I can't believe this is good for me...

Hello ladies and gentlemen! My apologies for the long delay in posting; I just have not had the motivation to try anything new. However, I did try a new recipe recently that I absolutely fell in love with. Not only because it's super-duper easy, but also because it's delicious.

A friend of mine recommended this Chicken Pot Pie recipe from Weight Watchers, and I have to admit, I was skeptical at first. "Diet food" just never sounds very appealing to me. I was at the grocery store, and decided on a whim to pick up the ingredients to make this, and I am so, so glad I did.

Weight Watchers Chicken Pot Pie -

 

Ingredients:

-2 servings butter-flavor spray

-1 tsp butter

-1 small onion, chopped

-2 cups mushrooms, sliced (optional)

-1/4 tsp paprika

-1/4 tsp dried thyme, crushed

-1/2 tsp table salt, or more to taste

-1/4 tsp black pepper

-2 cups frozen mixed vegetables

-1 cup canned chicken broth

-3 cups roasted chicken breast, chopped

-2 tbsp all-purpose flour

-1/2 cup fat-free evaporated milk, divided

-4 rolls reduced-fat crescent roll dough, unrolled

Instructions: Preheat oven to 375F. Coat a 10-inch round (I used square since that's what I have at home haha) shallow baking dish with cooking spray. Coat large pot with cooking spray. Add butter and melt over medium heat. Add onion and mushroom and cook until tender, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Stir in paprika, thyme, sald and pepper. Add frozen vegetables, broth and chicken. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.

In a small cup, combine flour and 1/4 cup of evaporated milk, stir into chicken mixture. Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup of evaporated milk and cook until mixture is slightly thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes more.

Spoon chicken mixture into prepared dish. Unroll crescent rolls and arrange dough around inside edge of baking dish to form a border (there will be a hole in the middle). Bake until rolls are golden brown and filling is bubbly, about 15 minutes. Cut into 6 pieces and serve.

My thoughts: YUM! I rarely eat second helpings of anything, but this I couldn't resist. The only thing I might change if I make this again is I think I'll add more herbs (parsley, rosemary, bay leaves and possibly Herbs de Provence). And it would be so easy to double this recipe into a 13 x 9 inch pan if you need to make more than 6 servings. Two thumbs up!

~Mehgan

Quiche Kick

You know those weeks when it seems like if you didn't have bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all? That's exactly the kind of week I've been having. Drama-rama to the max, not only at work, but with my family, too. And then, once the big things start to turn bad, you start to notice all those little things you'd normally let go. Half way to work, you realize you left your cell phone at home on your nightstand. Or you get to the gym, and there are no treadmills left for you to run on. All these little things add up, and towards the end of the week, you just want to shout, "I give up!!!". Yep, I totally had that week. And to top it all off, it snowed last night. Yep, that's Alaska for you, baby.

I was also getting really frustrated, because I had attempted two other recipes for this month's Royal Foodie Joust ingredients (acorn squash, sage and oranges) and had come up with some of the most off-tasting dinners, it was insane. I tried making a cajun rice stuffed acorn squash dinner, but my husband was like, "Why is this dessert salty?". So that didn't work. Then I tried making an acorn squash scone that came out the consistency and taste of a softball. I was not pleased. I had given up.

So, by the time Wednesday rolled around, I was so ready for some comfort food. Something fairly easy, but still feels like a hug. I was just cruising around the internet, looking at different cuisines, and noticed that quiche is a German food (well, in a sense), so considering the fact that my hubby's German just sealed the deal for me. I adapted a couple of recipes to get to this one, so I'll just list how I made mine.

Super-Tasty Quiche-

Ingredients:

For pie crust:

-1 1/2 cups AP flour

-1/2 tsp salt

-3 to 4 tbsp ice cold water

-1/3 cup shortening (like Crisco)

For filling:

-6 large eggs

-1 cup of heavy cream

-1/2 lb sausage

-1 tomato, chopped

-1/2 white onion, chopped

-1/2 cup spinach, chopped (I used fresh baby spinach, you can use frozen spinach, but make sure you drain it really well before you add it to the quiche)

-2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced

-1 cup shredded cheese (your choice, I used 1/4 cup mozzarella, and 3/4 cup cheddar)

-salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions: In a food processor, combine all the pie crust ingredients and pulse until it binds together well (looks kind of like scrambled eggs). Gather all the dough into a ball, and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Carefully line the a pie tin with the pie dough and pop in the fridge for about an hour. This allows the fats in the crust to rest so that your crust doesn't melt into a puddle in the oven.

