What's for Dinner Wednesday

I love to cook, I love to bake, I hate to clean up, I make big messes, and I have 2 girls who are ready for dinner the moment we step in the house after a long day at school/work.

Anyone else in the same boat?

I can't promise you, or myself that this will become a weekly habit- but I need a place to keep track of our weekly menu (because you can usually find the weekly menu, on a piece of paper with the grocery list, in last week's trash pickup).

So here I go, starting something that I probably won't stick to....oh well.  Start project, don't finish it.  Make messes, don't clean them up.  Are we seeing a pattern?

Monday:  Buffalo Wild Wings, since we had a gift card.  My order was not ready for pick up when I arrived so they threw in 4 extra boneless wings for Chris, score!  I joke about his boneless wings b/c I call them "fake".  I eat the real ones: bone, skin, lots of fat, lots of goodness.

Tuesday: Slow Cooker pork chops from here.  They were delicious.  I added some honey to the original mixture.  At the end of the day, I took the juices and combined with pineapple juice and a cornstarch/water mixture on the stovetop to make a thicker sauce.  Poured it over the chops, pineapples and rice.  Next time I'll add some steamed broccoli in there for more nutritional goodness.

Wednesday:  Avocado stuffed sweet potato from here. I'm not into following directions unless I'm baking, so for this recipe I usually just make an avocado pico de gallo and add some drained and rinsed black beans.  It makes a nice meat free meal, although shredded chicken would also be a great addition.

Thursday: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup.  The high is supposed to be 38* and Chris will be working late, so no need for a big dish.

Friday: Bubble pizza from here. I made this last week and it was delicious.  A few minor adjustments:  I used an oval casserole dish and only needed 1 tube of biscuits, cheese on 1/2 the dish only as I'm still dairy free for Nora and we did canadian bacon, pepperoni, mandarin oranges and pineapple.  This week we are going to use sliced sausage, pepperoni and sliced olives!  We are going up to Kansas this weekend and if we don't finish all of this dish before we go, I will take some with me for breakfast the next morning!!!

What are you having for dinner this week?  Please feel free to share your "go-to" and "no-fail" recipes, I'd love to add some more dishes to my list!

Baked Potato Soup (b/c it's feeling like fall)

I LOVE PINTEREST. 

Please let me repeat if you missed what I just said I.LOVE.PINTEREST.

I would marry it if I could, imagine the wealth of knowledge I would become!

However, the one thing I don’t care for about Pinterest is that there is no great space to put notes about the item.  I know you can add comments, but it doesn’t keep your text formats.  For most items this is not an issue.  But for recipes I would love to see a picture of my object of affection, an ingredient list and cooking instructions! Right?

If I’m just Pinterest  dumb and there is a way to do this, will you please be a friend and tell me?  So until the time comes that either a) Pinterest adds this feature, or b) you let me know about this feature I’m going to problem solve this way: (step by step instructions) Post picture on blog of dish and ingredients, post to blog, pin it.  Is this vain?  Oh well, it solves my problems so here we go.

Baked Potato Soup, found here

Don't Cry Over Spilled Pot Pie

I remember my mom making a certain dish growing up that we dubbed “the hospital casserole”. Need I explain more? It was prepared for people who were in the hospital, or had loved ones there. I think hers involved tuna and pasta, can’t quite remember as it wasn’t really prepared for me.

I have a dish now that has quickly become “the new baby casserole”. We have had quite a few friends, inside of church and out, that have become new parents or added new babies to the family recently. I find that I keep going to this one particular dish. It’s not so easy to fix, but the reward is a great one. Besides, who can resist the flaky crust, steaming hot filling and wonderful aroma of a CHICKEN POT PIE!

Well, maybe YOU can. But I most certainly cannot. I usually make a double batch so we can have some for a meal that week too.

Yesterday, as soon as Emmy went down for a nap, I put the chicken on the stovetop and ran (er, drove) to Reasor’s to get a few missing ingredients. I came back home and got to work on the pot pies. In about 30 or 40 minutes I had the filling done and was waiting to put it all in the oven. We were visiting a new baby at 530 and I wanted the dish to be fresh out of the oven when we arrived.

Fast forward to 515. I go to pull the dish out of the oven (it was baking on a baking sheet in case of excessively bubbly filling). With my right hand (b/c the other hand can’t operate a hot pad right now) I go to pull the sheet/pan out of the oven. And like a slow motion shot of Wylie Coyote falling over the canyon’s edge, I see my dish falling off of the baking sheet. My left hand had nothing on it so there was no way I was risking a huge burn on it to save the dish.

This is what happened (well, I am sparing you the picture of the dish on the floor). So I scooped it into a pan and VOILA, we now have happy dogs who are enjoying the extra love that’s going into their Pedigree.

This is the recipe I use for homemade (except the pie crust) pot pie. It tastes delicious, it makes your house smell delicious, it looks delicious….but none of this matters when you drop it onto the kitchen floor.

man","serif"'>Ingredients

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup frozen green peas (I usually just use the bag of frozen veggies: peas, carrots, lima beans, green beans)
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion (considering the thumb chopping event that took place last weekend, I opted for the frozen chopped variety this time around. They worked beautifully)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed (I never have this on hand, so I use dry ranch seasoning)
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts (someday, I will try a homemade crust)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425*

2. In a saucepan, combine chicken and veggies. Add water (I use the 1 ¾C broth here to add more flavor to the chicken and veggies)to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.

3. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions and celery in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust (My next alteration to this recipe will be to cook the bottom crust for a few minutes before adding the liquid mixture). Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape. (I would also suggest putting foil around the edges because they tend to get a little overdone @ 425*)

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.