About Laura Peascoe

Posts by Laura Peascoe:

chicken pipette stew

Soul Warming Chicken Pipette Stew

Winter has finally arrived in North Carolina…if you need me you can find me bundled up in a chunky sweater and fluffy socks and probably curled up under a big blanket.  All that unless there is snow on the ground!  People tend to laugh at the South for shutting down when it snows, but I actually love it.  As a teacher, Andy is automatically in the group that gets to stay home, and sometimes my office will close or tell everyone to work from home if we’re able.  We’ve only had one dusting this year, but snow’s in the forecast for Friday, and I’m really hoping it’s a good one.  Last year Anna Ruth was just under a year old and we were dealing with ear infection after ear infection, so we didn’t take her outside much.

chicken pipette stew

This year I have visions of sledding and building snowmen, then coming inside for hot chocolate and warming up by the fire.  The reality, though, will be playing trying to get a perfect picture outside for 10 minutes before deciding AR is too cold, then trekking back in and getting snow and dirt all over our mudroom.  Then no hot chocolate because this loser mom generally just can’t justify the amount of sugar, and also HAVE YOU EVEN SEEN MY KID HOPPED UP ON SUGAR??  <—I’m sure it’s like most almost two-year-olds, but I try to avoid it as much as possible.  I know the day’s coming when she’ll know what sweets are, but for now she doesn’t and, therefore, doesn’t feel deprived by not having them.

chicken pipette stew

One thing I can get behind on a cold, snowy day is this Soul Warming Chicken Pipette Stew.  Yes, I just went there.  It doesn’t even have to be a cold, snowy day.  Below 80 degrees?  I’ll have the soul warming stew, please.  This is really somewhere in between a stew and a soup, but closer to stew, so that’s what I’m going with.  This is so easy – especially when prepped ahead.  A couple of variations – if I happen to have it I like to make it with homemade turkey stock and leftover turkey from Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Also, *leaning forward, looking at you over the rim of my glasses* I cannot stress this enough – subbing tortellini with the pipette takes it completely over the top.  I’ll use tortellini if I have it, but generally just use whatever little tube pasta I have on hand, which in this case is almost always pipette (Barilla brand).  There’s just something so fancy sounding about making Chicken Pipette Stew, right?  Any small tube pasta works, but then it can’t realllly be called Chicken Pipette Stew…it would be something like Chicken Elbow Macaroni Stew, which would be very sad.  Ok, fiiiiine, you can still call it Chicken Pipette – I won’t tell.  Anyways, back to the point, this is great for a crowd and freezes really well if there are leftovers.  We generally get two dinners and two lunches out of the batch, but Andy eats a lot, so it may go even further for some families.

chicken pipette stew

If you’re making this all at once, you’ll need to give yourself about an hour (though, more than half of that is just time to let it cook).  Let’s talk about your prep ahead plan for a minute.  When I plan this for a weeknight meal I always dice the veggies and shred the chicken on the Sunday afternoon before.  I prepped this during the commercial breaks while watching the first quarter of the #Panthers game.  Then the night of it’s simply softening the veggies, adding the other ingredients and stirring occasionally.  If you’re making this all the night of, just dice the veggies first, then shred the chicken after you’ve added the broth.  Feel free to add any other herbs or spices you like.  I like to add a little crushed red pepper or hot sauce, but don’t add it until serving so that AR can eat it.  Ok, now it’s your turn – run on to the store and make sure you have everything on hand, so you can have this ready to warm you back up after a long, cold day.  Thanks for reading!

I’m looking for a reliable recipe calorie calculator, but when I put the ingredients into a free online counter it came out to roughly 380 calories per serving if you break this into 8 servings.  One serving is perfect for me, but Andy generally goes for seconds.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
3 carrots – fine diced
4 stalks celery – fine diced
2 small shallots (or one medium onion) – fine diced
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic – minced
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 (24 oz) can crushed tomatoes (I use the kind with basil, garlic and oregano)
8 cups chicken broth or stock  (or 6 cups broth and 2 cups water)
2 cups uncooked short tube pasta (I use Pipette from Barilla)
1 whole rotisserie chicken – skin removed and shredded off the bone (or 3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded)

Directions:

  1. Heat olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat.
  2. Add carrots, celery and shallots and cook until tender – about 5-7 minutes
  3. Stir in Italian seasoning, bay leaf, garlic, crushed tomatoes and chicken broth. Reduce heat to just under medium, but not quite medium-low.  Simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Bring mixture to a boil then add pasta and cook according to package directions.
  5. Towards the end of the pasta’s cooking time, add the shredded chicken.
  6. Serve hot garnished with parmesan and hot sauce if desired.
  7. Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for three months.
lemon basil spaghetti

5 Ingredient Lemon Basil Spaghetti

As promised, I’m coming at you today with my first recipe for Miss Foodie Two Shoes!  I’ve been going back and forth (and back and forth) for quite some time trying to decide what I should post first.  To be honest, we make so many different things, and our favorites change all the time, so instead of coming with a “signature” dish, I’m sharing a staple we come back to time and time again.  This dish is great for company, and it’s what I make to take to friends with new babies almost 99% of the time – and if you’ve received a meal from either my mom or sister, then this is probably what you got.  It comes together so quickly.  Like, literally, the sauce is done before the pasta water even comes to a boil, so then you find yourself annoyed that you have to actually wait for the pasta to cook and have to restrain yourself from eating the sauce with a spoon…No?  Just me?  I introduce to you 5 Ingredient Lemon Basil Spaghetti.  First though – three major things I learned while creating this first recipe post:

