Homemade is Better: Chicken Pot Pie

I created this recipe last year and made it again this week. Levi loves it. It's easy and delicious! Try it this holiday weekend!

Ingredients

• 3-4 frozen chicken breasts (Fresh would also work fine, but you might only need two since they're bigger. Or you could use a pound of ground beef, which would also taste great!)
• 1 cup chicken broth (if using a crockpot to cook chicken)
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 can peas, drained
• 1 bag baby carrots, boiled and cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 can cream of chicken soup (or cream of mushroom or something like it if you're using beef)
• salt, pepper, thyme and basil to taste
• 2 refrigerated roll-out pie crusts

Cooking Instructions

Cook frozen chicken breasts in crockpot (with chicken broth) for four hours on high (or cook any other way you like). Remove from crockpot and let cool. While chicken is cooling, boil baby carrots about 10 minutes, drain and cut into bite-size pieces. In a large bowl, combine carrots, drained corn, drained peas and cream of chicken soup.  

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Take pie crusts out of refrigerator to warm a bit before unrolling. Cut chicken into bite-size pieces and mix with vegetables. Add salt, pepper, thyme and basil to your liking (I just sprinkle some across the bowl and stir). Roll out one pie crust into pie plate. Fill with chicken/veggie mixture (it will be full, overflowing-like). Roll out second pie crust over the top of pot pie and tuck under edge of pie plate.

Cut slits in the top pie crust for breathing during cooking. Bake pot pie in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

My Christmas Chair {and Curtains!}

After a whirlwind of Christmas festivities, I finally have a moment to reveal my wonderful living room chair that Levi had recovered as a Christmas gift (yes, it's green!):

There's actually another one of these chairs that we have yet to have recovered, and it will, hopefully, be joining this one in the next few months.

Also, my parents gave me the Pottery Barn curtains I've been pining over for our living room:

The curtains and chair match the pillows we already had on our couch:

Things are finally starting to come together in the main room of our house! I still have several ideas up my sleeve, so stay tuned in the coming months!

My not-so-secret Christmas gift

Levi got one of our living room chairs recovered for me for Christmas and, while I picked out the fabric and know what it will likely look like, he brought it home and wrapped it so I can't see it! I have to wait another whole week!

Hoarders

Levi and I are about the furthest thing from being hoarders, but I noticed tonight that that may not be true in one area of our material lives. As I was looking around the house for something to take to my annual office Christmas party as a dirty santa gift, I found myself looking through the shelves and shelves of books we have.

I found several that, at first glance, I thought we could part with, but then I second-guessed myself every time. Either the book had been signed by the author, I plan to actually read it some day (yeah, right) or I simply like the idea of owning that particular book. I'm definitely not alone, as Levi has even more books than me on the shelves just because he "likes to have them."

We're not book collectors, per say, but it does seem that once we get a book, we struggle to part with it. Come on, people, tell me I'm not alone. What things do you like to hoard?

Christmastime: A photo journal

Sharie's Kitchen Re-do

As mentioned in the last post, Levi and I spent our Thanksgiving break (Wed.-Sun.) at his mom's house with his brother, Jake, and his girlfriend, Becca, fixing up her kitchen and dining room. I'm finally getting a minute to post the results after playing catch-up all week from being gone.

True to form, I forgot to take "before" pictures (I've decided that I get too excited about the projects and just jump right in without thinking to take a picture), but I got better at taking them throughout the weekend.

Sharie's kitchen was covered in your typical 90s fruit/flower wallpaper and "matching" (it wasn't really) border. This design move was not hers, but rather it was pre-existing to the house when she bought it.

Although this project was a lot of work, the four of us had a great time working on it together. We all stayed at the house during the weekend and made waffles together in the morning and dinner at night. It was a lot of fun, but I could do without seeing any more wallpaper for awhile.

We had to do two rounds of steaming to get all the paper off

Primer in the dining room 

Becca did all the texturing in the kitchen while Jake and I painted the dining room (Levi was at work).

Crow's Foot Stomp Brush technique

Finished dining room

Finished kitchen

Curtains are coming

Homemade is Better: Pizza Lunchable

I'm always looking for new lunch ideas for Levi because he packs his lunch every day for work and it rarely varies. Plus, there are several things one must consider when packing a lunch for an EMT.

There must be things that can be eaten on the go without being heated (sandwiches, chips, granola bars, etc.), there can be things like leftovers that need heating (but there's no guarantee that Levi will have time to heat them in a gas station, so that can't be all you pack) and then there are other things that can be eaten on the go that are not sandwiches (we all get sick of those), like lunchables.

Well, since I get a considerable amount of pleasure from saving money and I like to cook/prepare lunches for Levi, I decided to get creative. We were spending about $30 just on lunchables per month, plus probably somewhere around $10-$20 on granola bars, carmel and apple packs, etc., if not more.

The first thing to go were the lunchables. Levi didn't think they tasted that great, plus he said his mom always told him he couldn't eat them because they have too much salt. Since the pizza lunchables are what he usually eats, I had to find a recipe (of course he couldn't like the meat and cheese ones, that would be easy to duplicate). Luckily, I found a great recipe HERE. It makes a tastier, cheaper version of the pizza lunchable, and I can double it to make 5 lunchables at once (in only an hour and 15 min.).

I made the first batch of lunchables today, and I'm looking forward to hearing Levi's review after work. I can almost guarantee you he will love it. Plus, since I made multiple at one time, he can quickly pack them himself in the divided ziploc tupperware I found.

Also today, I sent Levi a small tupperware of ranch dressing with a baggie of baby carrots and a small tupperware of carmel sauce with a Gala apple (his favorite). This will take the place of the pre-packaged carmel and apple packs that he formerly enjoyed (at less than the $1-$2 per pack we paid before!).

It's really kind of ridiculous how excited I get over all this. Next up, homemade granola bars.