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.

Family Lunches: 3.14.14

After two days of snow days due to an 18"+ blizzard, the kids are back to school for Friday.

Sandwich: 27g, cheez-its: 10g, watermelon: 3g

The Boy has watermelon, a turkey sandwich with hummus, with a star pressed into it, along with cheez-its.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured: 34g)

The Girl has strawberries, a turkey sandwich with hummus with a star pressed into it, along with cheez-its. Because they are celebrating her birthday at school today, I put some birthday picks in her lunch.  Her snack is a granola bar (not pictured).

The Hubby has watermelon, a turkey and hummus sandwich with a star pressed into it, with cheez-its.  

Coming soon - a big ol' birthday party post!

Recipe: Fruit Parfait "Cupcakes" for a Birthday Celebration

The kids' schools have put in place an "Only Healthy Treats" policy this year, which makes birthday celebrations a bit more challenging than throwing together some cupcakes.

In lieu of cupcakes, I decided to make fruit "cupcakes" - little fruit and yogurt parfaits.

I used watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, kiwi, and for fun, dragonfruit (that we have tried before and found sadly underwhelming on it's own, but nice in fruit salad!).

For the yogurt, I used plain Cabot Greek yogurt, and mixed in a package of cheesecake flavored pudding mix.  It's really yummy and I think I might use it for a fruit dip at future parties.

Watermelon circle with a ring of yogurt piped around it to start

To make the parfait "cupcakes" pretty, I layered the fruit in an attractive way.  I started with circles of watermelon on the bottom, cut to fit in the cups, and piped a little of the yogurt around the top.

I followed this with a nice slice of strawberry, and a few pieces of kiwi, then a scoop of blueberries.

I piped another layer of yogurt over the blueberries, then added grapes and a couple pieces of dragonfruit.  To top the parfaits off, I placed a strawberry sliced through most of the way several times and spread to form a fan.  For fun, I put a tiny watermelon star on each parfait.

I think they are sweet and healthy and a nice alternative to cupcakes, and I hope that the kids like them!

Lunches: 3.11.14

Happy Tuesday!

Sandwich: 50g, strawberries: 4g, apple slices: 4g, crackers: 10g

The Boy has a ham sandwich with hummus and cheese on ciabatta bread, strawberries, apple slices, and cheeze-its.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 34g)

The Girl has a turkey sandwich with hummus and cheese on ciabatta bread, strawberries, apple slices, and cheeze-its.  Her snack is also a granola bar.

Hope that you all have a good Tuesday!  As a head's up, The Girl's birthday is coming up this weekend, and I have a lot of fun treats planned... treats in honor of a certain wizarding world.  A girl only turns 11 once.. and she already got her letter....

Family Lunches: 3.10.14

Happy Monday!

The Hubby and the kids have the same lunch today.

The Hubby's lunch

Their lunches are a wrap with hummus, spinach, ham, and cheese, along with a little spinach on the side, apple slices, mini graham crackers, and strawberries.

Wrap: 20g, spinach: 1g, apple slices: 2g, strawberries: 5g, mini graham crackers: 6g

The Boy has a granola bar for snack (not pictured, 33g).

The Girl has an applesauce for snack (not pictured).

Lunches: 3.7.14

Happy Friday!

Wrap: 20g, crackers: 19g, carrots: 3g, apples: 8g

The Boy has a wrap with hummus, spinach, ham, and cheese for lunch, along with some white cheddar crackers, carrots, and apple slices.  He has an applesauce for lunch (not pictured, 15g)

The Girl (who has a chorus concert tonight), also has a wrap with hummus, spinach, and ham, and cheese for lunch, along with white cheddar crackers, carrots, and apple slices.  Her snack is applesauce (not pictured).

Family Lunches: 3.6.14

I made an impromptu chili for dinner (no real recipe, just toss and go..) and the kids adored it.  They went back for two bowls each, with cornbread that The Boy helped to make (he was so proud).

Chili: 12g, cornbread: 10g, apple slices: 6g, carrots: 2g

The Boy has leftover chili and cornbread in his lunch, along with apple slices, and baby carrots.  His snack is applesauce (not pictured, 15g).

The Girl has leftover chili and cornbread, also with apple slices and baby carrots.  Her snack is applesauce (not pictured).

The Hubby has some chicken salad and spinach on a whole wheat English muffin, a little corn bread, apple slices, and a couple Thin Mints.