Preheat oven to 425F. In a small skillet, cook the sausage. Drain and let cool. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and cream. Stir in the vegetables, salt and pepper. Pull the pie crust out of the fridge and sprinkle it with 1/3 of the cheese and all of the sausage. Carefully pour the filling into the pie shell (don't fill it too full, or it'll spill over as it bakes), then sprinkled the rest of the cheese on top. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 300F for 30 more minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown. Remove from the oven and let sit for ten minutes (this is an important step, you don't want runny quiche).

My thoughts: I love quiche, but haven't always been so fond of it. When I was a kid, I hated it. Egg pie? Yeah, no thanks. But, since being married I've given it another chance, because it seems like every family holiday I'm at, I get asked to make it for breakfast, so I grew to like it again. I like mine loaded up with good stuff, almost to the point where there's more "stuff" than there is eggs. I like how it's so versatile, you can put anything in it.

Which is why I tried to give this month's Royal Foodie Joust ingredients one more try with some of the extra quiche ingredients I had leftover...

...and made these cute little mini quiches!! Aren't they just adorable? I only made the two, because I didn't have much of the original ingredients leftover. The filling for these is about 3 tbsp cooked acorn squash, 1 tsp dried sage, and just a sprinkling of orange zest on top with the cheese.

It was an interesting combination, that surprisingly worked really well together. The sage and acorn squash brought a nice earthiness to the quiche, while the orange zest gave it that wow factor, a refreshing punch on the roof of your mouth.

Sorry I'm not posting any "carnage" photos of these (you know, like with a bite out of them or cut in half) because they were bite-sized and I just popped 'em in my mouth. Which probably wasn't the best idea when they were piping hot from the oven, but oh well. They were worth the scalded tongue.

What would you add this month's Royal Foodie Joust ingredients to?

~Mehgan~

Daring Bakers Get Fresh!

Woops, sorry I'm late! My internet was down yesterday, of all days! I was so frustrated! But, it's ok, because now it's back up and working again and you can see how my trials went.

I was actually quite excited when I found out that we'd be making a Lemon Meringue Pie this month. I'm not a huge fan of pie, I think it's more hassle than it's worth, but I was also ready to be proven wrong. And I was!

I've been just dying to use Meyer Lemons, but can't seem to find them anywhere around here. I found some at Top Foods for an amount I won't disclose right now (outrageous is a fitting word), but picked some up anyway, knowing just the thing to use them for. That was justification enough for me.

For the recipe, visit Jen at the Canadian Baker here (http://canadianbaker.blogspot.com/2005/10/lemon-meringue-pie.html).


I was really worried about the lemon curd not setting up, because I'd read horror stories about it, but mine set up just fine. I accidentally left my trusty camera at our friend's house so I wasn't able to take photos until the day after I made it (d'oh!), so the meringue sort of separated and the curd got a little liquidy around the edges of the pie. Other than that, it was perfect. Nice and light and not too sweet. Even the crust stayed crispy, believe it or not. My friend Terry wolfed down a nice slice of it in about .45 seconds flat. I really had to improvise this time around, since I didn't have a lemon juicer, so I just pressed the lemon halves through a strainer, so I guess it's a good thing I chose Meyer Lemons, since they're a bit more tender and forgiving. I also didn't have pie weights or dried beans, so my crust shrank a bit (still tasty though) and I don't have a food processor, so I just used my fingers, which was... odd...

And thank goodness the sun came out to play the weekend I made this, so I could take halfway decent photos this time around. See, folks, there's light at the end of the tunnel! Head over to the Daring Bakers Blogroll to check out the (MANY) other Daring Bakers' LMPs. You won't be disappointed!

Welcome new DBers, and see you at next month's challenge!

~Mehgan~