Diary-free chicken pot pie

Swim season is over and I'm trying to eat healthier and get back on track at the gym so that I start to feel better (avoiding shellfish would help...a swelling tongue while driving back from Richmond isn't so fun...ugh hidden oyster sauce!), but it's still so cold that I was craving some chicken pot pie!

I found this recipe from For This Season and was able to make some additions and changes to suit me (in red).

Chicken Pot Pie Filling (Dairy Free Recipe)

Ingredients

• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp butter substitute (Earth Balance)
• ½ cup onion, diced (used a full onion)
• ½ cup celery, diced (probably used more)
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• ½ tsp pepper
• 2 cups frozen vegetables (organic peas, carrots and corn mix)
• 2 cups cooked chicken (half a Rotisserie from the store)
• extra veggies: 
• handful of mushrooms, chopped
• 1 small potato, chopped (microwaved for 2 minutes)
• shredded kale
• 1 recipe for double pie crust (Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry - it's dairy free!!!)

*I've also been trying to use more organic produce, who knows, maybe that's affecting all the allergies I currently have???

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large pan over medium high heat melt butter substitute and oil together.
3. Add onion and celery. Cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
4. Reduce heat to medium and slowly add flour to onion mixture, stirring to combine completely.
5. Add broth a quarter cup at a time, continually stirring to prevent clumps.
6. Add pepper, chicken and vegetables. Stir to mix and remove from heat.  (had to add more chicken broth here to help smooth the sauce)
7. Place filling in pie crust and bake for 30 minutes.

The prep probably took the longest, defrosting and chopping everything, but it was done in an hour and I was able to clean all the dishes and grade some papers while it was in the oven. 

In the oven

Just out of the oven

After a meal for one, and then 3 lunches...and I still have tons left over!  Apparently I'm not so good at cooking for one plus a few leftovers, I always get food for an army, which is not something I have.  Hope the roomies and boy wants to eat lots of chicken pot pie!

Valentine's Irish Beef & Guinness Stew

For Valentine's Day I made us Beef and Guinness Stew from the Irish cookbook (Irish Traditional Cooking by Darina Allen) that Chris got me for Christmas, and it turned out delicious!  I halved the recipe, but wouldn't suggest doing so as it ended up being less than half.

Beef & Guinness Stew

2lb lean stewing beef

3 Tbs oil

2 Tbs all-purpose flour

salt, ground pepper, cayenne

2 large onions, chopped

1 large garlic clove, crushed

2 tbs tomato paste, dissolved in 4 Tbs of water

1 1/4 c. Guinness

3/4 c. chopped carrots

sprig of thyme

parsley

• Heat oven to 300 degrees.
• Trim the meat of fat and cut into 2 inch cubes, toss them in a bowl with 1 Tbs of oil.  Season flour with salt, ground pepper and cayenne to taste, toss the meat in the flour.
• Heat the remaining oil in a wide skillet over high heat.  Brown the meat on all sides, add onion, garlic, and tomato paste, cover, lower heat and cook gently for 5 minutes.  
• Transfer contents of pan to casserole (oven safe), pour some Guinness into the pan, boil and stir to caramelize meat juices, pour into the casserole with remaining Guinness.  
• Add carrots and thyme, cover with lid of casserole and cook in oven for 2-3 hours.
• Scatter with parsley and serve with champ, colcannon or mashed potatoes.  Drink the rest of the Guinness, if not already done :-)

Delicious!  Definitely a great Sunday meal and the whole house smelled wonderful!  (And dairy-free!)

I didn't expect to get chocolates, much less chocolates that I can't eat due to the dairy allergy...

Only to discover the trickster bought chocolates that I could eat and refilled the box!  The original chocolates were laid to rest in the trash... so thoughtful!

Happy dinner together!