I love a good one pan meal. I also love a good one pan meal that is low in fat and full of good for you vegetables. This meal received my "wow babe, this is delicious" seal of approval from my husband. It has a great tang from the mustard, peas and carrots similar to one of our favorite shrimp dishes at a great restaurant, and filling protein and carbs. It comes together in just a few minutes and you will be happy to welcome this easy dish into your repertoire. 

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon butter

30-40 count medium shrimp

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 leeks, cleaned/diced

1 large carrot, shredded

1 cup frozen peas

1 1/4 cup israeli pearled cous cous

lavender salt

fresh cracked pepper

2 cups water, boiled

Directions: 

Melt your butter, add your shrimp, salt and pepper them. Saute your shrimp for 3-4 minutes until just barely pink all the way through. Set aside. In your same skillet add you olive oil, leeks, carrots, mustard, and garlic. Salt and pepper them and saute until soft and cooked through, about 5 minutes. While your vegetables are cooking, boil 2 cups of water. When the vegetables are soft, add your peas and cous cous to the pan. Dump your water over the top them, turn off your heat source, cover, and let sit 7-8 minutes until the cous cous has plumped. Season with lavender salt and pepper and return the shrimp to the dish. 

Simple, healthy, filling, and delicious. Hope you enjoy this quick one pot meal. 

This recipe is perfect for those households that are divided when it comes to spice. My husband really enjoys a spicy meal, while I on the other hand can't stand the heat, literally. This dish itself has a wonderful almost spicy flavor from the turmeric, so for me and my mild loving tastebuds, its perfect. But when paired with your favorite hot sauce, it will blow your britches off. Plus it's extremely low fat and full of protein and veggies. So not only is it super tasty, but its good for you too!

Ingredients: 
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
2 teaspoons turmeric
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes 
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 cups frozen peas
20 shrimp, thawed, tails removed
1 1/2 cup cooked rice
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and Pepper

Cook your rice in the rice cooker with 1 tablespoon of butter added. Heat your oil in a large sauté pan. Add your onion and bell pepper, season with salt and pepper, and cook until soft and tender. Add your turmeric and garlic and stir for 30 seconds until combined. Add your can of tomatoes (juice included), shrimp, and salt and pepper. Simmer until your shrimp are pink and cooked through. Add your cilantro and frozen peas and simmer until peas are warmed through. Mix together with your cooked rice and season again with salt and pepper as needed. Serve with cholula or siracha sauce. 

I hope you enjoy this full of flavor colorful and healthy rice dish - no matter how spicy you choose to make it!

Ok. Last "throw back" recipe of the week! I'm going to use our 2010 photo for this recipe as well. Sorry its so rough, this is before blog food photography was "a thing". But in all honestly, I actually trust a recipe that doesn't have gorgeous photos a little bit more. I know whoever posted the recipe was in it for the food, not the photo. Speaking of great food, this is one of my favorite recipes that Peggy has ever cooked for me. She stocked our freezer with these bad boys when I gave birth to my son and not only were they an easy meal to just re-heat, but they were so so tasty. If you haven't tried this recipe from our blog archives in the past, this would be a stellar place to start. 

I'm 100x's tastier than I look!

This recipe is another Peggy original that she formulated using her lavender. She grows all her own herbs necessay to make "Herb de Provence".  This mixture of , lavender, rosemary, thyme, basil, summer savory and sage is a staple in the cusines of southern fench cooking. Her mother made excellent chicken pot pie, but Peggy thinks this recipe kicks it up a notch. For example she sautés the veggies to bring out more flavor. She also use chicken thighs. They are more flavorful, not mention more affordable. Gotta love that.  

Start with a good pie crust. 

PEGGYS PIE CRUST

2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. sugar

2/3 cup shortening + 2 tbs.

8-10 Tbs. Cold water

In a bowl add flour, sugar and salt. Cut in Shortening. To cut in shortening a pastry blender works the best. If you don't have one a few pulses in a food processor will do the trick. Anyway the flour mixture should resemble smallpeas. Add cold water and barley stir. To much working with the dough causes a tough crust. Gather dough into a ball, and refrigerate for 20 minutes or so. Cut the dough in half. If not using the other half for your dough for the top crust. I always roll it out into a pie pan and freeze. Roll out dough on a boardusing a small amount of flour so dough does not stick. Line pie pan with dough leaving enough extra around the edges for a good crusty edge. If you are putting a top crust on make sure you cut some slits for the stream to escape.

LAVENDER APPLE CHICKEN POT PIE

serves 4-6

8 chicken thighs
salt 
pepper
2 1/2 tsp. herb de provence
2 tbs, olive oil
1 cup chopped onions
1 clove garlic crushed
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. olive oil
4 cups chicken broth (split)
3 yukon gold potatoes, skins scrubbed, chopped
3 carrots peeled, chopped
2 ribs celery chopped
1 cup peas

method:
preheat oven to 350. butter a med. size casserole , or oven proof dish. I like to use 1 1/2 cup ramekins. In a large skillet heat the olive oil. Salt and pepper chicken thighs, rub on "herb de provence". Saute onions until soft about 4 minutes. Add chicken and brown on all sides. Add 1 cup of chicken broth, lower heat, cover and simmer until thighs are cooked through. Remove chicken from the pan (keeping juices from the pan) and cool. De-bone thighs. In another pot saute veggies in butter and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and 1/2 tsp. of herbs de provence. Once veggies are slightly browned add the remainder of the chicken broth and bay leaf, cook until veggies are just tender. Remove veggies from broth. Now we are ready to assemble. With whisk in hand add flour to large skillet (pan in which you have cooked chicken) cook until thick, adding broth from veggies. Once you have a nice thick gravy, season to taste. Add in the chicken and veggies, along with the peas. Now fill you dish and cover with a crust. I like to put on as much crust as possible, use your creativity, there is no right or wrong way (just make sure you have a good crust) You can brush on a quick egg wash so the crust browns nicely. This recipe may sound difficult, but it's very easy. I also have doubled this recipe and have frozen the second pie. Let me tell you how much better they are than the Banquet frozen pot pie we ate as kids. They make great gifts too. 
Enjoy, 

This recipe is brought to us by Mike and Peggy's son Quentin. Quentin caught the cooking gene from his mother and loves to be in the kitchen. He whipped up this shepherds pie recipe from his imagination and boy is it good!

Ingredients:

12 oz ground beef (85-90% lean)

1/2 bag frozen peas

1/2 large onion, diced

1 package of good brown gravy mix

1 cup of water

1/2 cup red wine

3-4 pounds of potatoes

Fresh rosemary

1-3 bay leaves

and dried thyme

Rosemary mashed potatoes:

Boil and mash 3-4 pounds of potatoes.  Add 1/2 stick of butter and about a cup of milk.  You want to make these potatoes slightly on the wet side so add however much more milk you need to. Add 1 tbs finely diced fresh rosemary and salt and pepper to taste.

Filling:

Add 3 tbs of olive oil to a hot pan.  Add 1/2 of a diced onion and cook for a few minutes until soft.  Add ground beef and brown thoroughly   Add red wine and reduce for a few minutes and then add the water and gravy mix. Add the bay leaves and thyme and bring to a simmer. Simmer down until gravy has thickened a bit. You can strain any extra grease off the top of the meat if needed. Cover the meat mixture with your frozen peas. Then cover your peas with your mashed potato mixture. 

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Turn oven to broil and broil for 3 minutes to add a little golden color on top. 

This delicious dish should serve 4-5 people. Not only is this savory and hearty, but even little ones love it!