Tag: comfort food

Leftover Chicken Soup Pot Pie

I’ve got to hand this one over to my favorite Facebook page, “Whats for Supper” (introduced to me by my sister-in-law CR), which was started by two sisters, Chava and Naomie (from what I gather anyway). As the name suggests, each day, they post what they are making for supper, and invite all their followers to do the same. Naomie sometimes suggests interested cooking tips, and the health benefits of various foods. They’ve created a family atmosphere, a place to shmooze about more than just food!

Now back to the food. In one post, a little while back, they offered suggestions of what to do with leftover chicken soup. I always have leftover soup, and it kills me to throw it away! Only one of the recipes appealed to me, and that was chicken pot pie. The delicious, creamy comfort food that we all love (and you thought it couldn’t get any comfier than chicken soup) is surprisingly easy to make. Making chicken pot pie using leftover chicken soup seemed a bit “off” at first, but once I tried it, I couldn’t help but make it again the next week. And it just keeps getting better. If you don’t like the sound of it, you can go ahead and boil up some chicken and carrots from scratch.

If you have other vegetables in your soup, like celery, parsnips etc. feel free to add them. (Almost) anything goes!

Post a Comment

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed yet, but I’m not that big into baking. I do it every once in a while, but not all the time. Why? Well, first of all, I don’t particularly enjoy it. It’s too technical. I like the creative freedom that I have with food. Baking on the other hand, it’s very scientific. You need to follow the recipe to the tee, otherwise, it won’t come out right. Also, it makes a huge mess. Not that cooking doesn’t. But baking, I just feel like there are the measuring cups, spoons, bowls, the mixer, the gazillion ingredients. And lastly, most importantly, it’s just so fattening! I’d rather eat food! With that said, I did make some really yummy pumpkin whoopie pies yesterday. I halved the recipe, because who needs all that temptation lurking.

Based on my experience, I’d like to make a suggestion. If you decide to halve a recipe, do yourself a favor, and rewrite it, because chances are, if you work off the original, and you think you’re gonna make the calculations in your head, halfway down the line you suddenly forget and you screw up the entire recipe and have to start from scratch all over again!

Now being as I have a daughter who’s severly allergic to milk, I decided to make these parve, using toffuti cream cheese. I also substituted smart beat light margarine for the butter. This resulted in a runnier filling (see pics). I would suggest going with the original dairy recipe, or, see my other alternative below.

To make the pies, I used organic pumpkin puree that I found at Pomegranate around Thanksgiving time. I think it adds that extra richness of flavor to the pumpkin. (Trust me, I’m no organic addict, I just find that when I do buy organic, the flavors are more full-bodied) The pies come out so incredibly moist, with that kick of spice you get from nutmeg and ginger, and the warmth of the cinnamon. Really yummy on a cold winter day. B’teavon!

ALTERNATIVE TO CREAM CHEESE FILLING (PARVE):

Now, as an alternative to the cream cheese filling, I must tell you about this DELICIOUS maple butter I bought recently (available at Benzs Gourmet). It was sitting in my pantry, waiting to be paired with the perfect match. And I have to say, pumpkin whoopie pies is it! The butter is like thick creamy maple syrup, sticky and sweet! I couldn’t resist spreading it on a few sandwiches. The result was extremely rich-tasting, too much for more than a couple of bites.

Post a Comment