Chicken Pot Pie Stew

I love chicken pot pie! I used to think the crust was the best part until I tried this super easy chicken pot pie stew. That's when I realized it was the filling that makes the piecrust taste so good— after all, I wouldn't eat plain piecrust. In fact, I didn't need crust at all.

So here is the best of the chicken pot pie without the unnecessary, fattening and difficult-to-make "pie" part.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie Stew

made in the crockpot

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients (can be fresh or frozen):

• One organic chicken breast cut into cubes
• One package peas
• One package baby carrots
• One bunch of celery, chopped
• One can of Campbell's condensed cream of chicken soup
• 2 tablespoons More Than Gourmet chicken stock concentrate
• One basket sliced mushrooms

Add all ingredients to a crockpot and cook on medium overnight or all day. Stir before serving. 

Tips:

• While you're making one batch of Chicken Pot Pie Stew, consider preparing and freezing the ingredients for your next batch.
• Buy the best quality chicken breast you can find. Buy organic as a minimum, and if you can get pastured, that's even better--better tasting and more nutritious for you and better for the chicken that got to enjoy the sunshine and pursue its natural chickenly interests before fulfilling its destiny and gracing your table.

Easy, Colorful Raw Fruit Munchies

Raw Fruit Munchies

A refreshing alternative to junk food

I used to mindlessly munch on junk food, until one day I came across a beautiful fruit salad at Pampas Restaurant in Palo Alto. I adapted it and now it takes the place of the old junky munchies. It's perfect for those times when you aren't really hungry, but still feel like eating.

This salad is colorful like candy, sweet like pound cake, and crunchy like potato chips.  It's refreshing and it makes you feel good.

Directions:

Raw Fruit Munchies are delicious served at room temperature and almost transcendent when served cool. They will last at least two days in the refrigerator.

Chop up and mix together the following ingredients. Feel free to add your own favorites and leave out anything you don't like. If you follow the amounts listed below, you'll create enough salad to fill a large mixing bowl.

Ingredients

• 10 or 15 Fresh mint leaves, minced small. This ingredient pulls the salad together, providing freshness and complexity. Use plenty of leaves and mince them small so that you get some in every bite.
• One medium jicama. This raw, non-starchy root vegetable adds sweetness and crunch. Its pure white color and delicate flavor contribute a beautiful sense of coolness.
• 2 Fuji apples, chopped small so that every bite will have some apple in it. The crisp flesh of Fuji apples holds up well in this salad and adds sweetness. Gala apples are another good choice. Avoid using floury apples like Red Delicious, which will tend to fall apart. Whichever apples you use, be sure to rub them with lemon juice to keep them from browning. The apples are the main source of sweetness in this recipe. If you find the salad not sweet enough, add more. 
• 2 Mangoes, any variety. Mangoes add sweetness and a tropical flavor.
• 1 Large cucumber. Nothing is quite as refreshing as cucumber. This ingredient adds color, texture, and almost no calories.

Optional ingredients

• 1 Fresh pineapple. This adds sweetness sweetness and a tropical taste. Tip 1: To make this ingredient easier to deal with, use a pineapple corer, or at least don't fuss too much trying to get every bit of flesh. Tip 2: Eating too much pineapple can make your mouth hurt, so be careful. Tip 3: If the pineapple is too sour, experiment with putting a bit of salt on it. A touch of salt can really elevate this recipe. Tip 4: Don't use canned pineapple. It will ruin the freshness of the salad.

• One carton sweet strawberries or raspberries. Carefully washed and chopped strawberries added to the salad can make it seem as if you're eating sunshine. It is best to add berries right before serving, because they tend to break apart and will color the other ingredients. They also go bad much faster than the other ingredients.