Chicken Pot Pie

The other day when we were out to dinner Jessica and my parents were talking about how much they loved Pot Pies.  I hadn't had one in forever and I normally try to stay away from them because the frozen ones are so bad for you.  I figured making it at home would be a lot healthier!  I found a recipe on the Crock Pot Guys website and decided to try it out.  I made a few adjustments when I made it..

Ingredients:
1 lb Boneless Chicken, cubes
3 large Potatoes, small cubes
3 cups Baby Carrots, quartered
1 1/2 cups Frozen Peas
1 cup Frozen Corn
8 oz Sliced Mushrooms, chopped
3 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons dried Onion (I forgot I used my onion in the Hawaiian Chicken)
2 cans Cream of Chicken
3 cups Flour
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1/4 cup Butter
3/4 cup Milk

Chop all of the vegetables into little cubes and mix them together in the slow cooker.

Next I had taken my chicken right out of the freezer so I had to defrost it for a couple minutes.  While it was still mostly frozen I cut it into little cubes and then covered the vegetables with it.

After the chopping is complete cover the mixture with the cans of condensed soup and it is ready to start crocking.

Before I left for work I set this on low for seven hours and then it sat on warm for two and a half hours.

This looked so good I was ready to eat as is! lol Spray a 13x9 baking pan and spoon the vegetables and chicken into the pan.  Try to mix everything together as you do this.


Sorry this one is so blurry.

Heat the oven to 425 while you work on the next step, which is a little more tricky.  I didn't realize this recipe called for a rolling pin, but I made due without it.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl and stir them together.  Next cut the butter in until it looks like it is evenly spread throughout.  Pour all of the milk in and mix it all together.  I had to start using my hands because it got so thick.  Since I didn't have a rolling a pan I used my fist in the bowl and tried to flatten it out as much as possible.  Then I held it up in the air and stretched it out as much as I could.  Lay this on top of the mixture.  The recipe said to brush melted butter over top the dough, but I forgot about this step and it turned out fine.

I baked this at 425 for 22 minutes.  This was just enough time for me to boil some noodles to go with it!

I let it cool for a few minutes and then sliced it into eight servings.

My mom always served the frozen pot pies over noodles.  I don't think this really needed them because the top crust was thicker than normal.  I loved it!!

Hawaiian BBQ Pulled Chicken

Tonight I made a really simple Pulled Chicken recipe.  It was very simple to make at the last minute!

Ingredients:
1 lb Boneless Chicken
1 can Pineapple
1 Onion
1 jar BBQ Sauce

Place the chicken on the bottom of the slow cooker and cover it with the chopped onion.

Drain the pineapple and spread it over the onions.

Pour the bottle of BBQ sauce on top and you are finished!

This was so easy I was able to do it all before work instead of the night before.  I set it on low for seven hours and then it sat on warm for three more hours.

Use a fork and shred the chicken.  It was falling apart on it's own so I was able to keep it in the crock when I did it.

This ended up having a lot of sauce!  Next time I think I will add twice as much chicken.

Since it was so saucy I think I will prepare it with rice for the leftovers.  It was fantastic though!  It had a sweet and tangy taste to it.

Lentil and Ham Soup

Last night my friends had a Girls Night for a Christmas dinner. I thought a soup would go perfectly with appetizers, salad, lasagna, and Christmas cookies.

Ingredients: (Serves 8)

1c Onions

3 Cloves of Garlic

6c Fat-free Chicken Broth

1c Dried Lentils

1/2c Carrots

2 Bay Leaves

3c Swiss Chard

1 1/2c Potatoes

1c Ham

14 1/2oz Can Diced Tomatoes

1t Dried Basil

1/2t Dried Thyme

1/2t Black Pepper

3T Fresh Parsley, chopped

If you don't have a lot of time in the morning before work, I suggest chopping all of the veggies the night before. That was the only time consuming part of the recipe.

Chop the carrots and onions

Chop the Swiss chard

Chop the potatoes. I chose use red skin potatoes and to leave the skins on, and it worked out perfectly.

Chop the ham. It called for 1 cup. I had a lot of ham leftover from when I made ham last week. I ended up using almost 4 cups. It was nice and thick ;)

Combine all ingredients except fresh parsley in the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on low 7-9 hours.

Stir in fresh parsley and served. Honestly, I forgot to add the parsley, but the soup was still good without it. Also, sorry about the off-center photo... It may have to do with the wine I was enjoying with the girls before dinner was served. ;)

The girls loved the soup! And it was healthy! I would call that a success. :)

Nutrition:

200 Calories

3.5g Fat

25g Carbs

10g Fiber

17g Protein

4 WW PointsPlus

Recipe from Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly

Chicken Stir Fry

I have always loved stir fry's. It is such a great way to get in a lot of veggies.

Ingredients:

4 Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts

1t Salt

1t Crystallized Ginger (minced) or 1/4t Ground Ginger

1c Celery

5 oz Water Chestnuts, sliced and drained

1 Onion, sliced

2c Chicken Broth

2T Low Sodium Soy Sauce

1c Mushrooms, sliced

1lb Bean Sprouts, drained

2c Cooked Brown Rice

1/2c Almonds, slivered

I found out that I didn't have soy sauce like I thought. I used Teriyaki instead. It still tasted great with the substitution.

The night before I cut up all the veggies to save time in the morning. Slice the celery

Slice the onion

Slice the chicken into strips about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch thick

Place chicken in slow cooker with salt, ginger, celery, water chestnuts, onions, broth, and soy sauce


Cover and cook on low 5 to 6 hours

Turn slow cooker on high. Add mushroom and bean sprouts. cover and cook on high 15 minutes.

