Chicken Pot Pie

Hi all!

As I said in the last post, I haven't forgotten about the blog-o-sphere. I am nearing the end of this crazy semester, so hopefully more time to post in the up coming months. So I made this chicken pot pie a while ago with some left over chicken. The chicken was a whole chicken made in the crock pot. If you have never tried this...my friend you are missing out. So easy. Here is a link to an amazing and super easy recipe. My only tweak was when it was fully cooked, I took the chicken out of the crock pot and put it under the broiler to crisp up the skin. YUM! 

On a side note, don't forget to check out my etsy store, click here.

 So the ingredients-
About 2 chicken breasts
2Tbsp flour (to thicken sauce)
About 1 3/4 cup  chicken broth (I used about 1C broth and 3/4C drippings from the crock pot)
1bag frozen veggies
1/2tsp dried thyme, sea salt, and black pepper (more or less depending on your tastes. Other herbs can be used depending on what you have. Play with it.)
2 store bought pie crusts (or home made...I was too lazy)

 Put crust in pan

 Add chicken /\ and veggies \/

 Mix the flour, seasonings, and broth

 Pour into the pie. There were still some flour chunks, and they disappeared, so no worries if you can't get yours completely smooth.

 Cover and with second crust and crimp.

 Bake at around 375* until cooked through (it took around 1 1/2 - 1 3/4hrs) I do recommend covering the edges so the crust doesn't burn.

 Cut and enjoy. Be careful of the steam, very hot.

Last but not least- ENJOY! The sauce did later thicken. The first night it was soupy, but the rest of the servings were not as liquidy.

Well, that is all I have for now. Hope you enjoy!

Happy eatings!

Smashley :)

Asparagus Quinoa chicken salad

Howdy all!

It has almost been forever since I posted last, with finals and my clinical things have just be absolutely crazy. I have had to wonderful experience of a community kitchen, and have to say not the ideal place for a blog ready meal. With that said, today's meal/post is just that. I had some fresh asparagus and was going to make some quinoa, so I decided to make an epic quinoa salad. Very tasty indeed. I have been trying hard to eat healthy and not always succeeding. It is quite a battle when the unhealthy food is so much easier and so tasty. Healthy food takes more time, but more time is also more love and end results mean more and taste better.  

You need-
Asparagus
Olive oil
seasoning of your choice (I used Lawry's Mediterranean blend and garlic powder)
Quinoa- I used 2/3 cup (when uncooked) and twice the water.
1/2cube chicken stock (or beef or vegetable)
vegetables of your choice (I used carrots, radishes, and cucumber)
1 can of chicken meat (optional) well rinsed

 Start with putting the quinoa and I used a bullion cube into the pot on ~medium heat. Allow to come to a boil. Once boiling put the lid on and let simmer until the water is no more and the quinoa is translucent (aka able to see light through).

 Next, cut the ends off your asparagus and put in a pot with water. (I had to break mine in half to fit in a pot, I was limited with my pots and pans)

 Heat the asparagus until it is just softening and then remove and put in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil and your seasonings. Sautee/cook on medium heat until done to your liking.

 I also chopped up my veggies(obviously not pictured)and mixed the cooked quinoa, asparagus, canned chicken meat, and fresh veggies.

Nice and healthy. Side note- I recommend using broth when cooking quinoa but plain water will do fine. I just prefer the added flavor from the broth. I also don't always rinse my quinoa prior to use for the sole fact that I don't have anything to rinse with. I have made is rinsed and un-rinsed and don't really notice a difference between the two.

So there it is. It isn't hard to make, but the quinoa does take about 20 minutes give or take a few minutes. I hope you enjoy this recipe.

What is your favorite healthy meal to prepare?

Happy eatings,
Smashley

Cilantro Lime night

Howdy!

