Menu for Week of 1/15/10

Steak Quesadillas with peppers and onions, served with salad, sour cream, and salsa

I have some leftover bell peppers from another recipe. I bought the steak for $3

Little Ceasar's Hot n' Ready

Monday is customer appreciation day so hot n' ready pizzas are $3.99. Just a fun treat.

Chicken Pot Pie, biscuits

My sister Laura has been making this a lot lately. This is the recipe that my mom used when we were little, but I have never made. Actually, my mom didn't have an actual recipe written down. She just told Laura the steps and Laura wrote down exact measurements as she prepared it. Thank you Laura for recording this favorite from our childhood. I keep pie dough in my freezer so all I have to make is the filling. I still have biscuits in the freezer as well from a couple weeks ago.

Chicken Pot Pie

Pamela Trover/Laura Trover

2 chicken breasts

Onion

Celery (if you have some)

1-2 potatoes (Jeff and I love potatoes, so I use 2)

Frozen peas

Carrots (fresh or frozen)

5 Tbsp flour

5 Tbsp butter or margarine

3 chicken bouillon cubes

Salt and pepper

Pie crust

Cook chicken in plenty of water with celery and onion. Once chicken is cooked, remove and shred chicken, then set aside. Remove onion and celery from broth.

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Add flour and bouillon cubes. Cook for a minute. Add 3-3 1/2 cups of broth to flour and butter. Bring to a boil and let simmer (you are basically making a gravy).

Meanwhile, peel and cube potatoes. Boil them in water for about 7 minutes. During the last 2 minutes, I throw in the carrots too. This allows the potatoes and carrots to partially cook.

Combine chicken, potatoes, carrots, and peas in a large bowl. Add 2 cups of gravy and stir together. Keep adding gravy until desired consistency (I usually use most, if not all of it). Season with salt and pepper.

Pour into a greased pie plate. Roll out pie crust and place over filling. Brush top with melted butter if you like. Cut a few slits in the top for steam to escape.

Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes. Check the edges halfway through to make sure they are not browning too much. Sometimes I end up covering them with a pie crust plate. Variation: roll out an additional pie crust and put that in the pie plate before the filling to make a double crusted pot pie.

Spaghetti, salad, bread

We didn't have this last week as originally planned.

Leftover Chicken Pot Pie