Chicken Pot Pie

I love chicken pot pie, especially during the winter.  It's a perfect week for chicken pot pie here since it snowed and all!  Another reason why I love chicken pot pie - my kids will actually eat vegetables.  This is a yummy recipe that is pretty simple.  You can doctor it up any way you'd like to your family's preferences.

Here's the original recipe given to me:
1 5oz can & 1 10 oz can of Hormel Breast of chicken - I always cook two breasts in the oven...none of that canned stuff in my house!
1 TBL butter
1 can cream of mushroom (98% fat free)
1 can cream of chicken (98% fat free)
1/2 cup milk
1 can green beans, drained
1 can carrots, drained
1 can corn, drained
1 cup frozen shredded potatoes (hash browns)
1 box Pillsbury All Ready Pie Crust
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Stir everything together in a pot and heat for 20-25 min. on med. heat.  Stir occasionally.  Spray pan (round or 11X7) with cooking spray.  Put one pie crust on the bottom.  Pour mixture onto crust.  Put remaining crust on top of mixture.  Poke with fork.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

My favorite extra ingredient:

I've added rosemary before and tried all kinds of different spices but this is the one I like the best.

Last night I tried to be fancy and lattice the top.  I found that I'm not fast enough with my lattice skills.  The dough was getting too hot on the mixture before I could get all the pieces lined up.

Enjoy!

Pork Canitas Tacos

This recipe is too yummy to not pass along.  My sweet friend (who just started a new home blog) shared this over the summer and I finally got around to making it the other night.  This is so easy to make.  All you need is a crock pot and the ingredients!  I must say that since I'm a stay-at-home mom it was torture smelling this cook all day.  As soon as the hubs came through the door we were all ready to eat.

Recipe:

1 1/2 lb pork shoulder (Boston Butt), cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces

1 teaspoon salt

2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 large onion, cut into 4 pieces

2 garlic cloves

1 avocado - sliced

Fresh cilantro

Corn tortillas

Limes

**Toss pork in bowl of slow cooker with salt, pepper, oregano and cumin.  Place onion pieces and garlic cloves on top of pork.  Cover and cook on low setting for 6 hrs or until meat is very tender and fallling apart.

Discard onion and garlic pieces.

Using fingers, shred pork.

Serve pork, wrapped in warm tortillas, top with avocado slices, cilantro and tomatillo salsa.

Use lime wedges to garnish!

*I didn't cut the meat up, I left it all one piece when I placed it in the crock pot.

After I put all the spices on the meat I thought it looked strange because there wasn't any liquid in the crock pot so I reread the instructions but that's what it says.  I kept checking throughout the day and I noticed the bowl was filling with liquid as it cooked!  The meat was so tender.  It makes great leftovers as well.  What a nice change from your regular hamburger taco meat.

All dressed and ready to cook! (I forgot to buy an onion so I used minced onion)

Delicious!

Extra delicious with corn tortillas but I forgot to take a pic as we were eating too quickly!!

Enjoy :)

Pizza Bites

Every kid loves pizza.  Here's an easy and quick dinner your kids will surely enjoy.  What's even better is I hid broccoli in these yummy pizza bites and not one of the four kids that ate them for dinner noticed!

I used reduced fat Crescent rolls.  Unrolled them and cut them into rectangles.  Smeared some pureed broccoli on first, layered mini pepperonis, sprinkled some cheddar cheese then brought all four corners together and rolled into a ball.  Once I had them all in a greased cake pan I brushed melted garlic butter on top and baked for 12-15 min at the temp on the pkg (don't remember at the moment).

I served them with a side of warmed pizza sauce and Ranch dressing.  They were pretty good and I will definitely make them again.

Enjoy!

Heart Pizza

Thursday night before I left for Colorado the kids and I made a homemade pizza.  Ella likes to put on the pepperoni.  In the spirit of Valentines Day I made it into a heart shape.  She just loved that!  It was a huge hit!!