Happy Thursday all! The best part about this Thursday is that there is no school tomorrow in honor of Good Friday! So I was able to enjoy some cooking without having to worry about school tomorrow. I don't know about you guys, but I like to carry over a few flavors into the different aspects of my food when I cook. Tonight those flavors were cilantro and lime. I had a whole bunch of cilantro that needed to be used and a failed crock-pot meal last night (that was accidentally left out overnight so def not eating it) that left me needing good creative food. Of course pintrest did it again for me, and I found these recipes. The chicken recipe was here and the quinoa I found here. 

I made half of the recipe, and of course tweaked it at the get to. I added a little sriracha and ginger. Also like usual I have a tendency to not read all the way and didn't make the marinade quite as it was supposed to be, but it worked out. I was going to put it in the George Forman, but after realizing I did the marinade wrong, I didn't think the large cilantro would bode well on the griddle.  I baked the chicken at 400* for about 25 minutes and broiled it for another 5minutes or so.

 Marinade with extras

 Before tonight I was not the hugest fan of quinoa, but cooking it with a bullion cube made all the difference. This right here is gold. 

 So there you have it. I had a nice, unintentionally green dinner. It was wonderful and I would make all of them again.

I hope you enjoyed enough to at least try and maybe even enough to follow. I could use some new faces :)

Happy eatings,
Smashley

Crockpot chicken tacos

Happy Saturday all!

Today was another day filled with homework and cloudy weather. Nothing better than crock-pot food under these circumstances. So procrastinating on Pintrest one day I found the popular recipe for the tacos. Quite tasty I may add. They are very juicy and fairly healthy. All that the tacos needed for perfection was a little guacamole. 

Inredients:
1 packet taco seasoning
1 jar salsa (I used a 24oz jar from Aldi- spicy level medium)
~6 pieces of chicken breasts.

Combine all three ingredients in the crock-pot. My chicken was frozen when I put it in and turned out just fine.

 Cover and put on high for a couple of hours athen reduce to low.

 I topped with guac (but not my best :(, I forgot cilantro) I also made some jasmine rice and frozen peas. So tasty!

I was quite pleased with this recipe. Definitely a keeper recipe! 

How do you make your guacamole? packet, chunks, smooth?

Happy eatings,

Smashley

Quick easy pocket dinner

Good evening every body and happy Saturday,

I am on a health food working out kick (hoping if won't just be a kick but finally sinks in and stay around for well...ever lol) so I decided for dinner to make a healthier chicken meal that is quick and easy. It is a spin off of a side dish my mom and dad used to make. The only difference is that mine has chicken and theirs didn't. This is great for a quick meal tht doesn't take long to prepare and is a quick clean up.

Preheat oven to 425*

What you will need:
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts- i have one large one cut in half for two meals
2 small potatoes (and yes I know the picture has three, I decided that 3 was to many) and cut into          small cubes
1 rib of celery cut in half length wise and diced
Baby carrots cut length wise and then in half
Half of a small onion diced
Smear of butter- or oil if you want just a little so nothing sticks
Season salt and ground black pepper
2 pieces of foil

 Cut up all of your ingredients and place on a piece of foil- estimate how much you want of the ingredients in each packet- i have 1 potato, half of a rib of celerey, and 4 baby carrots per pouch.

 Fold up and place in over. 

 Cook for 35 minutes and remove. Careful there is lots of steam and steam is HOT! And enjoy!

 I hope you enjoy this quick fix meal.

What do you make in a pinch?

Happy eatings,
Smashley

BBQ, stuffed sweet potato, cheesy veggies.

Bonjour! 

Because of my crazy up-coming two weeks of school, I was trying to make some tasty, healthy, and easy meals. Today was just that. Thanks to my new obsession Pintrest...I am finding more recipes than I can shake a stick at. That is where I found my recipes for dinner. 

I made a slow cooker BBQ chicken, a stuffed and baked sweet potato, and some frozen veggies that came with a cheese sauce. The chicken fell off the bone and could be cut with a spoon, and the sweet potato was basically a sweet potato casserole in backed potato form (with marshmallows and all.)
This is the recipe for the chicken and This is the recipe for the potato.

As a side note I love ginger slices in my water. So yummy :)
What is your easy go to recipe?

