Comfort Food Dinner - Chicken Pot Pie

To me, there are several different meanings to the word "comfort food." Sometimes it can be the late-night pizza runs after you've had a few beers and all you're looking for is greasy goodness. Other times it can be reminiscent of childhood memories and may only be a "comfort" food to you. But then there are those foods that really stick to your ribs and leave you feeling full and satisfied...THIS was one of those kinds of comfort foods. 

I actually made this pot pie a couple weeks ago, before we started our post-vacation diet cleanse (ok, not really a cleanse but more like trying NOT to go out to eat every meal) and it was so good as a weeknight dinner but also a couple servings of lunch too!

I started with a few stalks of celery and a small onion, diced. 

I heated some oil in a large pan and simmered the chopped veggies with salt and peppers until they were soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. 

I removed the veggies from the pan and added two chicken breasts which were diced, and then seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little oregano. I cooked those until they were cooked through, about 7 minutes. 

I then removed the chicken from the pan and started working on my roux. To make the roux, I melted about 2 tablespoons of butter into the same pan I had just cooked the chicken. Once melted, I then added a couple heaping tablespoons of flour and about a cup of chicken broth. 

I brought the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, then turned it to low so it could thicken up. (and please ignore the flour chunks...the roux just wasn't hot enough for the flour to be incorporated with the liquid quite yet!!)

As the roux was firming up, I got out my frozen veggie mix and measured out about 2 cups to use in the pie. I also made my biscuit topping, which was just the standard Bisquick recipe on the box!

Ready to assemble! I first mixed the cooked veggies, chicken, and frozen veggies in a large, separate bowl to make sure they were evenly combined.

Once the mixture was completely combined, I poured it into a greased baking dish, along with my finished roux.

(^^I took a pic without the roux/gravy because it was much prettier!^^)

I cut the biscuits into large rounds and placed them over the top of the mixture. I also used the leftover corner pieces to fill the gaps so there wasn't any inner mixture exposed!

I cooked the pot pie at 325 for 30 minutes, and then cranked the heat to 375 and cooked it for another 20 minutes. Depending on your oven or the thickness of your biscuit, you may need more or less time...I just slightly pulled apart the inner-most biscuits and once the bottom wasn't gooey I knew I was set! You could also cover the top with foil if your biscuits get too brown too fast but still need to be cooked through. 

Even though it took a little bit longer to assemble and cook than my normal weeknight meals, it was sooooo satisfying! Plus since I didn't use any "cream of" soups, I felt a little more healthy...ish. :)

Happy Thursday!

Comfort Food Dinner - Chili Corn Bread Casserole

"Oh the weather outside is frightful..."

That seemed to be the theme last night here in Mobile, when everyone was hunkered down and preparing for one of the worst storms of 2016. Somehow it completely missed us and ended up pummeling Gulf Shores instead, but I still thought it would be a good night to make some comfort food while I cuddled on the couch with my fur babies watching the weather channel all night! 

This meal is actually another throw back to my childhood (I know, I know, I need to stop taking credit for my momma's meals!), but I can vividly remember eating this meal on chilly fall nights, and it brought back a comforting nostalgia last night as the crazy winds swirled around our house. (Also after making this last night, I think this might become a new tailgating favorite, and I have all kinds of ideas about baking it in a muffin tin so it's bite sized... but as always I digress...)

The ingredient list is actually fairly simple but could easily be boosted up to include more veggies if you'd like. Nearly everything came from my "pantry staples" list, which I'll have to share sometime, but you wouldn't believe just how yummy these simple flavors are when combined!

I started by rough chopping the onion and sauteing it in some hot oil until translucent, about 3 minutes. 

I then added the ground beef and cooked it until it was fully browned, another 5 minutes or so. 

While the meat was cooking, I started whipping up the cornbread batter. OH! And speaking of cornbread!!

I have realized this is another area that my upbringing severely impacted my view of food...growing up, anytime my mom made cornbread, she would always add a can of corn to the batter and would sometimes even add chiles or cheese depending on what type of meal we were eating. This obviously makes for SUPER moist cornbread, almost cake-like, so when I moved to the south and they served me dry, no-corn cornbread I wasn't sure what to think!! Turns out, this is a hotly debated topic that I am often forced to lose due to my husband's opinion and my geographic location, but since I grew up eating moist cornbread and this was MY comfort food recipe, I decided to include the can of corn :)

As I was saying though...the box recommends allowing the batter to sit for at least 5 minutes before baking so once it was mixed I went back to my chili mixture.

