Chicken Pot Pie (with shortcuts!)

I have been seriously craving chicken pot pie for at least a month now and with the cooler weather of fall setting in this comfort food down home dish really hits the spot. After reading the ingredients list of the "good pot pie" at Whole Foods, which included enriched flour and questionable gmo ingredients, I knew I was destined to make my own.

 For being a member of the humble casserole  family, when done right this soul nourishing meal has a high maintenance diva side. In order for it to taste right and for the veggies to keep their integrity each component needs to be cooked separately before whisked away into a oven safe dish and left only to do it's thing. I've been making a crock pot half chicken every week so figuring out another thing to do with the bits of dark meat is a blessing, so that took care of the chicken part.

I used a mix of light and dark meat so it wasn't gamey tasting, around 2 cups of chicken. I pulled it off the bone cold, chopped it up and set aside. A chicken breast would work as well, chop it up into bite sized pieces season with pepper, garlic and cook in the oven (bonus points for using the same dish you will be making the casserole in, plus less dishes!) at  375 for about 30 minutes.

Coming up is the hardest part, and I promise it's easy :)

Make a Rue
A rue consists of equal parts flour and fat. For my pot pie in a deep 8x8 baking dish I used 1/2C butter and 1/2 C flour. Let fat melt completely then stir in flour bits at a time. When it's nice and thick and you're terrified it's going to burn start adding bits of chicken broth (or cream if you're a traditionalist) I like to use chicken broth because it's less fatty and I had the best broth on hand from my crock pot chicken. I used about 2 cups total just keep adding as it thickens, also a little Parmesan cheese goes a long way! Once that's done all you have to do is construct using the shortcut methods!

Mix chicken, rue and about a cup of frozen organic mixed veggies (I like the pea, carrot, corn blend) and place evenly in the casserole dish. Then lay a thawed out prepared crust, the Wholsome whole wheat pie crusts from the frozen department from Whole Foods have 6 ingredients and everything's organic. Don't get me wrong I love me some home made lovealicious crust, but it's just not always practical!

Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes, then dance a jig and eat pot pie!!

How to Make Delious Healthy Muffins

If you google "blueberry muffin" there's an estimated 4,540,000 search results that come up for recipes. It's kind of a thing :) and I'm not so sure these muffins are super unique but they are "healthy" as far as muffins go and I take great pride in using ingredients and methods that result in delicious food & can be eaten for breakfast or snacks alike. The key here is substitutions and I'm not talking about subbing applesauce for oil or butter, because let's face it a little fat makes things YUMMY! Here's the original recipe I pulled from "The Joy of Cooking" cookbook. I use their recipes for a starting point most of the time because it's classic, simple and I like the fluid layout. However once I'm finished it doesn't look much like this at all, but baking is a science more than a free flowing art form like cooking can be so I try to stick to the dry/wet ingredient ratios.

Let's start with the flour  I always use a mix of unbleached all purpose flour and whole wheat flour. Using all whole wheat flour makes baked goods too dense but you can go a 1:1 ratio and it works out great. Enriched flour is basically flour stripped of all it's nutrients and pumped full of "nutrients" usually of a very questionable quality level.So I opt for the OG flour and trust I'll get my iron & vitamins elsewhere. You can read more about enriched flour at The Global Healing Center blog. Ok, enough of that tangent! 

The next thing I always substitute if possible is Greek yogurt for milk or cream, now since I'm baking with it the pro-biotic quality diminishes but the cup this recipe calls for adds a whopping 22 grams of protein!

 Coconut oil has been getting a lot of attention lately, and for a good reason it's an amazing product. Aside from putting it on my hair as a leave-in conditioner and on my skin as a fabulous moisturizer I also eat it for many health benefits. If you don't like the taste of coconuts, don't worry it's undetectable when it's cooked. Dr. OZ has a great explanation of coconut oil on his website. 

The last major change is ditching the sugar, raw organic or otherwise and using maple syrup instead. I promise it doesn't make your muffins taste like maple syrup just a hint of maple flavor if you have a refined pallet or if you're like me you probably won't taste it at all. Including all of maple syrups health benefits I love it mostly because it doesn't spike the blood sugar the way straight sugar does.

Now that all of that is out of the way, let's get to the how we make these awesome little fluffy balls of goodness!

Preheat oven to 400
Grab a helper


Sift together

1 C whole wheat flour
1 C unbleached all purpose flour 
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

In another bowl whisk together

2 eggs
1 C yogurt
3/4 C maple syrup
6 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix in flour mixture until there are no more clumps but it will be kind of thick, almost like play dough. At this point you have what I like to call a "master recipe" you can add various things you love (nuts, fruit, mini chocolate chips) and make a plethora of combinations. In this case I added a healthy cup of blueberries we had left in the freezer from our blueberry picking trip earlier last summer. It's that's about it easy breezy, just oil or line a muffin pan fill those bad boys up (about 3/4 the way) and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on top and when they come clean when poked with a toothpick.

Try to share!!!

What are your favorite substitutions for classic recipes?!