Chicken Pot Pie

I think this is by far my favorite recipe I have made out of her cookbook!  It was SOOOO yummy!  And really pretty easy. 

I used a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, half and half instead of cream, and watched the serving size! 

I made the crust earlier in the day and put it in the fridge- it was perfectly pliable when I let it sit out for about 5 minutes.  I rolled it out to fit a 8x11 glass pan. I thought I would want crust on the bottom, but I surprisingly didn't :) It made 2 batches of crust- 1 left over to take to a friend who just had a baby!

The flavors were delicious, it was creamy, but thick, and the crust was super easy.

Pizza Crust

I was very impressed with PW's pizza crust! It had great texture and was easy to work with!

My girls LOVED it...they treated it like play-do that they could eat!

I let them make small individual pizzas....when I could get them to stop playing with it!

For the large "grown up" pizza I made one of my husband's very favorites! Buffalo Style Chicken Pizza! If you want a happy hubby, surprise him with this for dinner...after your dough is rolled out, spread it with a thin layer of blue cheese salad dressing, the on top of that put a mixture of rotisserie or even leftover grilled chicken that has been diced then tossed with Buffalo sauce...I use Frank's (see picture below) You can get it anywhere, from Kroger to Walmart!

Then top the chicken with grated mozzarella cheese. Then dip the baked pizzas in more blue cheese as you eat it. I must warn you...your husband will be so happy he will request this often!

These are some of the pictures of the individual pizzas my girls made. I will definitely be making this crust again, I really did like it alot! --Carissa

Cheesy Macaroni and Cheese

OK, let me confess, all the mac and cheese made around our house, is made by opening a box. :) But I decided to give this recipe a go and I am so glad that I did! The recipe was easy to follow and the only addition I made was adding some powered garlic. As mentioned in my previous posts, our family loves garlic. One small variation that I made from the recipe was I used cheddar cheese made with 2% milk. I have recently returned to Weight Watchers, so anywhere I can cut back on calories, I will try. I served the mac and cheese with a pork loin. All three of us liked the dish very much. The only thing I will do different next time is to wait and make this dish when our son is not in the kitchen with me. The steps that required the continuing wisking was not easy when you have a 16 month old pulling on your leg. :) All in all, it was a great side dish and we had plenty left over for the next night.

Low-Fat Linguine with Clam Sauce

I thought this was pretty good, my husband and 4 year old liked it even more than me. I misread the recipe when I was shopping for my clams. I somehow only got home with half the amount of clams that I needed, so I subbed in mushrooms for half of the clams. It was really good that way, I would recommend adding mushrooms! To make it low fat I used 2% milk instead of cream. In the cold milk I dissolved 1 teaspoon of cornstarch to help it thicken. I didn't miss the cream at all! Don't forget the Parm cheese, that really added alot of flavor. I would make this again, it was easy to make as a spur of the moment dish since you can keep the clams in the pantry. --Carissa

Penne Alla Betsy

From all the alterations I made to this recipe, I’m not sure I can still call it by this name. I remember Anne used chicken instead of shrimp for this recipe, so I tried that as well. For the pasta I used whole wheat pasta, and I omitted the wine and basil. I wasn’t too thrilled with this dish, but maybe if I hadn’t made so many alterations I would've been.

Simple, Perfect Enchiladas

I am not an enchilada aficionado in the least; however, I shocked myself with how delicious these were. I thought this recipe was exhausting, but the final product was totally worth it. What makes this recipe truly delectable is the fresh cilantro….....and the green onions…….oh and the green chilies…mmm and the olives…..ok seriously who am I kidding?! It was all so fantastic and you’re just going to have to see for yourself!

My busy stove

Perfect Pound Cake & Holiday Bacon Appetizers

I got these two off of the PW’s website. While the pound cake was tasty, it was definitely not pretty. Obvious Tip- be sure to grease the bundt pan well so that it comes out in one piece.

For the appetizers, which we decided should be named Bacon Buddies, I put them in the oven at 345 degrees for 25 minutes. I was probably the only one who didn’t like these, but the majority of people liked them.