Unconventional & Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Well, I'll first start out saying that we are making blog history with this blog post in more ways than one. Although we haven't been doing this blog all that long, this is the first time we are blogging about a meal we enjoyed the night we created the blog post, and doing back to back nights of a blog post. I couldn't help posting this because I was so blown away by the taste, the look of this meal, and how easy this was to make. All these factors combined to form a truly perfect example of what we want this site to be, easy to understand and cook for yourself as well as really enjoy the food. 


When we think of food during the fall and winter months, we probably tend to think of heartier meals, like stews, roasts, soups,  etc. This pot pie fits right in the heartier group of foods because of its rich flavor of chicken mixed with the cream of chicken soup, the vegetables and the double layer of fluffy, yet crunchy on the outside biscuits. We love pot pies and for this go-around Trisha wanted to put a little bit of a spin on one's she's made before. She wanted homemade biscuits for the outside and I will tell you that's what makes this meal come alive; biscuits, biscuits, biscuits! 


That is the toughest part of the meal, the biscuits. We bought an almost brand new bread maker awhile back because we wanted to make better bread to enjoy. The biscuits we ate tonight came from that bread machine, yet it was just a simple biscuit mixture, nothing complex. So if you don't have a bread maker, I would recommend you buy something baked fresh the day you decide to make this as it will only make your eating experience that much better. 


The last thing I want to tell that solidifies just how good this meal is, is something Julian, our three year old, said to me. Julian is quite a picky eater; or rather a non-eater. He doesn't really eat much when we sit down for dinner. However, this meal is so good that I made him a plate and when he saw I was so excited after my first bite, he actually got excited himself and was eager to try it. This tactic(fake, or in this case, real excitment) usually works for us to at least get him to take one bite of dinner each night, then he usually just kinda picks at the food or doesn't eat anymore the rest of the meal. Tonight, things went a bit different. He took that first bite, looks at me and says excitedly, "I like THIS food Dada!" So there it is. You don't believe me because I'm biased, but a three year old will tell it like it is, and this food is good! Enjoy!


Ingredients
- Three Large Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
- 2 Cans of Cream of Chicken Soup
- One bag of Frozen Peas and Carrots Mix
- 1 tsp season salt
- 1 tsp Zehnders Chicken Seasoning (*ONLINE ONLY)
- 4 Garlic Cloves (minced)
                                         - 1 1/2 Cups Milk




Preparation


1. In skillet, cut up Chicken Breasts into cubes as pictured. Combine with Garlic and Seasoned Salt. Cook thoroughly.


2. Remove Cooked chicken, wash skillet, return Chicken to skillet with Cream of Chicken soup, Milk, Peas and Carrots, and Zehnders Chicken seasoning (*ONLINE ONLY) and cook on medium high heat until warmed through, stirring often. 


3. Take biscuit mix and place on bottom layer of casserole, creating little biscuits, not just one flat layer.


4. Pour heated up Chicken, Vegetable and Soup mix over top of bottom layer of biscuits, covering thoroughly.


5. Take the remaining biscuit mix and make biscuits on top of Chicken, Vegetable and Soup mix.


6. Place in oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. 


7. Remove from oven and spread a little heated up butter over top of the biscuits and ENJOY!

Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs Over Penne Alfred Pesto

As parents of three children three years of age and younger, we really don't get out too much. When we are able to sucker the grandparents into watching the kids, we will try and spend time together talking over a meal at some restaurant as we enjoy a day off from decision making in the kitchen. On one particular occasion, we decided to go to a restaurant we don't frequent very often. When we sat down and received the menu, one of the pictured specials was something that looked really appetizing and something I've never seen before. As you can probably put together from the title of the post it was Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs over Angel hair Alfredo. Sounds delicious right? The restaurant did a really excellent job with the photos because it looked delicious, yet it turned out to be a pretty dreadful meal. Its kind of like when you see an awesome Movie Trailer and makes you want to see the movie, yet when you see it all the best parts of the movie were what you watched in the Trailer. That is a pretty frustrating feeling. I'm not naive when it comes to how many national restaurant chains make money. I know most use quite a bit of frozen cuisine, and I've never been great at pinpointing things that began frozen, however I've never tasted a ball of meat that was as flavorless and uninspiring as what was layed before me that particular day. I was so displeased, I didn't finish the meal, and that is saying something for a guy with and appetite like mine.

So here is the gushy part about Trisha. A week after the Meatball disaster, as I like to call it, I walk in the door to an aroma that instantly makes me wonder what Trish has in store for us for dinner. Walking in the door at our house is an instantaneous wake up call. This day was no different. I didn't even get the chance to ask Trisha what it was she was cooking that smelled so great. As time ticked away to dinner time, I notice her boiling penne pasta with some Alfredo Pesto sauce cooking in the pan next to it. So I think to myself, "Sweet! Penne Alfredo sounds like a great dinner to me". Then after a few more minutes, I get the call for dinner, and when I approach the stove I am again reminded of how thoughtful Trisha is when I see the meatballs on the baking sheet with mozzarella cheese oozing out of the center. What you see before you is what I saw. Perfectly cooked meatballs with a generous amount of cheese in the middle over a bed of penne pasta topped with Alfredo Pesto sauce. Truthfully, I don't think I need to describe how unbelievable it tasted because you can tell by the pictures how amazingly Trisha cooked it. So here is a prime example of how love was yet again the main ingredient in this dish. Trisha saw how unhappy I was, then decided she could do it better than the restaurant, which she did ten times over, for no other reason than to make me happy. Now tell me I don't have the best wife in the world? Enjoy!

Ingredients: Meatballs

3 lbs ground turkey(or whatever you prefer)

1 cup onions - finely chopped

5 garlic cloves - minced

1/3 cup pesto sauce

1 cup Italian style bread crumbs

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese - grated

1 pound mozzarella or monterey cheese - cut into cubes(For inside Meatball)

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. In a bowl, mix together; ground turkey, chopped onion, minced garlic, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, pesto, seasoned salt, Italian seasoning.

3. Form turkey mixture into meatballs.

4. Stuff a cheese cube into each meatball and seal the meat around the cheese.

5. Arrange the meatballs on a nonstick baking sheet and drizzle with EVOO.

6. Bake for approximately 30 minutes (until internal temperature of meat reaches 170 degrees)

Ingredients: Alfredo Pesto Penne

1 Box Penne Pasta

1 Jar Alfredo Sauce

1/3 Cup Pesto Sauce

2 Garlic Cloves

Directions:

1. Cook penne according to the box

2. Cook the alfredo sauce, pesto sauce and garlic on the stove until warm.

3. Place Penne on dish, drizzle with Alfredo Pesto, place meatballs on top, sprinkle some Parmesan over top and Enjoy!