Off-grid pantry planner

The other day I realized I needed to do some cooking or I’d soon be pitching some food. I had a pie crust (the rolled up, two-crust, in a box kind) in the fridge waiting to be turned into a pot pie. I looked in the freezer and soon realized I had ham, ham broth, onions, chopped celery, baby carrots, corn, and mushrooms in there waiting to be used up as well. 

So I decided to make ham pot pie. Never done that before!

But doesn’t it look good!  I’ll tell ya it was GOOD!

…and warmed up the next day was maybe even better! 

 

Delicious Ham Pot Pie Recipe

Make your own delicious ham pot pie.

So, being the non-measuring, risk-taking kinda cook I am here’s how I made it (or as close as I can recall)…

  • I sauteed my chopped onions, added the mushrooms and cooked a bit.
  • While this was going on I was boiling my frozen baby carrots and chopped celery until it was soft enough to easily cut or mash into small pieces.
  • Then to the onions and mushrooms I added 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup (like 10 oz cans)  and cooked. I think I added the corn to this and poured it all into a large bowl.
  • If memory serves me correct (I know I forgot about this when sharing on Facebook- don’t want my Aunt Donna to think I was holding back on her) I cooked up the ham broth and my small pieces of ham in the same skillet I used for the onions, etc so I could scrape up the good stuff still stuck to the pan and then added it to the bowl.
  • I drained my carrots and celery and in the drainer just cut them up easily into smaller pieces. {Remember I was using baby carrots.} And added it to the bowl with the other ingredients.

 

 

Now I left the mixture in the fridge overnight because I decided I didn’t want to bake it that day. So the day I did bake it I first heated the bowl of ingredients in the microwave for about 10 minutes or so while the dough-crust was warming up a bit towards room temp.

  • Next I lined an ungreased casserole (deep round) dish with one crust, filled the inside with the bowl of ingredients and then topped with the top crust.
  • I baked it for about 30-40 minutes following the instructions on the crust box.

 

HOWEVER, since everything had been cooked once (the mixture) and I didn’t want the crust to burn I did turn the temp down to about 350 degrees somewhere towards the end. You can also make sure the rack is up a little higher in the oven and fold aluminum foil over the edges of your pie crust to avoid burning.

 

Delicious Ham Pot Pie Recipe

Delicious Ham Pot Pie Recipe

 

Again, this was delicious and I think it was even better the next day warmed up. I noticed the “gravy” wasn’t runny like shown in the pic either. Must have thickened up I guess. Yum!

I think if I make this again, which will likely be a more purposeful-planned event versus  a “clean out the freezer event” I will omit the celery and mushrooms and instead use potatoes and green beans. What do you think?