I’m always amazed at the infinite possibilities for chicken, potatoes and carrots to be combined in a recipe.  This variation is worthy of being repeated often.

If you have cooked chicken stashed away in your freezer, you’re only minutes away from having this dish oven-ready.  (See this post for tips on cooking and freezing chicken.)  Using left-over or instant mashed potatoes speeds things up even more.

My boys loved this recipe and feasted on several helpings each.  Here’s what you’ll need to make it for your family:

• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2-3 cups cooked, chopped chicken
• 3 cups mashed potatoes (I used instant)

Boil carrots in the broth till tender.  Stir in peas, cream of chicken soup, salt & pepper and cooked chicken.

Pour into a greased 9×13 casserole dish.  Top with mashed potatoes.  Dot with butter.  Bake 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Chicken Pot Pie is one of those recipes that is so comforting to the soul and perfect for a fall or winter
dinner, but people might avoid making it because it must take a lot of work for something to taste that
amazing, right?

Wrong!

Super simple.

This is all you need:
2-3 cups cooked chicken (chopped or shredded)
12 oz bag of frozen mixed veggies
1 can cream of potato
1 can cream of chicken or cream of celery
¾ of a soup can of milk
1 pk frozen pie crust rolls
Salt and pepper to taste
Egg white (for brushing the top of the crust)

Make it:
In a bowl mix your soups and milk. Whisk well.
Add your veggies (still frozen- could it get any easier?).
Add your chicken.
Stir some more.
Add some salt and pepper, if you want. (I recommend it.)

Unroll the first pie crust. (Mine was broken and I gasped. My children though I cut my finger. I fixed it.
Kind of.)

Place the first crust in the bottom of your pie plate.

Gracefully dump your pot pie mixture into the pie plate.

Top the mixture with the second unrolled pie crust.

Tuck the edges of the pie crust into the pie plate and cut vent holes in the top so the pie can vent while
it is cooking.

Brush the top crust with egg white and bake at 375 until the top is golden brown- about 30-40 minutes.

Slice it up and plate it. Serve with a yummy salad. Dinner is done and it did not hurt a bit!

Tips: When cooking your chicken here are a few ways to make it simple:

1) Toss a whole fryer in the crockpot and cover in water and whatever spices you like and walk away for 6, 8 or 10 hours. (Do this before you leave for work…. and the hard part is done when
you get home.)

2) Cook a whole fryer on the stove covered in water and your favorite spices for 2-3 hours.

3) If you’re really busy, like 99% of us are, grab a rotisserie chicken from the deli! Hello.

It doesn’t get easier than that and your kids can eat a delicious home cooked meal.

Crystal is the author of the blog Crystal & Co. She shares her journey while raising a houseful of hungry boys, with twins in the mix and piles of dirty laundry. Like what you see here?  She has tons of weekly meal planning ideas as well!

I have a LOT on my plate during any given day:

• Taking care of my kids: 23mo boy and 3.5yo girl
• Working on my school work as I attempt to complete a two-year Masters degree program in one-year
• Homeschooling my advanced preschooler
• Blogging encouragement to women
• Attempting to keep my house clean and my husband fed

By the time dinner rolls around, I’m pretty beat. I don’t want to spend much time in the kitchen at the end of a tiring day, and yet I don’t want to pay a hefty price for carry-out food. My solution? Quick, easy, and inexpensive pantry meals.

The hamburger stroganoff recipe I want to share with you today takes me at most 10 minutes to prepare from start to finish. And, the total cost for this meal is under $5 without any coupons (all the ingredients were purchased at Aldi).

Ingredients:
1lb of browned and seasoned burger = $1.89
(I brown most of my burger when I buy it, seasoning it and freezing it in 1lb increments.)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup = $.59
1 container of sour cream = $.89
1 pkg of egg noodles = $.99

Quick and Easy Steps:

1. Set water to boil in a large pot.
2. Microwave meat (can take straight from the freezer) until hot (approximately five minutes).
3. Add noodles to boiling water and cook according to package.
4. Add can of soup and container of sour cream to meat and heat one minute in microwave.
   
5. Drain noodles and return to pot – add creamy meat mixture.
   
6. Mix and serve.
   
   (Serves 4)

We love this recipe at our house, and I hope your family will enjoy it too!

Ashley Pichea is a wife and mom (almost 2 year old boy and 3.5 year old girl), as well as being a blogger, an online student (pursuing an MA in Ministry), and actively involved in her local church’s teaching ministry. She home schools her daughter and chronicles the journey at Teaching Jenny. Her blog, AP Freewriting, has become a place of ministry to women with a purpose of encouraging women with the Word of God. Ashley strives daily to find her identity in Christ, and she encourages you to connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and BlogFrog.

