Thanksgiving meal planned!

Since starting on our plant-based diet adventure a couple of months ago (2 months ago today, to be exact!), I've wondered a couple of times what we'll have for Thanksgiving dinner. Unless we visit some of my family, we have a very low-key Thanksgiving. In fact, the past couple of years, sweet hubby and I have managed to sneak off to the beach for a quite holiday to ourselves while the heathen son goes hunting with his uncle and heathen daughter makes her appearances wherever she happens to be at that moment. We know heathen son will be with us this year because he's decided he just can't hunt if he's not going to eat the meat. He played around with the idea of donating any meat he'd have or just leaving it with his aunt's family who lives nearby but for the expense he said he'd just as soon not hunt. He'll find other ways to spend time with his beloved uncle and he'll spend Thanksgiving with us instead (which is fine by me!).

We will probably still go down to the beach for the holiday but we won't be going to our favorite restaurant where we've had their wonderful (but very traditional) Thanksgiving meal the last couple of years because that just doesn't fit the plan any longer. However, I think I discovered a wonderful meal last night that will be perfect for Thanksgiving - veggie pot pie! It was yummy! I'm picturing veggie pot pie, a really good salad and a baked sweet potato, of course. Ta-da! Holiday mystery solved. :)

I actually made two pot pies last night and will give you the recipes for both of them in a bit. I found these really good pre-made whole wheat pie crusts and that really helped. Wholly Wholesome. How can you not love a name like that? :)




Chicken pot pie has always been a favorite around our house. I'd even made it as our Christmas dinner on more than one occasion so it makes sense that I'd have it associated with the holidays. I thought I could probably adapt the recipe I've used for 20+ years easily enough and found out that I was right! Here it is, ready to go into the oven. The only thing I did differently was to not put a top crust on it - because I needed the second crust for the veggie pot pie!




Here's my chickenless pot pie recipe:

1 medium onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cup no-chicken broth
1/2 cup almond milk
4 red potatoes, cooked - 2 diced, 2 roughly mashed
1 package LightLife "chicken" veggies strips
1 package frozen peas & carrots
1 teaspoon tarragon

Heat oven to 350 degrees and let pie shells thaw about 15 minutes.

onion, garlic and celery in a little broth until onions are translucent and celery is soft. Mix in flour and stir until well-coated. Add broth and milk at the same time and stir until sauce thickens. Add veggies strips and peas & carrots, stirring well. Add both diced and mashed potatoes, stirring well. Stir in tarragon.

Pour mixture into pie shell and bake for 45 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Out of the oven it looks like this:




Your house will smell so good!

I also thought I'd see if a pot pie using different veggies would be as good and I'm happy to report that yes, it definitely was! I really think you could use most any veggie combination you'll like - I just happened to have some fresh green beans, broccoli, mushrooms and potatoes so that's what we went with here.

I started with the same basics as the chickenless pot pie with onions and garlic but I didn't add celery. I used just 3 tablespoons of whole wheat flour and no milk - just broth. Then I added the veggies and spices, sprinkled some bread crumbs on op, baked the same amount of time and voila - delish!




They were both so good and really tasted different from one another, too.




Veggie Pot Pie

1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cup veggie broth
3 cups assorted veggies (I used broccoli, green beans and mushrooms)
4 red potatoes, cooked - 2 diced, 2 roughly mashed
1 teaspoon Spike seasoning (or any seasoning you like)
1 teaspoon tarragon (I just love tarragon in pot pies)

I'm happy to have Thanksgiving figured out already!


- Posted by Jennifer

Location:Home, sweet home