Once the meat was fully browned, I added the tomatoes, tomato paste, and chili powder, then added salt and pepper to taste. This is the step where you could also add beans or any other type of veggie if you wanted, but I decided to stick with simple.

After letting the mixture simmer for a minute or two, I poured the chili into the bottom of a greased 9x9 square baking pan and then added the cornbread.

Can you tell I was excited by the fact that I took a foodie close-up before it even went into the oven?! :)

To make sure the bread was fully baked, I nearly had to double the cooking time. I also added some shredded cheddar cheese midway through as an afterthought but it would be just fine without it as well. Once it came out of the oven and I let it cool for a couple minutes, I dug in!!

I prefer to garnish this casserole with a little sour cream once it cools, and had I had any chives on hand that would've been included too. I remember my dad adding hot sauce when I used to eat this as a kid, so truly this is one of those recipes that can be changed up however you'd like (even no corn in the cornbread!)

I am happy to report that by resorting to this childhood comfort food, I weathered the "storm" and have a tasty leftover lunch to get me through my hump-day :)

Chili Corn Bread Casserole

Ingredients:

- 1 box cornbread mix

- 1 egg, for the cornbread mix

- 1/3 cup milk, for the cornbread mix

- 1 can corn

- 1 small onion

- 1 lb. ground beef

- 1 can diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted for extra flavor)

- 1 can tomato paste

- 1 Tbs chili powder

- 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Instructions:

1. Roughly chop the onion and add it to a pan of hot oil. Lightly salt and pepper. Cook until translucent, about 3 minutes.

2. Add the ground beef to the onions and cook until browned, about 5 minutes.

3. To make the cornbread batter, follow the recipe on the back of the box (aka combine the mix, egg, milk, and can of corn) and let it sit for about 5 minutes

4. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, and chili powder to the ground beef. Salt and pepper to taste and let it simmer for about 2 minutes.

5. Pour the chili mixture into a greased 9x9 inch baking pan.

6. Pour the cornbread mixture on top of the chili

7. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, then add cheese, lower the temperature to 350 degrees, and continue baking for another 15 - 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

8. Let it cool for about 5 minutes, then serve as desired!

Cheese Poppers - Food Experiment Gone Amazing!

Ok guys...I'm patting myself on the back for this one. Do you ever have one of those recipes where literally all you do is throw together ingredients that are on the verge of going bad, and instead of it being a dreadful concoction it turns into one of your new favorite recipes? Well...this has just happened to me. So much that I'm pretty sure these will be on my list of Super Bowl snacks this weekend. So. Much. Yum.

Let me start by saying that I am slightly a food hoarder. By that I mean I LOVE when my fridge is full, particularly of fresh ingredients, so that I can let my inspiration go wild on what to make for dinner. However, that also leads to many last-minute scrambles where I try and use everything up before it goes bad, which is exactly the mess I was in when I made what I'm calling cheese poppers. 

It started out with a few cheeses we'd bought a couple weeks ago for a wine and cheese night...cheddar, Camembert, and goat cheese. Although I loved each of these little cheeses dearly when we bought them, there are only so many wine and cheese nights for two you can have before you are ready for a change. So, I decided that I would somehow combine them with some canned biscuit dough (also about to go bad!) and see what I could come up with. I had very low expectations for myself but was soon to be pleasantly surprised!

I decided to keep each of the cheeses separate since they had such strong flavors and would simply add some complimentary flavors to add volume. To the cheddar I added a little grated parmesan, to the Camembert I added strawberry jelly, and to the goat cheese I added roasted pineapple and habanero sauce.

WHICH...let me digress...was a Christmas gift from one of my co-workers, and has become my newest condiment addiction. The texture is almost like a salsa, but the flavor is out of this world...the pineapple gives it sweetness with a spicy kick from the habanero. I promise it will be featured in many a future recipe!

But back to my cheeses...to each mixture I also added a couple tablespoons of flour so it would bind a little better. I zapped the cheddar and Camembert in the microwave for about 30 seconds so they would soften, and stirred the mixtures together until they were all fully combined. At this point in my recipe I was still a bit unsure of how good these would be but kept going....

Once I had halved each biscuit onto a sheet of waxed paper, I spooned a heaping tablespoon of the cheese mixture onto each one, and then proceeded to simply pick them up and put them in a greased muffin tin. 

