This is our life: WHAT'S IN YOUR PANTRY

Well, by now you’ve probably realized that we LOVE to eat here at the Vargas home. It’s hard at times to continue coming up with new ideas to mix in with the favorites and keep them interested and anticipating family mealtime, which is an important time of day for me. It’s a time for us to reconnect as a family and share the high/low moments of the day.

Truth be known, we’ve been on a pretty tight budget lately and I was hoping to postpone my trip to the grocery store for a few more days. Bound and determine to come up with a tasty culinary concoction from the inventory on hand, I rummaged through the fridge, freezer and pantry. Hmmmmmmm, one whole chicken, a bag of frozen veggies, a couple of cans of cream of chicken soup, 3 potatoes and half an onion. Why not try putting a spin on one of our old favorites by combining a couple of recipes? And you know what? It’s the new favorite. They’ve asked me to make it several times since.

It’s kind of a Sheppard Pot Pie thing. It was so easy and I was feeling pretty good about myself until I saw an almost identical recipe in Better Homes and Gardens the following week. I’ll bet I’d seen it before while skimming through one of my issues and just tucked it away someplace in the chaotic little recesses of my mind. However it happened, my family is happy.

So here it is.

To save time I just boiled the chicken

And then the potatoes

In a bowl, I mixed the mixed veggies, soup, chopped onion, kosher salt and ground pepper. I also tossed in a little garlic. I prefer to use steamed baby carrots, fresh green beans, and I slice off rows of corn from the cob. I also use celery but this is what I had on hand.

I added a little rosemary to the chicken with was the ingredient I layered in my pie dish. My friends with bigger families use a 9 X 13.

Next, I layered the veggie and soup mix on top of the chicken and set it aside.

Here’s the fun part. After adding a couple of tablespoons each of butter and cream cheese and a handful of grated cheese, I mashed up my potatoes and stuffed the mixture into my Pampered Chef cake decorating tool and covered the pie with potato buttons.