This is a beef spin on the Black Bean and Corn Chicken Taco Bake.  I was trying to come up with a dinner idea the other day and had all the ingredients except chicken.  But I had cooked ground beef in the freezer, so decided to give it a try.  It turned out really well.  Just as easy as the chicken version and just as tasty. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

This is a good weeknight supper.  There’s nothing fancy about it, but it’s good comfort food.  I adapted the recipe from one I found in 365 Ways to Make Chicken.  Here’s what you’ll need:

There are a few things missing from this picture.  I forgot to put out the flour and butter.  Also, I ended up making more sauce and using more milk than is shown in the photo.

• 2-3 cups cooked chicken, shredded or cubed
• 2-2 1/2 cups frozen corn
• 2-2 1/2 cups frozen peas
• 4 1/2 Tbs. butter
• 4 1/2 Tbs. flour
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups milk, warmed
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Combine the chicken, corn and peas in a greased 9×13 casserole dish.  In a saucepan, melt the butter.  Stir in the flour and cook for a minute or two.  Whisk in the chicken broth and milk, stirring until smooth.  Cook until thickened.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour the sauce over the chicken and vegetables.  Top with the cheese and bread crumbs.  Bake at 350 degrees for45 minutes to 1 hour.

I wanted to make a chicken casserole the other day, but I wanted one that I’d never made before.  After pondering for a while, I decided to alter Chicken and Cheesy Rice Casserole and give it an Italian spin.  Everyone liked it.  We had leftovers for lunch the next day and I thought it was even better leftover.

Here’s what you’ll need:

This is the second in the freezer meals series.  This recipe and several more were shared by Suzanne on a forum I frequent.  I’ve tried quite a few enchilada recipes.  These were cheesy and mild.  The kids really liked them.  They also froze and reheated really well.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 Tbs. butter
• 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 can diced green chilis
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1-2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
• 1/4 cups milk, plus extra
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• flour tortillas

Saute the onion and garlic in the butter.  Stir in the sour cream, green chilis and soup.   Mix well and take out 3/4 cup of sauce to reserve for later.  Add the chicken and 1/2 cup cheese to the sauce still in the pan.

Fill the tortillas with the chicken mixture, rolling and placing in a greased baking dish.  In a small bowl, combine the reserved sauce with the milk.  I added a second can of cream of chicken soup and extra milk.  Pour this sauce over the enchiladas in the pan.  Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until hot.  Or, cover tightly with foil and freeze.  Label with the instructions, “Thaw in fridge.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until bubbly.”

My friend, Claire left this recipe in a comment here on Eat at Home.  It’s fast, easy and Mexican so of course I had to try it.  I’m happy to say that it’s delicious too!  There are only 4 ingredients to put together, which is a nice bonus.

Here’s what you’ll need:

This is comfort food at it’s best.  This recipe is adapted from New Recipes From Moosewood Restaurant cookbook.  It makes a huge dish of pasta, even for my family, so you may want to cut the recipe in half.

Here’s what you’ll need:

For the sauce:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 quart milk, heated
• 1 1/2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
• pinch of nutmeg
• salt and pepper

Other ingredients:

• vegetable oil for sauteing
• large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 head cauliflower, cut in florets
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 tsp. dried basil
• 3 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 pound pasta shells
• 1 cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
• seasoned bread crumbs

Prepare the sauce: melt the butter in a sauce pan.  Whisk in the flour until smooth, cooking for a minute over medium heat.  Gradually whisk in the warm milk.  Add the mustard, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Let it cook over low heat, whisking every once in a while until thickened a bit.  Remove from heat and cover.

Saute the onions and garlic in oil.  When they are cooked soft, add the cauliflower and saute for 5 or so minutes.  Add the tomatoes and basil and simmer until the cauliflower is tender.

Cook and drain the pasta.  Combine the pasta, veggies and lemon juice.  Mix in the sauce.  Put half into a greased casserole dish.  Sprinkle with half the cheese.  Add the rest of the pasta mixture.  Top with the rest of the cheese.  Sprinkle with the bread crumbs.  Bake covered at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake about 15 more minutes until browned and bubbling.

I’m showing this off at The Greenbacks Gal Meatless Monday

More-with-Less is one of my favorite cookbooks.  It’s full of simple, delicious and economical recipes and this casserole is one of them.  This is a perfect recipe to use chicken that you’ve already cooked and frozen.  Once the chicken is cooked the dish is a snap to put together.

Here’s what you’ll need: