Hearty Chickpea Potpie

Ingredients

  • 1 pkg. (14.1 oz.) refrigerated pie pastry
  • 3 Tbsp. butter (we used salted butter)
  • 1 cup diced onions (we used yellow onions)
  • 1 cup diced celery
  • 1 cup diced carrots
  • 1 cup diced potatoes
  • 1 cup (4 oz.) frozen peas, thawed
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. poultry seasoning
  • ½ tsp. ground turmeric
  • ¼ tsp. salt (we used kosher salt)
  • ¼ tsp. pepper (we used freshly ground black pepper)
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 can (15 oz.) chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Directions

  1. Move your oven rack down lower (we went for the shelf directly below the middle) and preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Take a 9-inch pie plate out and unravel one of the pastry sheets onto it. Cut off any extra pastry that’s extending beyond the rim. Line the pastry with parchment paper, filling the bottom portion with pie weights or dried beans (we used dried lentils that we had on hand). Stick the pie plate in the oven to cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until the edges of the pie pastry have a light golden brown appearance. Take the paper and weights out, sticking the pie plate back in the oven for an additional 5 minutes. Place the plate on a wire rack to cool.
  2. While the pie pastry’s cooling, take a large skillet out and add the butter to it, setting the heat to medium. Once the butter’s melted, toss in the onions, celery and carrots, cooking for 5 minutes. Now add in the potatoes and peas, cooking for 5 to 7 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Whisk in the following ingredients, turning the heat up to medium-high afterwards: flour, poultry seasoning, turmeric, salt and pepper. Now whisk in the broth, bringing the mixture to a boil. Continue cooking for another 4 to 6 minutes or until the mixture looks like it’s thickened up, stirring constantly during that time. Turn the heat down, stirring in the chickpeas afterwards. Take the skillet off the heat now.
  3. Place the skillet mixture in the cooled crust. Unravel the other pastry sheet and place it over the filling. Trim off any pastry extending beyond the rim and cut a few slits in the top pie dough.
  4. Stick the pie in the oven for 15 minutes or until the pie crust on top looks golden. Let the pie cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 servings.

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This really was a hearty, filling dish that’s perfect for eating on a cold day. The top pie crust didn’t look as golden all over as we wanted it to but when we ate it, it felt like it was cooked through. It never said anything about changing the oven rack but that’s what we had to do in order to get some color (we had to move it onto the middle rack to get any golden look to the pie crust). After the top pie crust had been cooking for at least 30 minutes, we pulled the potpie out in fear that we were going to burn the bottom or totally dry the dish out.

We got this recipe from Taste of Home.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Taste of Home.

Take care everybody !

Southwest-Style Egg Rolls with Southwest Sour Cream Dip

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup olive oil (we used extra-virgin olive oil)
  • ¼ cup chopped green onion
  • 8 cups fresh baby spinach
  • 1 cup frozen corn
  • 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
  • ½ teaspoon salt (we used Kosher salt)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 6 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (we used closer to 8 oz. of pepper jack cheese)
  • 1 (14-oz.) package egg roll wrappers
  • Vegetable oil for frying
  • Southwest Sour Cream Dip
    • 1 (16 oz.) container sour cream
    • 4 teaspoons lime zest
    • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
    • 3 tablespoons minced chipotle peppers
    • 2 tablespoons adobo sauce (from the can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce)
    • ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt

Directions

  1. Pour the olive oil into a skillet and set the heat to medium. Once the oil’s hot, add in the green onions and cook just long enough for them to get tender. Add in the spinach, corn, black beans, and lime juice to the skillet. Mix in the salt and ground cumin, taking the skillet off the heat and stirring in the cheese afterwards.
  2. Take ¼ cup of the skillet mixture and place it in the middle of an egg roll wrapper. Fold in the sides of the wrapper and roll it up, applying a small amount of water to the wrapper up afterwards. Repeat until the filling is used up.
  3. Using a large heavy skillet (we used a Dutch oven), pour in enough vegetable oil to fully cover the egg rolls once they’re in there, setting the heat to medium-high. Once the oil’s hot, place a few egg rolls in at a time, cooking until they look golden-brown all over. Take the egg rolls out and place them on a paper towel-lined plate.
  4. While the egg rolls are resting on a plate, make the dip by simply taking a mixing bowl out and stirring the Southwest Sour Cream Dip ingredients together until combined. Serve immediately.

