A week of yummy recipes: Chicken Pot Pie

Continuing with the yummy recipe theme of the week here on the blog, today's recipe is so, so good and WAY easy!  My MOPS friend Jennifer shared it with us at our MOPS recipe Swap and I've made this for dinner several times over the last few months.  At first the girls weren't too sure about eating a savory type pie since they'd only been used to "sweet" pies but after several times of making it and changing they type of veggies I put in it, it's finally a hit!

I hope you'll try this a see how good it is.  Prior to trying this recipe, I always thought making pot pies had to be hard and complicated.  I was totally wrong!

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

Two large pie shells (Pillsbury ready-made from the dairy case works great!)

1 large can boneless chicken in broth, undrained (for a heartier pie, use two cans chicken, one drained, one undrained...I prefer the two can option...or leftover roast chicken or rotisserie chicken, etc.

2 or more cups frozen mixed vegetables (do not thaw) I use a mix of carrots, peas, green beans and corn
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 tsp. celery flakes or celery salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning
Grated sharp cheddar cheese (1/2 cup or more)  I usually use closer to a cup. We're big cheese lovers over here!


Directions:
Put one crust into pie plate.  Combine chicken and the rest of the ingredients and spoon into crust.  Top with second crust and crimp edge.  I usually find that the best way to make the edges all pretty is to take the top crust and tuck it under the bottom one a bit and then take my finger and crimp the edges together like you normally would the edges to a pie.  Cut slits in top to vent. Beat one egg and brush over top of crust for even browing.  Place foil strip around edge of crust to prevent burning.  Bake at 400 degrees for 45-50 minutes and remove foil about 15 minutes before end of bake time.

Alongside yesterday's recipe for Tater Tot Casserole, this is one of my favorite comfort foods. SO good! :)

A week of yummy recipes: Crustless Quiche

I promise that I haven't totally forgotten about this blog! :)  I've been meaning for weeks now to post some new recipes for some simple and yummy dinner ideas so here I am finally getting to that!

This recipe is one I got from my MOPS Recipe Swap I talked about a while back.  I believe my friend Andrea shared this one and it's a super yummy and easy recipe for breakfast or even as an alternative to a traditional dinner entree.  The recipe originally called for no meat but I added some chopped up ham and it turned out so good!

Crustless Quiche

Ingredients:

1/4 lb butter (1 stick)

1/2 c flour

6 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 lb Monterey Jack cheese (cubed)

3 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 cups cottage cheese

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Directions:

Melt butter in a small saucepan.  Add flour and cook until smooth.  In a large bowl, beat eggs.  Add milk, cheeses, baking powder, salt, sugar, and butter/flour mixture.  Stir until well blended.  Pour into well greased 9x13x2 pan and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  (I left mine in a tiny bit longer since at the 45 min marker, it was still a bit watery looking).

I'll be back this week with more recipes so if you're in need of some new recipes to add to your rotation, this week's posts are for you. :)

MOPS Recipe, Day 3...String Pie

Well, this week turned out to be all about birthdays on the blog so I didn't really have a chance until now to post any new recipes, like I had originally hoped I would. Today I thought I'd finally get back on track and share a  new one I tried out last week while I was on a roll in new recipe land!  This week I've been lazy about taking pictures (well, except for the birthday girl) and trying out new recipes too.  Seriously...our weekly staples here are tacos and spaghetti, and we've already covered those bases this week!  I'm such a boring cook and that's why I'm really excited about continuing to try out the new recipes that my girlfriends at MOPS shared a couple of weeks back.

So...speaking of spaghetti.  I know we're not the only house who loves eating spaghetti.  It's fast and easy to make and it involves pasta, something my kids are down to eat any day of the week!  If you eat as much spaghetti as we do, you'd totally agree that it gets really boring after a while and that's why I really like this new recipe my MOPS friend Christina shared.  It's a spin on spaghetti without being it's traditional spaghetti self.  Think of it as spaghetti meets casserole.  I know that sounds kinda weird but it was actually really good!

String Pie 

Ingredients:

*1 pound ground beef (you could totally use turkey instead)

*1/2 cup chopped onion

*1/4 cup chopped green pepper ( I omitted this because my kids aren't big fans of peppers)

*1 jar (15 1/2 ounces) spaghetti sauce

*8 ounces spaghetti cooked and drained ( I just used a handful, and same amount I'd usually use for making regular spaghetti.

*1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

*2 eggs, beaten

*2 teaspoons butter ( I melted mine)

*1 cup cottage cheese

*1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese ( I had to cheat and use what we had on hand...colby jack...and it still turned out yummy!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook beef, onion and green pepper in large skillet over medium-high heat until meat is browned.  Drain fat.  Stir in spaghetti sauce. Combine spaghetti, Parmesan cheese, eggs, and butter in large bowl; mix well.  

Place in bottom of 13x9 inch baking pan. Spread cottage cheese over top; cover with sauce mixture.  Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake until mixture is thoroughly heated and cheese is melted, about 20 minutes.

I served our String Pie with 

a green salad and that's it. Super easy!

Hope you enjoy this recipe and if you end up making it, be sure to let me know what you think!

P.S.  I know Christina will probably not read this but I still wanted to say thanks for passing along the recipe!

