Last month Pillsbury gathered together a group of bloggers to bring out to the kitchens located at the General Mills Headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If you happen to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook then you probably knew that I was one of the nine bloggers in attendance!
We had a busy schedule that included background information on how Pillsbury has become what it is today, how they develop their recipes, current food trends and, our main subject, easy weeknight dinners! Pillsbury tries to create their recipes with easy ingredients, keeping the list of ingredients short. (Salt & pepper and water don’t count as additional ingredients!)
There was a demo that included 3 easy recipes to create fun family dinners with Pillsbury Grands Biscuits and Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. Then, later in the morning after a tour of the kitchens, pantries and prop closets, we’d be pairing up together to create a dish of our own!
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| All nine bloggers that attended this event. From Left to Right. Emily from Busy Mommy, Amanda from Amanda’s Cookin’, Jill from Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons, ME, Sara from Sensibly Sara, Rachel from Rachel Ferrucci, Dorothy from Crazy for Crust, Carrian from Oh, Sweet Basil, and Angela from About A Mom. (Photo credits to Jill From Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons) |
This would be the lovely kitchens we would be working in, each including their own fully stocked station. I loved the lighting in this room and the large work space. This is where many of the recipes on the Pillsbury website are tested again and again before they get published!
Just a (very) small portion of the supplies located in the closets.
There’s many closets, with many dishes, linens, and anything else you could possibly think of.
I wanted to bring my shopping cart and just collect a few things!
See? Dishes, pots and slow-cookers galore!
Soon enough we were back in the test kitchens and ready to be paired up. The rules were that we had to create an easy meal using anything on this table. It was only to include five ingredients or less, with one of the ingredients being a Pillsbury dough.
I was partnered with Emily from Busy Mommy, and we sorted through many ideas before we found the chorizo chub and quickly decided to make a chorizo and egg pocket using Pillsbury Grands Biscuits.
Look, I know it was supposed to be easy weeknight meals, but in our house our kids love when we switch it up and make breakfast for dinner. And really, this pocket can be eaten any time of day, it’s so delicious! Here’s our five ingredients:
Chorizo & Egg Breakfast Pockets Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons chorizo
- 3 large eggs + 1 egg white
- 1/4 medium green bell pepper, diced
- 1 canister Pillsbury Buttermilk Grands refrigerated Biscuits
- 1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
- a few pinches of salt
Directions:
Begin by opening up the chorizo chub and spooning out the uncooked meat.
In a medium skillet, brown the meat, no oil necessary.
Whisk the three eggs together and add them to the skillet once the meat is browned.
Here’s Emily and I cooking in the Pillsbury Test Kitchens!
Add the diced bell peppers to the egg and chorizo mixture and continue to stir every so often until the eggs are scrambled and there’s no excess liquid.
In the meantime, flatten out the biscuits so they’re flat like a pizza dough.
Place a flattened biscuit on a cookie sheet. Fill with 1/4 of the filling. Sprinkle some cheese on top.
Place another flattened biscuit on top, then press edges together with fork.
Once complete, brush egg white across the tops and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.
Bake at 350 for about 23 minutes, or until tops are golden.
Place on cooling rack for a few minutes, once cooled cut each cooked pie in half to create a pocket.
We served it with a spiced up sour cream to dip the pockets in. This was just sour cream with some cayenne pepper mixed in. These were easy, and so good!
Each of our groups got to present our creation to the other bloggers and many of the Pillsbury staff.
Everyone did so good, and it was fun to see the different creations that were made in that time frame.
After our lunch we got to take a tour of the rest of the General Mills building. We checked out the photo studio and got some great photography tips. All of the photos taken by Pillsbury and General Mills are all edible. They don’t add anything to make it inedible, matter of fact they had just eaten a salad they’d photographed right before we arrived.
The prop rooms were my favorite. There was just anything you could possibly imagine needing. There were so many different wood panels for a table appearance in photos.
Just stacks and stacks of everything. Items are picked up from yard sales, thrift stores, you name it!
I loved the varieties of cake dishes!
There was so much that we learned and I had such a wonderful day.
Thank you Pillsbury for the opportunity to come out and spend the day with you!
You can follow Pillsbury on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Be sure to search for the hashtag #MakeItTonight and you can locate all the updates from that day!
Stay tuned, I have more fun with Pillsbury coming soon!
What are your favorite recipes that include Pillsbury products?
Awww! What a fantastic time you had at Pillsbury! Thanks so much for sharing some behind the scenes photos, AND this great recipe!
It really was a fantastic time. Thank you!
It is soo incredible to have the opportunity to go to a place like this and explore the behind the scene action. I like the receipe also.
It was so much to take in. I know I missed parts and didn’t share nearly enough photos, I’m just so thankful to have even had the opportunity! Thank you!
This looks like such an incredible day! And I would have had to be rolled out of there after stuffing my face.
Oh, it was absolutely incredible! Everything was so delicious! 😉
I’m always looking for new breakfast ideas, instead of my boring boiled eggs! What a great experience! I also like that when they shoot pictures that everything is edible. I think a lot of companies do not and when you actually go to their restaurant/try out a recipe, the actual product looks nothing like the ads. I’ll have to try these out and see what other simple easy recipes there are for dinner!
Yes, I thought it was so interesting that all their food they photograph is edible. This means they understand the challenges sometimes in REAL food photography!
This is really exciting! I love how you are working Pillsbury into your recipes! You are so creative and your recipes are amazing!
Thank you!
What an awesome experience! I’m so happy you got to participate in this- keep reaching for the stars!
Aww thank you so much, it really was such an experience! 🙂