Chicken & Biscuits

This recipe caught my attention because it's the lazy man's chicken pot pie. Then I made it even lazier. Because when there are more Goldfish on the kitchen floor than in the box and the dirty dishes are starting to resemble a Jenga tower in the kitchen sink, corner-cutting is in order. Next time I think I'm going to cut the number of biscuits to 5 in order to achieve the optimal biscuit to chicken ratio.

  Ingredients:

• 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped to bite-size
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 1/2 lb green beans, trimmed and chopped to bite-size
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1/4 cup AP flour
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 can store bought biscuits (I recommend Pillsbury Grands and all their glorious, flaky layers)
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Butter or spray a large casserole dish and preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet, warm up a little extra virgin olive oil over med-hi heat.

Season the chicken with salt & pepper then brown in the pan for ~5 mins, stirring occasionally. Transfer the chicken and its juices to a bowl & set aside. 

Add a little more EVOO to the same pan and heat it over med-hi heat. Add the onions and carrots, season lightly with salt & pepper, and cook for a few minutes until they soften. Add the green beans, garlic, season lightly again, and cook for a couple more minutes. Add the milk. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour into the broth until its completely dissolved then add to the pan. Stir everything together and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to med-low and cook for a couple more minutes until everything starts to thicken. Add the chicken and its juices back to the pan along with the thyme. Stir to combine. At this point you can season with salt, pepper to taste if you need but I found that the previous layers of seasoning was enough. Spoon the mixture into the casserole dish and top with the biscuits. 

Bake for ~15 minutes or until the top of the biscuits are golden brown and scream to be eaten. 

Taco Tuesday

 

...but posting about it on a Wednesday. Tacos are one of my fav go-to meals at times when I'm feeling hyper-lazy. You like that oxymoron? Thought so. My only complaint used to be the heinous levels of sodium in pre-packaged taco seasoning (unless you happen to like water retention and cankles) until I came across this gem. The recipe below is scaled up to make a bigger batch because "sensible portions" are profane words in my household. Mix up all the ingredients in a bowl, store in an air tight container, and a Mexican fiesta will be no further than a pantry away.

• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tbl ground cumin
• 1 tbl + 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tbl + 1 tsp pepper

Brown up your ground meat o' choice in a skillet, toss a few palmfuls of taco seasoning in, cut up some 'maters and 'ocados for topping, and you have dinner before Chopped gets to its dessert round.

 

Quick Takes rev 8

What's this, you ask? It's a long overdue blog post for which y'all have been clicking refresh on your readers over the last 4 months. And to make sure I don't go impressing anyone with originality or depth , I've put together a list of moments and thought bubbles from this past week that only I will find funny and am linking it up with one of the prettiest redheads I know, know of, cyber-stalk. That came out a smidgen creepier than I intended. Moving on...

~1~

Overheard on the elevator at work (names changed to protect the clueless):

Dilbert: "Yea so I always seem to fail in the Christmas gift department with my wife so this year, I decided to think completely out of the box."
Sherman: "What did you get her?"
Dilbert: "A welder."
Sherman: *silence*
Dilbert: "Well she's always bringing home these random things made of metal to decorate the house with so I figured this way, she can just make her own. She's really creative like that."

Um. Good luck with that Richard Suave.

~2~

Wednesday was a proud day in the history of my motherland. The first woman president was elected into office! Now, as with all things related to politics, there are folks who celebrate and folks who prefer the taste of hater-ade. Not everyone reacted with such enthusiasm like the hair flag lady. Putting all the partisan/platform issues aside, I'm still marveling at the fact that a country where open-mouthed kissing just barely made its way onto network television within the last decade or so elected a woman into power. I'm not equating risque TV to gender equality. I'm simply pointing out how conservative Korean society has remained even well into the 21st century. It's quite miraculous that South Korea has trailblazed past 'Muricka in female political leadership. Deh-han-ming-guk! Hwy-ting! (I clearly need to download Korean characters because that just looks ridiculous.)

~3~

After years of desparately clutching to pre-written instructions, I've made some progress in the be-adventurous-when-cooking department and whipped up these turkey balls on the fly for dinner with not a Food Network recipe in sight! They came out browned, flavorful, and moist which is the trifecta of meatball cooking (according to Food Network). I threw them in some marinara then poured it over spaghetti squash and proceded to eat 3 servings. It's ok because the 'noodles' are actually veggies and turkey meat has no calories. The bread in the meatballs don't count as carbs because you can't see them.

