Chicken Pot Pie - Sandra Lee Style

I love Sandra Lee-style meals (semi-homemade).  This chicken pot pie recipe can go MANY ways.  You can use canned or frozen or even fresh veggies (if you cook them a little first), you can use different combos of soup mixes, and you can use different types of chicken.  I have used leftover chicken from other dishes, rotisserie chicken, and even boiled breasts and cut them up for this.  I have done so many different ways but it always turns out great.  One of my favorite things though, is the refrigerated crust.  In my opinion, for this dish, it is not worth your time to make the dough from scratch.  Tastes the same and takes forever, plus rolling it out is a chore.  I am a huge fan of doing things homemade, so go for it if that's your thing, but using premade crust and soup mix makes this meal that you can prep in 10 minutes, tops.  This is one of Glenn's favorite and most requested meals.  

What you need:
- 2 refrigerated pie crusts (they usually come in a 2 pack)
- 3 to 4 cups of cooked and cut up chicken
- 2 cans of veg-all, drained (or 3 cups of frozen veggies) 
- 2 cans of cream of chicken soup (or one cream of chicken and one cream of celery)
- 1/2 cup of milk
- dash of Worcestershire
- black pepper to taste
- egg white 

What you do:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, add soup, milk, black pepper, and Worcestershire and mix up.  Add veggies and chicken and stir up.  Lay the first crust out over the pie pan and add the chicken mixture. Unroll the second pie crust and place gently on top.  Cut a few slits in the top for steam to escape and then use a fork to close the edges.  If you are dorky like me, you can take the extra crust from the top and make a seasonal theme for your pot pie ( I intended to post this a few weeks ago for Halloween, but baby brain hit me hard).  Brush the top of the pie with egg whites and bake for 45 minutes to an hour.  Some people like to cover the edges of the crust with tin foil so it doesn't get burned, but I have found with cooking it at a lower temperature you don't need to do this step.  Probably depends on the oven too. 

Enjoy!
-hayden

Ham and Potato Casserole

YUM

Think scalloped potatoes with ham.  This is a simple and hearty meal.  Good for those cold nights during the winter.  I am finding myself wanting comfort food more and more and this one definitely hits the spot.  Trust me, your husband will thank you...if you don't wait til 845 to serve it like I did.  This is a quick meal to put together but it takes a while in the oven.  My recipe served 4 as the main course.  I made it in a small pyrex dish, (think half size of normal casserole dish) but you could easily double this recipe to serve more.

What you need:
-about a half pound of ham, cut up (I had leftovers from a whole ham, but you could use a hamsteak cut up or even sliced ham if you wanted)
- 3 medium potatoes, washed and sliced thinly (if you have a food processer, use it...takes about 15 seconds)
-  1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 1/2 cup of milk
- dash of Worcestershire sauce
-black pepper
1/2 block of cheddar cheese, shredded
-cayenne pepper

What you do:
Preheat  the oven to 350 degrees F.  In a medium bowl mix together soup, milk, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Spray pyrex with cooking spray (or if you are naughty like me, coat with butter. Butter makes everything better!).  Layer 1/3 of the potatoes so they overlap slightly, 1/3 of the soup mixture, 1/2 ham and repeat until used. On the top of the last layer (should be cream mixture) sprinkle cheese and cayanne.  Cover with tin foil (tip- spray tin foil with cooking spray so cheese doesn't stick) and put in oven for an hour.  Uncover after an hour and test potato tenderness with a fork, let cook on a high shelf (if your oven has a top burner) for 15 to 20 minutes.

Enjoy!
-Hayden

Tofu Stir-fry with peanut sauce

 Know someone, perhaps yourself, who doesn’t appreciate tofu? This is an awesome recipe for a tofu beginner. The tofu has a nice crispy texture but the real star in this dish is the sauce.  It is complex and you get a whole range of flavors in each bite. Peanut, ginger, garlic, a little spice. YUM!   Don’t be afraid of the fish sauce.  I was afraid of it at first, it smells horrendous in the bottle, but after a few tries it has become a key ingredient in many of our stir-fry recipes and marinades.  Like any stir fry, you can add whatever veggies you want, but I decided this time to keep it simple (shocker, I know).  I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and like always modified it to make it mine, but one thing about this recipe that stands out to me is the frying technique… we have always used flour or cornmeal for a frying batter, and this recipe called for cornstarch. I was floored how crunchy it came out! Also- we used a deep fryer to do the tofu but you can do it in the pan too. I’m putting the recipe for the pan since I am guessing some of you don’t have deep fryers. One more thing, I don’t often keep cilantro and ginger around in the fresh form cause they go bad too quickly, but I do keep tubes of the stuff around, and substitute them for fresh, works great! You can find the tubes in the produce section of your local supermarket.

What you need:

1 package firm tofu, drained and cubed (I bought the already cubed tofu)

1 yellow bell pepper cut into strips

4 green onions, chopped

2 cups baby spinach

1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger

1 teaspoon seasame oil for stir-frying the veggies

¾ cup peanut sauce (recipe below)

2 eggs beaten

1 cup cornstarch

salt and pepper

½ cup vegetable oil for frying tofu (or use deep fryer)

What you do:

1.Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet/wok over high heat and add veggies and ginger (except spinach) and cook for about 3 minutes, add spinach and then take out of pan and put on a plate (I put in a Tupperware bc I was expecting leftovers and didn’t want to dirty another plate).

2. Place the eggs in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the cornstarch, salt, and pepper. Dip tofu cubes first in the egg, then the cornstarch mixture to coat.

3. Heat up the veggie oil over medium heat and fry tofu for about 5 minutes, turning occasionally. (Since I used a deep fryer, I’m not sure if there will be excess oil when the frying is done, if so, drain before next step).

4. Add peanut sauce to the tofu and let it simmer for a minute, then add veggies and stir to coat. 

Serve over rice- we served over rice noodles and they seemed to kinda suck up all the sauce.  Also- you can use the premade peanut sauce from the grocery store, but this sauce is AWESOME. 

The Best Thai Peanut Sauce Recipe from allrecipes.com : I doubled it because I wanted to use the whole can of coconut milk – I plan on freezing the rest and  using as needed. Helpful hint, if you freeze in ice cube trays, you can easily portion out how much you want to use. In addition to doubling the portion, I also used crunchy peanut butter to add another layer to the sauce. I barely modified the sauce, so I am posting the link to it.

all recipes thai peanut sauce

* just remembered i did add a little sesame oil into the sauce (abt a tablespoon), and the sauce is even better after sitting overnight.  This recipe makes a LOT.

 my handsome hubby- the fry king!

 enjoy!

-hayden