One Pot Chicken Pot Pie Noodles

We've been trying lots of one-pot dishes lately to minimize clean up. My kids love this one! It's a win for the whole family, super easy, and hearty. It has the flavors of chicken pot pie without the extra work. You can check out the Life Made Simple blog for the original recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie Noodles

500g chicken breast

2 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, diced

4-6 local celery stalks, diced with leaves

2 carrots, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups water

2 chicken stock cubes

1 cup milk

1 cup cream

Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp ground sage*

1/4 tsp chili flakes

1/4 tsp paprika

250g pasta (small shapes)

1-2 cups frozen peas, thawed**

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Pie crust crumbles (optional)

Heat butter over medium heat in a large pot or Dutch oven. Fillet and season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken pieces in the pan until browned on both sides and cooked through. Remove from heat and allow the meat to rest 5 minutes before cutting into small pieces. Meanwhile, add the onion, carrots, and celery to the pan. Cook for 5-7 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the water, stock cubes, milk, and cream and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium, then add the cut chicken pieces, garlic powder, thyme, sage, chili flakes, paprika, and pasta. Cook for 12-18 minutes on medium to low (you don't want an aggressive boil, but enough to cook the pasta). Add the peas and parsley to the pasta and cook until the pasta is tender. The sauce should be getting thicker, but not dry so you may need to cover it from time to time. As it cools, it will thicken a bit more. Top bowls of hot noodles with pie crust crumbles.

*You can substitute rosemary or extra thyme here if you don't have sage. I used 4 fresh sage leaves.

**The original recipe calls for 1 cup peas and 1 cup corn, but that's too starchy for my taste so I use double the peas.

Note: The first time I made this I didn't have any cream so I used all milk. It didn't adversely affect the flavor, but it just wasn't as creamy so you can definitely just use milk in a pinch.

One Pot Goulash

I love dishes that can be prepared in one pot. This one comes together really easily and tastes great!

Easy One Pot Goulash

One Pot Goulash

500 g ground beef, pork, or chicken

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups water

1 can tomato puree (standard can--not the big one)

1 can tomatoes*

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

250g uncooked pasta (macaroni or spirals)

1 cup cheese, shredded

In a large pot, brown meat over medium heat, breaking it into small pieces. Stir in onions and garlic and cook until translucent. Add water, tomato puree, tomatoes, soy sauce, oregano, basil, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Stir together just to mix. Bring up to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover with lid, and cook 20 minutes**, stirring occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom. Add in pasta, cover, and cook on low until pasta is soft. Remove from heat, throw away the bay leaf, sprinkle with cheese, and stir everything together.

Notes:

* With canned tomatoes, I just stick scissors into the can to quickly chop them a bit smaller, nothing fancy. Cans with large tomatoes are the easiest to find and cheapest so this is an easy workaround. 

** If you are in a hurry, you can just dump your pasta in here and cook for 25 minutes. The only difference in the final dish is the richness of the sauce. If you have really hungry people, just fast track it!

Quick and Easy Mac and Cheese - Like Velveeta Shells and Cheese

Full disclosure...this one is not a health food by any stretch. It's pure comfort food that I discovered by accident. Really, it's not much of a recipe, but a quick how to if you're single parenting and have hungry children. I think it might also appeal to singles who don't have the energy to prepare dinner and have some cooked pasta around. I don't have bigger scaled quantities worked out, but this will make a single serving bowlful.

Tastes very similar to Velveeta Shells and Cheese...the totally fake mac and cheese

Quick and Easy Mac and Cheese
1-1.5 cups cooked macaroni noodles or small pasta shells
2 slices Amul processed cheese, torn into smaller pieces (the kind in the plastic sheets)
1-2 Tablespoons milk
1 Tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper, to taste

In a microwave-safe bowl, add all the ingredients except the salt and pepper. Microwave in 1 minute bursts, stirring between each minute until the cheese is melted and you have a relatively creamy white base. Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

You can tweak the amounts a bit, but the key thing is to have enough milk to work as the sauce base without having so much milk you thin the cheese too much. You could probably also do this on the stove top if you work over low heat and keep a close eye on the milk.

This was a HUGE hit with my 10-year-old mac and cheese lover!

Like Campbell's But Better

If you grew up in America, you probably had Campbell's Tomato Soup with your grilled cheese sandwiches. As an adult, I look at the can of goo that comes out and wonder, "What is in that stuff?" but part of me says, "Who cares? It tastes like my childhood." I generally go the route of the more adult-like chunky tomato basil soup varieties, but every once in a while, I really get a hankering for classic Campbell's Tomato Soup, which is not available where we are. In comes this easy copycat version that I've adapted for our tastes. As always, I hope you can look past my poor photography skills...ain't nobody got time for that! (Well...I know some people actually do.)

Copycat Tomato Soup
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon oil
1 cup water
1/2 piece vegetable broth cube
1 450g can tomato puree
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Grind of fresh black pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon onion powder (comes in a clear plastic packet)
3/4 cup milk (optional)

Heat oil over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 1-2 minutes until the raw smell of the flour dissipates. Whisk in water, broth cube, and tomato puree until smooth. Add all other ingredients except milk. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 5-10 minutes. Stir in milk and cook for several minutes until soup is heated through.*

*I prefer my tomato soup with no milk, but if you choose to add milk, taste your soup before you add the milk. If it tastes very acidic, you'll need to add a pinch of baking soda to keep your milk from curdling. Others suggest keeping the milk aside in a bowl and tempering it by adding some hot soup to heat the milk before you pour that back into the pot. I think either solution will help to reduce those edible, but weird little curdled milk speckles.

One Pot Farmer's Market Pasta

I stumbled across this recipe recently while looking through a list of "one pot meals." I am often skeptical of one pot dishes. Usually one pot spaghetti dishes leave me feeling like something was not quite right, but this one does not disappoint. I pared it down considerably from the original from The View From Great Island just because I did not have access to all the vegetables, but this was incredibly easy and pretty delicious! And truly a one pot meal on top of it all--very "set it and forget it" as those infomercials would say. It is definitely worth giving a try with whatever vegetables are available in your neighborhood. Have a look at the original if you want to add some more veggies, too, but they do suggest you do not leave out the tomatoes or the cheese as they form the bulk of the “sauce” part. Another dinner—20 minutes or less—that is totally possible here. 

One Pot Farmer’s Market Pasta
12 oz spaghetti, broken in half
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
2 cups small local tomatoes, halved
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 handfuls leafy greens, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 ½ cups water (or vegetable/chicken stock)
1 stock cube (omit if using stock as liquid)
1 Tablespoon vinegar (white/red wine, cider)
1 cup hard salty cheese, grated (parmesan, aged local variety)

Put all the ingredients except the cheese into the pot. Stir just to combine everything. Cover and bring the pot up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, uncover and stir again. Allow the pot to boil uncovered for 7-9 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Stir the pasta occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once the pasta is al dente, remove the pasta from heat. There should still be a little liquid in the bottom of the pan. If there is too much, let it boil off for another minute or so. Add the cheese and stir until it melts. Serve with some fresh tomatoes or herbs sprinkled on top. 

Note: The vinegar in this recipe may dull the color of certain leafy greens. If that bothers you, try omitting the vinegar until the very end of cooking.