{"id":7491,"date":"2019-03-19T14:10:17","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T14:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/?p=7491"},"modified":"2019-03-19T14:10:17","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T14:10:17","slug":"single-mom-chronicles-march-13th-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/19\/single-mom-chronicles-march-13th-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Single Mom Chronicles March 13th 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leftover whole chicken was a major player in my house as a single mom.\u00a0 Thanks gramma!\u00a0 One of the more uppity dishes I would make was chicken pot pie.\u00a0 Yes, uppity.\u00a0 You know you’re a poor broke lady when you consider chicken pot pie to be uppity.\u00a0 But it was definitely a treat for us.<\/p>\n

The versatility of chicken pot pie is really key, too.\u00a0 You can use a homemade pie crust or a store bought one.\u00a0 You can get real uppity and use puff pastry dough.\u00a0 I’d use the puff pastry when I wanted to feel less poor.\u00a0 Even if it was for just the duration of the meal.\u00a0 \u00a0And you can change up your vegetables…parsnips instead of carrots.\u00a0 Green beans instead of peas.\u00a0 Leeks instead of onions.\u00a0 It goes on and on.\u00a0 You could even add chopped leafy greens!<\/p>\n

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Feeling poor all the time is draining.\u00a0 You’re reminded of it a million times a day all day long everyday.\u00a0 At the end of the day at the grocery store counting pennies, I’d allow myself a box of puff pastry.\u00a0 The kid preferred puff pastry, too.\u00a0 He liked feeling fancy.\u00a0 It’s amazing, isn’t it?\u00a0 How just a little thing like puff pastry can make things feel special?\u00a0 And it’s better for you than a bag of Doritos, which costs about the same.\u00a0 Pro single mom tip:\u00a0 I only used one crust so I got two “pies” from one box.\u00a0 So technically, it was more like a chicken pot pie~ish stew.\u00a0 I still do it this way. Aaahhh….the little things.<\/p>\n

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Anywho…where was I?\u00a0 Oh yes, the leftover chicken.\u00a0 Just separate out all the skin, cartilage, bones and whatnot and make a pile of bite sized chicken.\u00a0 I used to have to slap my kid’s hand out of the bowl.\u00a0 He’s notorious for the walk by swiping.\u00a0 Really, it’s the vegetable chopping that would take the most time, so I reserved this particular meal for the one day off I had a week.\u00a0 Well….when I had one day off a week.\u00a0 Otherwise, I’d prep the veggies on one night, and make the pot pie the next.\u00a0 You gotta sleep some time!<\/p>\n

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But on those days off, I would take my time making this because cooking for me was very zen.\u00a0 Well, it still is….it’s just….different.\u00a0 Now I get to experiment like a crazed maniac.\u00a0 I had to purposefully go back to that state of mind when I was a single mom, taking my time to make a pot pie, and relaxing.\u00a0 I put on my pajamas and I even poured myself a glass of cheap white wine.\u00a0 Ok, it was the rose we made, but I added two ice cubes.\u00a0 Ha!<\/p>\n

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It was fun to relive that part of my life while making this.\u00a0 Because it was such a long period of time in my life.\u00a0 Sometimes, I miss the solitude of it.\u00a0 There’s something satisfying in being self reliant, even if it is hard.\u00a0 And even if\u00a0 you aren’t so great at it sometimes.\u00a0 I really love all you single parents out there.\u00a0 You are the stuff great things are made from.\u00a0 Don’t listen to all the naysayers because lawd knows there are lots of them.\u00a0 Just give ’em the finger and make a pot pie.\u00a0 That’s what I did.<\/p>\n

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I made this particular pot pie for this post with the traditional vegetables because they are the most readily available and the most economical.\u00a0 This entire dish would cost me about ten dollars, but I’m halving the cost of the chicken and the puff pastry because I could use both for two dinners.\u00a0 The standard veggies collectively cost about two bucks and then a couple of bucks for dairy.\u00a0 Ten bucks for this dish is actually being pretty generous.<\/p>\n

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Chicken Pot Pie<\/p>\n

3 cups cooked chicken chopped
\n1 quart chicken broth
\n1 cup whole milk
\n1 stick butter
\n1 scant half cup flour
\n3 cups carrots cut into thick coins
\n1 onion chopped
\n1 tablespoon fresh rosemary chopped
\n1 cup frozen green beans
\n1 cup frozen peas
\n1\/2 cup frozen sweet corn
\n1\/2 cup white wine or additional chicken broth
\n1 sheet frozen puff pastry
\n2 teaspoons black pepper
\nKosher salt to taste (I used my herbed pink salt)<\/p>\n

Set one sheet of frozen puff pastry aside to defrost.\u00a0 In a deep saute pan, cook the butter, carrots, onion, rosemary, salt and pepper on medium high heat.<\/p>\n

When the butter starts to bubble, add the flour and stir vigorously.\u00a0 When the flour becomes difficult to scrape up with a wooden spoon, deglaze with the wine.\u00a0 If you aren’t using wine, use the additional chicken broth and continue to cook for about 5 minutes.<\/p>\n

Add the quart of chicken broth and the milk.\u00a0 Stir the mixture until it’s smooth and then let it reduce by about half for about 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes to avoid sticking on the bottom.\u00a0 \u00a0Then lower the heat to a simmer to get the sauce to thicken for about 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

Stir in the chicken, green beans, peas, and corn.\u00a0 Spoon the mixture into a casserole dish.\u00a0 Cover with puff pastry.\u00a0 Bake in the oven on 350 for about 35 minutes or until the puff pastry is browned.\u00a0 Serve in bowls!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leftover whole chicken was a major player in my house as a single mom.\u00a0 Thanks gramma!\u00a0 One of the more uppity dishes I would make was chicken pot pie.\u00a0 Yes, uppity.\u00a0 You know you’re a poor broke lady when you consider chicken pot pie to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":[],"wprm-recipe-roundup-description":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_0123-1.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pagICo-1WP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7629,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491\/revisions\/7629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.burnedatthesteak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}