Easy Chicken Pot Pie

I know I know I know, its been FOREVER since my last post. I got a little discouraged and my... aversion to cooking, well it won out. Several months after I quit blogging SURPRISE, I got pregnant with baby number 2! A bouncing baby boy due December 22nd 2012. The first 17 weeks of my pregnancy I was so sick. And during my first trimester, if I cook it... I cant eat it. So needless to say, blogging wasn't going to happen any time soon. BUT I'm BACK and feeling much better. I figured I'll try this again, but this time I'm going to take it slow, and not post every day. (I think that's what wore me out the most, that and the lack of feedback I was getting). But I realized, I am doing this for me, not for readers, the blog is just a fun place to post recipes where I can come back to them time and time again. 
SO here goes! Since my last post I made a wonderful discovery (that I'm pretty sure I was the last to discover) Pinterest! Oh how I love Pinterest! You can follow me here, if interested (though I may not be the most interesting person to follow). This recipe was a combination of a Pinterest/ Campbells 123 cookbook discovery. 

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

1 cup  cut up cooked chicken
1 2/3 cup mixed frozen vegetables 
1 can cream of chicken condensed soup 
1 cup bisquick 
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
(for cornbread crust add 3 table spoons of corn meal) 

Heat oven to 400*F 
Mix chicken, vegetables and soup in un-greased pie plate  
Stir together remaining ingredients (in separate bowl).
Pour into pie plate, bake for 30 min or until golden brown. 


Yep that is really it, that is the recipe! It seriously takes two minutes to throw together and is so good! I made it for the first time a few weeks ago as a last minute Sunday dinner, the hubs was pleasantly surprised! I've made it twice since, once for my parents and once with a cornbread crust. What I love about this recipe is you virtually can do anything with it. 

Now here are my variations. 
       I used pre-cooked/cubed chicken that we normally use on salads (I keep a few bags in my freezer for lazy days). But when I made it at my parents house my mom had canned chicken, and honestly that was awesome too! Super easy, great for food storage and really good. Who would have thought of using canned chicken! I sure didn't! You can also honestly use any form of creamed condensed soup. I've used cream of chicken, but I've also used cream of mushroom. It honestly doesn't make a bit of a difference. And the hubs (who hates mushrooms) had not idea what he was eating, I just didnt tell him it was cream of mushroom soup. I also double the amount of chicken and veggies the recipe calls for. I like to stock the pie full! But dont double the bisquick part unless you double the time, I made that mistake and the result was a soggy uncooked middle and over done sides.
     When I made the pie a few nights ago I did a cornbread crust, it was SOOO good! For the veggies I used frozen broccoli and canned corn. Honestly it doesn't matter if the veggies are frozen or canned, it all tastes the same. So whatever you have will work. My mom also suggested using canned tuna in place of chicken, I haven't tried that because the hubs really isn't a tuna fan but if someone does try it let me know how it works! I also figured you could use left overs from a roast, that would probably be pretty good!

Let me know what you guys think and any variations you make! The pictures below are of the cornbread crust pie I made a few nights ago.

Step 1 mix ingredients

pre oven

post oven

yum!

 Hope you guys enjoy it as much as my family does!

 

Chicken/Turkey Parmesan Meatloaf

Ok so this post is REALLY old but the recipe was so good that I just had to publish it

Bren and I aren't huge meatloaf fans but when I saw this recipe I thought hey I'll give it a try. The picture made it look really good too, so that helps :)


BEST MEATLOAF EVER! Let me tell you! Bren was really sceptic when I told him it was meatloaf. He started asking questions like "it doesnt have big onions in it" or "how much garlic is in there". But being the trooper he is ate it and love it! He told me this is the BEST meatloaf he has ever had! You can imagine how happy that made me!! This recipe will DEFINITELY be making more appearances on my table! I got the recipe from a blog I came across on stumbleupon.com here is the link to the blog!

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf
original Joelen recipe

1 lb ground chicken (ground turkey can be substituted)

1 egg

1/4 breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 small onion, grated

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup pasta sauce (homemade or store bought)

1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese blend

minced parsley for garnish


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a loaf pan with cooking spray, set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the ground chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, thyme, oregano, basil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese. To not over handle the mixture otherwise it will get tough. Place the mixture in the greased loaf pan and form into a loaf. Top the meatloaf with pasta sauce.
Place filled loaf pan on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and sprinkle the top with the remaining shredded cheese. Place the meatloaf back in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted.

Remove the meatloaf from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving/slicing. Garnish with parsley if desired.


I have a new phone so the picture I took is not with me right now but here is the picture from the blog, true talk, it looks that good in real life! 

