It was a chicken kind of week

With the economic times and all, I'm trying to be more thrifty at the grocery store, which is hard, but a fun challenge. So this week instead of buying 2 different packages of chicken, one package of breast meat for the pot pie, and a package of boneless thighs for this chicken and vegetable stew I'm going to talk about below, I bought just a package of thighs (thighs are cheaper and usually come in bigger packages than breasts, like 2 lbs - I can't wait for the day we can have a 2nd freezer and I can buy the 3lb+ packages of meat and save that way!)...but anyways, back to the chicken. I used thighs in the pot pie and was very happy AND then doubly happy because we used the rest of the thighs the next night - I present, the first time I've ever made this chicken and veg stew thing;) And bonus - I got to use my dutch oven, which I definitely don't get to use often enough:)

What you'll need:

olive oil
flour
as much chicken as you think your family will need - I used 1 lb thighs for 2 adults
one white onion
one or two zucchini
as many baby carrots as you would like
any other veggies you may like - example - artichoke, olives, yellow squash, all depending on the season and what is fresh at your local market
28 oz can any kind of stewed or diced tomatoes
saltines

Easy = Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and cover in flour; at the same time, heat 2 tbsp oil in the dutch oven at medium high heat. Add chicken, baby carrots, and cut up onion and cook until chicken is browned all all sides, stirring pretty continuously. Then add the cut up zucchini and 28 oz can of diced/stewed tomatoes - smells so yummy at this point! Add salt and pepper too if you'd like at any point:) Cover the dutch oven and cook on medium to medium low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked thru and veggies are nice and tender.

I honestly wasn't crazy about the stewed tomatoes - I think I'd rather use tomato juice and cut up some tomatoes and do that part that way - husband loved it and he said it was a perfect meal for while he was down and out with a cold:)

Tomorrow, my famous fajitas;) Sizzle! For now, enjoy the rest of your Saturday/Saturday night where ever you are! A nice meal out for this lady, some DVR'd shows, SNL, and of course Bejeweled! Anyone else obsessed with that game???

I'm not slacking, I'm here!

Sorry for the lapse the last couple of days - I've just been creative in other ways (scrapbooking) and reading - almost done with Gone with the Wind and I love it!

This entry is not about food good ole Scarlett had served to her at Tara, it's about chicken pot pie! With the cooler weather coming, and a cold going around here at home and work, it was the perfect comfort food:)

You will need:

2 cups of cooked chicken, seasoned if you would like with salt and pepper or any other spices
2 pie crusts (I just use the ready-made roll out ones)
2 10 oz cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup of chicken broth
16 oz of your favorite canned or frozen veggies - I used some frozen butternut squash, corn, and carrots and a can of sliced potatoes in this one...sometimes I use peas, broccoli, all depending on our moods:); I also estimate the 16 oz, going a little over won't hurt, as long as it all fits in the size of your casserole dish:)

Really simple - using a casserole dish, pie dish, whatever you would like, as long as it's something around 8-9", roll out one of the pie crusts. And oh yes, preheat the oven to 400:) Combine all other ingredients in a bowl, stir them up, and then pour into that pie crust. Cover this mixture with the other pie crust, and bake for 35 minutes, or until the top crust is the color you like - we like it a little crispy, so I cooked it the full 35 minutes.

So yummy, so warm, and so comforting when you have a little cold:) Enjoy!