Slow Cooker Upside Down Chicken Pot Pie

You'll find the recipe here.

I used chicken breast instead of chicken thigh as I'm not a fan of thigh meat, or any meat that's still on the bone really.  I used 4 breast (that were thawed), and cooking on low after 8 hours I was able to pull the chicken to shred it, put it back in with the gravy and added the vegetables.  The chicken to veggie ratio, in my opinion, was a little off.  If you had used 3 breast with the 12 oz bag of veggies you'd probably be okay, my suggestion would be to use 2 bags of veggies with 4 chicken breast since for such a small additional cost and no additional time to cook you could make a much heftier batch to use with some left overs.  I have yet to make the biscuits to put in with it, but I think some awesome brown and serves would go well with this if you wanted to avoid biscuits from scratch.  Otherwise perhaps some Pillsbury crescent rolls or grands flaky biscuits would go pretty well with it also.

Total time for prep was 10-15 minutes so easy enough to put on in the morning when you're on your way out the door.  If you'll be home all day though be warned, your house is going to smell like Thanksgiving amazingness from the chicken and gravy going.  Yummmmm.

Chicken Taco Chili

So tonight was a new recipe night.  Coming to the tale end of pregnancy and I've decided that cooking nightly just doesn't appeal.  So, a large batch of something in the crock pot that I can reheat throughout the week is definitely where it's at.  Tonight's recipe was Chicken Taco Chili, found here.

Most definitely pretty amazing.  I made it without the chili peppers...my heart burn thanks me for it.  And I opted out of the cilantro.  Once it was done though, I did add some cheese, sour cream, and crushed up tortilla chips.  I used 4 chicken breast instead of 3 since mine came in 2 packs.  Hindsight...3 is definitely the limit, otherwise make sure you add some extra corn and beans.  I also think next time around I'll add some lime juice for some flavor since I opted out of the chili peppers or cayenne.  All in all though, crazy awesome, and super easy if you use frozen corn, frozen diced onion, and I even put the chicken breast in frozen.  How wrong can you go with that?  No thawing, no dicing, no precooking... I think the hardest thing I did was measure 1 TBSP of each of the 2 spices.  And at 10 hours on low you can SO throw it in first thing in the morning and have dinner ready by the time you get home from your daily activities!

The last applesauce recipe you'll ever need...until I tweak it some more!

So, in preparation for miss Lyla's arrival I've taken to doing some major bulk cooking and then freezing so it's less prep and work once she's here.  Today's prep?  Aside from the start of some frozen fruits for smoothies, tonight was applesauce night.

Because my midwife has told me I need to get more protein in my diet, I've been eating cottage cheese lately.  As a kid I remember my mom cutting up apple slices and dipping them in the cottage cheese, sometimes she'd put some banana in too.  So, when the need came for more protein I took up my mom's habit (which I later discovered her mother-in-law taught her).  Problem is, when you're eating an apple a day (which when you're pregnant does not, in fact, keep the doctor away) you can only eat so many red delicious apples before they just lose all appeal.  As a kid I was only introduced to red delicious and granny smith...the latter of which I couldn't stand.  As an adult I discovered there's way more out there for apples and decided that so long as I have to eat one a day anyway, I might as well start testing out the various types available at my local grocery store.  After a few weeks of apple testing, and armed with my new knowledge of apples, I decided to mix it up and make my normal applesauce recipe with something other than my tried and true red delicious.  The result? A mouth watering blend of amazing flavors and a house that smelled like fall should.  ...A house that might have given my grandma's a run for her money!