I put them in a 375 degree oven for 12 minutes and they came out looking golden and gooey...I was starting to get excited about this recipe since they smelled so good...they just had to taste good too!

And they did not disappoint!! My favorite was the goat cheese popper because when cooked it almost reminded me of cheesecake but with a little bit of a habanero kick! Andrew liked the cheddar one the best and suggested maybe adding some roasted garlic next time (GREAT idea, hubby!). Next time I'd probably also use a crescent roll or maybe puff pastry since the biscuit was a teeny bit heavy, but when you're looking for a great and easy recipe for a crowd, this fits the bill!

Until next time cheese poppers...

Wine Wednesday

So the title of this post is a bit deceiving since I have not in fact had a glass of wine tonight, but rather I wanted to post about an amazing dinner we made a couple nights ago in honor of our normal Wednesday night tradition. Because of Andrew's job schedule, Wednesday has always been the first night he isn't working late, so between that and the fact that it's usually worth a celebration to make it though the first half of a work week, we typically will go to Red or White, which is one of our favorite Mobile restaurants (that's conveniently about a quarter mile from our house!) Unfortunately though, a new year means a new schedule for my hubby, so we've decided to try out wine night on Monday...and this week was a success! We didn't do Red or White since they're actually closed for dinner on Mondays, but we didn't miss out on any of the amazing flavors we normally have!

We started the night with a cheese board and a glass of Apothic Red, which is a semi-dry table wine and one of my favorites! The board we made had a spicy capocollo meat, apricot fruit paste, roasted nuts, goat cheese, cheddar, and camembert. Andrew also toasted a french bread loaf in a little olive oil which is the perfect compliment to any cheese!

To make the roasted nuts, we heated 2 tablespoons of honey over low heat until it had thinned out, and then we added 1/2 cup each pecans and walnuts, and cooked for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Once done we laid them out on a sheet of wax paper to cool.

(Credit the snazzy slate cheese board to my hubby who despite tsk-ing at my shopping habits has extremely good taste in design and decor!)

As we munched on our tasty cheese board, we assembled our pizzas. Now, in true Red or White fashion, we didn't want to make a "normal" pizza that we could order just anywhere, so we made what I called a "rustic farmhouse" pizza featuring a pesto base and topped with roasted chicken, fresh corn, red peppers, roasted garlic, and parmesan cheese. We used pre-made flat breads which made the process much easier and faster too!

Once all three pizzas were perfectly topped, we put them in a 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes, until the crust had turned golden and the cheese had melted.

Based on how delicious and fun this meal was to make, I have a feeling that Mondays may just have to be our new date night. And to that, I'll raise my glass....and maybe go pour myself one :)

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Dinner - Beef & Broccoli

Happy 2016! Can you believe it?! I was just looking at my posts from this past year (which I admit became a bit pitiful there for awhile) and couldn't agree more with my 2015 self that the past 365 days have absolutely flown by. And while I could take this time to reflect on the fun times I had last year and the vows I've made to make this year even better, I thought it would be more fun to talk about my dinner tonight :) Now before I go too much further, I know everyone is on the health craze so this post would probably be more appreciated in another month when reality (and junk food cravings!) come back to haunt us all, but nonetheless this is a great substitute for one of my favorite Chinese carry out dishes...beef and broccoli!

I started out with a couple pounds of beef (you can cheat like me and buy pre-sliced stir-fry meat or just buy a piece of steak/chicken and cut it into thin strips), a small onion, and about three medium heads of broccoli. I diced up the onion and rinsed and trimmed the broccoli into bite sized pieces.

In a large skillet, I heated up sesame oil and vegetable oil over medium-high heat, then added the meat to brown. I added some salt and pepper and then cooked the meat for about 3 minutes and then removed it from the hot oil and into a small bowl.

To the hot pan, I then added the onion with some salt and pepper and cooked it over medium heat until the onions turned translucent and started to pick up the brown bits from the pan.

As the onions cooked, I made my sauce for the stir-fry. To make the sauce, you need rice vinegar, soy sauce, beef broth, water, brown sugar, ginger, and corn starch. (I used fresh ginger which I minced, but powdered ginger works just as well!)

Just before adding the sauce, I added the broccoli to the pan and cooked it for a minute until it turned bright green. I then poured the sauce into the pan until the liquid was simmering. 

I continued to let the liquid simmer for about 5 minutes, then added the beef back to the pan and continued to cook for another 2-3 minutes, until the beef was warmed through.

