Speedy Meals: Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings

I hope you will forgive me for being a bad blogger; I have been battling a migraine since the weekend. If you're still mad, I have a peace offering for you: delicious and super easy Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings. Please don't hold the horrible pics against me though. It is hard to get good Crock Pot pics with all that steam and this recipe isn't Giselle.

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 cup fresh or frozen green peas (I used frozen)
handful of chopped mushrooms (optional)
2 cups heavy cream (I know, I know...)
1 cup chicken broth
can of refrigerator biscuits (Grands of TJ's version will work just fine)

Directions:


Wash and trim the chicken breasts to your preference. (I am picky so I basically dissect mine.) Place at the bottom of the crock pot.

Chop veggies and add on top of chicken.

Add cream and chicken broth, and stir to combine.

I did all this the night before while I was making that night's dinner. It took less that 10 minutes!)

Cook on low in a Crock Pot for 6 hours (I did 8, as one of the recipes I was using suggested, and the "gravy" tasted just the slightest bit burnt.) Break up the chicken with a fork.

Quarter or cut your biscuits into bite sized cubes.

Add on top of chicken mixture.

 Cook on high for an additional 30-60 mins, or until puffed up and solid looking. (If you want to speed up this part of the meal, throw the biscuits in the oven and cook according to package directions. Slice and add chicken mixture between the two halves.)

Enjoy with a green salad to balance out all that cream!

(To avoid foodie plagiarism, I will say that this Crock Pot creation is a Nicole original, but I was heavily inspired by this slow cooker recipe [found via Courtney Schutz on Pinterest] and Fresh Every Day's Creamy Chicken with Biscuits.)

Speedy Meals: Greek Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives

 I love Mediterranean flavors, so I was drawn to this recipe from a chapter of my favorite cookbook, Fresh Every Day, called "Quick and Tasty Main Meat Dishes." It turns out that this dish is super simple to whip up, but it does require some planning ahead as the chicken needs to marinate all day or overnight.

Marinade:
1 cup dry white wine
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh oregano (or two teaspoons dried oregano if you don't have the it fresh)
1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

Combine in a bowl and pour marinade over 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves. Let it marinate in the fridge overnight or while at work.

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoon olive oil (I used lemon infused olive oil for a tangy twist)
1 Tablespoon butter
1 small onion, diced
4 tomatoes, cored and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup pitted and sliced Greek olives (we agreed it could use even more)
6 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
2 ounces of feta cheese, cubed (optional)

Directions:
Heat olive oil and butter in a large (non-stick) pan over medium-high heat until the butter melts. Remove chicken from the marinade, reserving marinade to make the sauce, and place chicken breasts on the skillet. Cook the chicken breast for 4 minutes on each side, or until just starting to brown.

(No need to cook all the way through here as you will be simmering chicken breasts in sauce later in the recipe. Overcooking at this step will lead to tough chicken. Boo.) Transfer browned chicken breasts to a plate loosely covered in tin foil while you use the same pan to prepare the sauce.

Add the diced onion and tomatoes to the same pan that you cooked the chicken in, reduce the heat to medium, and cook until the onions are translucent and the tomatoes are soft and have released their liquid, about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and sautee for a minute more.

Add the reserved marinade and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the liquid has reduced by half, about 2-5 minutes.

Return chicken to the pan with the olives and basil. Simmer on low for 6-8 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve chicken and veggie sauce over rice to soak up all that yummy sauce. (If using feta, add at this step.)

My mission is to try this dish in the crock pot next time. I will let you know how it goes. Until then, enjoy!

Speedy Meals: Linguine with Sausage and Peppers

School is back in session as of last Wednesday, which means that life has shifted into high gear around these parts. Since I am not alone in trying to juggle life and work, while still having time for a decent and (relatively) healthy meal, I thought I would share my mission for this school year: to make some speedy, balanced, and cheap weekday dinners so that the hubby and I can still make time for the family table.

It may sound old fashioned, but the act of sharing at least one meal a day together is really important to me. My family ate dinner together every night, and now Ryan and I do too; we don't have T.V. to distract us while eating, so our dinners are the time for us to share about our day and really talk to each other. This is especially true during the weekdays, when I often have work to get back to as soon as dinner is done.

But I find I don't look forward to lingering over a meal if I have spent too much time cooking. So I really want to strive to make some dinners that are quick, easy, healthy, and inexpensive. My plan is  to use as much of the produce that we grow as I can, to make meals that lend themselves to leftovers, as well as to utilize tools like the Crockpot.

This first speedy meal came about courtesy of some sausage we had left over from a weekend barbecue and Everyday Food: Great Food Fast.

(This cookbook is great, by the way. It is organized by the seasons, and even though it is waaay underused around here, the few things I have made from it has been easy and turned out well.)

So without further ado, Linguine with Sausage and Peppers, which you can whip up in about 30 mins.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb linguine (I used whole wheat to try to up the healthy factor)
• 1 lb turkey sausage, casings removed (I used what we had on hand: some kind of chicken sausage and chorizo, and the casings stayed on)
• 6 garlic cloves
• 4 yellow or red bell peppers, thinly sliced
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 4 cups arugula, torn

Directions:

Bring some salted water to a roiling boil, and cook according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1-1/2 cups of pasta water. 

Meanwhile, cook the sausage in 2 tablespoons of water in a skillet over medium heat, about 5 minutes. Raise the heat to medium-high, and cook an additional 7 minutes or until sausage is cooked through. (You can skip these steps if your sausage is already cooked like mine was.) 

Add the garlic, bell peppers, and 1/4 cup pasta water. Cook until peppers soften, about 6 minutes. 

Add 3/4 cup of pasta water and the butter; stir to combine. 

Transfer pasta and sausage mixture back to the pot. 

Add the arugula, season to taste with salt and pepper, and toss to combine. 

Enjoy! 

What's your favorite weeknight meal? Is there a cookbook, a tool, or a go-to source that you rely on to get you though the week?