Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

Happy Monday! Today I'm going to share with you a simple chicken pot pie recipe that I learned from Kelly Marie over on YouTube. I slightly altered from how Kelly made hers but I really love how they came out! I ended up making enough for two pies but I will list everything as if you are going to make one pie to make it easier.

If you check out Kelly's recipe you'll notice I made my chicken differently and I didn't include a veggie that she did but I was pleased with how mine came out so you could really do it either way, or change it up and make it your own!

Here's what you'll need: 

Frozen pie crust 

Rolled pie crust

1/4 cup peas

1/4 cup carrots

1/4 cup onions

1/4 cup potatoes

1/4 cup celery

1/4 cup corn (I cut mine right off the cob)

2 cups shredded chicken

1 Tbsp minced garlic

Can of cream of chicken soup

1/4 cup whole milk

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil (Tbsp)

(All veggies should be cut up into small pieces. I made mine super small due to my preference)

So I immediately got to boiling. I cut up my potatoes and carrots and tossed them on the stove in boiling water. I added the peas and corn as well. 

In a separate pot of boiling water I boiled a chicken breast with some salt and pepper until I could shred the meat easily.

I laid out my pie crusts so they would thaw a little bit before needing them.

In a big pot I began to sauté the celery in olive oil. After a couple of minutes I added the onions and continued to sauté them. After another couple of minutes I added in my minced garlic.

I strained all the veggies I boiled and then shredded all the chicken.

After a couple of minutes of the garlic in there I added everything else into the pot. All the veggies, chicken, milk, and the cream of chicken soup. I also put in salt and pepper. I didn't measure that out, I just did it based on what I thought would taste good.

After five minutes of letting this all cook I scooped the mixture out and put it in my pie crust.

I took the rolled pie crust and placed it over the top, cut off the excess and then pinched the sides to close it.

Here are my pies ready to go into the oven!

I poked holes on top and placed them in the oven for 30 minutes on 350*

Sophie was very interested!

It came out smelling great! After the 30 minutes, let it sit for a few minutes and then dig in!

This was such an easy recipe, there was just a lot of prep work cutting up and preparing all the veggies. Kelly made seven pies in her video and she freezes them for easy meals which I think is a wonderful idea! I made both and cooked them immediately knowing that we can easily eat them for lunch and dinner throughout the week. 

I love Kelly's videos, particularly all of her cleaning motivation videos and you should 100% go check out her channel!

Let me know if you try out this recipe!

Easy Christmas Bark Recipe

Today I have my work Christmas party and as part of my contribution I made Christmas Bark. It's a super easy recipe that I found on Pinterest and adjusted slightly to fit my taste so I thought I'd share it with all of you in case you are looking for something really easy to bring to your holiday party this year.

Here's what you will need:

Baking Pan (I used a cookie sheet)

Tin Foil

Chocolate Chips (3 cups)

Shortening ( 2 Tbsp)

Pretzels (I purchased the mini pretzels and crushed them up)

M&Ms

Christmas sprinkles

**Note: You can really include anything in the bark. The original recipe I found had peanuts, but I don't like peanuts mixed with chocolate (I know I'm weird!) so I didn't include them. You could certainly include different candies other than M&Ms this is just what I used!**

First, I lined my cookie sheet with tin foil.

Ready to get started.

I took my three cups of chocolate chips (I had a little bit over the three cups, but I just used an entire bag of Nestle chocolate chips and it all fit on the baking sheet.

I poured these into a microwaveable bowl and heated the chocolate up in one minute increments. After two minutes I just did a final thirty seconds to finish melting the chocolate. You'll want to stir each time and you'll know it's done when the chocolate is smooth.

The length of time will depend on your microwave so keep an eye on your chocolate!

Next, add in your shortening and microwave in ten second increments until smooth. Mine took 20 seconds and it was good to go!

Next,  pour your chocolate onto your cookie sheet and start adding your extras.

I used red and green M&Ms.

These are the mini pretzels I used.

These are the sprinkles I used. 

One of the tips I read was to make sure to press firmly down on everything that you put in the chocolate otherwise it would not stay when it firmed up. I pressed down on the M&Ms and pretzels and some were hidden inside the chocolate as well. I didn't press on the sprinkles though since they were so small it would've taken me forever.

Then it's time to let the bark firm up! I placed it in the fridge for two hours. 

Here is the end result:

Once the bark is firmed, just pull it apart into a bunch of smaller pieces! 

Overall, a super easy recipe!

Delicious French Onion Soup

If you've been reading along for some time now you definitely know I'm NOT a cook at all. I would much prefer to be scrubbing the kitchen rather then cooking in it!

However I decided to make a special dinner for Tim and I a few weeks ago. We both love French Onion Soup and order it quite often at restaurants so I decided to try to make it on my own!

