What's for dinner?

OK, I have been terribly negligent about posting recipes lately ... you know, for all five of you who read this and the two of you who might care what I eat for dinner. So these are some of my favorite winter-time dinner recipes (separate soup blog coming up later ...)

Chicken Pot Pie
This is my ultimate comfort food - probably because it's my mom's recipe. Growing up, I often requested this for my birthday dinner. It's my go-to recipe when it's chilly out or I'm not feeling great. It's also one of my faves to take to friends with new babies or who have experienced a loss because it warms up easily in individual pieces and also freezes well. Eat your heart out.
2-3 chicken breasts, boiled 20-25 minutes and shredded or cut into bite-size pieces
2 deep dish frozen pie crusts, thawed for about 10 minutes
1 onion, chopped (I usually use about half of this)
4-6 mushrooms, chopped
1 can peas and carrots, drained
1/2 C milk (I use soy and it tastes just the same)
1/2 C chicken broth
2 T flour
Brown chopped onion and mushrooms in about 1 T butter or margarine (or soy substitute). When tender, add flour and mix well. Mixture will be gummy. Add the milk and broth, stirring constantly till mixture thickens - a few minutes. Add chicken, peas and carrots and salt and pepper to taste. Pour mixture into one pie shell and cover with the other shell - the steam will help pull it from the aluminum shell and then I use a fork to loosen further. Crimp the edges of the shells together with a fork and use the fork to place several holes in the top pie shell (If you're super cute like my mom, you make a heart or the initial of the person you're baking for :))/
Bake at 400 till brown - about 30 minutes.
Love to serve this with a spinach/strawberry salad or a fruit salad.

Fig and Prosciutto Pizza
This is adapted from one of our favorite pizza restaurants. And trust me, I never thought I'd like figs on pizza either. You will like it, even if your name is Jordan Page. This was a staple for me when I was breastfeeding and couldn't do dairy - non-dairy cheese is actually really, really good (Jordan even said better than the real stuff). So I felt like I could eat pizza even though the cheese was fake. :)
If you're feeling like you have an extra lot of time on your hands, here's my family's pizza dough recipe (I love this dough, but I'm more in love with saving time and buying pizza dough these days)
1 package dry yeast
2/3 C warm water
1 1/2 T olive oil
1/2 t sugar
1/8 t salt
1 1/3 C flour (I've used wheat flour and it's excellent)
Dissolve yeast in warm water and mix in other ingredients. It's sticky - coat your hands with flour for mixing and/or spreading onto cookie sheet or pizza stone. Brush the edges with olive oil (and I like to crimp the edges, too).
For the pizza, I spread the raw dough with olive oil and smashed or minced garlic. Poke several holes in the dough with a fork. Bake according to dough package directions for about 10 minutes, until a little brown around the edges (If you're using the homemade dough above, 400 degree oven).
Sprinkle on grated mozzerella cheese (about 2 cups), dried figs (remove stems and slice in half) and prosciutto to taste. Bake for another 5 minutes. Now here's the best part - serve slices topped with fresh arugula or spinach and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. I want to go make this pizza right now.

Pesto Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Y'all ... this is the BEST thing I've made in a long time. It was a Pinterest WIN. Jordan says it's restaurant quality. I never knew how much love I could have for Brussels sprouts. I roasted my sprouts with basil and parmesan olive oil and used my mom's homemade pesto on the pasta (which I promise to get the recipe for and post soon). I've never had chicken sausage either, and it was fabulous. I've used both rotini and bowtie pasta. Here's the link: http://piarecipes.blogspot.com/2012/10/pesto-pasta-with-chicken-sausage.html.

Baked Ziti
Another Pinterest win. Very easy and great comfort food. I'm cutting and pasting the recipe because the link is kinda wonky:

Must try! 3/4 bag ziti noodles,1 lb of ground beef, 1 pkg taco seasoning, 1cup water, 1/2 pkg cream cheese, 1 1/2 cup shredded cheese -- boil pasta until just cooked, brown ground beef & drain, mix taco seasoning & 1 cup water w/ ground beef for 5 min, add cream cheese to beef mixture, stir until melted & remove from heat, put pasta in casserole dish, mix in 1 cup cheese, top pasta/cheese with beef mixture & gently mix, top w/ remaining cheese, bake at 350* uncovered for 30 min

 

I used penne pasta (because it was in my pantry already - and it was a 1 lb bag so I used it all), and I would decrease the taco seasoning to 1/2-3/4 of a package - a little salty for my taste.

 

Roasted Garlic Broccoli

We had the Ziti with roasted garlic broccoli (God bless my coworker Lori for rekindling my relationship with broccoli with this recipe), and here's a Pinterest recipe for it: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/03/roasted-broccoli-with-smashed-garlic.html#more. Even if you don't think you love broccoli, please make this. Jordan is not a broccoli person (to put it lightly) and he LOVES this. Very similar to the Brussels sprouts above in the pesto/chicken sausage recipe.

 

I'm also very into roasting asparagus lately - very little drizzle of olive oil (too much will make it slimy) and sprinkle of kosher salt. I roast at 350 for about 20 minutes. Yum.