Yields 13 egg rolls (could’ve been 14 but we taste tested the filling a few times).

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This was a delicious combo. We did have to look up instructions on how to roll an egg roll because ours just didn’t look right based off their instructions. This was our first time actually making egg rolls so not all of the egg rolls came out looking pretty but it got the job done. We’ll get better at making egg rolls though, we just need more practice. The egg rolls tasted good on their own and were surprisingly filling but the dip that we thought up ourselves makes it taste even better ! In the dip you’ll taste smokiness and spiciness from the chipotles and adobo sauce and some tang from the lime zest. The cumin also adds some depth to the dip. The spiciness is enough to notice but not overpower the flavors in the dip.

The egg roll recipe came from Allrecipes but the dip was our own creation.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Allrecipes.

Take care everybody !

Teriyaki Tempeh

Ingredients

  • 1 pkg. organic tempeh
  • 1 Tbsp. olive or coconut oil (we used extra-virgin olive oil)
  • Tempeh Marinade
    • 3 Tbsp. vegetable broth
    • 1 Tbsp. tamari (or soy sauce if not gluten-free) (we used reduced-sodium soy sauce)
    • ½ tsp. garlic powder
    • ¼ tsp. onion powder
  • Teriyaki Sauce
    • 4 Tbsp. tamari (or soy sauce if not gluten-free) (we used reduced-sodium soy sauce)
    • 1 tsp. sesame or olive oil (we used toasted sesame oil)
    • 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
    • 1 tsp. sriracha or hot sauce (we used sriracha)
    • 1 tsp. rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar (we used rice wine vinegar)
    • ½ tsp. garlic powder
    • ½ tsp. cornstarch
    • ¼ tsp. liquid smoke-optional (we used mesquite liquid smoke)
  • Toppings (optional but we did use them)
    • Sesame seeds (we used roasted sesame seeds)
    • Scallions

Directions

  1. Cut the tempeh into triangles or squares (we cut the tempeh into triangles and got 4 pieces from the slab). You can choose to steam the cut pieces in a steamer basket for 10 minutes but we didn’t.
  2. Take a bowl out and mix together all the marinade ingredients in it.
  3. Add the tempeh to the bowl and toss to coat in the marinade. Let it marinate for a minimum of 20 minutes*.
  4. Take a pan out and pour the olive oil in. Once the oil’s hot, add the tempeh into the skillet to cook for 3 to 5 minutes per side or until crispy (4 minutes did the job for us). The original recipe never says what the heat should be set to but we set ours to medium.
  5. While the tempeh is getting crispy, take a large bowl out and mix the teriyaki sauce ingredients together in it.
  6. Once the tempeh is finished getting crispy, take it out of the skillet and place it in the teriyaki sauce, tossing to coat on all sides.
  7. Take the tempeh out of the teriyaki sauce (leaving the remaining sauce in the bowl) and put it back in the hot pan.
  8. Cook the tempeh for about 30 seconds on each side just long enough to caramelize the teriyaki sauce coating the tempeh. Turn off the heat and pour what’s left of the teriyaki sauce from the bowl into the pan. Leave the sauce alone for a minute or so to allow it to thicken up a bit.
  9. Serve the tempeh and top with the sesame seeds and scallions.

*We chose to mix the marinade in a resealable bag and add the tempeh in, tossing to coat. We put the tempeh in the refrigerator while it marinated.

Serves 2 (or 4 smaller portions).

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We’ve tried this recipe using tamari instead of soy sauce but it was just too salty. It’s still a little salty using the reduced-sodium soy sauce but at least the saltiness can actually be balanced with the scallions. We ate this dish with a side of Asian Cabbage Slaw and thought the two dishes complemented each other.

