Creamy garlic parmesan chicken orzo with peas "dump meal"

 Another meal where I just dumped stuff (even frozen) into the pressure cooker and it came out so good!  And it was fast and easy.  

Hit Saute button, allow to heat fully. Then add:

1/4 c butter
1 box whole wheat orzo

Toast the orzo for about 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn off pot. 
Add:

1 onion, chopped
6-8 cloves garlic (2 tablespoons minced, can use frozen or adjust for taste) 
1 bag (16 oz) frozen peas
4 cups cooked, chopped chicken
1 tablespoon Bouquet Garni (Penzey's) or Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon garlic and herb seasoning
1 tsp salt
5 cups water

Stir. Close lid and lock seal.  Cook on high for 4 minutes.  After cooking time is over, slowly release the pressure. 

Add:
4 oz shredded or chopped parmesan cheese
4 oz of cream cheese, cut into little cubes.  

Stir well.  If it seems too thick, thin down with a bit of milk.  

Makes 8 servings.  

White chicken chili "dump" meal

 Dump all these things in the instant pot and push a couple buttons.  Dinner will be ready with almost no work for you! Just chop an onion, the rest is already done.  Great way to use up leftover chicken or turkey in the freezer!  

4 cups cooked leftover chopped chicken

4 cups cooked (or 2 cans) beans - preferably white beans but any will do (black, pinto, whatever)

1/2 jar salsa verde from Trader Joes (or sub your favorite or 1 cup homemade)

1 onion, chopped

1 bag frozen peppers (also from Trader Joes) - can sub with 2-3 peppers fresh

5 or 6 cloves garlic, minced (or frozen)

1 bag frozen corn (10-12 oz) 

3 cups of water or chicken broth

Spices: 

1 tsp each: salt, cumin, oregano, mild chili powder, Penzey's Arizona dreaming

1/2 tsp each: chipotle chili powder, cayenne, black pepper

Add all of the above to the pressure cooker pot.  Close and lock lid.  Cook on high for 5 minutes.

Let the pot depressurize for 10 minutes, then slowly release the pressure.  When safe, open lid. 

Add:

1/4-1/2 cup milk or half and half (honestly I didn't measure it, I just poured until it looked right) 

4 oz cream cheese, cut into small cubes. 

handful or two of chopped cilantro

Stir well and let sit a few minutes while you prepare the toppings.  Stir again before serving to make sure the cream cheese has melted and blended into the soup.

Toppings: Shredded cheese, green onions, tortilla chips, sour cream, jalapenos or poblanos, cilantro, avocado - pretty much anything you'd put on tacos or nachos! 

So good and so easy! 

It's been a year!

 It's been an entire year since I last posted. 

We are at the end of our kitchen renovation! It's been a grueling month long process but it's almost done and it looks great so far and will only look better when done. 

My Crockpot Express has been a lifesaver during the last month.  I did some prep for when we'd be without a kitchen.  I knew I couldn't handle the expense - financial or healthwise - of a month of takeout.  So this was our plan of meals.  I figured 2 per week would be enough, but we've been averaging only one per week. 

-Vietnamese pulled chicken with ramen (already made and in the freezer except the noodles)
-Creamy chicken orzo with peas - adding chicken to this recipe
-Sloppy Joes Plus with coleslaw
-Greek Harvest Grain bowls
-Southwest beef burrito bowls
-White chicken chili
-Pulled pork on buns or over rice
-Grilled sausage with air fryer potatoes

We so far have made most of the things on that list.  This week was creamy chicken orzo and I was very pleased by how it came out.  Last week's chili was also delish.  I modified those recipes a bit so I'll write them out here. 

Meal Plan for August 9-22

 Did a big grocery shopping run so made up a 2 week meal plan based on what I bought plus what is growing in the garden. It’s hot again so almost all of this will be made in the instant pot or grilled.

Meal Plan for 8/9-8/15

• Pasta with homemade meat sauce
• Greek Harvest Grain casserole (Harvest grain blend from Trader Joe’s, onions, spinach, feta and ground chicken) with cucumber & tomato salad
• Sauteed cabbage, potatoes and ham

Meal Plan for 8/16-8/22

• Sweet & Spicy chicken stir fry over rice
• Pork Chops with cauli-tator mash and veg
• Sloppy joes plus with veg

Also (for me) cold lunches of salad, crackers and cheese, and/or bean dip & veggies. I like a nice light lunch when it’s hot outside, and it keeps my meat consumption down.