MOPS Recipe, Day 2...Chicken Enchilada Casserole

So I really have no clue if these recipe posts will be fun for anyone else but here we go with Day 2.  I made this one last night and didn't have the chance to post it because I didn't make it early in the day like I had with Wren's pork chop recipe I shared here.  In fact, I had to run to the store at the last minute to pick up a couple of things I'd forgotten the last time I'd gone shopping and when I finally made it back with all three girls in tow, let's just say, I had some hungry little people on my hands and only about 30 minutes until I usually like to have dinner on the table. And speaking of that...is there anyone else out there like me who likes to serve dinner at  a specific time every day? Call me crazy for trying to being a stickler to a dinner schedule but I have learned over the years that for my own sanity, I have to serve dinner on or around 6:00 o'clock.  By then, the girls are usually freaking out with hunger which is always strange to me since I usually give them a snack not long after they way up from nap!  Anyways. :)

I usually like to give myself at least a one hour cushion to prepare/cook dinner and coming back from the grocery store late set me back a little.  Thankfully, this recipe was super easy and required almost no time to put together.  The majority of the time it took to make this dish was the baking time and that's pretty much it. Anyhow...I'll go ahead and be quiet now and give you the info on this yummy casserole! My friend Lesley shared it with us at our MOPS recipe swap and it's a recipe she got from a friend of hers, named Robin, who happens to have a fun food blog called Food Finds With Robin!

One last thing I should mention before I get started....beware of my not so wonderful photography skills in the kitchen. Seriously, I did not realize just how hard it was to photograph food. And make it still look appealing.  I promise, it ended up tasting a lot better than it looked!  Moving along.... :)

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients:

*Corn tortillas (18 pack will work fine)

*1 large can of Las Palmas green chile enchilada sauce

*1 bag of shredded cheese (I just shredded my own and used close to 3/4 of a block)

*1.5-2.5 lbs chicken breasts (depends on how many servings you want) (I just used one whole rotisserie chicken and shredded it)

 Optional sides:  sour cream, guacamole, salsa, & tortilla chips

Directions:

*Boil and shred chicken.  (In my case, I just shredded my chicken)

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

*In a casserole dish, pour enough enchilada sauce to coat the bottom of pan.  Then, line with corn tortillas, flipping them over to make sure each side is covered.  (Side note...my SIL suggested to me it would be a good idea to put the tortillas in the microwave for just a few seconds to help soften them up a bit.  I didn't do that this time but I think I may the next time I make this).

*Top with chicken.  Then, layer with cheese.

*Begin a new layer of corn tortillas, top with enchilada sauce, flipping tortillas over and pouring on more enchilada sauce.  Ensure both sides are liberally wet.

*Layer with chicken, then again with cheese.

*Add final layer of tortillas and top with enchilada sauce.  Flip tortillas over, pour more enchilada sauce, again ensuring that both sides are wet.  

*Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.

*During last 5-10 minutes, uncover and top with lots of cheese.

And that's it!  Super simple and WAY yummy! 

 I ended up serving it with beans and salad, although you could totally do any other sides you like!  We ended up having my SIL and nephew over and everyone liked it!  The only thing I may change for next time is adding a layer of olives to the top. Yum, yum!

Thanks so much to Lesley for sharing this yummy recipe! I have several more new recipes to try from our recipe swap and even had a friend who's not in MOPS give me a recipe of hers to share on here as well!  I'm thinking that I'll be taking this thing into next week sometime.  Hope that's okay!

Busy Day Porch Chops...Day 1 of recipe fun!

It's gonna be a crazy busy week for us over here, so I decided that this week, despite the busyness, I will make time to blog!  Even if I only have a couple of minutes, I'll be posting tidbits of my day and sharing the progress being made on moving, that sort of thing!  I miss being in the blogging loop when I'm away, so I'm determined I'm gonna make it happen!

Today is the first day of three days this week that Alyssa will be having a t-ball game!  We usually only have two games a week plus a couple of practices, but they've added on some additional games to the schedule to make up for some games we missed a while back due to rain.

One thing I've been learning with this new t-ball schedule is that I have to be even better about planning ahead, especially for dinners and things like that.  We're usually out in the late afternoon and by the time we make it back, it IS dinnertime. I decided this week, it would be a great time to try out some of the new recipes I got at the recipe exchange we had at MOPS the other day.  I also thought it would be fun to share those recipes on here this week too!

So...this morning I set out to make dinner and decided to make the recipe my MOPS leader Wren shared!  I made sure to ask her if I could share her recipe on here and she was sweet enough to say yes! It was super easy and I know the family is gonna love them! Here are the details:

Busy Day Pork Chops

Ingredients:

*pork chops (I used the package of five, thicker cut, boneless pork chops)

*1 cup ketchup

*1/2 cup water

*3/4 cup brown sugar

*1/4 cup lemon juice

Instructions:

Place pork chops in large baking dish.

*I also added some salt, pepper and garlic blend seasoning to the pork chops before pouring on the sauce.

 Mix together rest of ingredients and pour over pork chops.

*I didn't have enough ketchup so I just used what I had.  I think it was close to 3/4 cup instead of the whole cup called for in the recipe. 

Bake at 250 degrees for 2 1/2 to 3 hrs ( I cooked mine for 3 hrs) and this is what mine looked like after baking...

I sampled a little bite and they were good! :)

To  complete the meal, serve with rice and veggies and that's it!  I already made my rice and veggies so now all we have to do is warm everything up when we come back home!  Super easy!!!

Well, I'm off to our game!  Thanks so much Wren, for letting me share the recipe and I'll be back tomorrow with the next recipe! This should be fun! :)