Budget Friendly, Realistic Dinners: Chicken Potpie

First, a bit about my approach:

I wish I could dive headlong into the current en vogue thing and become 100% organic or natural or homemade with my family meals, but let's get real: if you spend 40+ hours at work a week and around 10 hours commuting/doing daycare drop off + pickup, you don't have time to do it all. And sadly, the cost of buying 100% organic is a budget-buster for our family.

So, I do the best I can, and do a little of all of it.  My meals incorporate fresh produce/meats and a little pantry packaged good help to turn it into a meal. 

Two important caveats: 1) Most of my meals have to happen kinda quickly or my 18 mo old and 3 year old explode in a firey, dramatic way - these aren't uber speedy meals of 30 minute fame, but I get results with prep/bake time in about an hour and a half, depending.  2) Picky eating being one thing, but the meal has to be actually consumable by a tiny kid with debatable cultlery skills and four teeth. Things like soup are deliberately not in our repetoire yet.  ;-)

Night 1:

Whole small/medium chicken - cut in half, rubbed with spice mixture & grilled
Seasonal Fresh Veggie (Green Beans - sauteed with olive oil, minced garlic & sliced almonds)
Mac & Cheese (Yeah, I do Kraft most days)

Night 2:
Chicken Potpie

Ingredients
Shredded leftover grilled chicken
Frozen mixed vegetables
1 small diced yellow onion
2-3 celery stalks, chopped
1 can mushroom stems & pieces
~ 3 medium red potatoes, diced & boiled to firm-doneness
1 can cream-condensed soup: chicken or mushroom
1 can chicken broth
2 pie crusts (I use refrigerated)

spices to taste, suggested (use fresh if you have it, otherwise, dried):
Ground Black Pepper
Kosher Salt
Thyme
Cumin
Parsley
Sage
Paprika
garlic powder

Lightly grease your pie plate.  First blind-bake your bottom crust (that is, pre-bake it without the filling...suggest using pie weights here to prevent weird bubbling effect. Otherwise, large dried beans may be used in a pinch -- don't try this with a soup mixture with dried peas... did that once and WHAT A MISTAKE!)  425 F for about 10-15 min should do it. Just watch that it doesnt over bake.

Remove pie crust, turn oven down to 375 F.

Mix your spices, soup, and broth together in a medium bowl.  Combine veggies and chicken in a large bowl.  Pour the liquid mixture over your veggies & chicken, mix together.  Transfer to your pie plate.  Add the top pie crust, seal, cut some air vents as desired & bake at 375 F for around 40 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Ideally, let your finished pie sit at least 10 minutes before serving, or the filling will be very runny.

El Fin!