Veggie Pot Pie!!!

What can be more delicious than veggie pot pie? Pretty much nothing. What a lovely and warming comfort food it is. And guess what? IT'S SO EASY TO MAKE - not to mention quick to bake!

Ingredients:
assorted frozen veggies (we like corn and green beans)
potatoes
carrots
onions
veggie stock
premade pie crust (from the refrigerated section)

Oven: Set to the temperature according to the directions for the pie crust. Ours was 420 for 15-20 minutes.

Directions:
Chop up your veggies and saute them a little bit. You don't want them completely cooked because they'll be going in the oven for a bit. So just until the potatoes start to get soft. We added some Italian spices for taste and just a pinch of salt because the veggie stock will add more salty flavor later.


Add enough veggie stock to cover most of the veggies. Then add the frozen veggies to warm them up. Let them simmer for about 5-7 minutes. You may need to add a tablespoon or two of flour or cornstarch to thicken the veggie stock.

Lay out one pie crust on the bottom of your baking pan or pie pan. We like our pot pie stuffed full, so we used a deep, square brownie pan. Pour in the veggie mixture! Mmmm. Put the second pie crust on top and tuck the edges in as best you can to keep the gooey stuff from seeping out while baking. Cut some decorative slits in the top to keep everything from exploding in the oven. We also put tin foil around the edges to keep the edges of the crust from burning.

Put it in the oven according to the baking directions for your pie crust. Ours was 15 minutes at 420 degrees. We removed the tin foil from the edges about 5 minutes before pulling it out of the oven.

There you have it! A lovely comfort food for any season, but best appreciated on a wet and rainy day to warm the soul. Hmmm....

Eggplant Lasagna!!

Ingredients:

Eggplant

Mushrooms

Tomato sauce

Lasagna noodles

Parmesan cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Breadcrumbs

Oven: 350 for about 15 minutes

Directions:

Cup up the eggplant however you wish (we just did slices) and sauté in a pan to get them a little soft. We also put the mushrooms in for a little too. We just seasoned with some salt.

While doing this, R cooked up the lasagna noodles. It’s difficult to tell how many noodles you will need, but it also depends on your preference: whether you like lots of noodles or just enough. We only have 8 noodles left in our box, so we didn’t have a choice. Haha. The hard part is pooling the noodles out after they’re cooked without ripping them or burning your hand. We set them out for a bit to let the water dry off a bit. Not sure if that makes a significant difference or not, but we didn’t want slimy lasagna.

We put some tomato sauce on the bottom before adding anything so make it easier to slide the lasagna out. Now, we had a little bit of jarred tomato sauce, so we supplemented with some canned tomato sauce and added a little bit of Italian seasonings.

Layer your lasagna however you wish. If I can remember correctly, we layered this way: noodles, eggplant/mushrooms, sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, noodles, eggplant/mushrooms, sauce. As it turned out, we had some tiny pieces of noodles left over because they didn’t fit in the pan and we used them to help decorate. Top with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. We added extra mozzarella slices and topped with the last of our tomato sauce.

Bake in the oven until breadcrumbs are toasty, or about 15 minutes. Yum!! Don’t forget your lactaid and antacid tablets!!! HA!

Slammin Salmon Pockets!!!

Oh yea, we're back! Sorry for the delay. My camera broke and deleted all my photos multiple times and then break happened and then the new semester happened - sorry, I'm making excuses when I should not be! So back on track starting with some tasty salmon pockets!

Ingredients:

Pastry puff

Mushrooms/potatoes/onions/garlic

Salmon

Spinach

Oven: 365 for about 15-20 minutes

Directions:

Cook it all up. Layer it all up. Fold it all up. Bake it all up. Easy. Simple. Delicious.

Bit more details:

Lay your pasty roll out flat on a baking sheet. Saute spinach and mushrooms/potatoes separately. Layer on one end of the pastry mushrooms/potatoes, then salmon, then spinach. Fold the pastry over and seal. Cut three air slits in the top so it doesn’t all explode! Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Now, if you are not lactose intolerant and love love love sour cream (like I do), you can mix in some sour cream with the mushrooms/potatoes and spinach immediately after sautéing for a creamy sauce.