Here are the ingredients I used:

1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups sliced onions
1 (10.5 ounce) cans beef broth
1 teaspoon dried thyme
a few shakes of salts and pepper
french bread
4 slices provolone cheese
2 slices swiss cheese


I loosely followed a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, however I found that I didn't use the parmesan cheese they recommended using.

1. First I melted the butter and olive oil in a pot on medium heat. Once those started melting I added in all the onions I had cut up. I stirred these for a few minutes until I felt the onions had been warmed up.

2. Next I added the beef broth (it was a TON of liquid) and thyme. I stirred those in and then shook some salt and pepper in as well. I'm not sure exactly how much I did put in but I added more salt then pepper.

3. I let that boil with the top on for a half hour.

4. While I waited for the half hour to pass I prepped my cheese and bread. For each piece of french bread I topped it with a slice of provolone cheese and a half a slice of cut up swiss cheese. I prepped this on a plate so they would be ready to go once my broth was done cooking.

5. After the half hour had passed I scooped broth into oven safe bowls and topped them with the bread and cheese.

6. I simply watched the bowls in order to see how long to keep them inside. I believe it was about 20 minutes for the cheese to melt and look about right.

It was absolutely delicious! Although it was a lot of work, I will make this recipe again, I did learn it's difficult to have after for leftovers because you have to do the bread and cheese part all over again each time. I am very pleased with this recipe and would highly recommend it!

What have you made in the kitchen lately?

Holiday Chocolate Fudge!

This is an easy recipe that would be great to bring to any holiday party (or any kind of party) you have going on! My mom taught me to make this, and we shared it with everyone on Christmas Eve- it was a hit! My favorite part? That it's super easy!

Here's what you will need:

A baking pan  (and tinfoil)

A mixing bowl

14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

12 oz bag of semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup of milk chocolate chips

1/4 cup of butter

1 tsp of vanilla

First, take a baking pan and cover it with tin foil.

Next, gather your ingredients, and a bowl to mix everything in.

Take your sweetened condensed milk and pour all of the can into your mixing bowl.

Take your 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and one cup of milk chocolate chips and put them in the same mixing bowl as your condensed milk.

Microwave on high for one and a half minutes. When you take it out of the microwave you should be able to mix up the chocolate chips and condensed milk nicely into a thick but melted concoction.

Once it is completely mixed (make sure you mix it REALLY well) you can add the vanilla. At this time if you wanted to add nuts you could as well. I don't like nuts in my fudge, so I just stick with plain chocolate fudge!

Smooth all of the fudge into your tin foil-covered pan until it is smooth across the top and everything is even.

Let your fudge chill in the fridge for at least two hours.

Finally it's time to taste test and cut everything up!

Then store it in the fridge until you're ready to serve!

This is really delicious fudge, my dad said that it tastes like a chocolate bar and I can't help but to agree! If you're looking for a seriously easy fudge recipe then this is definitely it!

Now a couple tips…

~Use Ghiradelli chocolate chips because they are the best! They truly make it a million times better.
~Mix everything really well- and if you need to put the chocolate chip/milk mixture back in the microwave that will okay, just don't put it in for too long!

If you make this recipe, let me know how it goes! =)

Have a great weekend everybody!

Hershey Kiss Christmas Treats!

Today, I'm sharing with you one of my favorite holiday treats!

My mom and I always team up to make these treats, and I love when we take the time to make them! They are so delicious- so of course I always "mess" a couple up so I can eat them!

Here's what you need:

Hershey Kisses

Red and Green M&M's

Square Pretzels

Here's the process:

Unwrap all of your hershey kisses.

Place the pretzels on a cookie tray and put a hershey kiss on top of each one.

Then place this in the oven at 200* for 10 minutes.

While you  wait you can pour out M&Ms onto a plate for quick access.

You can also unwrap some more hershey kisses if you are planning on making another batch.

When you take the pretzel hershey kisses out of the oven they should be shiny.

Carefully place an M&M onto each one.

Put them to cool on the counter, and then after a few minutes move them to the refrigerator for a few hours to cool down.

You can also do the same thing with Rolos! They are a little bit harder to put the M&Ms on because they are messier. But they taste just as good!

This year I made bags of these for co-workers. I personally would love to get a bag of these because they are so delicious! So get going into your kitchen and make these up for a special treat! Yum!

Have a great weekend!

My Buffalo Chicken Dip

Now for those of you who know me, you know that I am not a cook. At all.

I don't like to cook, I like to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen. Usually if I'm in the kitchen it's to microwave something and get back out as fast as possible. So when I actually cook something you better believe it's easy, simple and quick.

Today's recipe is something I've been making for a little over a year, and is one of my favorites! I've made this buffalo chicken dip for myself many times and also brought it to a few parties where it has been very well received!

