Country Chicken Pot Pie (Reduced Fat!)

November 2, 2020November 1, 2020 RefreshHer2 Comments

Chicken Pot Pie is one of those classic comfort foods in my book. I have made them for years with my homemade pie crusts and we love that version, but I’ve come across a recipe that is so savory and yet also reduced in fat, and so much faster! The answer to both less fat and less time comes in the form of a reduced-fat crescent roll! These make preparation so easy!

The filling for this pie can be changed to suit your family’s taste buds. The recipe calls for fresh mushrooms, which we loved in there, but if that’s not your jam, you can leave them out and use whatever veggies you love! Here’s the tasty recipe:

Ingredients

1 tsp Butter
1 small chopped onion
1 cup Sliced Mushrooms
1/4 tsp Paprika
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups Frozen Mixed Vegetables
1 Cup chicken broth
3 Cups Cooked, chopped chicken breast (a rotisserie chicken is great for this!)
2 Tbl. flour
1/2 Cup Fat-free Evaporated milk
4 Reduced-fat Crescent rolls – I used all 8 that came in the can.

My big dish was rather shallow, so I put some of the filling in single serving bowls for another day.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Coat a 10-inch round shallow baking dish with cooking spray.
Coat a large pot with cooking spray. Add butter and melt over medium heat. Add onion and mushrooms and cook, until tender, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Stir in paprika, thyme, salt and pepper. Add vegetables, broth and chicken. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.
In a small cup, combine flour and 1/4 cup of evaporated milk; stir into chicken mixture. Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup of evaporated milk and cook until mixture is slightly thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes more.
Spoon chicken mixture into prepared baking dish. Unroll crescent rolls and arrange dough around inside edge of baking dish to form a border (there will be a hole in the middle). Bake until rolls are golden brown and filling is bubbly, about 15 minutes. Cut into 6 pieces and serve.

My husband and I were both happy there were leftovers for another day. I popped the dish back into the oven so the crescent rolls would get crispy again. It was just as good the second time around!

Eating healthy is deliciously disguised in this comfort food makeover! I hope you’ll try this soon!

This Broccoli Salad or this Green Apple Salad would make great accompaniments to this pot pie!

With love from my country kitchen,

Home decor · refreshment at home

Free Floral Arrangements

October 30, 2020October 29, 2020 RefreshHer2 Comments

I love what beautiful flowers can do for the beauty of my home. They’re welcoming on the entry table. They make the dinner table inviting and intimate. They take a guest room to that next level. But fake flowers and greenery are so chintzy and fresh are too expensive to keep on hand.

What to do? I’ve found a way to have free florals and like Dorothy from Wizard of Oz who had the ability to go back home with her the entire time she was in Oz, I have always had this resource and didn’t realize it!

It’s called foraging.

for·age/ˈfôrij,ˈfärij/ – obtain (food or provisions)

I go out in my own yard and cut greenery from the bushes. I snip colored branches from my trees. I use the real green things or colored things to fill vases or to fill in fresh flowers I’ve purchased.

Okay, I’ve always cut my roses or hydrangeas, but to cut bush branches and fill a vase instead of using plastic greenery, was just never a thought. Look what my fresh bushes did to a $4 purchase of sunflowers from my sweet husband!

Everything except the sunflowers came from my yard. Those flowers are pretty, but all that greenery bumped them up to a florist grade arrangement. Thank you, Lord, for a yard full of beautiful plants that I can snip!

Here’s another arrangement I made with the last of my roses. I took my Halloween mug and filled it with the roses, some thyme and Creeping Jenny. It looked adorable on my book shelf.

This next arrangement is on my foyer table. I used branches from two different bushes and some small limbs from a tree in the backyard. I add water to the containers so the branches will stay fresh for a VERY long time!

Lastly, here’s a small pitcher that fits into my tiered stand on the island. I love the pop of color it gives. The green bush addition really fills it out, don’t you think?

I’d encourage you to think outside the box. Don’t just use a standard vase, look for other containers that will hold your flowers and the water…a tea pot, a pitcher, a pretty vintage tin (put a glass down inside to hold the water), a mug, a bottle. The sky’s the limit!

When winter comes, use those evergreen things outside to add the lovely floral touches. I’ll still use some where the sap might ruin a piece of furniture, but in arrangements, I’m hoping for fresh!

