Smiley Chicken Pot Pie

Well the muffins were really yummy but a complete failure in terms of getting Liam to actually eat a vegetable. Apparently he wasn't fooled. He licked a couple of muffins. He blew on them when the were hot. But, he refused to actually take more than a nibble.

I love them. They taste overwhelmingly of bananas to me, but to Liam it seems they taste like Brussels sprouts because he ain't buyin' it.

Today's experiment in attempting to get Liam to eat a vegetable was Chicken Pot Pie with a smiley face. I thought they turned out really cute but his response? "Oooohhhhh!" Then he said, "No. No smiley face" and he got in his car and drove away.

I am pretty sure he hasn't eaten in a week.

Regardless, the chicken pot pies were yummy and comforting. Since I made them in little ramekins they were just a small bite which is perfect for someone like me who can only eat a few ounces at a time. (More on that later.)

I've made chicken pot pies all my life I think. My mother makes excellent chicken pot pie with home made drop-biscuit-type crust, but I decided to do it the easy way and use refrigerated pie crusts.

This recipe is going to be more of a dump recipe because I've been making them so long that I no longer measure. So all these measurements are approximations and you'll need to adjust them according to your own instincts.

Smiley Chicken Pot Pies

1/2 cup of sweet peas
1 carrot, chopped fine
1/4 cup of onion, chopped fine
1 medium potato, chopped fine
1 chicken thigh, shredded
1/4 cup of milk
2 cups chicken broth, with 1/4 reserved
1 refrigerated pie crust
6 ramekins
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves of garlic mashed or 1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
grated nutmeg, to taste (I love nutmeg with chicken so I used about 1/4 teaspoon.)
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Some vegetables for garnishing
A sprinkle of shredded cheese

In a large pan, melt the butter and add the potatoes and carrots. Let these cook for a few minutes and then add the onions and peas. When the onions just begin to turn brown add 1/4 cup of chicken broth. Next add the nutmeg, garlic, salt and pepper. Let this cook slowly over medium heat, adding 1/4 cup of chicken broth at a time until the vegetables are tender. The consistency will be sort of lumpy paste like, as you want the potatoes to be kind of stewed/kind of mashed.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Roll out the pie crusts and use something (I used my 1 cup measuring cup) to cut out the circles for the top and bottom of your ramekins*. Line the bottom of each ramekin with one circle and pre-bake until a little brown.

At this point your vegetable mixture should be softly cooked and slightly juicy. Add in that remaining 1/4 cup of broth and the milk. Stir together. It should be almost soupy but the vegetables shouldn't be swimming in the liquid. (I took the above picture before adding the milk and extra broth so it will be soupier that this.)

Remove ramekins from oven and fill almost to the top with the vegetables and chicken. Be sure that you don't leave the juice out of the ramekins otherwise your little pies will be too dry. Also don't overfill your ramekins or the contents will boil over and drown your pie crusts. You can't tell in the above picture but there is quite a bit of juice underneath those veggies.

Using a knife or fork make some vent holes in the top of your pie crusts. This allows the steam to escape while baking. I just use my knife to make an "X" (again see the * below).

Lower the heat on your oven to 350 degrees and bake your pies for approximately 20 minutes.

When the ramekins are cool enough to eat, garnish with tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, carrot sticks,shredded cheese, green onions slices or anything else you have on hand to make the eyes, nose, mouth and hair.

*Disclaimer: I've never been good with pie crusts so there is probably a better, prettier way to do this. This is a basic, lazy, unedumacated way.

Hang one! Late breaking news...Liam is eating the muffin I put on his plate with his chicken pot pie. PRAISE THE LORD THE SPIRIT HAS BEEN LIFTED!!!!!

Veggie-Sneak Muffins

It has been quite a while since I have blogged for several reason that I will go into later. But for right now I want to get this recipe down before I lose the paper I wrote it on and forget it.

(Singing an ode to the muffins.)



I decided to try and use muffins and a Vegetable-Delivery System for my increasingly picky toddler. As of this posting all I can regularly get him to eat is corn and green beans. In about 1998, I remember Cooking Light doing a recipe make-over for Morning Glory muffins that removed a lot of the fat and sugar by adding in vegetables, applesauce, apple butter, molasses and several other ingredients. I've moved about 25 times since I had that original recipe and couldn't find it on the internet. Instead, I just started combining aspects of muffin making from my Joy of Cooking cookbook and about 6 different recipes I found online for zucchini, carrot and Morning Glory Muffins.

Since I didn't want to buy out the grocery store just to make these muffins I pretty much used what I had on-hand. I keep flax seed and coconut in my freezer just for this kind of cooking emergency.

Veggie-Sneak Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup vanilla or banana yogurt
1 cup mashed banana (2 whole)
1/2 cup to 1 cup chopped prunes (I get lazy chopping them and use 1/2 cup)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or to taste - we like cinnamon)
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1 zucchini, shredded
1 cup carrots, shredded
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 eggs
1/4 to 1 cup of milk (depending on how dry your mix is)

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together the dry ingredients in one large bowl.

Mix the wet ingredients together in another bowl. Add milk slowly while you incorporate the dry and wet ingredients together. You don't want the batter too runny or too dry.

Combine by making a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Muffins shouldn't be over-mixed like a cake mix. Instead they should be lightly mixed so gently incorporate the wet into the dry. When it is mixed walk away from the bowl. Resist the urge to keep mixing. The light mixing is what makes little "chunnels" in your muffins. As you can see from the picture here, I over-mixed. What can I say? I had a "helper" and he was making me crazy. I probably added a tad too much milk. Baking at this altitude is new to me and every experience is hit or miss.

Spoon batter into muffin tins lined with paper cupcake liners. I guess you could just grease and flour your muffin tin but I hate cleaning muffin tins so I use liners.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until the muffins are springy when you touch the top - think mattress commercial, not Temper-Pedic mattress but regular old mattress.

If you overmix your batter your results will look like this. Do as I say, not as I do. Umkay?


You think if I frosted these with cream cheese frosting it would make them cupcakes instead of muffins? And would that defeat the purpose of trying to make them healthy? I mean they already have a whole cup of brown sugar instead of molasses. What's a little more sugar and cream cheese really gonna hurt?