Ok so I know I have been on a month long hiatus but I'm coming back and will be starting strong! Seriously guys, words of encouragement will keep me going! 

Easy Chili Rellenos Caserole and Skillet Fiesta Chicken & Rice

Ok so I know I have been slacking for the past few days but I'm back and more encouraged :) 

I will only be doing two recipes tonight (dinner from tonight and Sunday) full menus will begin appearing on Sunday again.

Sunday's meal was the Skillet Fiesta Chicken & Rice from my Campbells 1-2-3 Dinners, yes this was the night I sliced my finger. =/ 

I love this recipe I've made it multiple times and it is easy and good!!! 

The Recipe:  Skillet Fiesta Chicken & Rice

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about one pound)
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's Tomato Soup
1 3/4 Cup water
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 cups uncooked instant rice
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (1 ounce)

1. In medium skillet over medium high heat, heat oil. Add chicken and cook 10 minutes or until browned. Set Chicken aside. Pour off fat.

2. Add soup, water and chili powder. Heat to a boil

3. Stir in rice. Place chicken on rice mixture. Sprinkle chicken with additional chili powder and cheese. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until chicken and rice are done. Stir rice mixture.

So I do make some changes to this recipe. I dont have chili powder so I use a very small amount of cayenne pepper. (or i did before the baby started eating food). Now we just sprinkle red pepper flakes on top of our plates but there is no spice for the baby. I either cook the chicken in butter or olive oil. I also use the birdseye steam in bag rice. I just throw the frozen rice into the mixture and it comes out perfect every time!! 

Tonight's dinner was the chili rellenos casserole I got this recipe from my step mom way back when Bren and I first got married. Bren and I posted it on my sister in law's recipe blog shortly after we had it for the first time :) its a good one! 

The Recipe: Easy Chili Rellenos Casserole

2 (7 ounce) cans whole green chili peppers, drained.
8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded.
8 ounces Longhorn or Cheddar cheese, shredded
2 eggs beaten
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce.

Preheat oven to 350º F (175ºC). Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Lay half the chilies evenly in the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle with half of the Jack and Cheddar cheeses, and cover with remaining chilies. In a bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, and flour, and pour over the top of the chilies.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, pour tomato sauce evenly over the top, and continue baking for another 15 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining Jack and Cheddar cheese, and serve.

This one is SUPER easy, the only changes I made were- I used diced green chilies because walmart had run out of the whole kind. I bout three cans of those (though I wish I would have bought 4). I honestly think I liked it better with the diced green chilies. I dunno why :). I also changed the all purpose flour for whole wheat. But thats about it :) 

Pictures of dinner tonight below :)  

Thanks again for checking back and sticking with me!! I have a few new recipes I am excited to try out this week! 

Until tomorrow!

MMM Chicken Bundles!!!

Heck yes guys I'm on a roll!! So far I have blogged every day since I set this blog up! Wooo keep up the encouragement it really is helping! Today I cooked one of my favorite recipes of all time! Seriously, if you love chicken and cream cheese, you HAVE to try this one!!! 

The recipe: Chicken Bundles ---- Cookin With the Crazy Lady, by Trish Jenkin (former chef at the Manti House Inn).

6 oz. cream cheese
4 tbsp butter
1/8 tsp pepper
2 cups cooked cubed chicken
2/3 chopped mushroom
1/2 cup chopped celery

2 pkgs crescent rolls
4 tbsp butter (melted)
seasoned bread crumbs
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk

Cream together cream cheese, butter and pepper. Stir in chicken, mushrooms and celery. Separate crescent rolls into triangles. Roll each one slightly with a rolling bin to make them a little larger. Put a heaping spoonful into the center of each roll and roll them into bundles. Seal any openings. Dip each roll into melted butter and then roll them in bread crumbs. Bake on a cookie sheet at 375ºF for about 20 minutes. Heat soup and milk together and serve as gravy for the bundles.

I keep this one pretty simple. I'm not a huge fan of celery and Bren isn't a huge fan of mushrooms so we leave those out. The thing I love about this recipe is you can do just about anything with it. Sometimes we mix in bacon, sometimes its just the cream cheese, butter and chicken. We've also toyed with the idea of mixing ham in with the chicken and making it a new twist on chicken cordon bleu. Tonight I cooked my chicken in butter (mmmmm butter) and Texas Roadhouse seasoning (you can buy this at any Texas Roadhouse). Really any way you cook the chicken it will be fine. I also put a sprinkle of the Texas Roadhouse seasoning and dried thyme in with the cream cheese mix. 

