Cast Iron Chicken Pot Pie

I have been doing a lot of cooking in this cast iron skillet lately and my last creation didn't disappoint our family.  I could have licked the skillet clean it was that delicious.   I didn't follow a recipe so I'm going to try to remember what I did so you have some basic steps to create your own creation.  

Start with some butter in your skillet and fry up onions and garlic.  Then add in your cubed potatoes and carrots and cook for 5 minutes.  Add in 2-3 cups of chicken broth ( I used homemade turkey stock), cover skillet and let cook for 10 minutes or until potatoes and carrots are tender.

While that is cooking, prepare a box of stove top stuff according to the directions on the box.

In a small bowl mix 2 Tbsp of flour into 1/2 to 1 cup of cold chicken broth.  Add this mixture into your skillet (once your vegetables are done).  Stir for about 5 minutes or until broth thickens.  Add in any extra veggies you would like.  I put in frozen corn and peas and some left over roasted sweet potato cubes we had in the fridge.

For the chicken I used cooked chicken breast cut up into cubes.  You could use left over chicken or even a rotisserie chicken.   Add whatever chicken you are using to your delicious skillet.

Top with your stuffing and bake in the oven at 350 until bubbly and hot.  About 20 minutes.

Serve hot from the skillet.

Strawberry Pie

This strawberry pie is so easy to make and taste so delicious :)    All you need is a prepared pie crust, I usually use tender flake but I had a girl friend come over yesterday and make the pie crust then I made the filling.    The pie does need time to chill so it sets nicely so be sure to leave yourself lots of time cause you don't want a runny pie ;)  

Strawberry Pie

1 cup Sugar

3 Tbsp Corn Starch

1 Cup water

1 Cup of pureed berries

Squeeze of lemon juice

Whisk together the sugar and cornstarch in a medium size pot.  Then add water, pureed berries and squeeze of lemon juice.    Bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to boil for 1-2 minutes.  Remove mixture from heat. 

In a prepared pie shell, that has been cooked, place 2 cups of fresh sliced berries.  You can arrange some whole berries around the top with the points facing up.  Then pour your cooked mixture over top of the pie.  

Let the pie cool and set for a couple of hours.  When you are ready to serve be sure to top with some fresh whipped cream. 

Summer Fun!

Summer is just around the corner!!!  I am so excited this is the last week of school.  Woohoo for no more packing lunches for a little while.    One thing our family does every summer is create a summer fun list.  

In the past years I did up our list on the computer and had it printed at Costco but over the years we have switched to brown paper that we doodle and colour our list out together. 

Summer fun 2012

Summer Fun 2013 

Summer Fun 2014 

Summer Fun 2015

Summer Fun 2016

Summer 2017 

Now that we have been making a list for a few years I find it easy to create.  I always let the kids choose a few cool things from pinterest.  This can include an activity, such as make our own water colours and some yummy new treats like rootbeer float popsicles!!  

The key with doing a fun list isn't to stress yourself out and over book your summer.  You want to enjoy summer and have fun with your family and friends.  The thing I like about our list is it is stuff we like to do in the summer.  We live in such a beautiful province and we are surrounded by beautiful beaches, parks and the OCEAN that we always make a point when the weather is nice to get out and enjoy it.  The kids love having the list cause they look forward to the activities and treats we are going to enjoy.   

Here are a few of our favourites from over the years. 

We usually kick off our summer with strawberry season.  Our family always packs up and heads out to our local u-pick to get us some berries.   We make our own strawberry jam for the year.  We also love short cakes and a few years ago we were introduced to the strawberry s'more.  If you haven't tried these they should go on your list :) 

Put your marshmallow on your roasting stick then add a fresh strawberry on the top and roast to golden perfection. 

 Using celebration cookies (the dark chocolate ones are my favourite) sandwich your marshmallow and strawberry between the cookies and enjoy!

Just one sip of frozen hot chocolate from Second Cup and I was addicted!!!  This stuff is so rich and creamy but not so good for our frugal life!  So I created my own recipe for us to enjoy all summer long! 

This frozen fun will give you mamas a few hours of time to sit in the sun, read and drink up those frozen drinks!!!  

Making your own summer treats with the kids is so much fun!  Every year our kids love making these special treats ice cream sandwiches, Raspberry cheese cakes pops, Oreo Popsicles, Chocolate covered Strawberry popsicles and mamas secret popsicles. 

One of our favourite places to visit!   We love to camp here and we love to pack up and head there for the day!  Nothing like your toes in hot sand, breathing in the salty air and the cold water to cool you down! 