~4~

Top: Stage 1
Bottom: Stage 2

These pictures show the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Post-Partum Hair Loss. A year has passed and hope has finally been restored. A world free of brillo-pad hairline is a reality, at least until the next post partum diaster. I have until next Thursday to decide if I want to better camoflauge the quasi-bangs with a more blunt variety.

~5~

It's the end of the Jorts era. As I was loading up bags of clothes/toys destined for St. Vincent de Paul, I noticed Matt had made a few contributions. Surprised,  (since he's a clothes hoarder and would still have pants with leather pockets hanging in the closet if it wasn't (weren't?) for my obsessive auditing/purging of clothes), I took a closer look to make sure I wasn't mistaking a laundry pile as a donation pile. That's when I saw an all too familiar set of shorts with 'Sean John' embroidered on the side. I shed a tear and poured out a little coffee to show some respect.

~6~

H followed me into the water closet (yes, I could've just said 'bathroom' but I like to use overly-specific names for everyday things) to provide a soundtrack of "Gangnam Style" for me to go #1 to. He was in the middle of his rendition of the chorus when he made a revelation in human anatomy: 

"Heeeeeeeeey, it's a ladle. Oh-oh-oh-oh, oppa...Mommy, where does your pee come out of? Your butt?"

~7~

You may have to worry about keeping up with the Jones' but for me, it's the Griswold's. When it comes to Christmas lights, these neighbors don't play around. Let me break it down: on the right is a life-sized gingerbread house with a life-sized Santa mannequin inside looking out at you. What nightmares are made of, I tell you. On the roof is a giant manger scene complete with every farm animal known to man. (Although they clearly didn't get the memo that you're not supposed to put baby Jesus out until after Christmas. Don't mind me, I'm just being a Christmas decoration etiquette nazi.) To top it off, the tree of lights on the left is set to blink in sync with Christmas music blaring through speakers, also on their roof, for all of Sun Groves to jam to.

On that note, I hope everyone has a vurry murry Chrimp-mus. Until next time. I'll try to keep it less than 4 months but I'm making no promises.

Spesto

Jorts has no chicken consumption limit. He could seriously eat it all day, urryday. So in my neverending quest to find ways to jazz up his fowl of choice, I came across this delightful recipe. Not only is it queasy (quick & easy), it also helps use up my Costco-sized tub-o-spinach before it starts to resemble ectoplasm. Win/win.

Ingredients:
3 cups lightly packed baby spinach leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tbl lemon juice
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan

Throw the spinach, pine nuts, and lemon juice into a food processor and pulse until it comes together. With the machine running, slowly add the EVOO until the mixture gets nice and creamy. Lightly salt and pulse a couple more times to get the party started. Transfer the spinach to a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Spinach Pesto = Spesto

Don't go heavy on the salt the first time around because the cheese will also add savoriness. You can always add more salt at the end if you must. Now just slather this green goodness on some grilled chicken or dress up a ho-hum turkey sandwich. Enjoy!

Chosen

Aside from the occasional heart-to-heart-screen (?) on more serious matters, my Sunday drive blog mostly consists of hardly-enriching content (which leaves me in bewilderment that any of you are reading this). So to switch things up, here is a snippet from one of many incredible notes from our pastor in a recent church bulletin. Fingers crossed that this will help me meet the bare minimum quota for being a value-contributing member of the blogging community.

What does it mean to be chosen? I think at some level everyone wants to be chosen, to hear their name called. The worst place on the playground is in the place that is chosen last for a game, or not chosen at all. I was always skinny and un-athletic, left handed, so no gloves fit my hands...I know what it feels like to be chosen last. But I also know what it feels like to be chosen first! Long before God called me to be a priest he chose me, he picked me first. Not before you though. He chose me when I was created in my mother's womb. And he chose you first as well, in your mother's womb, before you even knew it. That fundamental choice is why we as Catholics are pro-life not because of scientific evidence, or ultrasounds, or any human reason. We choose life because God has chosen us first.

~ Fr. Dan

Now before you go into a frenzy, my intention of this post isn't to start a pro-life/pro-choice debate or to promote my religion over anyone else's. My list of flaws is neverending and I am the last person who could ever throw a stone. I just wanted to share something that made me feel one step closer to understanding my faith, in hopes that it does the same for even just one reader.

We'll be back to regularly scheduled programming (i.e. food, babies, incoherent ramblings) next post. Don't you worry.