So I was pretty terrible at this last time and kinda gave up, so my aim this time is to post at least once a week. Mumma of two, wife of one. I feel like this is doable.
Hands up if you are on a budget???
That would be a big fat yes from us! At the moment we only have to feed two adults and a fussy toddler. Hats off to the mums who feed tribes of six or more on a daily basis!
3 chicken breasts stretching out to 4 meals. Yes I know what you all are thinking. But seriously I did it, last week!
So Apricot Chicken is definitely a family slow cooker fav in this household. Normally I do it with a bone in cut such as thighs or drumsticks but on Tuesday, pre-tongue tie release, both babies were pretty full on, it was raining hard and I couldn't be bothered going down to the laundry shack where our deep freeze is to grab drumsticks so instead I just chucked 3 frozen chicken breasts into the slow cooker with all the other apricot chicken things and we left the house. When we got home my first thought was, why does this house not smell like apricot chicken. Yup, I forgot to turn the slow cooker on at the wall! Anyway thankfully we had easily defrostable food in the freezer and seeing as I had put the chicken in frozen it had barely defrosted all day anyway so I simply just let it cook.
These are the four meals we got out of the Apricot Chicken
Lunch #1- Apricot Chicken Sandwiches with Ploughman's Pumpkin bread, Lisas Jalapeno and Lime hummus and cucumber (PS. If you haven't tried this Pumpkin bread.. you need to! Its savoury tones are just perfect on ones palette)
Dinner #1- Apricot Chicken and capsicum stuffed tortillas
Lunch #2- Apricot Chicken Pot Pie with cheaters chicken filling
Dinner #2- Apricot Chicken Pie with cheaters chicken filling and mixed veges
Yes I know we had pies twice, but seriously that filling was unbelievable!
PS. Sorry about the lack of photos as these were quick meals, generally made mid-appeasing a toddler and rocking a bouncer with my foot, photos weren't really a priority!
Apricot Chicken
3x Chicken Breasts
2x Cans of Apricots
2x Sachets of Maggi French Onion Soup
4x Onions
1. Cut the onions into rings and place in the base of your slow cooker till it is entirely covered
2. Place the chicken breasts on top of the onions
3. Pour Apricots and the soup mix into the bowl and give it a good stir *
4. Pour the soup mix and apricots over the chicken breasts and cook on high for 3-4 hours or until the chicken pulls apart easily with a fork
5. Pull apart the chicken and mix well with the oniony/apricot liquid
6. Cook on high for another hour until the chicken has absorbed a lot of the liquid and the apricots are almost fully broken down
7. Remove from the slow cooker put in a sealed container let it cool for 20 mins put it in the fridge. You can divide it up here and put it in different containers if you wish.
*Normally I only put half the amount of liquid in with a bone-in cut, since I won't be getting much moisture from the breasts I used all the apricot liquid
Stuffed Tortillas
I don't like calling this dish quesadillas as there is nothing mexican about this apart from the fact I'm using tortillas. This is a total go-to dish in our family because the toddler loves it, and you can put just about any filling in there as long as you have cheese and sauce to bind it together! Tortillas/wraps are so versatile to keep in the pantry just make sure you store them in a ziplock bag to keep them fresh!
1 cup Apricot Chicken
8 Tortillas
2 Carrots grated
1 cup grated cheese
1 capsicum diced
1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius on fan grill
2. Spread 2 T of shredded chicken across 4 Tortillas
3. Top with carrot, capsicum and cheese and place the other tortilla on top
4. Grill for 4 mins on the first side and 2 mins on the other side
Eat!
Apricot Chicken Pie
Josiah lovesss my cheese sauce, like actually loves. So I don't actually use a recipe to make it anymore but the recipe I did learn to make it from is the Edmonds one, linked below. The recipe recommends 1 cup of warm milk, but as you want a firm-ish pie filling I would start with half a cup and add more if necessary, go by what it looks like. The key to a smooth sauce is always keep whisking! Also if you are feeding a family of four adults I would totally pair this with mash potato or a potato salad to make the pies go further
Aprprox 2 cups Apricot Chicken or whatever is left
4 sheets of rolled out Puff Pastry
Edmonds Cheese Sauce
1 Capsicum Diced
1. Put Apricot chicken on a strainer and drain some of the excess liquid. You don't want it incredibly dry, but you don't want your pie filling runny either
2. Make cheese sauce
3. Add your cheese sauce to your chicken and capsicum slowly, until you achieve your desired consistency. You are wanting something that resembles a creamy dip.
4. Ehh presto! Put in your puff pastry any- way you choose!
a// Place filling in ramekins and place the pastry over the top for a pot pie
b// Cut pastry into four squares place the filling in the middle of one square and put another square on top, with a few horizontal slits- See photo below. That's what I did but you want to be sure your pastry is sealed really well, using a fork works best
c// Line a pie dish with pastry, fill it and place more pastry on top
5. Egg wash the pastry and bake in a fan forced oven at 180 degrees Celsius until golden and flaky
No comments:
Post a Comment