Pinterest Success: Biscuit Pot Pie

This pin had some tweaks that I made to it, and in doing so, made me realize I should have made even MORE tweaks after the fact, but overall it was a pretty delicious meal!

Here's the pin:

Biscuit Pot Pie from Damn Delicious.  I've been visiting this website a lot lately for recipes!

So here's my kitchen action in photos:

So I purchased "Just Chicken" from Trader Joe's as the recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of shredded chicken.  This was the perfect amount and easier.  I felt like Sandra Lee from that Food Network show "Semi-Homemade" in a lot of this recipe.

Cooking up the veggies in butter

Added the milk

Added chicken broth and spices.  I didn't realize my thyme was a little expired...whoops

Here's the yummy chicken goodness before going in the oven

So I forgot to take a couple more photos before we devoured it, so this is what was left:

om nom nom

I have to admit, I made a big mistake and thought I saw the recipe calling for TWO CUPS of flour.  I know, I know; my bad.  I put in one cup of flour and then realized I was wrong (it was because of the darn 2 cups of chicken broth right underneath it).  It honestly wasn't that big of a mistake, just more calories!  Here are the tweaks I made/would change:

1. The recipe calls for its own biscuit recipe, but I went the quicker route and bought pre-made biscuits from Trader Joe's.  Since they were huge, they didn't cook as well sitting on top of the mixture (some biscuits had soggy bottoms)...
2. So I would bake the biscuits separately next time, even if I made them from scratch.  More clean-up, but wouldn't fear unbaked biscuits!
3. Add way more salt/seasoning

That's it!  It was a really delicious, quick recipe.  We had lots of leftovers, and as I mentioned before we're terrible at eating leftovers...so maybe cut the recipe in half next time.  :)

March Madness...er, Fun-ness?

Time is going so fast!  I'm sure you've heard me say that a bazillion times...

Here are a few photos of the past week or so:

Sunday, March 15

Gymboree bubble fun

This little girl, Fiona, was super cute and pointing at everything.  

My happy little boy

After Gymboree we headed to our favorite sushi place, Sumo Sushi!  It was delicious as always.

We even found a dish Leif liked-Udon Noodles (thus the weird wormy looking things on the plate).  He had fun trying to feed me-he does this to the dolls at daycare too and is over the moon!

Wednesday, March 18

Came home with a cuddly Leif

Thursday, March 19

This is Leif opening his Citrus Lane box; funny how he wasn't really interested in the items but LOVED the packing paper strips (all those little brown things on the carpet).  He would take them out, put them back in the box, and repeat.

Saturday, March 21

Leif had a weird stomach ache in the middle of the night and then woke up early, so I got up and made lots of coffee while Leif watched Doc McStuffins.  He's starting to really pay attention to TV so I'm able to get a few things done while he watches...it's a good thing and a bad thing.  I don't want him hooked on TV!

Concert night!  I was all jitters all day so it was nice to perform finally.  Concert went well, I performed okay, but I think we're going to try and re-record it since it wasn't perfect.  It's so scary performing when the composer is in the front row!

Sunday, March 22

Hubs slipped one of his Seahawk jerseys on Leif.  Leif loved it-even though he kept tripping all over the place, he was having a good time with Daddy's shirt.

And here we are today.  Yesterday I was in a mad scramble to finish Leif's 9-12 month scrapbook since Shutterfly was having a big discount on photo books.  There was so much going on at work but I managed to finish!  I had over 800 photos to sort through!

Before I forget, big shout outs to:

-My brother Avery-Happy Birthday!
-My folks-Happy Anniversary!
-Ann, my beautiful mother-in-law: hope you are recovering nicely!

The weather is warming up and I'm ready for summer already.  Next week is spring break and we get Friday off-yay three day weekend!

Pinterest Semi-Fail: Sticky Garlic Chicken

I was SO hopeful for this pin:

From Pinch of Yum.   The chicken looks so mouthwatering!

And here's how it went:

Already made the panko/corn meal concoction and soaking the chicken strips a few at a time in the milk blend (I didn't have buttermilk, so they said add a tablespoon of vinegar to milk).

Breaded and ready for the oven!

The recipe said it was optional to heat up the sauce to thicken it, so why not...

Here was my beef with the chicken-it said to use a cooling rack on top but it was okay without it...but it should have also said use some cooking oil spray because the delicious crunchy outer coating stuck to the aluminum foil... :/

End result-not too shabby, right?

I made an Asian salad with another recipe I found on Pinterest, but there wasn't much to the dressing so I'll probably not blog about it.

Why the semi-fail?  Hubs enjoyed the chicken, but I wasn't a fan:

1. Again, the outer coating didn't stay on the chicken, and after you coat the chicken with sauce you're supposed to stick it back in the oven for five more minutes.  The coating still stuck to the aluminum foil even when I sprayed it with a little oil.
2. I don't think I've had hoisin sauce before and that was the main part of the sauce, but I didn't really like the taste.
3. The process to make all of this was way too long and the sink was filled with so many dishes!  For a dish that I wasn't in love with, it just wasn't worth the time/amount of clean up.

