marie callendars - Stuff Parents Need

Seasonal Roasted Veggies as Part of a Simple, Nourishing Weeknight Meal

November 18, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · 1 Comment

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PotPiePlease#CollectiveBias

As a blogger, this is my busy season. I’m getting up extra early and working extra each evenings, and the dishes and laundry are piling up (even more than usual). Furthermore, our organization method around the house seems to have come undone, and we find ourselves surrounded by piles and piles of stuff. So during this season when I’m especially short on time, I find myself struggling more than usual with our weekday family meals. I’m hitting the panic button (that would be the drive-through) too often because I am overly amitious when I create our menus and don’t work in enough super easy stuff.

Fortunately, one fail-safe main dish has not fallen off my radar: Marie Callender’s Pot Pies. These are, without question, my oldest child’s favorite dish, and she asks for one weekly. I typically don’t make the same meal in frequent rotation, but these pot pies get a pass from me because they are so darn delicious, not to mention EASY to make.

Today I want to show you a really wholesome meal I put together using Marie Callender’s Pot Pies (turkey and chicken are our favorites) and fresh seasonal vegetables. This side dish is what I call a “non-recipe” recipe because precise measurements aren’t needed at all. This also makes it less stressful!

Here’s what I used to make fall roasted veggies and in every case, you can add more or less to your preference, as well as make some substitutions if you like.

1/2 butternut squash
1 large sweet potato
1 pound red potatoes
1 pound pearl onions
1 pound baby carrots
1 pound brussels sprouts
6 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
4 sprigs fresh rosemary

The most labor intensive part of this entire meal is washing and chopping your vegetables. But here’s the good news: you can actually do this all in advance, and just put any vegetable that you think might oxidize in water. I got all my veggies prepped in the morning while my girls were eating breakfast and then I didn’t have much to mess with later on in the day when I was busy with work!

After you have prepped your veggies and cut them to your preferred size, set them all aside and get out your olive oil and your rosemary. Remove the rosemary from the stem and add it to the olive oil. I used 1/3 cup for this amount of vegetables, but you may prefer more or less. Honestly, just eyeball it and don’t stress over this part. Your rosemary is going to have some time to flavor the oil this way. If you don’t have time to let it sit, no worries; it will still taste great!

About an hour and 15 minutes before you’d like to sit down to eat, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line one pan with parchment paper. Pour the olive oil and rosemary over all of your veggies and mix them together in a bowl, and add them all to the pan. If they cannot fit on one pan without overlapping, get out a second pan and put some of the vegetables on there. You can cook the second pan while your family is enjoying dinner.

On another baking sheet, place your Marie Callender’s Pot Pies. We used 2 for our family of 4. The larger pie needed to be cooked for just over an hour, which is how long the vegetables needed to roast. Before you put the pot pie in the oven, though, take some aluminum foil and create a small ring around the edge of the crust. This will keep it from burning.

Now add your veggies and your l6 ounce pot pie into the oven and set your timer for 65 minutes. You’ll want to give the veggies a good stir about halfway through the roasting process. And if you have a second smaller pot pie, like we did, add it into the oven when the timer has 45 minutes left.

The end result is colorful, comforting and full of great flavors that taste homemade. And after getting through the veggie prep you pretty much only have to put stuff in the oven and get your family members to set the table. In my house, this “non-recipe” recipe has the very best success rate at getting lots of veggies in little tummies.

I found everything I needed to make this yummy meal at my local Walmart. They were well-stocked with great produce, and I found the pot pies easily in the frozen section (they even had a picture sign of a pot pie!).

Coupon AND Rebate Offer!

If you’d like to replicate this wholesome meal for your family during your busy season, be sure to grab some of the great Marie Callendar’s coupons you can find here. And iBotta is also currently offering a .50 rebate in addition to your coupon savings!

Marie Callender’s Pot Pies for Dinner, and Pie for Dessert, Too!

December 29, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 2 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #Phase 1: #PotPiePlease Phase 2: #EasyAsPotPie Phase 3: #WarmthInACrust #CollectiveBias

Do your kids ever ask you if they can eat something that might be considered to be a special treat as the entire meal? My oldest has a detailed plan for what a 3 course meal made of chocolate might look like (there’s a chocolate fountain involved…it’s quite detailed!). Well today I thought I’d give my family a little surprise by making an entire meal out of pies. With a little help from Marie Callender’s you’ll find it is quite easy to do, and you don’t even have to give up the idea of a more balanced meal to make it happen.

I headed to Walmart yesterday to pick up the ingredients I needed for the meal. The pot pies were ready to go in the frozen meals section of the store.

Oh what a saving grace prepared foods can be for busy families! I have had my share of pot pies over my 34 years on this planet, and in my opinion, the very best out there are from Marie Callender’s. Specifically, my family LOVES the creamy parmesan chicken pot pie. Have you tried it? I’ve actually made pot pies from scratch before, and I am of the opinion that the made-from-scratch pot pies from Marie Callender’s taste better!

Marie Callender’s pot pies can be microwaved in just a few minutes, but I personally like them best when cooked in the oven. Here’s a tip for you if you want to prepare them in the oven, too: place thin strips of aluminum foil around the crust of the pies. This step, which only takes a minute, keeps the edges from burning. The end result is a perfectly golden flakey crust!

