Chicken Pot Pie (CPP)

I got The Pioneer Woman's cookbook for Christmas this year. I have tried making two recipes and both were yummy. I took the chicken pot pie recipe PW has printed in her cookbook and combined it with the one posted on her blog "Tasty Kitchen" to come up with the recipe below. I'm putting changes in parenthesis. I post recipes on my blog to share with you, but I also do it for myself so I can remember how I made the recipe. Here it goes.

4 TBSP butter

1 cube chicken bouillon (dissolved in about 1/8 cup water)

1 teaspoon ground thyme (I used 3/4 teaspoon)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup flour

Dash garlic salt

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream (I used fat free half and half)

3 cups frozen mixed veggies (PW uses fresh veggies)

1/2 cup frozen cubed potatoes (I added this)

2 cups cooked chicken

Store bought pie crust

I wasn't sure how well the frozen veggies would do in the CPP. I was afraid if I cooked them in the pie from frozen they either wouldn't cook all the way or they'd thaw in the pie and create too much extra water, so I cooked and drained them separately before adding them to the CPP.

Cook butter, thyme, flour, salt, garlic on low heat until bubbly. Add broth and cream. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly till thick. Fold together sauce with chicken and vegetables. Pour into greased casserole dish. I made this a little healthier by omitting the bottom pie crust. Lay pie crust on top of chicken and veggie mixture. Vent like you would an apple pie. Bake in preheated oven @425 for 30 minutes.

Beans, beans, beans, beans

Now that winter is in full swing, the boys and I find ourselves indoors a lot! We really miss being able to step outside and play with our neighbors in the warm sunny air already. I find myself trying new indoor activities to keep us occupied. If the activity has some educational value that's always a bonus. A friend of mine made this suggestion to me (Thanks, K.). It's easy and inexpensive. You get a big, shallow plastic tub and fill it with dry beans. Set some tractors and digging tools in it and let the kids play. My friend made a great suggestion of choosing the darkest bean available so they are easy to see when it's time to clean them up. The darkest beans I found at our store were pinto beans. They looked pretty dark in the store, but when I got them home I realized they matched my carpet perfectly.This makes any scattered beans difficult to find the carpet. Oops. A simple solution? Lay out a very light colored vinyl tablecloth (or flat sheet, towel, blanket) under the plastic box to make for more contrast in color. When the boys are done playing in the bean box, I can gather up the tablecloth, dump the beans back into the box, put on the lid and stash it away for another rainy/wintry day.

Happy Birthday, Honey.

Happy Birthday, D!

Back to school

No, no. I'm not talking about back to school as in the big back to school rush that happens in late August, early September...I'm talking about returning to school after Christmas break. N returned to school today. I suspected he may not be too thrilled to get back into our routine, so I started talking to him about school Sunday night. It sounded something like this:

"You'll get to tell your teacher Happy New Year (or Happy Noon Year as N says)"

"You'll have to ask your friends what they got for Christmas."

"Maybe you'll get to sit by the M's at snack time again." The M's are his snack buddies. Two girls, same name. (You know who you are. Wink, wink.)

"Hey, you know what? If you're a good boy about putting on your shoes and coat and leaving when it's time to go to school, we'll go to McD's for lunch." His ears perked up on this one.

School morning rolls around...

Me: "So, are you ready for school? Ready to tell Ms. A and your friends Happy New Year?"

N: "No. I don't want to go to school."

Me. "Oh, why not? It'll be fun. You'll get to ride the bikes again."

N: "I don't want to go to school. They make me concentrate there and I don't want to concentrate."

Me: Speechless. My preschooler knows the word "concentrate?" Cool!