  • I cannot do natural light photos in the afternoon at my house. I simply have to shoot on the weekends so I can use the light we get earlier in the day.
  • I’m really excited to learn how to use a natural light simulator for those times when natural-natural light isn’t an option.
  • I need (a LOT) more practice, and I hope to revisit this post in the future once I’ve improved my skills.

lemon basil spaghetti

This picture doesn’t do it justice, so you’ll just have to trust me.  You guys, this stuff is so easy to put together and it is SO good.  It makes a ton, so I like to make it for dinner at the beginning of the week and eat on it for lunches and at least one more dinner.  <—- That last part isn’t true.  I always have full intentions of having it for another dinner, but I end up taking a few bites here and there until there’s definitely not enough for a meal, so it just makes sense to finish it as a snack.  I need help.  Seriously, though, this is one of those dishes that I eat straight out of the container with the fridge door open.  It’s one of the few things that I can’t decide whether I like better hot or cold…and if you know me, you know I’m allllll about hot food.

lemon basil spaghetti

You’re only working with five ingredients here (not including salt and pepper), so they have to be good. The key here is the tube of basil.  I use the Gourmet Garden brand, and it is equal to three bunches of basil.  I’m sure you could do this with fresh basil, but it would just take longer to prepare.  Also important here is the lemon zest and juice.  In a pinch you can use lemon juice from a bottle, but the zest plays a huge part in giving this that freshy fresh flavor we’re going for.  Am I even allowed to say things like “freshy fresh” in my FIRST recipe post?  I’m so annoyed at myself right now.  Moving on…As with pretty much any pasta dish, you can use gluten free or whole grain pasta, or even any other shape, but y’all this really is best with plain white thin spaghetti noodles.  Sorry, not sorry.  We generally have this with grilled or panko breaded chicken breasts, but shrimp is also a really good addition to make it a main dish.  This week I marinated three chicken breasts in olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic and dried basil and baked them in the oven.  I’m making that stretch for this meal, two lunches and chicken phillies for dinner later in the week. So here we go – yay, first recipe!  I’ll stop now, so you can go make this.  Once you have that first freshy fresh bite, you won’t be able to stop – you’ve been warned…

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 lb thin spaghetti
1 tube chopped basil (I use Gourmet Garden)
1/2 cup olive oil
3 lemons (zest and juice)
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions.
  2. While spaghetti cooks, zest and juice the lemons into a medium bowl. Add the basil.
  3. Whisk in the olive oil to emulsify the ingredients together.
  4. Stir in the shredded parmesan and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Drain spaghetti noodles, reserving about ½ cup of the cooking liquid, and toss with the lemon basil mixture. I generally add about ¼ cup of the reserved water, but add as little or as much as you want for your desired consistency.
  6. Serve hot or cold! Store leftovers in the fridge for up to a week.

Welcome!

Hi there, and welcome to Miss Foodie Two Shoes!  Anyone who knows me well knows that I’ve been talking about starting a food blog for nearly two years.  Most of what we eat is made from scratch at home, and over the years we’ve come up with some really delicious recipes, as well as time saving and meal planning ideas that I think could be beneficial to some.   My hold-ups have been finding a name and getting over my fear of not knowing how to build a blog.  I finally decided to just go for it with plenty of encouragement from my hubs, family and friends.  I have no experience with website building or photography, so (fingers crossed) you’ll see me improve in those areas.  I’m learning as I go, so please bear with me!

The Peascoe Family

Before we get into all the awesome food, let me give a little more background about myself.  My name is Laura Peascoe, and I work for a global leadership organization.  I went to the University of North Carolina (Go Heels!), and majored in Journalism & Mass Communication.  My job doesn’t involve much creative writing, so I’m really excited that I’ll get to do that here!  I’m wife to a really tall redhead named Andy, and mother to nearly two-year-old Anna Ruth and our dog Bailey.  Andy is a seventh grade science and social studies teacher, and is also getting his Masters of School Administration so he can become a principal.  We’re practically high school sweet hearts even though we didn’t start dating until the end of college.  We went to the Homecoming dance together our senior year, so that counts right??  We live in Greensboro, North Carolina, which is equal distance from the mountains and beach – both of which we love!

You’ll hear a lot about Andy, Anna Ruth and Bailey over time, so I won’t force too much extra reading right now.  In the meantime, here’s my current favorite picture of my people…

Andy and Anna Ruth - Fall 2015

If you’re visiting this little blog of mine, I’m guessing it’s because you’re into delicious food.  Here are the types of things you’ll find in my posts:

  • Recipes that are easy (hello, life with a toddler!)
  • Recipes that can be prepped or totally made ahead
  • Recipes that can be frozen
  • Recipes created with leftovers in mind that can be made into new meals later in the week
  • Tips for getting more veggies into your diet
  • Meal planning ideas

Andy and I love to cook together, so you’ll see stuff from both of us.  We love all flavors and kinds of food, so I hope we’ll be able to teach you what we know.  I try to make things as healthy as possible, but you’ll see plenty of pasta and cheese, as well…really, we’re going to be all over the place.  And that’s fine because my blog = my rules.  Okay, that’s enough wordssss for now.  My first recipe is coming up tomorrow, so please come back then!  Thanks for stopping by!!

Copyright © 2016 Miss Foodie Two Shoes, All rights reserved.