Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Adding Fun to dinnertime!


"There is no better time of the day than we when we are all together sitting around the table eating dinner as a family and enjoying great conversation one with another"!
(kimmie)

Each month I add 2 or 3 FUN meals to break up the many soups and bean dishes we eat. By adding a little Fun to dinner, it keeps us from eating out.

Whether you call them
"Haystacks" or "Sundaes" this meal is always a hit with everyone, because each person gets to make them however they please with as little or as much of any topping available. Especially my little Ethan. He is not a tomato eater, but he knows there is no use complaining when a soup has tomatoes in it and so he eats whatever we serve for dinner and never complains.
However
, he LOVES when we make these as he gets to go along the counter and choose his toppings of choice and it's fun to see all of our plates dished up to see what each one of us likes.

I usually make these in January because whole chickens usually go on sale as well as bell peppers and tomatoes and also...
January/February means
CHINESE NEW YEAR,
(which this year is on February 14th).
I usually make this meal served up with some fortune cookies to celebrate
Chinese New Year and
break up the monotony of wintertime.
Kids LOVE having a FUN occasion to celebrate!

I usually make this at 2:00 in the afternoon
and then I put this in the Crock-pot on low until dinner time. The longer cooking really makes the chicken really tender.

I then chop all of the veggie toppings
and have them in containers so when it’s dinner time all you have to do is cook up some rice and then pull out the toppings and the kids can make their haystacks to their own liking.

Chinese Sundaes/Hawaiian Haystacks
Sauce:

¾ cup
flour

1/3 cup butter
3 cups
chicken/turkey broth

3 cups milk
1 tsp.
salt

2-3 cups
chopped chicken or turkey

(great thing to make with leftover Thanksgiving turkey)


Melt
butter and stir in flour.
Take off heat and slowly stir in milk and broth and salt.
Heat to boiling and then

Add in
chicken or turkey and boil for another 5 minutes

Serve over rice
with grated cheese (optional)
and any of the
following toppings:
Chopped celery, chopped tomatoes, chopped bell peppers, pineapple, coconut, sliced olives, Chinese noodles, sunflower seeds, cashews, OR anything else that sounds good to you.


The price of the Haystacks were

Chicken $3.23

celery-- $1.00,
3 tomatoes--$1.27
2 bell peppers--1.00

1 can of olives--.79
1 can of pineapple tidbits--.89
about .75 worth of rice
Cashews...about .50

and ½ can Chinese noodles--.50
So $9.93 fed 4 people 2 lunches and 2 dinners.
Pretty economical if I do say so myself and very healthy and tasty as well!


Happy Week of celebrations...
Chinese New Year
and Valentine's Day!

5 comments:

Tracy Smith said...

Great post! I loved your quote at the top... made me think about the nice evening we had last night. Good times! XOXO

BTW, The Chinese haystacks were super delish!

CB said...

This has been one of our family favorites for many years too!
My 2nd daughter always asks for it for birthdays and it was the "SPecial Dinner" she asked for before she left for college!!

A good one :D

Hope you are doing good. I haven't seen you out in "blogland" lately :D

Ann Marie said...

We had these last thursday.. and this is why my kids love them so much.. they get to pick what toppings they like. :)

I also add chinese chow mein noodles with my rice and chicken sauce. I could eat those plain.. I love them so much.

Thanks again for being such a good friend to me.. and so thoughtful to my family. You are quite the girl.. always so generous and nice.

Hope you have a GREAT week. XO

Connie said...

I love Hawaiian Haystacks! Yours looks so good. You're right - that it's nice you can pick and choose and not HAVE to eat something you don't really like. Hope you have a great week.

Welcome to the Garden of Egan said...

This is a yummy meal. We love it!

I noticed your pink cookies on the sidebar and wondered when you were going to be making some for the upcoming holiday....along with the Chinese New Year!?

Sure appreciate you.