Weekly meals

One of my NY resolutions is to be better at meal planning and grocery shopping. I've always enjoyed cooking, but it sounds less fun these days being 34 weeks preggo with a teething, 17 month old hanging on your legs between 4-6pm every night.

Ultimately, I would be happy with two home-cooked meals a week. It makes cooking every single day seem less daunting. But, still leaves enough leftovers for the days in between.

This is one meal that didn't take much prep, but I'm still counting it as "one of the two meals a week".
Broccoli Cheese soup {fresh steamed broccoli mixed with a can of soup} paired with grilled Ham and Cheese sandwiches {extra sharp cheddar and honey ham lunch meat grilled on bakery fresh Cibatta bread}:

It's not every day that Greg makes it home by dinner time, so it's nice to have something for him on those nights when I just don't feel like cooking.

Below is a new recipe I made yesterday. It was a bit of preparation, but SO WORTH IT. It was one of those freebie recipe cards you get in the mail. You know, the ones where they want to mail you the rest of the card set for "FREE" and then say you can "cancel" at any time. Yeah. Not falling for it. But, the ones they DID send looked like they were worth a try.

Hearty Chicken Pot Pie (with cheater crust):

Ingredients:
(serves 6)
1  can (10 oz.) chicken broth
1 1/3  cups water
4  medium carrots thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
3  medium red potatoes, scrubbed and diced (1 1/2 cups)
2  T. olive oil
2  cups quartered medium mushrooms--left them out
1  medium onion, coarsely chopped--didn't have any, left out
1  cup frozen peas--we also added 1 cup frozen corn
1/3  cups all-purpose flour
1  (15 oz.) package refrigerated pie crusts
2 1/2  cups chopped cooked chicken--used rotisserie chicken from store...such good flavor!

{1} Combine broth, 1 cup water, carrots and potatoes in a saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes.


{2} Preheat oven to 425*. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened. Stir in the broth mixture and peas (and corn if you added them). Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Whisk the remaining water into the flour until smooth. Whisk flour mixture into vegetable mixture. Boil, stirring frequently, until thickened. Remove from heat.


{3} Unroll 1 piecrust onto floured surface. Measure and roll, if necessary, to fit 1 inch larger than top of a shallow 2-quart baking dish. Line the baking dish with crust.


{4} Stir the cut-up chicken into the vegetable mixture and pour into the baking dish. Place the remaining crust over the filling; trim and flute the edge. Use favorite cookie cutter shape for decorations. Bake until filling is bubbly and crust is browned, about 20 minutes.

ENJOY!