Here are the ingredients you will need for this recipe:

2 (10 ounce) cans of chunk chicken
3/4 cup of Franks Red Hot (or other hot sauce)
1 cup of Ranch Dressing (I like Hidden Valley fat free)
2 (8 ounce) packages of Cream Cheese (I usually opt for fat free)
1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese (I usually go fat free on this too)
Your favorite tortilla chips (Personally, I think scoops are the best!)

You can adjust the amount of ingredients to make a serving size you find appropriate but I like to have extra to put in the fridge!

First thing I do is take my hot sauce and chicken and mix it together on the stove on medium heat. I mix it up and then let it heat up until I can see bubbles in the hot sauce.

Then I add my cream cheese and ranch dressing.

I mix everything together making sure it's super blended. I let it heat up until everything is super warm.

Then I add in my shredded cheese. I mix that in and then turn the heat down to low.

I let the dip simmer on low for 10 or so minutes...

Put some in a container for later...

and dig in!!!

Enjoy! =)

Oh we need a little Christmas....

Not that much longer till Christmas- I keep thinking that I only have to make it through 2 more weeks of work and then I will have some time off- I can't wait!!

You were probably wondering what I bought all of those hershey kisses and m&ms for during my coupon haul the other day... well I was making Christmas treats of course!

I've talked about these lovely treats before- my mom and I love making them because they are so easy! Simply buy pretzels, m&ms and hershey kisses. Place a hershey kiss on top of a pretzel on your baking tray and then place in the oven for 3 minutes at 225*. Immediately after taking them out of the oven, place your m&m on top of each creation. Then put them in the fridge so they firm up and then enjoy! Or give them to friends to enjoy!

They are easy to make and are going to be a great addition to my gifts for friends and co-workers!

My mom and I spent the greater part of yesterday afternoon making tray after tray of these (and eating a few along the way of course!) It is a fun thing to do with my mom and we always manage to get laughing as we try to put the m&ms as quick as possible and then are forced to eat the ones we mess up on. 

I also did a bit of coupon shopping at Rite Aid yesterday on my way home. Here's the haul:

Look how long that receipt is! I also placed in the envelope that I used to store my coupons while shopping- you can see how I had everything figured out in order for my transaction to work out like I planned! 

Here's what I did...

The carefree and OB products were $2.50 each and when you bought 2 you received 2 rewards dollars. I used $3 in coupons to bring my out of pocket total to $7. With the $4 in rewards I received- I really only spent $3 all on all four items- making them $0.75 each.

The windex was 2/$7. I used a $1 coupon which brought my price to $6. I got $3 in rewards back making each windex $1.50 each.

The scunci hair elastics were $2.79 but I had the in-ad coupon for $2 off. So they were $0.79.

That is all I planned on buying...but I saw the activity pads in the clearance bin and thought they would be perfect for the adopt-a-family. Guess how much they were each.... $0.50 each

So I spent $17.32 on my order out of pocket- but $1.53 of that was tax (which is 0.07% where I live) and I got $7 in register rewards- making my actual spending for all the items I bought $8.79.

Crazy right?!

If I hadn't purchased the activity pads on impulse- it would have been $6.79- but they were a good deal and well worth it to make a little kids Christmas!

Hope you all are having a great weekend! What have you been up to this weekend? Any exciting plans for today?

I am off to celebrate Christmas with one (possibly two) of my best friends tonight!

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate!

I had an amazing run today- I honestly didn't feel like it was that difficult. Maybe it was because of my running buddy...

Yeah no- not her.

She wouldn't make it 5 minutes =)

My daddy ran with me! He mostly walked, but it was nice when I ran to have somebody to walk back to and talk to during my workout! We talked about how we'd like to fix up our bikes and bike around the area. He also thinks that he could bike along beside me as I run-which would be nice! 

This is what todays run looked like:

5 minute warm up walk

3 minute run

2 minute walk

5 minute run

2 minute walk

5 minute run

2 minute walk

3 minute run

2 minute walk

5 minute cool down walk

I'm 1/2 to 5K!!!

My reward? A sweenor's chocolate bar! yum yum yum.

Then I got started baking with mom- ready to bake some more yummy treats.

I have a few events to go to this weekend, one of which being a Halloween party- so I attempted to make some witches hat that I saw on Pinterest! Aren't they cute?

All I needed for this recipe was: Keebler Fudge Strip cookies turned upside down, icing, and hershey kisses. No cooking involved= my favorite recipe!

And here are my finished treats- some with hershey kisses and some with rolos. Can't wait to bring these to the party!

It was definitely a chocolate filled morning/afternoon. Now I'm off to get a few more things done before I head off to work for the night!

Enjoy the rest of your Friday everybody!