Chicken Pot Pie

Mmmmm! Chicken pot pie is comfort food at it's best. I made this tonight for our small group (a.k.a. Bible study group), and they loved it. This is also my go to for new moms. I generally use the easier recipe. I'm all about ease! This is a simple recipe that you can make as difficult as you'd like. I got this recipe from my church cookbook that I've had for years, and I love it!

Chicken Pot Pie - difficulty level 2

1 large or 2 small chicken breasts
1 can cream of potato soup (or cream of celery or chicken)
1 can Veg-All (mixed veggies) drained
1/2 can milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 pkg frozen pie crusts (should have 2 pie crusts included in package)

Boil chicken about 30 minutes then cube. While your chicken is boiling set out your pie crusts to begin to thaw. You'll place one crust upside down to thaw. Mix together all ingredients except for pie crusts. Pour mixture into one pie crust and top with the other. Crimp the edges with a fork or pinch the crusts together. Cut vents into top of pie crust.  Bake at 400 to 450 degrees until crust is a nice flaky golden brown, around 20 to 30 minutes.

Chicken Pot Pie - Difficulty level 3

1 large or 2 small chicken breasts
1 pkg frozen veggies (any kind you like)
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk divided
salt and pepper to taste
2 pie crusts (one for top and one for bottom)

Boil chicken with your frozen veggies about 30 minutes. Cube chicken when done. While your chicken is boiling melt your butter over medium-low heat. Stir in flour and keep stirring until it's nice and smooth. Remove from heat and add chicken broth and 1/2 milk in small increments while you stir. Make sure it stays smooth. Return to heat and bring to a gentle boil while you constantly stir until it thickens. Add chicken and drained veggies to your sauce along with 1/2 cup milk. Pour mixture into pie crust and top with another pie crust. Cut vents into top of pie crust. Bake at 400 to 450 until crust is a nice flaky golden brown around 20 to 30 minutes.


Chicken pot pie is a full meal in itself. You don't need to serve anything else with it. Chicken pot pie is not served like a tradition pie. You'll have to use a spoon to dip this recipe out of the pie pan. For our family of six I normally have to double this recipe. For our small group we made 4, but only 3 were eaten.


Kitchen tips: Pie crust crimping can be an art, as well as the venting. If you don't care how your pie looks, don't worry about taking the extra time. Just make sure it's pinched together. That will help the mixture inside not to spill out into the bottom of your oven.
If you want a pretty pie, use a fork to make a cute criss-cross design. You could also use your fingers to push it into a scalloped design.
If you want to make extra sure that you don't spill into the bottom of your oven, put your pie on a cookie sheet before cooking.

Y'all Enjoy!

Cinnamon Flop

When I cook breakfast I normally do something sweet to go along with our normal bacon, eggs, and fruit. Sometimes I'll do pancakes, or muffins, or homemade buttermilk biscuits drizzled with honey. Often times I'll make Cinnamon Flop. It's simple. It uses everyday ingredients that you already have in your home, and it's a great basic recipe that you can change to your heart's content. It's basically a coffee cake. You can make it for breakfast or take it to a friend's house for a chat over coffee.

I got this particular recipe from one of my church cookbooks.  If you don't have a church cookbook go to a thrift store or a garage sale and get one! They are priceless, especially the southern ones. Not that I'm biased or anything. So many of my recipes that I make come from recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation and then shared in a church fundraising cookbook. Yum!

Cinnamon Flop (Difficulty level 2.25)

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup milk
cinnamon to taste
1/2 stick of butter or margarine
1/4 c. brown sugar

Spray an 8 inch cake pan with cooking spray, and preheat your oven to 375. In a medium sized bowl combine your sugar and flour. I normally whisk it together and then use a wooden spoon for the rest of the mixing in this recipe. Add your milk, and stir it thoroughly. Pour batter into cake pan. Top with brown sugar, and sprinkle heavily with cinnamon. You can add more brown sugar if you think it needs it. Melt the butter. I normally melt it in my microwave for about 30 seconds, but you might want to cover it to keep it from making a mess. Pour the butter over the top. Don't worry if it doesn't completely cover the top of the batter. It'll work itself out while it cooks. Bake for 20 minutes. Top with powdered sugar, or a powdered sugar glaze, or don't top it at all. Cut and serve warm out of the pan. This is not one to flip over onto a cute plate. It will still to most cake pans because of the butter and melted sugar.

Variations: Throw 1/2 cup of raisins in the batter. Top with 1/2 cup or more of pecans or walnuts. Use cream cheese icing on top.

Kitchen tip: I have just found a new cooking spray with flour in it for baking, and I love it. You can find it at most stores now, and it's wonderful. Baker's choice has one as well as Pam. While the cinnamon flop will stick to the pan because of the butter and sugar, most other cakes or cookies won't.

