Chicken Pot Pie

This recipe is adapted from a recipe from a friend of mine. She makes her own crust and steams her veggies, I made it simpler with frozen veggies and a store bought crust. My kids love it. Filling: 2 cups of frozen peas and carrots onion 1 potato, peeled and chopped 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, boiled in salted water, then cubed 4 Tbsp. butter 5 Tbsp. flour 2 1/2 c. chicken broth 2/3 c. milk 1/2 tsp. salt dash pepper 1 egg, beaten I use dehydrated onions, but if using fresh you would probably want saute them in some butter in a pan. Cook potatoes in boiling water til tender. In a separate large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, remove from heat and add flour and whisk together until smooth. Add chicken broth and milk and continue stirring over high heat until mixture comes to a boil. Boil for an additional minute or so until thick, then reduce heat to low. Add cooked chicken, frozen peas and carrots, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Lay dough in dish of choice. Spoon filling into dish. Cover with another layer of pie dough. Press edges together. Brush beaten egg on the dough of each pie. Bake at 425 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until the top crust is light brown. For some reason this all ran together, but I don't have time to deal with it right now, so I will later.

Facebook Brownies

This recipe was making the rounds on Facebook.  I'm posting it here mainly so I can find it again easily rather than having to search through the Facebook archives for it.  I didn't make it as a mix.  I just mixed it all up at the same time.  It's a pretty thick batter, so if you sprinkle chocolate chips on top, they stay on top, unlike most box mixes where the chocolate (or, even better...mint) chips all sink to the bottom.  I did it in a pie pan, and it worked well in that.

Facebook Brownies

Never buy boxed brownie mix again! Follow the recipe below and make brownies for approximately .30 a mix! So simple, so easy. Not just frugal but cuts out the unknown ingredients.

1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/3 cup Cocoa
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Powder

Put mix in plastic bags or mason jars.

At baking time add:

2 Eggs
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Vanilla

Bake @ 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes in an 8x8 or 9x9 pan.

It was a Pampered Chef rep who was circulating the recipe, so she recommended using the Pampered Chef brownie pan, which supposedly cooks faster.

Check after 12-15 minutes of baking and remove when brownies are done!

Dinner for 200

I was in charge of dinner for our ward Christmas party & need to record my notes on feeding dinner to 200 people in case I ever have to do it again.. Or in case this could be useful to someone else at some point.

The menu:
Roast beef
Mashed potatoes & gravy
Green beans
Salad
Rolls
Jello
Cookies & punch

My notes:
Roast beef:  We ordered 4 cases (20lbs each) of precooked roast beef, figuring 1/3 lb of meat per person.  This amount was good.  We did have one foil pan of meat left, but I felt like we got this amount right.  The meat came frozen & we took it out and let it thaw the night before, put it in roaster pans (3 roasts per pan) & let it heat for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, sliced it with an electric knife & served in foil pans.

Mashed potatoes:  bought 3 cases of premade mashed potatoes, spread them in foil pans covered with foil & heated in the oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours & served them from the pans.  We had 1 pan left over.

Gravy:  bought 2 containers of brown gravy mix from Costco.  Each had 99 servings.  I only ended up making 1, but should have done both.  We came close to running out, but I mixed some of it with the juice from the roast beef so it would go farther.  This worked fine and there was enough.

Green beans:  bought bags of organic frozen green beans from Costco.  According to the package, each bag contained 25 servings.  I bought 7 bags.  We would have been fine with 5 or 6.  We boiled them and served them from foil pans.

Rolls:  ordered from the lion house.  18 dozen & we had a few dozen left over.  I would stick to this amount.

Salad:  the salad was made with spring greens, sliced pears, gorgonzola cheese, toasted pecans & a homemade vinegarette.  We plated & served the salads.  For 200 salads, we used nine 1 lb boxes of spring greens from Costco, 3 dozen pears ( they were big, so we only used 2 dozen), 2 lbs of pecans, toasted in the oven, and two 1.5 lb containers of crumbled Gorgonzola cheese.  The dressing was as follows:
4 cups real maple syrup
2 cups vegetable oil
2 cups fresh lime juice(yes, I squeezed them by hand)
1 T + 1 t salt
1 T + 1 t pepper
Blend together.  This was plenty of dressing & we didn't use it all.  Just dress the salad right before serving.