Over all it was awesome, it was a great revival of a recipe and a perfect time to make it! As posted in my Sunday post, this was a very common meal for Bren and I our first year of marriage. I will more than likely be making this a lot more often then I have recently. Although I will probably cut the recipe in half from here on out. 8 bundles is just more than we can eat... But they do make great leftovers... Hmmm.

Pictures of dinner posted below!

Right out of the oven

The finished product! MMM!!

As always, thanks for checking back!
Until Tomorrow!!!

Sunday Sample!!

Ok followers!! (all 4 of you!) Today is my first official day on the blog! Yesterday was more of a test run! So far so good!

Just a brief overview of how its going to work.  Every Sunday I will post my menu for the week. I will write the full recipe on Sunday. When I cook the meal, I will write the changes I make to each recipe. I will pick 4 recipes to make throughout the week. I wont decided the day's I'm going to cook them for the simple fact the sometimes you plan a meal in advance and when the day comes to cook it, it no longer sounds appealing. I have left two days for left overs, and one day for date night of course! Monday will be my shopping day. I have also decided to do Fun Fact Friday's, where I will give a random culinary fact. This will be a fun way for me to expand my knowledge in the kitchen and pass that on to everyone else! I will also be doing a Sweet Saturday, I am a primary teacher for the CTR 4 and well we all know how much kids LOVE treats, so I'm going to spoil my class a little and give me something extra to blog about! One more goal is to try at least one new recipe a week.

If anyone has any fun ideas that you think would add to my blog leave a comment, or email me at chantalmcrae@gmail.com. Same thing goes for any special requests or things you would like me to try! I am open to any and all ideas to make this blog an exciting experience for both myself and my readers!

disclaimer: 70% (probably more) of the time I have no idea what I am doing! There will be fails and flops, and I may not do things the way a culinary professional might do them. Also, healthy foods will be common, but I can't guarantee my recipes will be low in fat. There may also be mistakes in my writing, spelling, and grammar. Hey its life, and I'm not perfect! :)

Now that we got that all out of the way lets move on to the fun stuff!

My menu for the week:

Homemade Mac & Cheese:  This recipe is Bren's mom's homemade mac & cheese. I haven't tried this recipe before so this will be my new recipe for the week! I'm excited (and I hope I dont screw it up!).

3 cups elbow mac
6 tbsp butter
6 tbsp flour
3 cups milk
3 cups shredded cheese
1 tsp salt

Boil mac in salted water until tender
While mac is cooking make the sauce.
Mix all ingredients except cheese. When the sauce gets
thick, mix in two of the three cups of cheese (save the
last for the top). Bake @ 375ºF for 25-30 Min.


Chicken Bundles: This one is out of my Cookin With the Crazy Lady, cookbook by Trish Jenkin (former chef at the Manti House Inn). This is one of my favorite recipes and was a common meal our first year of marriage. Its been a while since I've made it so I figured what better recipe to start this blog with!

6 oz. cream cheese
4 tbsp butter
1/8 tsp pepper
2 cups cooked cubed chicken
2/3 chopped mushroom
1/2 cup chopped celery

2 pkgs crescent rolls
4 tbsp butter (melted)
seasoned bread crumbs
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk

Cream together cream cheese, butter and pepper. Stir in chicken, mushrooms and celery. Separate crescent rolls into triangles. Roll each one slightly with a rolling bin to make them a little larger. Put a heaping spoonful into the center of each roll and roll them into bundles. Seal any openings. Dip each roll into melted butter and then roll them in bread crumbs. Bake on a cookie sheet at 375ºF for about 20 minutes. Heat soup and milk together and serve as gravy for the bundles.


Grilled Flank Steak with Chimichurri:  This is Bren's choice, and he will be making this one (but never fear I will still blog about it). This recipe came from the Men's Health Magazine. Bren makes this one just for the simple fact that its on his BBQ (and his BBQ is his baby. Plus he's much better at BBQing then I am). This is a common appearance on our table as well.

12 oz flank, skirt, or sirloin steak
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh full leaf parsley
1 bunch scallions
3 tbsp red-wine vinegar

2 tbsp water
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried red-pepper flakes
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. To make the chimichurri sauce, mix the vinegar, water, garlic, salt, pepper flakes, and black pepper. Whisk in the oil. When everything's blended, whisk in the parsley.
2. Preheat a grill or grill pan on high. Season the steak with salt and pepper and place it on the hot grill. For medium rare, cook it 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part reads 140ºF. Trim the roots from the scallions and add the entire bunch to the grill. Just after you've flipped the steak. Cook the scallions until they're lightly charred, about 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Drizzle the steak with the chimichurri, and serve it with the grilled scallions.

Eat with a scoop of pinto beans or black beans and hot corn or tortillas. Makes 2 servings.