Look out your own window and see what you could use to refresh your home and add some floral beauty! That gorgeous red and orange tree branch in the front yard is just begging to step into your living room!

Tell me…do you use fresh things from your yard? What different container are you thinking about using for your next vase?

Priorities

So Much To Do

October 28, 2020October 27, 2020 RefreshHer5 Comments

With tears in her eyes, a sweet friend admitted that her life is “Crazy!” She, like most of us, has so much to do and is overwhelmed with trying to get it all done each day. Her neat lists are made and the appropriate check marks are scratched when the task is completed, but most days, there are plenty of un-done jobs, because there simply aren’t enough hours in each day to do it all!

I totally understand – I’ve been there. But I wonder if for most of us, rather than a need for more time, if one thing that could help would be proper priorities..

We may say that God is first in our life, but does our day back that up? Do we make sure that if nothing else gets done, we’re sure to spend time in God’s Word and in prayer at the beginning of the day? That step alone might save us all kinds of wrong choices in the use of our time. Les Olila said, “My devotions are not a display of my discipline, they are a demonstration of my need for God.” Time with God is essential to the success of my day.
We love our family, but do they really get the next chunk of our time, or is it work, tasks, or friends that are allowed to slide into their time slot? A mopped floor or folded laundry isn’t nearly as important as time spent with your child after school, or a date with your husband so you can really talk uninterrupted. People are more important than things.
We may not think that our techie devices are using up our time, but if your phone was lost for a day, how much more would you accomplish? If Facebook, Instagram, texting or Twitter was removed from your schedule, would you be able to finish a household job that needs to be taken care of? Does your family see the top of your head more often than they see your eyes?

Technology should be a tool, not an inseparable part of my life.

I am only throwing out some suggestions. If this strikes a chord in the misuse of your day, then listen and change, with God’s help. A successful day is more than a page full of check marks. Ask me how I know. =)

Lovingly,

cakes · Lightened Up Recipe

Apple Cake & Caramel Sauce without the Guilt

October 26, 2020November 18, 2020 RefreshHer6 Comments

Just because you’re trying to lose weight (as I talked about here) or maintain your current weight doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a sweet treat every now and then. While my husband and I have been on Weight Watchers, we’ve occasionally enjoyed a small portion of some type of dessert. I feel like it’s been crucial to do so every now and then so that sweet tooth gets satisfied (and we’ve realized that just a little bit does indeed satisfy!).

I personally don’t love the desserts with artificial sweeteners, and after a fail or two, I have decided to simply use recipes that cut back on fat instead. Cooking Light has been my go-to for most of those kind of recipes, but then last week I fell upon this Apple Cake recipe from my Gooseberry Entertaining Cookbook! What? Their recipes are usually quite high in fat, but this recipe uses grated apples to make up for the normal fat ingredient. The result? A super moist and flavorful cake that we loved! I will admit that the caramel sauce was different. It wouldn’t be the kind of sauce you’d make for dunking apple slices, but it’s good on the cake. Considering that my traditional recipe calls for 1 stick of butter and this has only 1 tablespoon, I’ll gladly enjoy the flavor of the caramel without the added fat! Here’s their recipe…

Warm Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1 egg, beaten
2 c. apples, cored, peeled, and shredded
1/4 c. chopped walnuts

Caramel Sauce:
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 T. all-purpose flour
1/8 t. salt
1 c. water
1 T. butter
1/4 t. vanilla extract

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl; set aside. Mix together egg and apples; add to flour mixture. Stir in walnuts. Spread in a lightly greased 8″x8″ baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

Prepare Caramel Sauce: Combine brown sugar, flour and salt in a small saucepan. Gradually add water; stir until smooth. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Cook for one to 2 minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Serve Cake warm, drizzled with Caramel Sauce. Makes 9 servings.

If you want to make this really special, go ahead and make up some fresh whipping cream and add a sprinkle of cinnamon or pumpkin spice.

Think ahead to Thanksgiving and pin this on your Pinterest board so you can have a yummy, warm Apple dessert and not blow your calories for the day! You can have your cake and diet, too!

