Tag

broccoli

Baked Goods Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Main Dishes Vegetarian

Individual Broccoli Cheddar Pot Pies

written by Ali

Summer continues, and I’m still staggering under the weight of all the veggies coming my way locally. Individual Broccoli Cheddar Pot Pies are one of my new ways of managing all the broccoli that grows so happily here on the coast. Who knew? In our CSA a few weeks ago, we received a massive broccoli – it easily weighed three pounds by itself. Not exaggerating. We also keep getting carrots, and more carrots, and more carrots every week. I finally had to cry “Uncle” this past week and let my CSA partner keep the whole share (donate, use – I didn’t care). Because, at the same time as the CSA is gearing up into peak season, so are all the other farmers at the farmer’s market. I had to take vacation time to catch up on my canning and prep the fifty pounds of tomatoes I feel compelled to put up this time of year. Is it possible to have some latent homesteading gene kick in mid-life? I look at all the cans of tomatoes and preserves I’ve got tucked in every nook and cranny in our tiny kitchen and wonder what harsh winter I’m preparing for, exactly?

Regardless, I took some time out to chop up that mega-broccoli to make these individual broccoli cheddar pot pies. It occurred to me that I could make some great individual pot pies using my extra-large muffin tin. The more I thought about it, I also realized I could use up the loan sheet of puff pastry languishing in the freezer to top off the pot pies. The result was these delightful savory pies. These have been absolutely perfect for lunch. They freeze like a dream and heat up easily in the microwave. Paired with a tomato salad and I’ve been in foodie bliss these last few weeks at lunch. I highly recommend these, particularly as we get closer to autumn. These individual broccoli cheddar pot pies are cozy and will make your day.

Yum

Individual Broccoli Cheddar Pot Pies

Ingredients

Crust

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, grated
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold water

Individual Broccoli Cheddar Pot Pies

2 cups broccoli florets
2 carrots, diced
5 small potatoes, diced
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
salt to taste
1 sheet puff pastry

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, combine the crust ingredients. Mix just until the ingredients come together. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, heat the olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter in a medium sized saucepan. Add the broccoli, carrots, and potatoes. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the vegetables are fork tender.
Add the flour to the vegetables and stir constantly for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock. Stir until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add the cheddar cheese.
Butter six large muffin cups. Divide the crust into six balls. Roll out each large enough to cover each muffin cup. Divide the pot pie mixture between each cup. Cut the puff pastry sheet into six squares and lay one on top of each pie.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the puff pastry is puffed and golden brown.
Serves 6.
Enjoy!

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August 27, 2018 0 comment

Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Main Dishes Vegetarian

Freezer Friendly Broccoli Cheddar Pot Pie

written by Ali

My freezer friendly broccoli cheddar pot pie takes me back to the origin story of Fix Me a Little Lunch. Ten years ago we were still living in New Mexico. It made a lot of sense for me to bring my own lunch to work – there wasn’t really a convenient place for me to eat out, even if I’d wanted to and the food the university cafeteria where I worked was not great. I was hardly an expert on food prepping. The most food prepping I bothered with was to cut up some carrot and celery sticks to munch on as a snack. I relied heavily on frozen entrees for my lunches. I was also a vegetarian at the time, so stuck with Amy’s Organic line. One of my favorite entrees from Amy’s was the broccoli cheddar pot pie.

In my four years in New Mexico, I ate Amy’s Organics pretty much every day of the week for lunch. Fast forward to Oregon. I was still eating Amy’s Organics, but realizing, increasingly, that they were kind of pricey. We’d also signed up for a CSA and I was going to the farmer’s market pretty regularly in the summer time. I didn’t want to compost half of the produce I was getting, but was quickly drowning in veggies. That’s when I started browsing Pinterest and finding recipes that I could easily freeze and started fixing my own little lunches, using the incredible abundance that Southern Oregon has to offer.

I was thinking about food prepping and freezer meals a lot this last week. I had both broccoli and carrots starting to stack up on me in the fridge from the last two weeks of CSA shares. I decided it was time to make freezer friendly broccoli cheddar pot pies of my own. This recipe makes a lot of pot pie. In fact, I could easily get three 8 x 11 dishes of pot pie out of this freezer friendly cheddar pot pie recipe. Since it’s just the two of us, this is somewhere between four and six nights of dinner. I love having freezer meals on hand. For a few hours of prep on the weekend, I’ve reduced my weeknight stress by at least half. All I have to do is pull one of these out of the oven and bake it. This frees me up to do yoga, or drink wine on the patio, or play fetch with the dog.

