New Recipes

This weekend I had my dad and stepmom over for supper and cooked a new recipe that we all enjoyed. For dessert, we had one of Brent's favorites and we enjoyed it as well. Now, there's one thing I should point out before I give out these recipes . As a registered dietitian, I feel that it's my duty to tell you that these are NOT my idea of healthy recipes. These are what I would say are "splurge" recipes. I feel that 90% of the time you should eat healthy and then the other 10% won't be such a big deal. It's when we "splurge" 90% of time like we find ourselves doing often that we get into trouble. I love to cook and I love the field of nutrition...most of the time those interests mesh together well, but just because I cook something DOESN'T mean that it is healthy. So, here are the recipes that I made this weekend.

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts - cooked and diced
3 carrots - peeled and cut into small pieces
1 or 2 large potatoes - peeled and diced into small pieces
1 small onion - cut into small pieces
1 can green peas
1 stick margarine
3-4 tbsp flour
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 15 ounce cans of chicken broth
1 large container of canned "flaky" biscuits

Combine carrots, potatoes, onion, and 1 can of chicken broth in a saucepan. Boil until vegetables are done. In a large skillet, melt the margarine. Add 3-4 tbsp tablespoons of flour, the cans of soup, and can of chicken broth to the skillet. Add cooked veggies, can of green peas, and diced chicken. Spray 9 x 13 dish with cooking spray. Pour ingredients from skillet into dish. Cover with torn-up biscuits. Bake at 375 degrees until biscuits are golden brown.

**This was the first time that I made this recipe but I think that you could short-cut the steps by purchasing cans or frozen potatoes and carrots. Then you could skip the step of cooking the vegetables. Also, I will use the broth from cooking the chicken in the future instead of buying chicken broth. To make this healthier, I would recommend purchasing the "healthy request" cans of soup, low-sodium chicken broth, reduce the margarine by 1/2 or 2/3, and use less biscuits for the crust. By doing these things, the recipe would not be nearly as high in sodium, fat, or calories.

Apple Dumplings

1 can (10 count) biscuits
1 cup sugar
cinnamon
1 12 ounce can Sprite
1 stick margarine
2 Granny Smith apples

Cook sprite, sugar, and margarine until boiling. Chop apples and roll biscuits out flat. Place chopped apples in biscuits and pinch together. Place in a 9 x 13 dish and then pour sprite mixture over the biscuits and apples. Bake until brown and then put cinnamon on top.

**This is the way the recipe reads, but when I cook it I usually just put the chopped apples in the sprayed casserole dish and then place the biscuits (with the layers separated) on top of the apples. Then, I pour the sprite mixture over the biscuits and apples. I also put the cinnamon on before I bake the dumplings.

Let me know if you try it and what you think of it!