Early on in our marriage my husband actually invented his own holiday!  I know it sounds crazy but the stress of being married to a Dietitian just cracked him and he went out and brought white bread and Nutella into our home.  After a heated debate of he wasn't going to feed that to our 1 year old son he sprinkled M&Ms all over it and said I declare July 18th M&M on toast day.  It will be the day I eat fresh white bread with Nutella and M&Ms.  I caved and let him have this one day!  So now every July 18th we celebrate our holiday.  He even wrote a song for it that you can hear over on facebook @katescreativekitchen.  

It would not be summer if we didn't hear the sound of washer toss being played!  This has been a favourite game of mine since I was a little girl spending my summers in a camp ground!   So thankful in our early years of marriage this amazing husband of mine pulled over on the side of the road and purchased our own set from a local guy! 

We were married at the very end of summer so we always include a little mama and dad getaway on our summer bucket list!  This has been a very special time for us to get away for a couple of nights just the two of us to have fun!  One year we actually went to a water park and the zoo :) 

So do you make a bucket list?  Let me hear some of the fun things your family does. 

Valentines Ideas for your family

Happy LOVE day!!!

  Seriously I love LOVE day.  I really love loving on my friends and family, oh and indulging in delicious treats.


Most people think Valentines day is just a consumer holiday but you know what it didn't start out that way!    This book is a great way to start your love day off :)

A few years ago I created this LOVE day advent book where we found verses to read every day about what LOVE is.   Oh how amazing it is to know how much the Father LOVES us. 

I have written so many blog post on our LOVE day traditions and decorations I thought today would be a prefect day to put them all together and share with you the fun things you and your family can do today.

Lets start with some decorations for around the house

Pom-Poms are one of my favourite ways to add pops of colour to our house!  

This Heart Garland is a fun and cute decoration to have around the house.  I think we made it 5 years ago and it still comes out every valentines day! 

Using scrabble titles are a great way to leave little love messages around the house :) 

I love this bling LOVE sign that I purchased from the dollar store a few years ago.  These xo blocks were made with some scrap wood I have from another project! 

Filling your picture frames with holiday art adds some festive fun around the house. 

Change up those chalk boards with a verse or a quote about LOVE. 

Celebrating Love 

I have come to realize that I really enjoy Parties.  I love hosting parties and being at parties.  One thing I have loved to do is have a valentines party with my girl friends.  I believe this is now called a galentines ;) 

To host this party I always try to decorate the place with lots of love decorations like these sweet LOVE Bird cups.   

When the invite goes out for the party I ask all guest to bring a snack that is white, pink, red or brown :)  It is very fun to see all the creativity come out as the guest bring their special treats. 

At the party this cute little jar of love coupons is for each girl to take home as a special coupon for their hubbies.  

Activities

Give those white plates a made over for love day! 

Here is a fun and budget friendly gift to give your kids or husbands. 

Have you also heard about giving your kids a heart attack??  I know it sounds funny but it is where you cut different size and coloured hearts and you write things that you love about your kids on them and post them to their door for valentines day?  

I loved this idea of speaking truth over our kids so when a mother asked me if I could make a print for her girls with all these kind words on it I was more then happy to be part of such a fun project!   I did one up for our oldest son and he hung it up right away he loved it so much. 

Yummy Treats 

We enjoy making some delicious love day treats!  

Pop tarts 

Sugar cookies

Chocolate Dipped Brownies

Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

White Chocolate Popcorn

Our favourite LOVE day tradition 

One of our families favourite love day traditions is our restaurant.  From early on Micah and I decided to make valentines day about loving on our family so we have created a tradition of turing our home into a love day restaurant.  The kids choose the menu (this saves on fighting them to eat), we all dress up and enjoy a delicious candle light dinner. 

The kids also choose the name of the restaurant so we have had everything from Sonic and Tails, Strawberry Short cakes waffle cafe and the bot cafe. 

The table is set like a "fancy" restaurant!  It is a great way to teach kids manors of eating at a restaurant without actually being at one. 

During our meal we each get to open our LOVE boxes.  These boxes are filled with notes or valentines from each person in the family.  On these notes we share what we love about that person.  We all take turns opening our box and reading aloud what each person said about us.  I enjoy hearing what the kids write to each other and to us :)   One of my favourites is Mama your a great cooker! 

Of course hubby and I always celebrate when the kids go to bed with a special treat just for the two of us!!!