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It’s Comfort Food Time With Marie Callender’s Pot Pies & Cornucopia Salad!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #EasyAsPotPie #CollectiveBias

Comfort Food Time with Marie Callender's Pot Pies #EasyAsPotPie #AdI’m always excited when it starts to feel like winter outside! There’s just something about the cooler temperatures that gets me excited to pull out my winter sweaters and fuzzy socks and start cooking up comfort foods!

Mmmm Chicken Pot Pie is my favorite! #EasyAsPotPie #AdOne of my favorite comfort foods are Marie Callender’s pot pies, specifically the chicken ones, which I actually grew up eating as a kid. They’re made with tender white-meat chicken, carrots, celery, and peas and prepared in a golden, flaky crust made from scratch, that tastes like homemade. Just writing about them makes me want one right now! The pot pies are also available in turkey, beef & a few different kinds of chicken flavors and are sold in a variety of sizes, to fit the needs of your own family. Although they’re available in Family Size, our family prefers the smaller individual ones. I think it has do with us each getting our own full crust!

A pot pie for each of us! #EasyAsPotPie #Ad As a busy mom, who’s always on the go, I appreciate a meal I can make for my family, that not only tastes good but is quick and easy to prepare. With our schedules, it’s sometimes hard to find very much “together time” at home. To prepare a Marie Callender’s pot pie, you just pop it into the oven. (They can be prepared in the microwave, too). While they’re cooking in the oven, I’m then able to spend some quality time in the kitchen with my daughter, making a side dish to complete the meal. My daughter loves to cook and bake so any time that we can carve out time to spend together in the kitchen is a plus. For me, it’s so important to make that connection with family.

Cornucopia Salad #easyaspotpie #adOne of our favorite side dishes is the “Cornucopia Salad“. This salad combines baby lettuce, green apple, dried cranberries, mandarin oranges, feta cheese crumbles, and candied almonds. It’s tossed in a delicious olive oil-based dressing and just goes really well with just about any meal! It’s very simple to throw together too!

Ingredients for salad

  • 6 cups lettuce of your choice, washed. (I sometimes use bagged lettuce to save time.)
  • 1 large Granny Smith apple
  • 1 11 ounce can mandarin oranges
  • 1/4 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup raw almonds, sliced
  • 1/2 cup Feta cheese crumbles (blue cheese also works with this recipe)
  • 1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • the juice from 1 lemon

lettuce for the cornucopia salad #EasyAsPotPie #adToppings for the Cornucopia Salad #EasyAsPotPie #AdIngredients for dressing

  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Instructions

Candied Almond Preparation

  1. In a large saucepan, combine the sugar and almonds and put over medium heat.
  2. Continue to stir the mixture every couple of minutes until the sugar starts to melt.
  3. Once this happens, continue stirring evenly to sugar coat all of the almonds evenly and then transfer from the pan to some foil, allowing the almonds to cool down and solidify a little bit.

candied almonds preparation #easyaspotpie #adDressing Preparation

  1. Whisk together salt, pepper, sugar, and olive oil in a small bowl.
  2. Finely chop up parsley and add to the mixture.
  3. Set dressing aside and shake well before tossing onto Cornucopia Salad.

making the dressing #EasyAsPotPie #AdSalad Preparation

  1. Add lettuce to salad bowl.
  2. Cut and core apple and either cut into large apple slices or dice it up. Next, add to salad bowl. If you don’t plan on serving right away, squeeze lemon juice onto apple to prevent browning.
  3. Drain mandarin oranges and add to salad.
  4. Add dried cranberries, feta cheese crumbles, and candied almonds to the bowl and mix everything together.
  5. Set salad aside until you’re ready to toss with dressing and serve.

combining the salad #Easyaspotpie #adFor me, a Marie Callender’s Chicken Pot Pie served with Cornucopia Salad IS the ultimate comfort meal that my family and I can all sit around the table and enjoy, as we chat about each others’ days. Family time together is the most important time!

Dinner is Served Now #EasyAsPotPie #Ad This fall, Marie Callender’s launched the Comforts From Home Project, a program dedicated to bringing the heartwarming feelings, flavors, and favorites of home to those who miss it most…. those who protect America’s homes every day: the brave men and women of the U.S. Military. Every time you enter a code from a specially marked package of Marie Callender’s meals or desserts, Marie Callender’s will make a donation to USO2GO, a USO program that brings electronics, sports gear, books, games, and more to troops stationed in remote locations. Look for the code on participating products.

You can find Marie Callender’s pot pies in the frozen meals section of the grocery area in your local Walmart! Visit here to learn more about Marie Callender’s pot pies and here for more great recipes!

Marie Callender's Pot Pies #easyaspotpie #ad What’s YOUR family’s favorite comfort food to enjoy together?

 

 

How I Got My Child to LOVE Brussels Sprouts!

