Garden Fresh Carrots And Veggie Pot Pie

Wow, it really has been a long time since my last update. I won't bore you with the details of my life in the past year, but I do have a lot of recipes to post and catch up on. It's just been a busy year, and it's not getting better.

I'm about to start an internship and my last year of grad school, so figure I'll be pretty out of commission as far as my blog is concerned.

That being said, I've been searching the internet for work/school lunch ideas. Primarily, I've been looking for freezable options that can be prepped in single servings.

Last week, I made a batch of Spinach Ricotta Rolls to send with the toddler to preschool and they were a big success. This week I plan to try out sandwich ideas I've found on pinterest, including cheese avocado roll-ups.

In other big news, we tried our hands at some simple gardening over the Spring/Summer.  Way back in May we bought a large planter and dropped in a few carrot seeds.

Then we just waited and waited and waited and waited...Until at long last...

 The glorious bounty arrived!

SO GLORIOUS! AND BOUNTIFUL!

Ok, it wasn't all that glorious or bountiful. They were tiny, weird, and there were maybe a dozen of them. But the toddler was very impressed. Most importantly, she learned where carrots come from. It was a good lesson.

But back to work lunches. Today I took a little time to try out a recipe I've been eying for a while: Vegan Pot Pies. They looked heavenly and sounded delicious and, more importantly, portable and freezable. So today I gathered together my ingredients and got down to business.

The original recipe says these should take under an hour to make, but they honestly took me an hour and half. I also changed a couple things, though nothing too major. I added mushrooms and used a different biscuit recipe, then added cheese to the biscuits. And when the time came to cut out the biscuits, the first cookie cutter I found was flower shaped, so I went for it.

The filling on these is amazing. I was tempted to add more seasoning than the recipe called for, but they really came out flavorful as is. The bay leaf, salt and pepper is really all it needs.

So here's the recipe, adapted from Minimalist Baker:

Veggie Pot Pie

• 3/4 cup chopped yellow onion (~ 1/2 medium onion)
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 Cup fresh sliced mushrooms
• 2 Cups veggie broth
• 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (corn, green beans, carrots | or sub fresh)
• 1/4 cup milk
• ~1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour (or sub other thickener of choice)
• 2 bay leaves
• sea salt and black pepper
• 1 batch of Whole Foods Coconut Oil Biscuit Dough

Instructions:

1.  Put about 2 tsps of olive oil in the bottom of a sauce pan and saute onions, garlic, and salt until just translucent.
2. Add mushrooms and saute another few minutes until soft.
3. Add flour, stirring it in with the mushrooms and onions, then slowly add in broth and milk, whisking until smooth. Add the bay leaves. The original recipe allows the broth to simmer until it starts to thicken (about 10 minutes) and then adds in the frozen veggies, but I added the frozen veggies here and it turned out fine. If you add them later, give them another 4-6 minutes to simmer until the veggies are soft. If you add them now, just add that time on to the total simmering time.
4. While the filling is simmering, prep the biscuit dough. I decided to knead some shredded cheese into mine for funsies. Comes out great either way. I've also made those biscuits with both all-purpose and whole wheat flour. Do your thing.
5. Spoon your filling into ramekins or, in my case, aluminum foil ramekins. Top each one with biscuit dough IN ANY SHAPE WHICH PLEASES YOU! Don't let the man tell you what shape your biscuits need to be!
6. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes until the biscuits are brown and the filling is nice and bubbly.