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !

Mongolian Beef

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp. lower-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tsp. sugar
  • 1 tsp. cornstarch
  • 2 tsp. dry sherry (we used sherry cooking wine)
  • 1 tsp. rice vinegar
  • 1 tsp. sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste)
  • ¼ tsp. salt (we used kosher salt)
  • 2 tsp. peanut oil
  • 1 Tbsp. minced peeled ginger
  • 1 Tbsp. minced fresh garlic
  • 1 lb. sirloin steak, thinly sliced across the grain (we used 1 lb. of stir-fry beef)
  • 16 medium green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces
  • Rice noodles, for serving (Just because of our budget, we used white rice that we had on hand rather than buy rice noodles)
  • 2 tsp. hoisin sauce
    • ¼ cup soy sauce (we used reduced-sodium soy sauce)
    • 2 Tbsp. molasses
    • 1 clove garlic, minced
    • 1 Tbsp. peanut butter (we used Skippy creamy peanut butter)
    • 1 Tbsp. Sriracha sauce
    • 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
    • 1 Tbsp. sesame seed oil (we used toasted sesame seed oil)
    • 1 Tbsp. water
    • ½ tsp. Chinese five-spice powder

Directions

  1. Start off by making the hoisin sauce. Take a saucepan out and add all the hoisin sauce ingredients into it, setting the heat to medium. Constantly stir the ingredients until the peanut butter and molasses have blended into the sauce. Take saucepan off the heat and let it cool at room temperature for 5 minutes.
  2. In a small mixing bowl, add the following ingredients, stirring until smooth: soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, dry sherry, rice vinegar, sambal oelek, salt, and 2 teaspoons of the hoisin sauce you just made.
  3. Take a large nonstick skillet out and pour the oil in, setting the heat to medium-high. Once the oil’s hot, toss in the ginger, garlic and beef, cooking for 2 minutes or until the beef is browned*. Add the green onions in, stirring frequently for 30 seconds. Pour the soy sauce mixture into skillet, stirring constantly for 1 minute or until the sauce has thickened**.

*The beef for some reason seemed to be getting boiled rather than sautéed so we drained the oil when there was 30 seconds to a minute left on the cook time and continued cooking afterwards.

**The sauce seemed to get absorbed by the beef and green onions before it even had a chance to thicken but we still stirred the mixture around for a minute so the beef could get a little sear on it.

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This was a tasty dish that became even better with a little bit of extra hoisin sauce drizzled onto the individual servings.

Recipe source unknown.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Skippy.

Take care everybody !

Sticky Orange-Glazed Chicken Thighs

Ingredients

  • 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
  • Coarse salt and pepper (we used Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper)
  • 1 cup thawed orange juice concentrate (we used pulp-free orange juice concentrate)
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
  • 4 teaspoons white-wine vinegar
  • 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 teaspoons hot sauce (we used Sriracha)

Directions

  1. Move your oven rack into the upper third (we just moved our rack up one from the middle) and preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Take a rimmed baking sheet out (we lined ours with aluminum foil) and place the chicken on it, skin side down. Season the thighs with salt and pepper and stick the baking sheet in the oven for 45 to 50 minutes (we cooked ours for 50 minutes) or until the chicken’s fully cooked, flipping halfway through.
  2. While the chicken’s cooking, take a medium saucepan out and add 1 teaspoon of salt, the orange juice concentrate, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire and the hot sauce, stirring to combine. Turn the heat up just enough for the mixture to simmer and let it cook for 18 to 20 minutes or until the mixture has thickened up.
  3. Heat the broiler. Place the chicken in a large bowl, pouring the glaze mixture over it, tossing to coat. Drain off the fat from the baking sheet before returning the chicken to it (we placed the chicken facing skin side up on the sheet and spooned the leftover glaze from the bowl over the chicken afterwards). Stick the chicken in the oven for 1 to 2 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the chicken looks dark brown in spots.
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This was a delicious dish. We did run into some trouble flipping the chicken over with some of the skin sticking to the foil but skin or no skin, it still came out great.

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !