Almost Ready for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just one day away and I am still planning my menu.  This year our Thanksgiving will be pretty laid back, since it will be just the four us, my husband and two boys.  Being a military family sometimes means we cannot always connect with our familys for the holidays.  We make the best of it and enjoy every minute of our time together and secretly I feel al little relieved that we are not fighting the traffic and standing in long lines at an airport.  It also means I can experiment and try new recipes without the worry of ruining dinner for a large group.  So this year I wanted to try brining the turkey.  I have never done this before and found a recipe on the Cooking Light website that we are going to try.  And instead of opening a can of jellied cranberry sauce, my husbands favorite, we are going to make another recipe I found on the Cooking Light website for cranberry sauce.  With a couple of my own recipes to add to our menu I am getting closer to being ready.  Each year I am determined to make Thanksgiving entirely milk-free and still very delicious.  Click on the highlighted items for the recipes. This is what I have so far~

• Maple-Cider Brined Turkey with Bourbon-Cider Gravy ~ Replacing the butter with soy margarine
• Classic Cranberry Sauce
• Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Red Potatoes
• Apple Waldorf Salad
• Pumpkin Bread
• Corn Bread~Using the Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix and replacing the milk with soy milk
• Apple Sauce~Wishing we had Mom's homemade apple sauce from Maine
• Stuffing~Cheating and using the Stove Top Turkey Stuffing Mix

Just need to come up with a vegetable and dessert and we have our menu. Whatever your traditions may be, enjoy, try something new and have a Happy Thanksgiving.~

Chicken Pot Pie

The fall is off to a great start, with fabulous weather, fall sports, fall recipes and most importantly, we got through Halloween and school holiday parties with no allergic reactions.  It has been a few years since Jack's last reaction and I attribute that to the wonderful friends and family we are surrounded by and lots of diligence by Mom and Dad.  I have watched Jack grow and mature into a confident boy who has not let his allergies define him.  Thankfully, he is usually willing to try my new recipes and always seems thankful for what he can have rather than focusing on what he cannot have.

My latest experiment was making chicken pot pie.  I have always wanted to make chicken pot pie for my family, since my mother frequently made it when I was a child.  It is such a nice comfort food for a cold fall day.  I always assumed the recipe would need milk or cream to be good.   But by substituting soy milk into the recipe, it was just as good as I remembered.  I did cheat and found a ready-made pie crust at my supermarket, rather than making home-made crust.  The recipe is so easy to make and I couldn't believe how much it reminded me of the same warm chicken pot pie from my childhood.  Enjoy!~

Ingredients:

1 can peas

1 can carrots

1/3 cup soy margarine

1/3 cup flour

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 3/4 cups organic (milk-free) chicken broth

2/3 cup plain soy milk

3 cups cut-up cooked chicken

2 9-inch ready-made pie crusts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Heat margarine over medium heat.  Stir in flour, onion powder, salt and pepper.  Stir constantly with a whisk until bubbly.  Remove from heat.  Stir in broth and soy milk.  Heat to boiling.  Stir constantly and boil for 1-2 minutes.  Stir in chicken, carrots and peas.

Pour mixture into pastry-lined pan.  Cover filling with remaining pie crust.  Bake for about 35 minutes.  You may need to cover edges with tin foil to avoid burning.  Serve warm.