My Wednesday Pantry-Chicken Cheat Pot Pie and a Cookbook

      

By Sunday afternoon, I had already shifted up my menu plan for the week, moving menu items to different days to maximize Use By dates. After doing a lot of googling and determining the pie crust dated January 9th (which explains why it was only $1 in the store) I thought best not to stretch any longer. Chicken pot pie was moved to Sunday. I was happy it was! It served us both to stuffed, and left us with four slices, two of which were my Monday lunch and two were DH's Tuesday lunch, as he finally  decided to just come home rather than always pack the same sandwiches every day. He works less than five minutes from home. It was very cold on Tuesday and he had a mug of tomato soup as well.  

This was the pie crust lid I bought at my favorite  kitchen store, The Palate, in
Stockholm, WI. This is one of our day trip shopping stops with my sisters. 

     The pie turned out very well, but why should it not? It was a complete cheat. Last week when I made  ranch chicken, I cooked another four of the  chicken thighs without breading and tucked in the freezer. Two were  diced into chunks for the pie. I steamed the other half of the frozen mixed veg from last weeks quiche, and combined the chicken, vegetables, three precooked (peeled and steamed in microwave) potatoes, with a can of cream of chicken soup. I added a teaspoon of  chicken bouillon and 1/2 a cup of water, plus a tsp of onion powder and  ground black pepper. All was mixed and into the  ready made pie crust it went, after first poking the bottom and sides of the crust with a fork to avoid bubbling. I topped the mix with the other crust, crimped with a fork, cut the surplus dough away, and baked for 40 minutes. I didn't even bother with an egg wash. I'm going to call this a $4.00 pot pie.

• $1.00 pie crust
• $1.25 chicken (8 in a pack for $5, used 2)
• $ ..50 soup
• $ ..50 veg
• $ 30 potatoes
• $45 seasoning estimate to round up

     It's another dish that would have fed our family of five, though would have probably needed sliced bread or maybe rice or stuffing on the side, and another vegetable for all five of us considering the appetite of my son. This is theoretical as my daughter wouldn't have eaten it as it of course was not vegetarian, but for an example, to show how far it would go if you are feeding a family.

     Speaking of my son, his Christmas gifts for us are slowing making their way to Minnesota. He had ordering and delivery issues, and then we all know the mail has had issues too. I am very excited to dive into this lovely cookbook he gave me. 

      I did some paging through of The L.A. Cookbook, and saw a wide variety of recipes created by  chef's from restaurants in his adopted city.Being L.A. I'm sure there will be a variety of  options from Vegan, to grill favorites, to ethnically and culturally diverse offerings. 

     I think of California as Saturday and Sunday brunch vibe, and sure enough, there is a breakfast and brunch section. I'll share with you all as I attempt to bring some of these recipes to life. They most likely will take more effort than my chicken cheat pot pie.