This is where I had a problem. The food cooked throughout the whole day, but when we tried to turn the cooker on high we realized that the heating element stopped working. :( I need to take the slow cooker back to the store now. Hopefully, they will exchange it without a problem since I've only had it a couple months. We finished cooking the meal in the oven.

Serve over hot rice. Sprinkle with almonds. Serve with extra soy sauce, if desired.

The stirfry was very yummy. I did add more teriyaki. We served it with white rice, but it would be even healthier if you used brown rice or couscous. I've made stirfry over couscous before and it was really good.

Nutrition:

380 Calories

11g Fat

5g Fiber

33g Protein

34g Carbs

9 WW PointsPlus

Recipe from FaveDiets.com

Pumpkin and Chicken Lasagna

I haven't made a lasagna in years and I didn't know you could make them in the slow cooker.  I came across a few pumpkin editions and thought it would be perfect to try since I just did that pumpkin chili.  I had a friend over for dinner and we both thought it was pretty good especially if you are looking to try something new.  I decided to add chicken to mine, but it really didn't need it.  Next time I will leave the chicken out and keep it as a vegetarian meal.

Ingredients:

1 15oz can Pumpkin

1 15oz Low Fat Ricotta

3/4 pack Lasagna Noodles

1 jar Spaghetti Sauce

1 15oz can Pinto Beans

1 jar Sun Dried Tomatoes Pesto

    (or minced Sun Dried Tomatoes)

3/4 lb Boneless Chicken

2 cups Mozzarella Cheese


This was super easy to make and you can get creative with the layering if you want.  There isn't really a right or wrong way to do it.  I started by spraying my slow cooker down with olive oil pam.  Next I covered the bottom of the slow cooker with about 1/4 of the jar of spaghetti sauce and then a layer of noodles.

To prepare the next layer you want to mix together the ricotta and the pumpkin.  This looks a little odd but it tastes really good when it is all finished.

You will be able to keep all of the noodles in place by carefully covering them with half of this mixture.  Sprinkle half of the beans (drained and rinsed) on top and then half of the sun dried tomato pesto.

Add a thin layer of sauce on top of this and then another layer of noodles.  I added another layer of sauce on top of the noodles again because I was afraid they would dry out.  I'm sure they would have been ok without it.  I cut the chicken into little slices and spread them out on top of the sauce.

This was covered by another layer of sauce and then I repeated everything again: noodles, cheese mixture, beans, tomatoes, noodles and finally sauce.

I set the slow cooker on low for 9 hours when I left for work and then it sat on warm for an hour and a half.  I figured it might need a little longer since it was starting out so cold and the raw meat was in the middle.  The noodles were already soft when it started cooking because it sat in the fridge overnight.  I don't know if that would have effected the turnout. 

Clearly I don't think it needed to cook for this long.  The edges were pretty crisp! lol I figured I could hide this because it would be covered with cheese!  Evenly spread the mozzarella cheese on top and stick it in the oven on broil for a couple minutes.  I messed up a bit here.  I started making fried Eggplant while it was in the oven and got a bit distracted....

This didn't ruin the taste of the lasagna but I did learn a lesson on paying attention to the broiler!

I served the Lasagna with Fried Eggplant.  This probably wasn't the healthiest meal we could have had but it hit the spot!  It was very filling... I cut the lasagna into six pieces and they were way too big!  I will definitely serve 8.

Easy Slow Cooker Ham

This recipe is super easy with only 4 ingredients. :) You will need to make sides to go with the meal though.

Ingredients:

1 to 1.5 lb Lean Ham

1 cup Apple Juice

1/3 cup Brown Sugar

1t Prepared Mustard

I didn't have apple juice. So I just used homemade applesauce. That is why my sauce looks thicker in the pictures.

Slice ham into 2 slices and place in the slow cooker.


Combine apple juice, brown sugar, and mustard.

Pour mixture over ham slices

Cover and cook for 7-10 hours.

We served the ham with potatoes.

It was very yummy. It definitely had a sweet flavor.

Nutrition:

217 Calories

3g Fat

0g Fiber

22g Protein

27g Carbs

6 WW PointsPlus

I think this nutritional info is a little high since you don't actually eat all of the juice where a lot of the calories are from the juice and sugar.

Turkey and Pumpkin Chili

I've been waiting to try this all season and it was definitely worth it!! So good!! :)  It is a new twist to chili since it doesn't contain any tomatoes.  Also, I was afraid that the pumpkin would overpower the whole soup but it didn't at all.
Ingredients:
1.25 lb Ground Turkey
1 Yellow Pepper
1 Orange Pepper
1 Onion
3 Garlic Cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons Chili Powder
2 teaspoons Cumin
1/2 teaspoons Oregano
2 Bay Leaves
2 15oz cans Northern Beans
1 15oz can Pumpkin
2.5 cans Chicken Broth
1 4oz can Green Chilies

First you need to brown the turkey in a sauce pan while you cut up the peppers, onion and garlic.  Once the turkey is finished you should add the chopped up vegetables can spices (not the bay leaves) to the meat and saute it for a couple minutes.

Pour the mixture into the slow cooker and add the rest of the ingredients.  Stir it all together and it is ready to go!!

I set this on low for eight hours and then it stayed on warm for two and a half more hours.

We dished it up and added some oyster crackers and cheese to it.  It was a big hit! One friend said she gave it 10 stars!