These freezer friendly broccoli cheddar pot pies also used up all of the broccoli florets and most of the carrots from the last two weeks of CSA shares. I saved the broccoli stems for snacking on throughout the week.

Yum

Freezer Friendly Broccoli Cheddar Pot Pie

Ingredients

For the filling

1 onion, finely chopped
2 heads broccoli, broccoli florets roughly chopped (save the stems for other uses)
5 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 – 5 small potatoes, scrubbed and chopped
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup flour
2 cups milk
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste

For the crust

3 ¾ cups flour
1 ½ cups butter, chilled and chopped into small pieces
2 teaspoons salt
¾ cup ice cold water

Instructions

Make the crust by combining the flour, butter, salt, and ice cold water. Work the dough with a pastry cutter or your hands to combine all the ingredients. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Make the filling. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion, broccoli, carrots and potatoes and cook, stirring frequently, until all ingredients are soft.
Add the flour, making sure it coats all the vegetables, and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add the milk and chicken stock, and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Simmer until the sauce begins to thicken. Take the mixture off the heat and add the cheddar cheese, salt and pepper and stir until the cheese melts.
Portion out the filling into 8 x 8 Pyrex dishes or individual ramekins. Roll out the chilled dough and cut to fit over each pot pie. At this point, you can bake the pot pies or freeze.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30 – 35 minutes if not frozen and 40 – 50 minutes if frozen.
Enjoy!

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August 28, 2017 0 comment

Baked Goods Freezer Meals Main Dishes

Chicken, Broccoli, Cheddar Calzones

written by Ali

For this week’s Sunday Supper, I want to share one of my comfort foods: chicken, broccoli, cheddar calzones. Calzones are such a perfect food – dough and filling. Best yet, they are very, very freezer friendly, so, though they can take a bit of time to put together, they work well for super easy weekday meals: pull the calzone out of the freezer and toss it in the oven (still foil wrapped) for 45 minutes or so at 350 degrees.

It’s started to rain again in my part of the PNW, so I have little desire to do much beyond sit around, read, and cook comfort food. With this weather, I’m also much more likely to want to cook something “fancy” on the weekend, so you’ll likely see a few posts like this one this fall and winter. I also can’t resist roasted garlic – so if you aren’t a fan, feel free to leave it out. Calzones are so very versatile – I highly encourage you to think of other great combinations for the filling and use the dough as a base for your own creations.

Chicken, Broccoli, Cheddar Calzones
Serves 6

Calzone Dough
2 cups warm water
2 packets active dry yeast (or 4 ½ teaspoons yeast)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
6 cups flour

Cheese Sauce
Roasted garlic from one head roasted garlic
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
¾ cup half and half
¾ cup shredded cheddar or gruyere cheese

Filling
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 head broccoli
¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place chicken thighs into an oven proof dish and drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with one teaspoon salt. Bake for 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. Once thighs are cooked, set aside.

While the chicken is cooking, make the dough. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let sit for a few minutes until the yeast becomes foamy. Add the olive oil to the yeast, and then one cup flour and the salt. Mix. Continue to add flour until the dough comes together in a shaggy ball. Turn out on a well-surface and knead for 6 to 8 minutes. The dough should be a bit sticky still but not so much so that it sticks to your hands or to the surface. Let the dough rise for an hour in a bowl covered with oiled plastic wrap or a few clean tea towels. Punch the dough down and let it rise for another hour.

Reduce the oven temperature to 425 degrees.

In the last half hour that the dough is rising, prepare the cheese sauce. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat and add the roast garlic. Stir a few times and then whisk the flour in a little bit at a time. Once the flour is fully incorporated, let cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for a minute. Add the half and half slowly, continuing to stir until it is fully incorporated. Continue to stir until the sauce starts to thicken. Take the sauce off the burner and stir in the cheese. Set aside.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Chop the broccoli into small pieces. Sauté in a non-stick pan for five to seven minutes to slightly soften. Chop the chicken into small pieces.

In a large bowl, combine the chicken, broccoli, sauce, and remaining shredded cheese. Stir well.

Punch down the calzone dough and split into six pieces. On a well-floured surface, roll out the first piece into a circle. Place 1/6^th of the chicken and sauce mixture in the middle of the circle and fold half over the filling. Crimp down around the edges and place the calzone on the parchment lined baking sheet. Do the same with the remaining dough and filling.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the calzones are golden brown on top and bottom. Enjoy!

I’m pleased to have this recipe on the Saucy Saturdays Blog Hop. Please take a minute and check out the links to the hosts’ websites – these are some of my favorite blogs and Instagram feeds!

La Petit Chef
Mid-life Croissant
Take Two Tapas
The Flavor Blender

September 18, 2016 0 comment