my pot pie, kitty!

As much as I love to cook, dinnertime in the nerdy nest can be a mixed bag.  I don't know about you, but many nights when I get home from work-- I really just want to take a hot shower, watch some cheesy television or read a good blog book, and tell the Man to fend for himself.

When I was a single girl, I'd cook a pot of whole-wheat penne and have a jar of sugar free tomato sauce in the fridge.  Those two things (plus some occasional Dove chocolates/place&bake cookies/pint of Rocky Road) would be my dinner for about a week.  I didn't really "do" grocery shopping, I didn't really "cook" other than holidays, and dinner was just another meal.

Then the Man came along, and I felt compelled to follow along with my natural inclinations of nesting.  I'd been feeling the pangs of domesticity, but it hit full on when I had someone else to cook for. 

Recently my desires of the domestic have become even more pronounced.  I'm determined to have a solid repertoire of "go-to" meals that are: easy, quick, and have only a handful of ingredients

 (also if they only used a dish or two, that would be awesome.. the less mess, the better.)

Personal Chicken Pot Pies

(modified from the recipe found at Mine for the Making):

I used:

• 1 package crescent rolls
• 2 baked chicken breasts
• 2 cups mixed veggies (frozen)
• 1 can cream chicken soup
• 1/2 can milk

For the chicken, I put 2 breasts (sliced into strips to speed up cook time) into my glass loaf pan with some Italian dressing, 1/4 can crm chicken soup, and my "special seasonings."

Note: the "special seasonings" are just a wide variety of whatever I grab from the spice cabinet that smells good.

I baked the chicken for about 45 minutes on 375 or until I could easily pull it apart with a fork.

While the chicken was baking I finished the rest of the prep work:

•  Steamed the veggies (Thanks, Microwave!)
• Covered the inside of the 2 cup Pyrex bowls with crescent rolls
• Mixed the veggies in with the rest of the cream of chicken soup and milk
• Baked the crescent-filled bowls for about 5 minutes

Once the chicken was finished, I shredded it and mixed it with the veggie/soup mixture. 

The next step was to ladle the chicken/veggie/soup mixture into the bowls.

Cover the bowl with the rest of the crescent rolls.

Completely optional: Take any leftover crescent rolls and make a futile attempt at a small pouch which you will then use to try and contain some of the excess chicken/soup/veggie mixture.  Haphazardly seal the mixture within it's crescenty-flaky prison and casually toss on the cooking sheet next to pot pies. Hope that this pouch of chicken will not explode and cover the entirety of your oven with chickeny-veggie-soupy goodness.  Luckily my chicken-pot-pie pouches turned out okay (sans explosion.)

Bake all until the crescents begin to brown.  Mine was still a little doughy, but the man likes doughy and was hungry, so after 15-30 minutes we called it done.

It wasn't fantastic, but it was warm and hearty.  I'd say it's worth a repeat performance

(and maybe a little refining.)

P.S. If you caught the pop culture reference in the title, I think we can be friends.  If not, for shame.