Since the main course only required that I preheat the oven and put aluminum foil around the pie edges, my time was freed up to create another pie for our dessert. I decided to keep the Italian theme going and to try my hand at making a pie version of my very favorite Italian dessert: cannolis.

Cannoli Pie

Ingredients:

16 oz ricotta cheese
1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups miniature chocolate chips
1 (9 inch) pie crust, thawed

marie callender's cannoli pie 2

Mercy this pie is an easy one, and I can’t say that I mind! The entire meal feels nearly effortless, even with a dish that is homemade! I opted for a pre-made pie crust to make things as easy as possible, so if you are doing the same, be sure to give it some time to thaw (trust me…I tried to force the first pie crust to unroll while it was still frozen and the result was a big mess I had to throw out). Go ahead and preheat your oven to 375 degrees, as well.

In a large bowl combine ricotta, powdered sugar, condensed milk and vanilla extract. Give it a good stir until it is well-combined and smooth.

Now it’s time to add in the chocolate chips! Don’t forget that it’s important to get the miniature chips…that’s more consistent with the cannoli look and feel.

Once you’ve got the chocolate chips mixed in well, simply pour it into your prepared pie shell and pop it into the oven for 30 minutes.

At the 30 minute mark, I actually took the pie out and used the same aluminum foil trick mentioned earlier around the edges so that they wouldn’t burn. I then returned the pie to the oven to continue cooking for another 25 minutes. You’ll want to watch for the middle to be set. You can cook the pot pies on the lower rack in your oven at the same time as your cannoli pie, FYI. That what I did!

The cannoli pie needs to cool entirely before you cut into it. I know, I know…it is painful to have to wait! But good news, friends! You can dig right into your Marie Callender’s pot pies in the mean time!

Want more ideas for great recipes to pair with a Marie Callender’s pot pie? Check out Pot Pie Please for lots of ideas! Another great way to keep up with the latest products and promotions is through the Marie Callender’s Facebook page. And of course, don’t forget to check out the Comforts From Home program to see how Marie Callender’s is supporting our troops. Just one more reason to love this brand!

Honestly Better Than Homemade: Marie Callender’s Pot Pies

May 17, 2011 · by Tiffany Merritt · 1 Comment

There are certain dishes that I have learned it is far better to pay someone else to make for you than to attempt yourself. My list of such foods consists of the following:

fried chicken
catfish
anything that is deep fried
Indian food
crab cakes
steak (I don’t have a grill….we ALWAYS overcook it on the stove or in the oven)

What am I leaving off? I’m sure there are several other things that you can think of that are best left to the experts (by the way, if you DO know how to successfully make any of the above items, you are invited to my house for dinner…bring the food!).

Then there are the things that I promise you can make on your own and they will taste just as good as the restaurant or store bought versions. Here’s my list of such foods:

biscuits
pizza (yes, sometimes the convenience is worth it, but the taste CAN be replicated!)
baked potatoes (secret weapon: the crock pot)
applesauce
meatball subs
pot pies

Today’s post is going to address the last item: pot pies. When I was growing up, I was a HUGE fan of pot pies…the frozen ones you could buy for virtually a song. I ate them on a weekly basis. One day I took a big bite out of one and the center was stone cold. It RUINED me on pot pies for several years.

As an adult, I still couldn’t bring myself to buy those frozen pot pies, but I decided to try my hand at making my own. I had great success with a few different recipes, and decided that what I made at home was so much better than anything in the frozen food section. Plus, it was hot all the way through! 🙂

And then I went to the Blissdom blogging conference and I got a coupon for a free pot pie from Marie Callender’s. I’ve eaten at this restaurant chain before, and I knew the food quality there was excellent, but I had never purchased her frozen food. Most frozen food is disappointing, so I need a compelling reason (like a free coupon) to even try it. And so I did.

CUE THE ANGELS SINGING, HERE!!!

This pot pie would make you slap your mama (if you have a mama who makes excellent pot pies, that is….my mom makes excellent Jell-o, and that’s about it). The chunks of chicken are huge and moist. The filling is thick and seasoned perfectly. And the crust….it tastes like it is made from scratch and filled with love. It puts my formerly awesome homemade pot pies TO SHAME. Seriously.

So the pot pie is coming off the, “homemade is best” list and getting moved to the, “let someone else do the cooking for you” list. Evidently I’m not the only one who has this opinion of the Marie Callender’s Pot Pies. Check out this article called “8 Grocery Store Products that are Better than Homemade (really).”

Since my first “Marie Callender’s Pot Pie Encounter,” we have purchased them quite a few more times, which is saying something, because we really do avoid frozen food (other than pizza and ice cream, of course!). FYI, they sell these in packs of 8 at Costco. Trust me, you’ll love them enough to get that many! You can also pick them up at grocery stores nationwide. I think the price for mine was a very reasonable $2.50. I would easily spend twice that amount making my own, and it wouldn’t taste anywhere close to as good as this does. I’d also be in the kitchen for an hour putting it together and baking it, and this pot pie goes from frozen to on the table in 10 minutes. You save time, effort, energy AND money, and the end result is tastier than homemade. I’m so glad to be a fan of pot pies once again. But only Marie Callender’s!

Disclosure: I have been compensated by Marie Callender’s and TheMotherhood for my time writing this post and reviewing the product. The opinions are 100% mine.