Once it cooled a bit, the sauce became thicker and made a great topping for some white rice. I added some sesame seeds for garnish and patted myself on the back for another Chinese cheat dish success :) 

 Beef and Broccoli

Ingredients:

1 Tbs sesame oil

1 Tbs vegetable oil

~2 lbs beef or chicken

1 small onion

3 medium heads of broccoli

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce (low sodium)

1/2 cup beef broth

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup brown sugar

~1 tsp minced ginger (or 1/2 tsp powdered ginger)

1 Tbs cornstarch

Pinch of salt and pepper

Steps:

1. Cut the meat into thin strips, about 1/2 inch thick. Finely dice the onion, and cut the broccoli head into bite sized pieces.

2. Heat sesame oil and vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the meat to the hot oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper.

3. Brown the meat for 3-5 minutes until cooked through. Remove the meat from the oil and set aside in a small bowl.

4. Add the onions to the hot oil and reduce the heat to medium. Add another pinch of salt and pepper. Continue cooking until the onions are slightly translucent, about 5 minutes.

5. Add the broccoli to the onions and cook until the broccoli has turned bright green, about 2 minutes. 

6. To make the sauce, combine the rice vinegar, soy sauce, beef broth, water, brown sugar, ginger, and corn starch. 

7. Add the sauce to the pan with the onions and broccoli and simmer on low until the sauce begins to thicken, about 5-7 minutes.

8. Add the meat back to the simmering liquid and cook an additional 2-3 minutes to warm the meat through.

9. Serve with white rice and garnished with sesame seeds. 

Dinner - Chicken and Mushroom Orzo

After our weekend getaway, which you can read about here, I was happy to have leftovers for lunch today from a dinner I actually made last week. (To me, the best kinds of dinners are the ones that you can eat for a week after you make it!) It was a pretty simple recipe that started as creamy Italian orzo, but by my own fault...aka not cleaning out the fridge often enough...I had to forgo the "creamy" and instead make it "brothy." Read on to see my recipe!

I started with two chicken breasts, a quarter of an onion, mushrooms, orzo pasta, fettuccine sauce, pesto, and lemon juice. 

However....I did not realize that the fettuccine had passed its limit on tastiness until I was about halfway through cooking...so instead I substituted chicken broth and parmesan cheese.

I first diced the onion into small pieces and added them to a pan with one tablespoon butter and one tablespoon olive oil. I added a pinch of salt and pepper to taste and then cooked it over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the onions started becoming translucent.

I then minced three cloves of garlic and added them to the onions and cooked for another 3 - 5 minutes.

Finally, I sliced the chicken and added it to the simmering mixture.

Once the chicken was about halfway cooked through, I roughly chopped a handful of mushrooms and added them to the mix as well.

Once everything was in the pan together, I added the pesto, lemon juice, broth and parmesan cheese and let it continue to cook together over low heat for another 10 minutes or so.

While the chicken mixture simmered away, I cooked my orzo by adding it to boiling water for about 10 minutes. You can also cook it more like rice and add a small amount of water and set it over low heat until all the water is absorbed, but I find that cooking it like typical pasta makes it much easier to achieve al dente.

Once everything finished cooking, I added the cooked chicken mixture to the orzo and let it simmer for just a few minutes to combine. To finish the dish, I served the pasta with some roasted broccoli and fresh parsley.

As I said...it was a great lunch leftover meal :)

Chicken and Mushroom Orzo

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

1 cup diced onion (about 1/4 large onion)

3 cloves garlic

8 - 10 white mushrooms

1 Tbs. basil pesto

1 Tbs. lemon juice

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 Tbs. butter

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 box of uncooked orzo pasta

Salt and pepper, to taste

Steps:

1. Add butter and olive oil to a pan over medium heat.

2. Dice onion into small pieces and add it to the oil. Add salt and pepper.

3. Cook for 3 - 5 minutes until onions become translucent.

4. Mince garlic cloves and add to pan with onions. 

5. Slice chicken into medium pieces and add to the pan.

6. Cook another 5 minutes until chicken is halfway cooked.

7. Roughly chop mushrooms and add to the pan with the chicken and onions.

8. Add the pesto, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, and broth.

9. Continue cooking about 10 minutes until all ingredients are cooked through.

10. Add orzo to a pot of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes until al dente.

11. Combine all ingredients and continue to cook on low for another 5 minutes.

12. Serve with green veggies and fresh parsley (optional)