Another cake suggestion that’s lighter is this this Carrot Cake. It’s one layer and super moist and delicious! An Angel Food Cake is also a lighter alternative. This one is super good. I wish I had the WW points for these or the nutritional values, but I’m not that savvy! So sorry!

Happy baking!

Healthy Eating · Lightened Up Recipe · Refreshment

We Lost Weight and Feel Great!

October 23, 2020April 19, 2023 RefreshHer17 Comments

I begin this post today with a little trepidation because I was warned that if I ever shared about weight loss on my blog, I would get some hard hits and ugly comments. I’m not sure why that would be the case, but I’m confident that anyone who disagrees will do so kindly. =) I’m sharing this personal subject matter because it refreshed my husband and me in helping us feel better, and I thought it could encourage and refresh someone who may be feeling as we did early this summer. How is that? In need of taking off excess pounds.

I mentioned on Monday that my husband and I decided this summer that it was time to take charge of our health. I had a high cholesterol report and we both had felt uncomfortable in our clothes and at the sight of the scale. I’m only 4’9″, so if I gain a few pounds, it looks like a lot more. We had been eating whatever we felt like, and it was beginning to show. But what to do? I had tried before to simply “watch what I eat,” to no avail. After a day or two, I’d give up and cave into my old habits, so I looked around a bit at our options…

We could do one of the diets where you order their food, drink their drink and eat strange things like cauliflower everything. While I’m happy for those that are helped by these plans, this option just didn’t work well for our lifestyle. We are with people in many settings that involve food and we didn’t want to have to bring our own meal along just to accommodate a diet.
We could bite the bullet and sign up for tried and true Weight Watchers. I checked out their prices and found I could initially get 3 months for around $21. I liked the fact that :

We could eat “normal” foods.
Weight Watchers would give us an amount of “points” to follow for weight loss.
We could track every meal on the WW app, making it super simple.
We could save up extra points for the times when we would be celebrating with family or friends and going a little off the diet path.
We could find delicious recipes not only from Weight Watchers but also other sites that tally WW points.
We would not be hungry because they have a long list of “Zero Point foods” that keep you snacking if you need something to eat.
The WW app lists tons of restaurants and the points of their menu items, making eating out a simple choice of what we could enjoy and what we needed to avoid.
The WW app is so easy to use and also encouraging as you use it to track your foods and also weigh in each week.

When I contacted WW to begin, they asked for my height, age, current weight and how much I wanted to lose. My goal was ten pounds; my husband wanted to take off 30. They then gave me my number of points to use each day, along with a list of Zero point foods and access to all the great recipes right on the app.

One benefit of having the app was that I could search for a particular food and see the point value before I indulged. It was amazing to me how high some of our “normal” foods were. Seeing the point value gave me the option of choosing to lighten up a recipe, or even have just a bite of that dessert instead of a whole piece…which, by the way, always satisfied my sweet tooth!

In three month’s time, we had both reach our goals! It came off slowly and wisely and we ate so well we never felt like we were really dieting. Oh sure, we weren’t snacking on tortilla chips at the Mexican restaurant anymore or eating sweets each day, but we had delicious and nourishing foods at every meal. I lost track of how many watermelons I purchased this summer. That was our treat with zero points!

We’re both in maintenance mode and feeling terrific. We’ve really changed the way we eat are thankful for the Weight Watchers plan that made it so easy to get on track! I’m still using the app, just to keep up with our daily points. I think it’s going to help us with the upcoming holidays and all the gatherings and wonderful foods that come with them. Again, it’s not that we won’t be indulging, but we’ll know how much to have and when to replace it with something more healthy. I’ve learned that portion control is also key. You can have that bowl of cheddar popcorn for a nighttime snack, but make it a smaller bowl. As they say, all things in moderation.

I get no kickback from my promotion of Weight Watchers, I just wanted to share it with others who might wonder how to take off unwanted pounds easily. If that’s you, I’d encourage you to at least check it out. They’re always offering start-up deals that are quite reasonable. Since your health is involved, it’s a wise investment.

If you have questions about Weight Watchers, feel free to leave it in the comments!

Some of our favorite Weight Watcher recipes:
Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce
Shepherd’s Pie
Four-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
Smoky Tilapia Tacos

Refresh yourself by taking care of the body God gave you; it’s His temple.