Happy eatings,
Smashley

Typical away at school dinner

Howdy!

So today I made a typical go to dinner for school. I made baked barbeque chicken with steamed peas and fresh radishes. Not so typical i made some mash potatoes...which I was very disappointed in because I added way to much milk. But it was still tasty none the less.

Sorry I don't have my usual pictures step by step. I was lazy. Sorry.

So I rubbed the chicken in some season salt, garlic powder, and some ground sage. Poured on some Sweet Baby Ray's Brown Sugar Hickory. (Sweet Baby Ray's is by far the best hands down BBQ sauce. Just saying) And baked for 25 minutes in the oven. I flipped at 15minutes and slathered more BBQ sauce on it. 

To the snow peas, I added some butter and steamed in the micro in a bowl covered by plastic wrap for about a minute or so. 

The mashed potatoes I boiled peeled potatoes in water with salt, garlic powder, and dry thyme. Then mashed with some (aka too much) 1% milk and some margarine.

Radishes- salt and that's it.

Happy college student for dinner :D

Well, I am off to eat my dinner now. 
What is your go to meal? 

Happy Eatings,
Smashley.

MMM Queso

Hi everybody! 

Every time I want to write that I always here in my head "Hi Dr. Nick" from the Simpsons. I used to love that show. Key player in my childhood lol. 

So any-who queso, I love salsa con queso, queso dip, cheese dip, what every you want to call it. It is melty cheesy goodness in a jar. This time it was melty cheesy goodness over my chicken! MMMMM. My mom had bought me some cebollitas, I had half of a jar of queso, chicken, and thought why not throw some potatoes into that mix and boom dinner! So that is just what I did.

I started by making an adobo seasoning mix from this recipe. I made enough for two servings.

 Then I seasoned my chicken with juice from a lime (a very dry lime unfortunately), garlic powder, seasoned salt, paprika, and chili powder. Into the oven it went at 400.

 I seasoned the cebollitas with the adobo, oil (too much for my liking I discovered later), and a little extra salt and garlic powder. These went in for probably around 20mins, until the bulb was tender. Also unfortunately the greens got a little too crispy :(.

 The potatoes I tossed with the rest of the adobo and a little oil. Put in the oven until tender and a little crispy.

 See the ends were a little too crispy. This is supposed to be done on a grill, with much better results.

 Once I took the chicken out, I poured the cheese over it and let it sit while the potatoes finished cooking. It was delish!

So that was my impromptu dinner. I was originally going to have some soup from my grandma. But this was almost as good ;)

What is your favorite cheese meal?

Happy eatings,

Smashley

Chicken in sauce

I finally got back into the kitchen and made dinner. I made chicken and carrots in a wine sauce over white rice. On the side a salad with a dressing of onion salt and vegetable oil, and last but not least garlic bread on walmart Italian 9 grain bread baked in store with smoked provolone. MMMMM

The Chicken recipe can be found here. This website is amazing. They have hundreds of recipes if you go to the main site. It may look like the amound of garlic is crazy, but really its not that strong. It is made in the crockpot. Super easy, super cheap, and super tasty. 

Happy eatings,
Smashley

SOUP!!!

I went from from grad school last week and cooked my parents dinner. I was inspired by some Thai ingredients I had bought at a local international market and Vietnamese pho I tried in Chicago last summer. The soup was a semi-home made stock...I didn't have enough chicken to make strong enough stock so I had to add two bullion cubes to the pot of 11 cups. I sauteed some garlic, 2 fresh Thai red chilies, onion, and lemon grass  in some sesame oil (def need a little more next time). I used three chicken thighs, a couple of dashes of soy sauce and fish sauce,  and plenty of ginger in the stock. The stock was pretty tasty at this point, but made like 10 times better with the addition of a can of coconut milk. After taking the meat off the chicken and returning the soup to a biol, I added chopped shitake mushrooms and some green similar to Bok choy. The plate in the middle had lime, bean sprouts, cilantro, and Thai basil. All in all, a pretty darn good soup for no recipe and all imagination. Guten A petite.