Chicken Pot Pie

I Love pot pie, as a kid I would get really excited on the nights mom would let us have Banquet pot pies for supper. Don't judge! I come from a large family so prepackaged food was not common. As an adult I still enjoy them, but home made is the best. I am going to attempt to write down a recipe, but I don't think I have ever made it the same way twice. You see I always make this recipe from left overs. So here goes.

Pot Pie: I don't usually measure, I use what I have and keep adding vegetables until it looks like enough to feed my crowd.
Chicken/Turkey/Beef
Gravy - enough to thoroughly cover meat and veggies
Vegetables - Use what you have on hand. (canned, frozen, left over)
   carrots
   potatoes
   corn
   zucchini
   peppers
   onion
   broccoli
   cauliflower
   peas
*Combine above ingredients into pan depending on how much left over food you have, or how large a crowd you want to serve use a pie pan or a 9x13 cake pan.

Topping:
A pie crust is traditional. This is the recipe I have been successfully using for over a decade. You could use your own or even use a store bought one.
Because this is usually a leftover recipe for me, I have used:
Mashed Potatoes - just spread on top and bake
Refrigerator biscuits/croissants - roll out with a rolling pin, cover the filling and bake according to package
2 cups of Baking Mix and add enough milk to make it a thick pancake consistency, pour over filling and bake.
Stuffing - just spread on top and bake

Serve hot!

Hunger Challenge Day 1

The Hunger Challenge Day 1:

Today is all about prep work.

I prefer convenience foods, but I hate to pay extra for it. My solution is to spend time cleaning, cutting, and dividing my groceries every week after I shop. This usually only takes an hour or so, but today took about 2 hours of effort because of dealing with the chicken. By doing this my fruits and vegetables last longer, are easier to use, and quick to snack on.

Vegetable prep. Cutting lettuce with a plastic knife to
prevent wilting/browning

Celery - clean, cut into 3-4 inch pieces and store in a freezer bag. (I reuse my bag from week to week so I am wasting less.)
Green, Red, Yellow, Orange Peppers- clean, cut into strips, and freeze they can be used as is, or quickly chopped for recipes
Onions- Peel, slice into rounds the can be used as is, or quickly chopped for recipes
Carrots- I usually buy baby carrots, because my kids will eat those. I will mix carrots, celery, radishes, grapes etc. into easy to grab snack bags. (Not only is this great when in a hurry, or tired, but ready to eat healthy snacks keeps me from raiding the candy jar.)

**this week I picked up oranges, but weeks when I get pineapple, grapes, strawberries etc. I clean/cut them and store in an airtight container

Hard boil 1 dozen eggs. I slice the eggs to add protein to the salads, and to eat them for breakfast. Boiled eggs are about 30 calories less than fried eggs. I like to slice them and place on a tortilla with a little salsa, or with a piece of toast. For me the most frustrating part of hard boiled eggs is when they don't peel well. I have found using week old eggs to boil, reduces this problem. Be sure to mark your eggs so you know which ones are the hard boiled ones. Boiling them by the dozen also reduces the amount of energy you use to cook the eggs, vs. cooking them one at a time.

I am a snacker, but my husband is a meal guy not a snacker. So this week I am making him some salads that he can just grab and eat. (After looking in the fridge he excitedly exclaimed "We get to eat like kings this week!")

Roast 3 Chickens- Besides having roast chicken for lunch today. We will be using the meat throughout the week, and using the carcases to make broth for soup base. I could have cooked them throughout the week, but cooking them all at once in a counter top roaster is the most energy efficient. I also prepared a menu for the week that allows me to use precooked meat in the recipes in order to reduce prep time during the hectic week.

I used the drippings to make a gravy for tomorrow's Chicken Pot Pie dinner.

And finally, started a Sourdough Starter. I am debating making sour dough pizza on Friday or using the frozen one I purchased. If I go with the frozen, then I will use it to make Cinnamon rolls for Saturday Breakfast. Either way it needs a week to sour.

I found that instead of the time it takes to normally prep for the week. It was more like a freezer cooking day in the amount of effort and planning it took.

After prepping all day. Supper was a simple affair. I whipped up a half batch of Egg Noodles and mixed some chicken in a small pot of Chicken Stock. (I reserved some stock for the White Chicken Chili I will make later in the week.)

It tasted just like my Grandma Gertie's chicken and noodles that I loved so much as a child.

Slicing Sweet Peppers

Slicing peppers. It sounds easy right? Well it is, but there are some tricks.

For most of my life I have used a pairing knife to hollow out the top, rinse the seeds and then quarter and slice. About 2 years ago I was helping a friend cater a wedding for over 200 people and a chicken/ sweet pepper pasta was on the menu. In preparation I sliced pounds and pounds of sweet peppers. Here is what I learned.

Start by shallowly slice sheets of pepper off the sides. These cuts produce flatter pieces than the hollowing method.

Finish by cutting the bottom off. You should have a total of 5 fairly flat pieces of pepper.

These flat pieces are easier to julienne so you are less likely to hurt yourself and get more evenly sliced pieces.

Use the slices as is or turn the cutting board and cut them crosswise to produce diced peppers.