Lunches: 3.13.15 (Early Pi Day!)

This week has been insanely busy, and the weekend looks to remain so.. but we had to mark Pi Day (of the century) in some way.  If you want to see past Pi Day posts, you can see some of them here.

The Girl's classroom is having a whole Pi Day celebration today.  I can't wait to hear about it this afternoon.

Mini pizzas (22g), mini pie (24g), apple slices: 6g, strawberries: 4g

So, in honor of 3.14.15, The Boy has some mini pizza (pies), a mini fruit pie (these I bought frozen - no time to make them this year!), apple slices, and strawberries.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 22g).

The Girl also has mini pizza (pies), a mini fruit pie, half a plum (it's round!), and strawberries.

Pi(e) Day 2014 - Recipe: Creamy Beef and Veggie Pot Pie

Happy Pi Day!  (3.14 ~ Pi = Pie)

I am planning plenty of hand pies for The Girl's Birthday party this weekend, but I couldn't go without some sort of Pie to celebrate today.  Enter dinner - Creamy Beef Pot Pie.

Stir fry beef was on sale at the store, so that's what I used (it's pre-sliced, top round I think).

Creamy Beef and Veggie Pot Pie

Pie crust for top and bottom of a 9" pie (your own recipe or pre-made)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lbs beef, cubed (I used sliced stir fry beef)
1 1/2 c sliced portabello mushrooms
1 small bag frozen mixed vegetables
1-2 Tbsp Teeny Tiny Spice Toloucan Chorizo Spice or your favorite spice blend
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Preheat oven to 425 F. Roll out pie crust for the bottom crust and press into a pie plate.  In a saute pan, brown the beef in the oil.

Stir in the mushrooms, frozen vegetables, and spice blend, and cook until the vegetables are thawed.  Add the soup (non-diluted) and combine.

Pour the beef mixture into the pie crust.

Top with second pie crust.  Crimp to seal.  Cut vents (decorative if desired) into the top crust.

Bake for ~30-35 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned (you can put foil or a pie crust shield around the crust edges to keep them from burning)

Allow to cool about 10 minutes before serving.

Lunches 3.14.13: Happy Pi Day Blog Hop

Some of my geekier Bento Blogger friends (The Edible Geekery Group) have decided to celebrate Pi in the way we know how.. in lunch form!

 

I made two kinds of mini pies for our lunches - first, I had some ground goat.  I found it at the local Halal market, she ground it fresh for me.  Since she barely spoke English, I got 4 lbs of it.  No other option.  Good thing I like goat. 


If you have never tried goat, you should.  It's a lot like lamb, but leaner.  And so delicious.

So, The Hubby cooked up some of the goat with caramelized onion, garlic powder, and salt and pepper.  I mixed in some baked potatoes and green peas along with crumbled feta cheese.  There's a mini pie filling for you!

I used my lovely mini pie maker (ok, fine, mini cupcake maker... but in my mind, it's for pie!) and store-bought crust (no time for homemade), and made my mini pot pi pies.  I baked them for 14 minutes.

I also decided to make some mini banana cream pudding pies (I had banana cream pudding mix).  For this, I pressed the pie dough into the pie maker, and filled with dry beans so that it wouldn't puff up.  Once they were cool, I filled them with pudding pie filling.  Super easy.

My lunch

To finish out the lunches, The Girl and I have clementines.  I have some veggie chips and apple slices.

The Girl's Lunch

She has a bunny shaped hard boiled egg and a couple Easter M&M's in an egg.  Her birthday is coming up.. so she gets a little splurge.  For snack, she has a Chobani Champions yogurt.

The Hubby's Lunch

The Hubby has Pi Pot Pies, a banana cream pi pie, apple slices, raisins, and cucumber.

The Boy's Lunch: Apple slices: 8g, Pi Pot Pies: 10g each, veggie chips: 4g, Banana Cream Pi Pie: 20g

For snack, The Boy has Chobani Champions yogurt (not pictured).  His lunch is Pi Pot Pies, apple slices, veggie chips, and a banana cream pi pie.
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Did you like my Pi Pies?  Check out the rest of the Hop!  It should go live at 9 AM EST - hop on through, starting with BentOnBetterLunches. Get your geek on!