Playing chicken

It seems like the craziest thing I do nowadays is play chicken with my kids naptime.  I test the Princess to see just how close we can make it without her falling asleep.  If we're out and about and she starts rubbing her eyes or yawning, it becomes my mission to do whatever I can to keep her awake for a very long ride home.  Any parent knows, if your kid falls asleep in the car, even for the briefiest few winks, naptime is RUINED.  And your kid will stay awake making you both completely miserable until the next naptime...if there is one.  

For example, this happened at Wegmans last week.  The Princess made it all the way through our shopping event only to start to drift off while we were in line!  I had her on me in her carrier and I was bouncing, shaking, and shimmying the poor girl while my food items were being rung up.  Trust me, I gave the checkout lady quite a show!  Thankfully, when we got outside the cool air revived my kid briefly and then I was in it to win it on the 15-minute ride home.  

I turned the heat way down to keep the car comfortably cool and ward off any snoozing.  I had no shame.  I pulled up to stop lights singing obnoxious children's songs at the top of my lungs, clapping, and reaching around to jiggle the Princess to ensure she didn't fall asleep.  When we turned onto our street, I began to plot how I would get my kid back in the house, out of her carseat, and up the stairs so that victory could be declared.  Somehow we made it and in my mind I was declared champion.  They really should make this an Olympic event.  I would watch.

Since that is my game of chicken lately, I thought I might also attempt something a little wild with some actual chicken.  It's not completely off the wall because it is buffalo chicken and you can't really go wrong with that in my book.  I normally make classic Sunday dinners.  Think meat and potatoes, pasta and meatballs, chili and beer bread, et cetera.  But, this one is just slightly outside of a classic Sunday dinner, that I did feel sort of rebellious.

Check out my wild and crazy Buffalo Chicken Shepard's Pie:

With a lot of help from Wegmans, this one took about twenty minutes of prep work and into the oven it went.  It was quite delicious if you can't tell from the pic.  So go ahead, play chicken.  It's totally worth it.

Buffalo Chicken Shepard's Pie

*inspired by Once a month mom's Buffalo Chicken Shepard's Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 pound boneless chicken breast, cooked & diced

• 1 bag of Wegmans pre-cut mirepoix (or 2 medium carrots, 2 ribs of celery, and 1 medium onion chopped)

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 teaspoons paprika

• Kosher salt

• black pepper

• 1/4 cup chicken stock

• 1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce

• 4 ounces blue cheese crumbles

• Prepared whipped mashed potatoes (I went with the value sized potatoes to ensure I had enough for the top of the pie)

        •      Shredded Colby Jack cheese for topping if desired

Directions:

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

2.  Microwave your whipped potatoes for about 10 minutes and then stir them.

3.  In a large skillet heat olive oil. Saute mirepoix (or celery, carrots, onion) with garlic until tender.  

4.  Add your cooked chicken back into the skillet.  

5.  Add the paprika, salt and pepper.  Add chicken broth and buffalo wing sauce to the pan.  Stir to combine.  Reduce the heat and simmer.

6.  Pour the chicken mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish and top with blue cheese crumbles. 

7.  Spoon the potatoes on top of the chicken mixture.  Top with shredded colby jack if desired.

8.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden and the filling is bubbly.