If Hubs wants to make this, he can (I doubt he will)...but this will not make my Recipe Re-Do board.

Very Fun Week

Again, dumb Daylight Savings, making me all tired.  I turned off my alarm clock this morning without realizing and woke up at the time I was supposed to be leaving for work...even Leif wasn't awake.  But hey, got to work around normal time so it goes to show I can get ready in 5-10 minutes flat!

Overall I had a really nice week.  Things have been pretty awesome, no complaints!!!

Wednesday, March 4

Happy birthday to my best friend across the country, Barbie!  Happy birthday Pa!  Is it coincidence that some of my favorite people share a birthday???

 Wednesday also marked the day where Leif clearly said his first phrase...

He found daddy's water bottle and kept playing/drinking with it...

He would push the drinking apparatus down and freak out because he couldn't get it back up.  So I whipped out my phone to video him throwing a tantrum to send to hubs...instead, he kept saying, "Uh oh!"  It was the cutest!  I would post it here but it's two minutes long and probably wouldn't upload...

Thursday, March 9

Since Hubs started his new class, I had to run home to let the dog out and now that the sun is setting a little later, I was able to give Miles a walk.  Leif was in the best mood when I picked him up from daycare, and every once in a while on the walk Leif would just look up and smile at me.  He's seriously the sweetest little boy ever.

Friday, March 10

Day went by slowly, but then Hair time!

Don't I look gorgeous?  eh eh eh...

After!  I decided I wanted to stay light, but add some red and do kind of an ombre.  It's hard to see in this light!

Saturday, March 7

We went and got our favorite sushi since our last sushi run in Simi Valley wasn't that great...yay Sumo Sushi!

I had to take a photo of my roll before I ate them all-it's called "Heart Attack" - spicy tuna, jalapeño and avocado with panko on top.  SO delicious.  And then cucumber & avocado rolls in the background, and yellow tail sushi for hubs in the background.

Out of all the food we got for Leif, he devoured the veggie spring roll.  Good to know we can give him veggies that way...

Leif watched me eat with my chopsticks, then try to feed him with them, so he imitated me but didn't have it quite right...

I forgot to mention we did a Target run before sushi, and here's hubs goofing around Saturday night with Leif's new towel...

Everyone wanted to get in on the fun :)

Sunday, March 8

What do Disneyland Annual Passholders do?

Why, go to Disneyland, of course!

Hubs woke up with a nasty cold but he was determined to take the family to Disneyland.  Such a dedicated husband.

 Since we didn't get there until around 12pm after parking, we decided to grab lunch at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney before going into the park.

Waiting for our table-Rasta Leif mon!

Had a get a super quick photo of Leif in before he took off the frog crown

Entertaining squirmy toddler Leif

Food was really not that great, and I actually blame my fish and chips for making me feel a little queazy towards the end of the trip, but I'll get there soon...but we will not be returning!  Too expensive for bland food.

Upwards and onwards...

Right after lunch we bolted to California Adventure where they put on this Disney Jr. Show-sort of a live show meets puppets from the popular Disney Jr. cartoons-Sophia the 1st (?), Doc McStuffins, Mickey's Clubhouse and Jake the Pirate. What's funny is I brought Leif there so that he could move around and dance if he wanted to-but he just wanted to sit in my lap and watch the whole time-I tried putting him on his feet when all the other little kids got up, but he just plopped right back down.  It was the most attentive I've ever seen him!

Rocket ride!

Leif passed out early, so we ended up grabbing a Starbucks drink in Disneyland and walking around while he slept

Later we hit Toon Town, where the main characters live.  This is Minnie's House!

Playing with Minnie's dishwasher

In front of Mickey's house-you can see my hand...I was trying to make sure he didn't fall since he's up high!

Goofy's piano makes noises and Leif LOVED it.  We had to pull him away.  Piano player in the making.

Doesn't it look like he's reading the music?!

In front of Donald's boat

Back in Goofy's play area-Leif was able to move around and stretch his legs!

Since hubs wanted to take sunset pictures back in California Adventure, we wandered back and afterwards took Leif to the pier area so that he could walk around...

He was amazed by the water fountain!

Aaaaand we had to pull him away from this too, which was tough.

We went back to our locker with the diaper bag and as we sat down with the sun setting, exhaustion kicked in for both of us.  We decided to head over to Disneyland so that I could get a pretzel and hang out until the fireworks.  But then I started feeling nauseous and after we fed Leif a light dinner of fruit and toddler crunchies, we headed back to the car around 7:45.  Thankfully I started feeling better but hubs' congestion was terrible.  It was smart we left when we did.

When we got home, we ate this:

O. M. G.  Probably my new favorite at Disneyland-it's a Raspberry Macaron with raspberry filling and real raspberries.  It's the size of my palm and it was DELICIOUS.  

You will probably see a lot more Disney posts now that we have passes.  :)  I'm so happy!