Super Easy Chicken Pot Pie

I love chicken pot pie, but I've never made it. Tonight that changed! I found a really really simple recipe, and it turned out delicious!

recipe:
1 lb chicken breast
1 bag of frozen veggies
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 box - double pie crust

boil chicken about a 1/2 hour, and then dice.
mix the soups and the veggies in a bowl.
place bottom 1/2 of pie crust in pie plate put chicken and veggie mix in pie plate.
cover with top 1/2 of pie crust. bake 1/2 hour.

so easy and yummy. i think i will make this one again sometime.

Huevos Rancheros

Moving to Michigan has really put a damper on my preference to order huevos rancheros at every restaurant, at all times of the day. The hard truth is, if you want it done right, you have to do it your self.

The key to good huevos rancheros is a good enchilada sauce. Making your own enchilada sauce can be tricky, you can look up the fancy recipes online and add all kinds of tomatoes, beans and spices only to have the sauce grit in your teeth due to undissolved chile powder. Forget buying the pre-made crap in a can. That shit has preservatives, sugar, chemicals, who knows what else, and it tastes like crap. If you want to make enchilada sauce like your Abuela it takes time.

I fill a large Tupperware container with crushed red chile pods and water and let them soak in the back of the fridge till I've almost forgotten about them. By this time the water is died red from the chiles and smells awesome. I strain the water out, catching all the seeds and red chiles to reuse for another batch, you don't want any of that stuff in your sauce - just the flavored water.

To make my enchilada sauce I start with a small rue of flower and butter and slowly and in red chile flavored water. This goes pretty fast the time is all in the preparation.

My version of huevos rancheros is a flower tortilla, spicy black beans, two fried eggs, and diced new mexico green chile smothered in enchilada sauce and topped with melted cheese. Some mexi rice on the side and really - I could die now.

Finished!

IMG_2637
Originally uploaded by giveitupanddance

The final product was pretty good. Not amazing, by any means, but tasty. It was a really lightly flavored, and light spicy, chicken wrap.
I didn't mix all of the salsa veggies, since Matt doesn't like tomatoes or spicy... but next time I will.
Less onion would be better.
They would be excellent on a summer evening, on the patio, with a drink.
Super easy to make, and fast, aside from the chicken cooking in the crockpot.

Tuesday's dinner on Monday.

Southwest Chicken Wraps
Originally uploaded by giveitupanddance

Tonight I started the process for tomorrow's dinner. We're going to try some new Southwest Chicken Wraps, cooked all day in the crock pot.
Hopefully they're tasty!

Here's the recipe:
2lb Chicken breast
1/2 Packet taco seasoning
1 Bottle of Corona
Juice from 1 lime
2 tbsp Lime zest
2 tbsp Serrano Chiles, crushed
Salt to taste

For Salsa:
2 cups Tomatoes, diced
1 cup Green Pepper, diced
1 cup Onion, diced
2 tsp, Serrano Chiles, crushed
salt to taste

To Serve:
8 large tortillas
1 cup Ranch dressing
1/4 packet taco seasoning

Combine beer, taco seasoning, lime juice, chiles and zest in crock pot. Add chicken and cook on low heat for 8 hours.

Combine all ingredients for salsa in bowl.

Mix ranch dressing and taco seasoning. Drain chicken. Place 4oz of chicken and 1/3 cup salsa on each tortilla. Drizzle with southwestern ranch dressing and enjoy.

Makes 8 wraps.


I used slightly less chicken, and slightly less taco seasoning, since we probably won't eat 8 wraps. We'll probably still have way too much.
I didn't have fresh chiles, so I used canned chiles. They didn't seem too spicy... We'll see!

Wednesday Stir Fry

I've been researching food photography while Lisa's doing all the work in the kitchen. While I sit here at the computer she's preparing a stir fry with a red bell pepper, bean sprouts, egg, and a local tofu that's made right here in Royal Oak Michigan. I've been craving asparagus for like a week now, so we'll do that on the side sauteed with some garlic.

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup (it was awesome)

The vegetarian tortilla soup we made last night turned out awesome. Some things that went a little different that the recipe: we went with a cup of canned fire roasted tomatoes instead of the tomatoes paste, at the last minute we decided not to add beans (it was good as was), and because the green chilies were so spicy we skipped the jalapeno.