My daughter loves most vegetables! It sometimes surprises me when I see her conquer a pile of spinach or a mound of asparagus because I certainly didn’t feel that way about veggies when I was a kid! I actually remember washing my veggies down with milk and trying not to taste them! 
Lately, I’ve been in search of some of new recipes to incorporate different veggies into her “Veggie Repertoire”. Personally, I find that just asking other mom friends what they do is much easier than looking online. I think you get more authentic advice doing so. 
Last month, on the car ride to one of our cheer competitions, I chit chatted with one of my cheer mom friends about things that she makes for her kids. She proceeded to describe how she makes these brussels sprouts that her kids actually fight over! Seriously? It seemed to good to be true but I was up for the challenge! I made a mental note that I was going to attempt to make them sometime in the near future and I finally found time to do so the other day. Of course, at that point I couldn’t remember the recipe, but being the texting queen that I am, I just did this: 

Who needs recipe cards or cookbooks, right?
It seemed simple enough. I actually bought a package of the pre-cut ones. I threw them into the glass baking dish, drizzled the olive oil on them, shook on some salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and popped them into the oven at 385 for 20 minutes, just like she said. When I stirred them at 10 minutes, they were already looking yummy! At around 20 minutes, they looked good to me…with some crispy parts. I forgot to mention that I had never really eaten brussels sprouts before either. Honestly, they just never appealed to me, but now I needed to set an example for Emily, right?
I tried one when they came out of the oven and WHOA!!! So yummy! The true test would come though when Emi tried them. She had a weird face when I set  them in front of her, but I let her know that this was “Ms. Jonnelle’s recipe” and that her own kids fought over how many they each got, so that was kind of a game changer. (For some reason if it’s from someone else it always seems to make it better!) brussels-sproutsAt first my daughter seemed hesitant but then I told her to try one of the brown parts and I think that’s when she was hooked! She almost ate the entire dish I gave her BEFORE touching any of the coconut panko crusted chicken tenders I served with it! At this point, I think I did “The Mommy Happy Dance”! Another victory! Yay!

Holiday Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread is a holiday necessity in our home! It’s so easy to make and is something that we all enjoy eating for breakfast on a festive day like 4th of July or Christmas. There are always leftovers to munch on throughout the entirety of the day too!
Lately, I’ve been trying to handwrite recipes that I make and put them into a recipe book for my daughter to have when she’s an adult.

Hand writing recipes takes WAY MORE time than just typing them out on a computer, but I think it’ll be more meaningful for her to have things I wrote.
Ingredients:
  • 4 cans of Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits (not the flaky ones)
  • 1 2/3 c. sugar
  •  2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 sticks butter
Directions:
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Generously butter a bundt cake pan.
  • Mix sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl.
  • Melt butter in a measuring cup in the microwave.
  • Cut up biscuits, 1 can at a time, roll pieces in cinnamon sugar mixture and layer them in pan.
  • After cutting up each can of biscuits, top the layer with some melted butter. Continue until all cans are cut up and layered.
  • Pour remaining butter over the top of the pan and sprinkle some extra cinnamon sugar on top.
  • Bake for 30-40 minutes, maybe a little longer if necessary. It should be golden brown on top.
  • Remove pan from oven and let it cool slightly prior to serving.
Just seeing this pic is making me want more!

Is your mouth watering yet?

Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread!

I love Fall! I love so many things about it, but mostly the fact that it’s the beginning of the October-December holiday season which means time to bake!
This year I decided to start hand writing the recipes as I make them. With so much technology available, I find that I rarely hand write anything. I want Emi to have things that I’ve actually written, which I can only hope will become some of her most cherished keepsakes of me. I want her to have a recipe book full of things I’ve made for her. What this also means is that I need to start expanding my recipe repertoire because she probably thinks I can’t cook anything unless it has batter!
Today I am making chocolate chip banana nut bread. The great thing about this recipe, aside from the fact that it’s easy to make, is that you can alter it. If you don’t want it too sweet, omit the chocolate chips. If you don’t like or can’t eat nuts, leave them out, and if you aren’t a big banana lover, you can still just make this with the chocolate chips and nuts. I am in LOVE with using Nestle mini chocolate chips for this recipe. I’ve made it with regular size chocolate chips too, but the minis are WAY better.
 These are a few of my favorite things (for baking):
Ok so here comes the recipe:

The Ingredients:
*2 1/2 c. All-Purpose Flour
*2 c. sugar
*1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
*1/2 tsp. salt
*3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter, softened
*2 large eggs
*1 tsp. vanilla extract
*3 c. (about 7 medium) ripe bananas, mashed (I only use about 3)
*12 oz. mini (or regular) chocolate chips
*4 oz. walnuts, chopped
The Instructions:
*Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
*Grease two 9X5 inch loaf pans.
*In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt with a wire whisk; set aside.
*In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with mixer on high speed. Add eggs, bananas, and vanilla, and      beat at a medium speed until thick. Scrape sides of bowl.
*Add the flour mixture, chocolate chips, and nuts, and then blend at low speed just until combined.      DON’T over mix.
*Pour batter into prepared pans.
*Bake on center rack of oven for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
*Cool in pan for 10 minutes. turn pans on sides; cool to room temperature before removing and slicing.

I hope you get as addicted to this chocolate chip banana nut bread as I am! Happy Fall!