Lazy Chicken Pot Pie

Today I totally forgot to take something out of the freezer to make for dinner. I did come up with pie dough and thought chicken pot pie, but I didn’t have any chicken. However we did have chicken tenders. A little google later I discovered you can chicken pot pie with chicken tenders. OMG it was fantastic. I highly recommend trying this if you find yourself on the lazy side.

 

you need about 10 chicken tenders (but I used 5), sage, oregano,sweet paprika, and olive oil for frying. Vegetables I used were carrots, onions and garlic. I had pea’s on hand but forgot totally to use them in my haste. Only thing left is chicken stock, cream/milk and flour. It cooks quickly in a cast iron skillet which makes is a one dish meal. YAY!!

Chocolate Kale Chips

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I believe I have blogged about Kale Chips before – which we all LOVE!!. However I have found a new way to eat Kale Chips that adds the benefits of antioxidants from cocoa and taste AMAZING!!

Chocolate Kale Chips

• bunch of kale chips, washed, deveined and torn into pieces
• 1 TSP of olive oil
• 1 tsp of baking cocoa
• 1/4 tsp or so of salt
• cinnamon – optional

Preheat oven to 170 or the lowest setting you oven allows. Wash and devein the kale, tear in to smaller pieces. Blot dry with towel, then put in bowl, pour olive oil over it and toss. Making sure to well coat the kale. Please kale on cooking sheet, preferably one with edges on it. The using a small strainer lightly dust cocoa powder and salt over the kale. If so desired lightly shake cinnamon . Toss kale and repeat. Then place in oven for about 10+ hours. I find this works best over night. Also when storing leave in an open bowl. Closing it up cause the kale chips to get soggy.

Yellow Rice

Yellow Rice is a staple in this house. It’s one of the preferred ways my daughter likes to eat rice. Plus it goes great with Mexican food, which we eat a fair amount of it. Generally we make black bean -zuchinni quesadilla’s in our George Foreman, then serve it with pineapple salad and yellow rice. I don’t like to purchase the pre-made mix so I went in search of Google for an answers, finding out how easy it is to make your own yellow rice, all you need is, long grain rice, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, oil and  chicken/vegetable broth.

 

• 3/4 tsp of turmeric
• 1/4 tsp of cumin
• dash of cinnamon
• 1 TSP of oil
• broth in place of water
• rice

Combine all the above, bring rice to boil, then simmer until done according to the directions on your rice package. Bon Appetit

 

 

Gingerbread Scones

Yesterday morning I actually got up early before our daughter did. Amazing – I know – she actually slept into 7:30 – which is great for Christmas morning. However the reason I got up early was to make Gingerbread Scones a first for me and prep for Christmas day brunch, which I had meant to do the day before. I found this great recipe for Gingerbread scones, which calls for almond butter, pecans, candied ginger, we all loved it except for  N. Even my SIL who can be picky loved it much to her own surprise. I will making this again. Another plus is a quick!!

Butternut Squash Sauce

Today I ran out of time for planning dinner, so we ended up pulling out some great homemade pasta out of the freezer, Parpadella from Ohio City Pasta - I really wish they shipped. I also pulled out some pumpkin ravioli from an Earth Fare vendor.  We had some left over butternut squash from last week, so I decide to make a sauce out of the left overs. A little bit of olive oil, saute the roasted squash, about 3/4 cup of cream and 1/2 cup of stock. Use an immersion blender to puree. Season with sage, onion powder, salt and pepper.

Birthday’s – Angel food cake and whip cream frosting

December is a month of birthday’s for us. The month use to begin with my mother’s birthday – now my brother and I  just have coffee and talk fondly about her. Then comes my brother’s birthday, then a friends birthday, next mine and finally my mother-in-law’s whew, I’m wiped out writing about it.

When I was growing up the traditional birthday cake in my family was angel food cake with either chocolate wipe cream frosting or chocolate icing.  My sister’s favorite was the chocolate icing, my brother’s, my mother’s and mine is the whip cream – mmm mmm.  And as I talk about this memory it brings to mind a good friend in another city we lived – who so graciously and full of heart gave me a angel food cake for my birthday about 2 weeks after giving birth. It is one of my favorite memories. But I have digressed again.