A meal for Raven Muesli & Fried Egg

Raven had this idea.... I said I dunno about this.... I trial runned it for breakfast/brunch.

Ingredients:


1st you make the heated Muesli in the microwave 2 min. (I used soymilk instead of water or milk).

2nd you add the fried egg.

I also had a cup of Chai tea. Despite the way it may look in this photo, it was yummy. :)

Spicy Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

I've been wanting to make this soup for a while now. So hopefully I can get to the store later for these ingredients. For my recipe I'm adding corn, cheddar cheese or goat cheese, and of course green chile.

Ingredients

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray (We are gonna use Evoo or butter)
  
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 4 cups canned vegetable broth
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

• 4 6-inch-diameter corn tortillas, cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips
• 1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
• 2/3 cup canned black beans, rinsed, drained
• 2/3 cup chopped zucchini
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced seeded jalapeño chili

Preparation

Spray large nonstick saucepan with vegetable oil spray. Add onion and garlic; cover and cook over medium-low heat until almost tender, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, cumin and chili powder. Add broth and 2 tablespoons cilantro; bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until flavors blend, about 15 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to simmer before continuing.)

Add tortillas, tomatoes, beans, zucchini and jalapeñp to soup. Cover; simmer until zucchini is tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons cilantro.

Original Recipe from: Epicurious.com

Modified by: Lisa

Chicken Paprikash

As we're cooking tonight, Matt says to me: "We should follow our dreams, quit our jobs, and open a restaurant." To which I replied, "I quit my restaurant job years ago to follow my dreams."

The main ingredient here is paprika, sure there's a bunch of other tasty flavors in this one, but the main ingredient is definitely paprika. We did a double dish tonight preparing the classic chicken paprikash side by side with a vegetarian version that subbed the chicken for eggplant. We used a "baby eggplant" cut it into slices and sauteed them till they looked about half way done before adding the other veggies. Word on the street is you cant over cook eggplant, but you can under cook it (we ended up under cooking it).

Recipe Serves: 4 people + refrigerators can have some too
Prep Time: 30 Minutes

Ingredients:

Paprika
1.5 lb (24oz) of Chicken (for a vegetarian version sub Eggplant)
Black pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Onions
Carrots
Mushrooms
Sour Cream

Dumplings
4 Eggs
Flour
Baking Powder
Salt
1 Tbsp Melted Butter


Cooking it up:
Cube chicken and pan fry in a wok with oil, black pepper and a generous amount of paprika. Once seared all the way around add the onions, carrots, and mushrooms. Saute for a few until onions are limp and then add 1/2 cup water, cover and simmer.

In a mixing bowl prepare the sauce, whisk sour cream with flower and water. We set this aside for later while the main dish simmer for a little while longer.

For the dumplings start a tall pot with boiling water. In a mixing bowl whisk eggs baking powder and salt add melted butter and then add flower till mixture is the consistency somewhere between a thick pancake batter and chocolate chip cookie doe.

At this point add the sauce to the wok, cover and reduce heat to low.

back to the dumplings, drop the batter into the boiling water a spoonful at a time, dipping the spoon into the boiling water each time to aide in slipping the doe off the spoon. Act fast so all the drops cook evenly - boil till firm, remove from heat and strain off water.

Serve it up starting with a few dumplings and pouring the main dish over top with plenty of extra sauce. I hope you have your fork ready, time to dig in!

More on Eggplant:
If you've never had eggplant (aka auburgine, brinjal) I highly recommend trying some. In the photo to the left you can see that they are neat looking things with an interesting purple color.

Eggplant is native to India & Asia since prehistory.

Today there are several cultivated varieties. These perennial plants that can grow to nearly 5ft in height! As seen in the photo on the right the eggplant just hangs out dangling from the tree until they are ready for harvesting (3months).

There are so many ways to cook eggplant grilling, baking, fried, sauteed, stuffed, the list goes on. Just make sure when you purchase eggplant make sure it is heavy, firm, glossy, and dent free. If it's brown it's probably not a good idea to eat it anymore. The eggplant taste is slightly bitter and develops flavor while cooking. The thirsty vegetable absorbs lots of liquids and flavor while cooking, so you can get wild on the seasonings. Recommended ones include: allspice, basil, bay leaves, garlic, Chile powder, oregano, sage, thyme, marjoram, and parsley. In this case we tried paprika, it turned out great! Don't be afraid to get creative.