Meal plan for 8/1-8/7

 It’s a cool (well, for the end of July) and rainy day, so I’ve been planning and prepping and cooking today. These are my favorite days to be in the kitchen. The garden is producing well and we have a ton of cucumbers, plus some peppers and tomatoes.

Meal plan for 8/1-8/7

Tonight - pizza with the leftover taco meat from the burrito boats as topping, along with some jalapeno and cheddar sausage. Taco pizza! Yum.
Rest of the week:
-Beef Fajitas
-Eye of the Goat beans cooked with smoked turkey leg, cucumber salad
-Rice mixed with the rest of the jalapeno sausage and some of the beans, corn, tomatoes and peppers.
-Grilled chicken drumsticks and Greek barley salad

Hooks: Summer 2020

My friend Lauren commissioned 3 of my HollyBearies bears.  

 Delphinium (Della)

Iris

Camellia

Books: Summer 2020

I've been reading quite a bit in quarantine! 

My sister had sent me a book called Matched, a YA dystopian romance by Ally Condie.  It sounded like a fun beach read so I grabbed it for my beach day.  I ordered the rest of the trilogy on Paperback Swap and read those too.  Not bad, but the last book was a slow starter.  I liked the ending well enough though.  

I was doing a 10 book challenge on Facebook and looked through my bookshelves for inspiration, and saw Alanna, the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce.  I LOVED these books, the Song of the Lioness series, when I was a kid.  I had the first book, which I had found randomly at a used book sale.  I read it in a day or 2 and tried to find the rest.  No luck at the library. New set would cost over $40 on Amazon.  Luckily for me someone posted them on Paperback Swap soon after and I got them.  Yay! So I plowed through the other 3 in less than a week.  Such a fun series.  I have another set of books (only 2 in that set) by the same author about Alanna's daughter, so that's been put on my to read list.  

Yesterday I started another YA book, Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez.  It hasn't really grabbed me so far but I'll give it more time before I decide to give up.  

Meal Plan for July 26-Aug 1

Breakfasts: banana granola pancakes, cereal or overnight oats

Lunches/Dinners: 

-kebabs - citrus aleppo marinated chicken & veggies, cooked on the grill

-caprese pasta salad (vegetarian)

-taco zucchini boats 

-venison roast in the crockpot, mashed potatoes, carrots. 

-orange chicken - (marinade of citrus, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes) and broccoli stir fry over brown rice ramen noodles (used this recipe as a basis)

Another hot week.  Tried to minimize the oven.  Taco zucchini boats were new recipe and they were really good.  Basically just basic taco filling plus black beans and corn.  I meal prepped in advance by making the filling and scooped out the zucchini (don't forget to cook the zucchini you scooped out with the filling!).  Then my husband filled up the zucchini, covered them with cheese and baked it on 350 for 20 minutes.  Came out great. We have leftover filling which is perfect over chips for nachos. 

Meal Plan July 8-15

 Well in true Greek fashion we made entirely too much food for the 4th. So we have been eating leftovers from that all week. But it’s finally run out and it’s a cool and rainy day, so time for some meal prep.

• Fish tacos and calabacitas

• Cheesy Taco Mac - can’t say turkey as I don’t have any so I’m using ground beef. I’ll have to tweak it a bit but it looked so good.

• Rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes, broccoli

• Chicken stir fry over rice

Meal Plan for June 22-28

 Well summer has arrived! School is out and it’s hot, so less cooking for me.

Meal Plan for June 22-28

Breakfasts: Muffins pulled from the freezer, cereal

Lunches/Dinners:

• Fish sticks, mac & cheese, veg (air fryer and Instant Pot FTW!)

• Grilled pork chops, polenta w/ spinach

• Sloppy joes plus and salad

• Rotisserie chicken from Costco, baby carrots, “baked” aka microwaved potatoes

• Maybe takeout to celebrate the end of the school year in lieu of our traditional dinner out