Jello:  we assigned 10 people to bring their favorite jello.  This was enough & was mildly entertaining to see the jello creations.

Cookies:  assigned 12 people to bring 2 dozen cookies.  This was enough without having tons of excess cookies.  Wished there were more homemade cookies, but greatful that people were willing to help.

Punch:  2 parts cranapple juice mixed with 1 part sprite.  I bought 12 64 oz bottles of cranapple and 6 bottles of sprite + ice.  We were able to dump it directly int the drink dispensers, add ice & serve.  This amount was good.  We bought 8 bags of ice, which was also about right.  We also served water.  We had 2 drink dispensers with punch & 3 with water.

Lentil & Rice Pilaf with Yogurt Sauce

A recipe from my friend Wendy.  This has become a regular at our house- healthy, meatless & tasty.


Lentils & Rice

1 cup small french green or brown lentils (I've used both-- the green have a little better texture, but brown is just fine too)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
1 t minced garlic
3/4 cup long grain white rice
1 t salt
3/4 t cumin
1/2 t pepper

1-In a 3 qt sauce pan, bring lentils and 2 1/2 cups water to a boil.  Cover and let simmer until tender - about 20-25 minutes. Drain.

2-Meanwhile, add oil, onions and garlic to a 12 inch frying pan over medium heat.  Stir and cook until onions are golden.  Add rice, salt, cumin & pepper.  Stir until rice looks opaque- about 3 minutes.

3- Stir in drained lentils & 2 more cups of water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover & simmer.  Stir occasionally until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes.  (Sometimes i have to add a little extra liquid to get the rice tender.  Serve with Yogurt Sauce


Yogurt Sauce
1 c plain lowfat yogurt
1/3 c finely chopped, seeded cucumber
1/4 t minced garlic
1/4 t dried mint
1/4 t pepper

Mix well & serve over lentils & rice.

You could serve this as a side dish with chicken or fish, but I serve it as a main dish, usually with some wheat toast and fruit.  Love the leftovers for lunch.

Falafel

Ingredients
2 16 oz cans chickpeas, rinsed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, smashed
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 handfuls fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves coarsely chopped
1 handful fresh cilantro, leaves coarsely chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons flour
1 egg

Vegetable oil, for frying

Pulse chickpeas to coarsely grind in food processor, not until smooth but with no whole chickpeas remaining either. Add the baking powder, onion, garlic, spices, and herbs; process until the mixture is pureed; scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add flour and egg and mix well.  Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate while heating the oil, this should take about 15 minutes.

Pour 3-inches of the oil in a deep fryer or deep heavy pot and heat to 375 degrees F. Roll the falafel mixture into ping-pong size balls. Carefully slip a few at a time into the hot oil, making sure they don't stick to the bottom. Fry until the chickpea fritters are a crusty dark brown on all sides, turning as needed, about 5 minutes per batch.  You can optionally smash slightly and pan fry in a very small amount of olive oil.

Remove the falafels with a slotted spoon and drain on a platter lined with paper towels.  Serve immediately with pitas and tzatziki or tahini sauce.

Cucumber Sauce (Tzatziki)

1 (6 ounce) container plain yogurt
1/2 cucumber - peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon mayonnaise

Shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, chopped cucumbers
8 warm pitas, store bought or homemade

My favorite banana bread

1 1/4 c sugar
1/4 c butter
1/4 c applesauce
2 eggs
1/2 c plain yogurt
3-4 mashed ripe bananas
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 1/2 c flour
Chopped nuts(optional)

Cream butter, applesauce and sugar, add bananas, eggs, yogurt, vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients until just mixed.

Pour in greased pans and bake at 350. Time depends on pan size. I usually do 2 small pans and 1 medium sized pan. The small ones bake for 30-35 min, until done. The bigger pan bakes for about 40-45 min. If you did 1 big pan, it would take about an hour.