How cute is mini pie?

 Well I have officially turned another year older today, or 29 again right?!  Either way I had a great day and celebrated with my family.  And to end the night I thought I'd share another great recipe that I whipped up this week.  (I have lots on my camera.... I realized looking for these pictures I have quite a few posts I'm behind on! So you'll be hearing lots from me!)

Mr. Bacon is working some crazy hours lately and needs some yummy cooking to help him get though his shifts.  What better comfort food than Chicken pot pie!  And everything tastes better when it's mini right?  So I made up some mini chicken pot pies for his lunches.  I can't guarantee how many he'll get right now though, Bacon Jr. found them and started gobbling them up too!  Yes they are a hit around here, I'm so glad I made a double batch!

So what do we need to get started?

Chicken pot pie:

1 lb chicken breast - cubed

1/4 cup Italian dressing

4 oz cream cheese

2 tbsp flour

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 package or about 2 cups frozen mixed veggies

pie crust 

 

Heat your oven to 375*.  Place cubed chicken in pan with 1 tbsp oil and season it with your favorite seasoning. I used Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb again.  While that is starting to cook, I make sure my veggies are thawed by running them under some warm water and letting them drain.  I also got my broth going. This time all I had in the house was the cube kind in the cupboard. Hey whatever works right?! 

Now go check on that chicken.  After it's been cooking for about 5 minutes, it's time to add in the cream cheese (remember in my pics I was making a double batch.  If you follow the recipe above you won't use as much as I do in my pictures!)  I do cube up the cream cheese before I add it in. It will help it melt faster. 

 Stir the cream cheese in until it's all melted.  It will look nice and creamy- see!

 Now it's time to add in the flour.  Mix it around well. It will make the chicken mix thick. 

 Once the flour is mixed in, add in the veggies and the broth.  Let this simmer for about 10 minutes now. That was a simmer, so make sure you turned down the dial on the stove!  Yea, you learn from mistakes right?

 

 Now it's time to get the dough prepared.  I had started to use refrigerator dough. I had a package left in the freezer and knew it would work well for this.  It didn't go far.  I had to make up a batch of homemade dough using Grandma bacon's recipe above.  And I'm glad I did- homemade tastes so much better!  Take the dough and roll it out to about 1/4 inch thick.  Then I just kinda tore off chunks of it and mushed it into my well greased (YES WELL GREASED! There I put it big enough so hopefully every one's potpie comes out when it's done baking!) muffin tin.  It's ok if some over lap and  it' doesn't look pretty. It will still taste good. I trimmed off the excess around the top. In hind sight, I wish I would have left a bit overhang so I could press it together when I put on the tops.  Hey you have to learn from the mistakes you make, thankfully for you, I've already make them! Once you get your dough pressed into all the cups, take a fork and poke a few holes in the bottom.  This will help the dough stay put. 

 

Now it's time to fill the cups!

So now for the tops.  I had wondered how I would make cute little circular tops for the potpie.  So I started to measure round things around my kitchen. See no need for fancy gadgets!  The cups I tried were all too big, the donut cutter was too small, then I happened to find a caning jar ring and it was just right. (I promise there will be no bears looking for their porridge in this story!)  I rolled out more dough and cut circles from it. Then I smooshed them on the top. I tried to squish it to the bottom crust dough as much as I could. This is where it would have been nice if I had left a bit extra overhang.  Oh well, learned for next time.   Now that the tops are on, you need to poke vent holes in them, I take a sharp knife and slit in 2 holes on each top. 

 

 And now they are ready for the oven.  I baked mine at 375* for 18-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.  

 Here they are out of the oven, yes you notice the mess I made.  They cooked over and out everywhere.  It's ok they still are fine!  But again if I had left some overhang from the bottom crust to secure the tops better I could have prevented this. 

Once they are out of the pan, they look cute and delicious and no one will ever know the difference!  I placed them on a baking sheet and put them right into the freezer. Well the one's that haven't been eaten anyway.  Once they were frozen I packaged them by two's in food saver bags so they will stay fresh, you can place them in ziplocs type baggies or wrap in foil or freezer paper too. 

Don't they look delicious!  Now you see why they are not lasting around here!

 

I had thought about making pies in a jar, but I didn't have enough energy left in the day, or pie filling in the house! So I decided to make homemade pop tarts!

  Again using my caning jar ring I cut out circles and placed them on a cookie sheet. 

 

 Added a spoonful of my homemade strawberry jam to each one, and topped them off with another circle of dough.  

 Then crimped the edges with a fork. Press hard enough to seal them, not just make cute designs around the edges. 

 All ready for the oven. I baked these in the 375* oven for about 8-10 minutes until golden brown.

 Cooled them on wire racks.

  

 I made up a quick powder sugar, milk and almond extract frosting to drizzle over the top.  Add some food coloring for fun colors... and

 

 TADA! Pop tarts made with love!  The kids were so excited for these.  They didn't last until breakfast, every last one was gone by dinner time!