write out what we actually ate as the week went passes.  I’m finding that what we actually eat varies greatly from my written out menu.  Often the same ingredients are used, but because of leftovers or a dish that someone sends over or an idea from my husband, things change.  By keeping a list of what I plan to make and what I actually make, “our” recipes are expanding.  Whenever I need an idea, I just flip through the notebook, cause changes are I already have ingredients on hand for several of the meals in there.} 

Enough with all that and on to the promised recipe…..

Garbanzo Soup.

Though that’s not actually it’s name.  I never caught the name  On Sunday we went out for dinner and a lady at our table ordered this soup and loved it.  I had a taste and thought it was pretty good myself, so I decided to try my hand at recreating it at home.  Here’s  what I did…. {sorry for the lack of precision.}

~ Soak dried garbanzo beans for a day or so. 

~Places beans with fresh water in pressure cooker.  Add diced chipotles in adobado sauce {based on the level of spiciness you would like. I add used tow large ones} along with a bit of onion, fresh garlic, and chicken bullion cubes. {If I had had chicken broth I would have just cooked everything in that.} Pressure cook still you start smelling  cooked beans. 

~Meanwhile, chop up your veggies.  I used a couple carrots, one zucchini and several potatoes with the skins still on. 

~Open up the pressure cooker.  It’s okay if the beans are still a little hard.   Taste for salt content.  Add in salt and pepper to taste, chopped veggies, and I threw in a bay leave and crushed basil for kicks and giggles.  Pressure  cook for a few more minutes until everything smells good and done. 

~Open up and add in a bit of shredded chicken.  Taste broth and adjust spices as need. 

~To serve, cut up queso fresco into to chunks and place in the bottom of your bowl.  Spoon soup into bowls and turn everything around so that your cheese gets warm and begins to melt.  Place a couple avocado slices on top. Eat with fresh tortillas.  

A couple notes: 

~If using canned garbanzos, I would skip the whole pressure cooker thing and just let everything simmer on the stove until soft.

~If serving young children, don’t cook the chipotles in with the broth, but dice them up to and place in a small serving dish.  When time to eat, each person can serve themselves to their own gusto.  For Job, I just rinsed off a few beans and veggies, though looking back I would have liked to have feed it to him as a soup. 

~ I think the smokiness of chorizo would be a nice substitute for the chicken.

~While garnishing with sliced avocado adds a nice pop of color, {and it’s the way they served it at the restaurant} I would prefer to make a simple guacamole, fold it into a warm tortilla and dip it into the broth.  

And that’s all folks!  A recipe this family will be coming back to again and again!

Thankful.

Today I’m grateful for…

~slow cooking beans.

~swayed away in the rocking chair with my babe long past bedtime.

~ a new-to-me shirt.  a sweet considerate gift from my husband. 

~seeds.  lots and lots of seeds.  and the promise they bring of fresh beds of lettuce, beefy tomatoes, and the sweet smell of lavender. 

~Matthew 15.

~chocolate milk for him. peppermint tea for me.  cinnamon rolls for all three.  a cozy breakfast with my boys. 

~a baby carrier and a long walk. 

~sore muscles.

~eggs down 8 pesos. 

~prolonged sick days.  

~hymn singing and baby bathing.

~roses wilted. 

~creamed corn and bacon wrapped chicken.  yum! 

~a knowledgeable old soul. 

~tomorrow’s trash day. 

These days are just a hummin’ by and we are trying to suck every last sweet drop of ‘em!

Roses.

 

Friendship through the generations.

A Step Outside.

Building and planting the first stage of the vegetable garden. Lima beans, green beans, lettuce, black beans, alfalfa, spinach, radish, and some flowers.  More to come.

{the man with the plan}

{a Tita creation}

The chickens.  Three of the seven chicks survived.  One died on it’s own.  One drowned in the water bucket.  The dog got ahold of the last two.  We are new to this whole chicken raising thing.  You like and you learn. 

Sunset.

 

It’s Sunday afternoon and we’re in a bus headed southeast to a town in central Mexico.  Our town. To our casita. 

I can’t help but thinking,  “We would have taken off by now.  Probably already flying over the gulf.”  I think of the second plane in five months that my babe and I have not been on thanks to a little thing called paperwork. 

Emotions are confusing, to say the least.  I’m disappointed but grateful that we’re not on that plane, but together still as a family of three.  Anytime I make planes to go, the excitement is always mixed with a bit of sadness at the thought of leaving.  Whenever I’m here in la casita with my handsome man and his look-alike son, I think of Georgia and wish to be there.  But whenever I’m there, my heart is counting the days till I’m home again.  Where is home, anyways?  They say, “Home is where your heart is” so how can my home be any one place if my heart is spread across the North American continent?

A phone ringing in the back of the bus makes me snap back to the here and now.   The rest of the bus is so quite, I can’t help but hear the man’s voice break through the silence a few rows back.

“What? Dead? Already?!  At what time?!?”  his voice breaks. 

A bit of silence then- “Okay.  I’m on my way.  I shouldn’t be there till after midnight.” 

I hear the phone click shut and the man begins to sob.  “Dad, oh, Dad!”   

With the midst of a million other thoughts I think, “How selfish I am!  I’m having a pity party for myself while the world around me is hurting and going through a whole lot more!  Thank you Lord for your goodness!”  I think of the pain the man is going through and the hours of travel ahead of him before reaching his destination.  I’m thankful it’s not me. 

“But it will be you.”  The thought comes out of nowhere.  I let it sink in.  Three sets of living grandparents. My mom, dad, stepmom. A slew of uncles, aunts and cousins. Five siblings and currently two siblings-in-law.  A husband and a child of our own.My in-laws.  And all the members that will be added to the family over the years. How many times will I be on this exact same bus route, praying the hours by, only to receive the same phone call?  “They’re already gone.”

I’m shaken and dry to think of something nicer, to somehow make everything magically better.  But I can’t.  I look at the future and see pain.  And lots of ache. Sin, death, and all the consequences they carry are all too real. We take lovely pictures and load them to instagram, write status updates about our wonderful lives, and post blogs to put it all in chronological order.  We ice brownies made out of poop to make them look nice, but the reality is the same.  It may look lovely, but it’s really poop. 

This world is going to die.  And everyone in it will pass into eternity.  That’s reality. But the story doesn’t end there.

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sin…..but God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus…” {Ephesians 2:1, 4-6}

I’m pretty sure that one day, in the near or far future, I will be racing against time to make it to Georgia or wherever before one of grandparents, parents, siblings or other family member passes away.  It will be painful and heartbreaking. I feel my stomach creeping up into my throat just thinking about it.  But it won’t be the end.  Not for those who have true live in Christ.  I may not be there to say goodbye, but in Him, there are no real goodbyes.  It’s a “I’ll see you later.”  Once we have breathed our last breath here, is when our true live will begin. 

And that, my friends,  thrills my heart. 

“…I {Jesus} came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.” {John 10:10}

And home?  I’ve never been there…yet.