Today I made angel food cake – and it was from a box – I haven’t had the guts to make it form scratch yet – someday. Then I whipped up some chocolate whip cream frosting for my brother’s cake. Here is that recipe – maybe pictures will follow.

Chocolate Whip Cream Frosting

1/3 c. confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
1 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine confectioners’ sugar and cocoa in small bowl. Add cream and vanilla; beat until stiff.

Gingerbread Pancakes

This morning when I finally dragged myself out of bed – because frankly I was a bit tired from all our fun this weekend. Disney Princesses on Ice was Friday night, followed by Girl Scouts Candlefest last night – where we walked the whole Arboretum in the cold, however we didn’t do that without some tasty treats like hot chocolate and smores, not to mention warming up while we took a horse and carriage ride. So it was tough getting out of bed and I wanted to treat us all to some pancakes, but I was tired of pumpkin pancakes and thought about gingerbread pancakes because this is the holiday season. I have never had any before but I googled and found this recipe.

I used Trader Joe’s Multigrain pancake mix with molasses, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. I also substituted buttermilk for the milk – and we HAD to put in chocolate chips because my daughter wouldn’t eat pancakes with out chocolate chips or so she says. All three of us were in love with the pancakes.

Pumpkin Cookies

Around here we love almost anything with pumpkin in it. Hence Fall is one of our favorite seasons. So far this year, I have made crustless pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin cookies. In fact I made pumpkin cookies for the new neighbors in our neighborhood. In October we had new neighbors a block away and this weekend we got new neighbors 2 hours away. So Natalee and I baked them some pumpkin cookies, actually Natalee did most of the work. She is turning into quite a little baker. I am one proud momma. Anyways I have digressed. The recipe we have used I got when Dave and I bought our first house together back in Indiana. Our realtor back there gave me the recipe it was her favorite – she photocopied this recipe from the newspaper – circa 1975 Cincinnati Post. I have made a few changes, like substituting another oil or butter for vegetable shortening (aka Crisco) and we don’t put in the nuts or raisins since Natalee doesn’t like those in her cookies.

Pumpkin Cookies

one stick of margarine or butter
1/2 cup of oil, olive oil or sometimes I will also use butter again.
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp of vanilla
1 cup of pumpkin
2 cups of flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of cinnamon

Optional
1 cup of nuts or raisins

Penuche Frosting
2 Tbsp butter/margarine
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of water
1/2 cup of confectioners sugar

Mix butter and oil with sugars, egg and vanilla, beat mixture on high speed until light and creamy (about 4-5 minutes). In other bowl measure out flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to bowl and stir gently.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Drop dough by teaspoonful about 1 inch apart. Bake one sheet at a time for about 12-15 minutes – until light golden brown.

Penuche Frosting

Mix butter, brown sugar and water in heavy saucepan. Stir on low heat until mixed and sugar is dissolving, then bring to boiling. Boil and stir for at least 5 minutes. Cool about 15 minutes, then stir in confectioners sugar, alternating with a smidgeon of cream (not more than 1 Tbsp) until you reach spreading consistency.

Sushi!!

Saturday my dear sweet husband had date night. Sushi was on the agenda, we tried out a new restaurant in our new adopted home town, of Greensboro NC, called Fuji Sushi. Oh my goodness talk about a wonderful tasty sushi meal. Both Dave and I were very happy campers upon leaving the restaurant. Here is a photo of our lovely meal.

For dessert we went downtown to Cheesecakes by Alex, Dave choose the Key Lime cheesecake I choose the Kahlau Espresso Cheesecake. The cakes are delicious plus the coffee was the best I have had in ages. We sat outside sipped coffee, ate cheesecake and people watch. I must say for a smaller metro area Greensboro has a busy active night life.

Obama loves this cake

And yes I how would I know this. I visited the same booth at the farmer’s market that he did back in fall 2008. However I visited this booth in 2011. Yes – the woman who makes this incredible pound cake – has a label on it touting the fact that Obama loves this pound cake and in fact yes he purchased a half cake.  We taste tested this cake and we will confirm that is is OMG out of this world good. Thanks goodness I only purchased one slice because I am sure we would have eaten the whole cake in one sitting if given the opportunity.