Friday Favorites (11/7/14)

I know... I've been most irregular with posting lately. We've had a lot going on. (I know, who doesn't?!) 

I'm going to post a few favorites from last week along with this week. 

Rush's 5th birthday!

We went to Jump Jam, an indoor tramping park, and had a great time!

Friday was our church fall festival. The weather was TERRIBLE, but the kids still had a great time. 

Saturday, we had a party for Rush, and it SNOWED! We had lots of fun hanging out with family and friends. 

In our small group Bible study on Sunday morning, we discussed the first chapter of our new study A Couple After God's Own Heart. It was based on Adam and Eve and what they did to fail one another in their marriage and how they moved on.

Having freezer meals ready to go!

Since last weekend we've had veggie soup with cornbread muffins, chicken enchiladas with brown rice, and baked ziti with steamed broccoli. It has been so freeing already having dinner ready ahead of time!

Exercising!

I had been taking it easy for the last month because I was pregnant and not feeling very well. Then we had our first ultrasound at 8 weeks and discovered that I was experiencing a type of miscarriage called a blighted ovum. I won't go into details, but I did have to have outpatient surgery two weeks ago, and I am finally feeling like myself again this week! I have exercised almost every day! Here is my workout that I did on Wednesday night on our church's indoor track:

During the miscarriage, my sweet mother-in-law got me a gift card to the spa. I am going to use it today, and I'm so excited! I'm getting a one hour facial and spa pedicure!

I'm excited about the weekend, especially Sunday. We are studying Abraham and Sarah in class, and our pastor will be starting a new sermon series on Psalm 107. I'm also looking forward to choir Christmas music practice tomorrow morning.

I hope you make time with God a priority this weekend (and every day)!

Thanks for stopping by and catching up!

What are you learning through the Bible currently?

Just curious: what's your favorite Christmas song? (I can't pick just one!)

Freezer Meal Recipes

My sister and I have finally "buckled down" and followed through with making freezer meals to swap with each other. She is a wife to a college pastor/teacher/coffee roaster and busy mom of three with not much time to plan and cook dinner for every night of the week. And don't we all struggle to make time for meal planning and grocery shopping AND getting it on the table?! No matter the phase of life we might be in, this is a chore that is hard to do sometimes. So we decided to plan ahead.

We discussed what meals we could make that would freeze well and be generally healthy. We talked about how many meals to make and how many duplicates of each meal we should make. We decided that for us (two families with two young kids plus one infant), 16 meals for each family would be enough to get us through the month by eating leftovers occasionally and possibly making a non-pre-planned meal or two late in the month (it's our first time, so we'll see!). We each made four duplicates of four different meals. I chose spinach and ricotta stuffed shells, chicken pot pie (my own recipe), quiche, and crockpot vegetable beef soup. My sis made chicken enchiladas, chicken and corn chowder, red beans and rice with sausage, and baked ziti. We kept two of each dish that we made and swapped the other two, giving each family two of eight different meals for the month. Score!

Here are my recipes:

Broccoli Pesto Sundried Tomato Quiche

Crockpot Vegetable Beef Soup

Spinach and ricotta stuffed shells by Brittany at A Healthy Slice of Life

Chicken Pot Pie (recipe below)

Southern Biscuit-Topped Chicken Pot Pie (Freezer-Friendly)

by April Mills

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 1 hour

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Ingredients (6-12 adults)

For the biscuit topping

• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

For the filling

• 1 lb. cooked and shredded chicken breasts
• 1/2 onion diced
• 2 cans unsalted mixed vegetables (or small bag frozen), (or fresh chopped and blanched veggies)
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (optional)
• salt and pepper
• Homemade condensed cream of chicken "soup" (recipe below)

Condensed Cream of Chicken "Soup"

• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. onion powder
• 1/8 tsp. celery seed (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. dried thyme

Instructions

Poach the chicken by bring it to a boil, then simmering for 15-20 minutes.

While the chicken is simmering, get your creamy "soup" going:

Add chicken stock to a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat.

In a separate bowl, whisk together milk and flour until the flour is dissolved.

Slowly pour the milk mixture into the boiling chicken stock, whisking to combine. Whisk in remaining seasonings. Reduce heat to medium, and bring the mixture back to a very low boil, stirring constantly so that the bottom of the pan does not burn. Let the mixture boil for about 3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Set aside until ready to use.

Once the chicken is cooked through, let cool slightly, then shred to desired texture. (I use my paddle attachment in my stand mixer to shred the chicken- it's amazing!

If you plan to cook the pie immediately, go ahead and pre-heat your oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the shredded chicken, homemade soup, diced onion, and veggies. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour mixture into a 9x13" casserole.

Sprinkle the shredded cheddar cheese on top of the chicken mixture. Rinse out the mixing bowl to use for biscuit dough.

Make the biscuit topping:

In the mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the melted butter and milk just until combined.

Pour the biscuit dough evenly along the center of the chicken mixture and shredded cheese. Use a spatula to spread the dough evenly over the entire pie.

To freeze for later, wrap thoroughly in foil, and freeze.

Thaw in refrigerator the night BEFORE you plan to bake the pot pie.

Bake at 350°F for 1 hour.

Enjoy!

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This pot pie is cold-weather comfort food at its finest! I also have an emotional attachment to this meal because my mom used to make a similar recipe when I was growing up. I hope you enjoy it too.

Check back for more recipes soon!