Chicken Pot Pie

The first time I made this I managed to get gravy EVERYWHERE. Don't do that. Pretty good recipe though to impress people with your grown-up cooking skills. 

Ingredients: 
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cooked and cubed  
1 cup sliced carrots 
1 cup frozen green peas 
1/2 cup sliced celery 
1/3 cup butter 
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery seed  
1 3/4 cups chicken broth  
2/3 cup milk 
2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.) 
2. In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside. 
3. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside. 
4. Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape. 
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving. 

Hippy Dippy Zesty Quinoa Salad

Dude, ever wanted to experiment with quinoa? It's the newest craze in Boulder man. It's a super dank, healthy super food that's technically a sort of a spinach seed. Om nom nom...

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 limes, juiced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1 1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
5 green onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 cup of feta cheese (optional)

Instructions:
1. Bring quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until quinoa is tender and water has been absorbed, 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

2. Whisk olive oil, lime juice, cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, and red pepper flakes together in a bowl.

3. Combine quinoa, tomatoes, black beans, cherry tomatoes and green onions together in a bowl. Pour dressing over quinoa mixture; toss to coat. Stir in cilantro; season with salt and black pepper. Throw in feta if desired.

4. Serve immediately or chill in refrigerator. Do not be surprised by the urge to wear chacos and play hackey sack.

Chicken Cortez

My personal contribution to the Green Chicken epidemic of junior year.

Ingredients

1lb Boneless, skinless chicken (chicken tenders work best)

1 can (12oz) of green enchilada sauce

Pepperjack Cheese

Cumin

Black Pepper

Cayenne or chili powder

Fresh Green Chili (optional)

Method

Cook chicken in pan until lightly browned and cooked 75% of the way through. Season chicken with spices such as cumin, pepper, and cayenne to personal taste. Pour green enchilada sauce over chicken and simmer for ~10 minutes with the pan covered. If you have green chili (or buy it in a can), slice and warm up the chili then place a slice on each of the pieces of chicken. Add extra chili (if you want) to the sauce. After the 10 minutes place slices of pepperjack cheese on each piece of chicken and allow them to melt.

Best served over brown or wild rice

Cardamom Bread

Here's the bread recipe that I used for our Fakesgiving dinner senior year. This recipe has been a requirement at every holiday meal in my house for as long as I can remember. The technical name for the bread is Swedish Sweet Bread with Cardamom. If you spread cranberry sauce on it, it is awesome :)

Ingredients

6 cups flour (preferably bread flour)

2 packages of active dry yeast

2+ tsp cardamom

2 tsp salt

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup butter

2 eggs

tap water

Method

Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and cut in the butter (butter should be room temp or cool, but NOT cold) until even. Add eggs. Add water a little at a time and mix with hands until a ball forms. Roll ball around bowl at least 25 times. Put ball in a plastic bag removing all air and put into a glass or metal bowl. Keep warm and allow to rise for about 30 minutes or until the size has doubled.

Knead the bread out and allow to rise again the same way. Knead again and braid loaves and place onto cookie sheet; allow to rise once more while covered with a towel.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Brush top with butter upon removal from oven and serve warm!

Puppy Chow

Delicious, easy and addictive. Plus you can make it in a microwave! DO NOT actually give this to puppies.

Ingredients:
9 cups of Chex
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth preferably)
powdered sugar.
Large ziploc bags

Instructions
Microwave chocolate chips and peanut butter together in a large bowl.
Take the melted chocolate and peanut butter out and throw in the Chex
Mix together till Chex is completely coated with chocolate

Throw this mess into large ziploc bags along with powdered sugar
Shake bags up heartily till all the Chex mix is covered.

Place bags in the fridge to cool.
When chocolate and peanut butter have hardened, take out of the fridge and start munching!

Scotch-a-Roos

Scotch a Roos

1 C Sugar

1 C Clear Corn Syrup

1 C Peanut Butter

6 C Rice Krispies

1 C Butterscotch Chips

1 C Chocolate Chips

Smear 9x13 pan with thin layer of butter.

Stir sugar and corn syrup in LARGE sauce pan.  Bring to a boil –cool slightly and stir in peanut butter.  Stir in Rice Krispies – spread in pan.

Melt Butterscotch and Chocolate chips together. (see note below)   Stir over Krispies mixture – cool and enjoy.

 To melt the chocolate mixture – microwave in glass measuring cup for small time increments on medium.  Stir every 20 seconds or so – it won’t look melted, but it will be. This mixture burns very easily and will get thick if it burns.

TC's Homemade Pizza