Another Kitchen tip: If your brown sugar goes hard like mine did, there are a few methods to get it soft again. If you have a few days, put a couple of pieces of bread in your resealable bag or container. White bread is best for this. You'll find you have moist brown sugar and hard as a rock bread when you open it back up. If you need it moist now, put it in the microwave in a tupperware dish with a small bowl of water and heat for 1 minute at a time until it's moist again. Be careful, and watch it in the microwave because it could melt the sugar. After doing this mine when dry right after I had finished my recipe. That's probably because we're in Montana, and it's pretty dry right now. So I'll probably still put some bread in my container.

Y'all Enjoy!

Chili and Taco Soup

My parents visited us from Mississippi this last week (I am a displaced southern girl), and they got a taste of our wonderful Montana weather.  When they got here it was 80 degrees, but the last day they were here the high was in the 40's with snow.

As I look out my window right now it's spitting snow and the mountains are covered. I love this time of year. The cold is a great excuse to start cooking some yummy soups, stews, and chilis.

This post is a challenge to one of my friends who says she can't cook anything but hamburger helper. These recipes are as easy but far yummier than those types of meals. Another friend asked me to put a difficulty rating on my recipes, and I thought that was a great idea. She IS a wonderfully creative friend. :) So below I explain my difficulty ratings. Please keep in mind, I'm not a real foodie. I do not like to cook, but I loooove to eat. People just think I'm kind of good at cooking, so I'm passing along my easy but yummy recipes.

Difficulty Levels:

1 - Your hardest job might be to open a can.
2 - You might actually have to cook some meat and  use a mini food processor to chop some veggies
3 - You're going to chop veggies by hand. This level recipe will have several different steps, and will probably be my hardest type of recipe on this site. Though, I reserve the right to add difficulty ratings later. ;)

Keep in mind that you will get out of your food what you put in. If you use more canned stuff, it won't taste quite as good as fresh or frozen. However, it will still be pretty good.

With that said, let's get to cookin'.

Chili (Basic Recipe) difficulty level 2

1 1/2 lb.  to 2 lb of ground beef
1 onion chopped (use a mini food processor it saves a ton of time)
tsp minced garlic (the stuff in the jar)
2 (15oz) cans tomato sauce
2 (15oz) cans diced tomatoes with green chilis
2 (15 oz) cans kidney beans, drained (or chili beans)
2 Tbsp. chili powder
salt to taste

Brown your ground beef in your big soup pot with the onion and garlic.Drain the fat off the beef. Add tomato sauce, beans, diced tomatoes and green chilis, salt, and chili powder. If you want to keep the chili thicker don't add water. If you want it thinner add some water. Bring to a boil then lower, and simmer for at least 15 minutes.

I normally double this recipe for our family, but only use about 3 cans each of all the canned goods. Then we have some leftovers

Chili Recipe difficulty level 2.25

1 1/2 lb to 2 lbs of ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 or 2 red and green bell peppers chopped (you could choose to use jalapenos instead)
4 garlic cloves (crushed or chopped)
2 (15oz) cans of tomato sauce
2 (15oz) cans kidney beans (or use dry and follow package directions for cooking)
Stewed tomatoes (about the same amount as the 2 15oz cans)
Corn frozen or canned to taste (optional)
2 Tbsp. chili powder
Salt to taste

Put your onion, peppers, and garlic cloves in the mini food processor until chopped, or chop them by hand if that's what you would prefer.

 Put them in with your ground beef and brown. Drain the fat from the ground beef. Add the rest of your ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Or put it in your crock pot on low for about 4 to 6 hours. (Our tomatoes , onion, and peppers that we use for this recipe were grown in our garden. This is shown in the picture below)

Taco Soup

Use the Chili Recipe difficulty level 2.25 and use Taco Seasoning instead of Chili seasoning. You could make your own taco seasoning if you want to keep all the preservatives out. There are several recipes on the internet. Check pintrest for one. Also a great alternative for ground beef in this recipe is shredded chicken, or if you're a vegetarian go without any meat. See kitchen tips from my Cheesy Chicken Noodle Soup recipe for tips on how to cook your chicken. I double this one as well.

Serve all of the above with Sour Cream, shredded cheese, crackers, and Fritos, or if you're really southern serve it with corn bread.




Kitchen Tips: You can always use fresh, frozen, or dried ingredients in place of canned ingredients. You just have to know how to cook them before you put them in your soup or stew. Most fresh and frozen ingredients can just be added straight to your dish, but they tend to be more expensive. You just might need to cook it a bit longer. Dry ingredients will add a good deal of time to your recipe cook time, but they tend to be the cheapest. Canned ingredients are a good middle of the road approach as far as expense, but they don't have the great nutritional value of the frozen or fresh ingredients.

Another Kitchen Tip: Cook twice the amount of ground beef with the veggies. Put one half in a freezer bag and freeze for the next time you cook this meal. Take out of the freezer and let thaw. Most of your real work will be done for you.

If you've made it this far in the post, congratulations! That was a long one to get through, but you get two recipes with different difficulty ratings. Y'all enjoy!