Skillet Fiesta Chicken & Rice: This recipe is from my Campbells 1-2-4 Dinners. I make this one often. Not only is it good, but its quick and easy.

1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbells Tomato Soup
1 1/3 cups uncooked instant rice
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (1 ounce)

1. In medium skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil. Add chicken and cook 10 minutes or until browned. Set chicken aside. Pour off fat.
2. Add soup, water and chili powder. Heat to a boil.
3. Stir in rice. Place chicken on rice mixture. Sprinkle chicken with additional chili powder and cheese. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until chicken and rice are dine. Stir rice mixture. Makes 4 servings.

Dinner tonight was simple and quick. I didn't have much to make so I had to hunt around my kitchen for something. We ended up having Birdseye Oriental Stir Fry (freezer section), with chicken.

Bren and I LOVE chicken so you will see it on this blog often!

I cubed and cooked the chicken in peanut oil in my wok. I sprinkled a little bit of onion powder, garlic powder, and salt and pepper for a little flavoring. The stir fry has its own sauce so I didn't want to take away from that.
After the chicken was cooked I threw the stir fry in and followed the directions on the package.

Over all it was pretty good, probably not my favorite meal but quick and easy (which I like). My only complaints were: there were way too many carrots in there. I like carrots, but they brought it to a whole new level. I ended up taking half the carrots out and there were still a ton left. Also the water chestnuts. Honestly, does anyone like water chestnuts? They seem like a waste of space and a sorry excuse for food.

here is a picture of the final product.

Thanks for checking back! Hope you are as excited about my new blog as I am!!

Until Tomorrow!

Day 1 Saturday- Healthy Request Chicken Mozzarella.

Check it out! My first day with this blog and I've already cooked something! Dinner tonight came from my Campbells 1-2-3 Dinner recipe book. I had noo idea what to cook and the meals in this book are pretty basic made from staples usually kept in every pantry. So naturally this was the first place I looked. My choice for dinner tonight was based solely on a meal I knew I had all the ingredients for (so I wouldn't have to go shopping thank goodness!) 

The Recipe:
 Healthy Request Chicken Mozzarella

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's Healthy Request Tomato Soup
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning or dried oregano leaves, crushed.
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (1 ounce)
4 cups hot cooked corkscrew macaroni (about 3 cups uncooked), cooked without salt.

1: Place chicken in 2-quart shallow baking dish.
2: Mix soup, Italian seasoning and garlic powder.
Spoon over chicken and bake at 400ºF. for 20 minutes
or until chicken is no longer pink
3. Sprinkle cheese over chicken. Remove chicken.
Stir sauce. Serve with macaroni

In truth I actually really liked this recipe. It was the first time I had tried it and it was pretty good. And it was SUPER easy! Which wins major points in my book! Of course I made a few of my own changes to it. Straight Campbells soup is pretty bland. So I added a full teaspoon of Italian seasoning in stead of half. I stuck to the book measurement of garlic powder (i dont like to have too much garlic it can be over-powering and tends to give you bad breath if you have too much). But looking back I probably would have added maybe a little bit more garlic powder. I also added a tiny bit of dried cilantro and parsley (dried as well). Not sure if that added to the taste because I didn't put very much, but over all it tasted pretty good. One last thing I added was a pinch of onion powder. I probably would have added a little more of that as well. I also substituted the plain mozzarella for shredded Italian blend cheese, as well as the cork screw macaroni for wheat spaghetti (not may favorite but its all we had).

Instead of waiting to add the cheese after the chicken was cooked. I added a little bit to the sauce. Though I wish I would have had some Parmesan (the kind in the green can) to mix in. I think that would have added a little more flavor to the sauce. I did sprinkle some on top after the timer beeped on the oven. I turned the oven off and kept the chicken in there to melt the cheese on top. (note: I cooked the chicken for 30 min instead of 20 because I'm paranoid to under cook my chicken and the chicken breast I used were pretty thick)

After I drained the pasta I removed the chicken from the pan (as requested in the recipe) and mixed the pasta with the sauce left over. There isn't a ton of sauce left but it was the perfect amount if you mix the noodles with it before you serve it. I then put the chicken back on top (just because it looked nice that way) I would have served it with some vegies but the only ones we had just didn't seem like they would go well with this dish.

Bren liked it and Anna LOVED it. She couldn't get enough of it. It was her first experience with spaghetti and I think it was a hit.  This is definitely a recipe I will use again. 

Pictures below! 

The finished product

MMMM!! Anna LOVED her spaghetti

Thanks for checking back! I've been thinking of some fun idea's to do with this new blog and maybe if I get enough followers I just might do a give away once my blog is a little bit more established! 

Until Tomorrow!