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My Kids' Very Favorite Chicken Pot Pie Recipe Featuring Green Giant Frozen Vegetables

Thanks to Green Giant for sponsoring this post and for the opportunity to work with Dr. V!

Original photo by Pillsbury.com.


If you stopped by last week, you know that Dr. Venus Nicolini, also known as "Dr. V", of Bravo's L. A. Shrinks is helping me break bad diet habits (sneaking nuggets!) in conjunction with Green Giant and their #GiantDifference (inhaling queso!) campaign. I was excited about the opportunity, especially given that I am currently documenting my fitness journey (pocketing chocolate!) on a weekly basis in partnership with my personal trainer, Sean Millhouse of Fitness 101.

Source


I'm also excited to be working with Dr. V. She has such a great personality and so much wisdom to share, too! I chatted with her a bit on Twitter last week and have been catching up on some L. A. Shrinks episodes, too. This one is going on my DVR! Dr. V takes care of four children under her roof. I would love to know how she gets all four of those precious things to eat their vegetables! I'm certain when she does it, she doesn't use the word "veggies". (I shared last week that I don't use that, um, word and she said she doesn't either. Green Giant, however, totally 'fessed up.)

I like that Dr. V is helping me along this path to stop cheating on diets so much (a little treat here and there is fine, I say!) and encouraging me to eat more vegetables. This Green Giant #GiantDifferent campaign is all about pointing out how frozen vegetables are a) as healthy as fresh and b) more filling, nutritious and lower in calories than another snack that you might choose.

It turns out that I am not the only one who cheats on diets. I know this comes as a big shocker. Here is some information that Green Giant passed on from a poll they conducted:

•47% of Americans don’t think that certain foods count when they’re dieting
•66% of Americans have dieting experience
•On average, those with dieting experience have been on a diet 10 different times
•One in five Americans with dieting experience is currently on a diet, and another 35% have dieted in the past 12 months
•Americans are more than twice as likely to see dieting as stressful than exciting (34% vs. 15%)
•7 in 10 Americans gripe that diet plans are too strict
•Almost a quarter (21%) of Americans would be most worried about whether they would feel satisfied if they were trying to diet
•Americans imagine that, on average, they’d want to eat more food half of the time (50%).
•While on a diet, 4 in 10 believe they’d eat something they’re not supposed to eat
•Aside from cravings, the most common trigger for diet cheating are everyday occurrences such as stress (35%) and mindless activities, such as watching TV (30%)

I guess this is why fitness experts are always pushing the "It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle change" line on all of us. They want us to make real changes to the way we eat for the long haul.

Someone give that girl a hug. Also, Google "Bye Calories Tumblr". I could not find her current site, but she has
some graphics that are really, really good. Very inspiring!


My fitness journey posts contain stories about lots of diet cheats (hello, donut holes!!) but I narrowed them down quite a bit in my Green Giant post last week about how I cheat on my diet, which included ordering a healthy meal but then sneaking nuggets and fries from my kids' plates and playing the "I'm just going to eat half of it" game among others. I also said that vegetables tend to be my two side items for dinner, but that's about it. Vegetables aren't made front and center around here often enough. Dr. V read that post and offered her advice. Well, she actually wrote me a prescription.



Isn't that nifty?

This week Dr. V is challenging me to try finding ways to work vegetables into the main course using recipes from Green Giant that would be so good my kids would want to sneak vegetables from my plate versus me sneaking nuggets from theirs. That sounds like a good problem!

So, I know what I'm going to do.

I'm going to make Chicken Pot Pie this week. This isn't a Green Giant recipe, but it uses Green Giant frozen vegetables. My kids will seriously eat two servings of this recipe AT LEAST, so I don't know why I don't make it more often. They love it so much. I typically double the vegetable amount in it. They don't seem to notice the difference and they get twice as many vegetables. My mom gave me this recipe several years ago. The recipe card is all gritty, but I won't write a new one. I like looking at that one because it means that it's a tried and true recipe that makes everyone happy!

WHAT YOU NEED:
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup flour
3 cups chopped chicken (I usually buy a rotisserie chicken for it)
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 cup butter
3 cups chicken broth
Small bag of frozen GREEN GIANT mixed vegetables (I buy two)
1 tsp salt
2 boxes of pie shells
(This recipe usually yields enough for two pies, depending on the depth of your pie dish)

WHAT YOU DO:
-cook onion in butter until tender
-blend in flour
-add 1 tsp salt
-add celery and broth
-cook and stir until thick and bubbly
-add remaining ingredients
-pour into baking dish lined with pie crust
-bake at 400 degrees until the crust is golden brown
*At the end, I sometimes broil the crust at the top for a few seconds so it can finish cooking. It has to be watched VERY CLOSELY, though, or it will burn.

*FYI, I chop the chicken in the food processor first. I think the easy way of eating this dish makes it go super fast. Well, that and those vegetables.*


I know if I make that, my kids will eat a ton of vegetables and I will be feeling like I deserve some stickers or something. There are some other recipes that I found on the Green Giant website that I am definitely going to try, too. You can go there for the recipes. I have also pinned some of them, so please consider following me on Pinterest for those and others that come up. I am a humor blogger, but people who write humor also like to eat!




Last thing, I know that I probably would have fallen off the wagon (way off) if it weren't for things keeping me accountable, whether it be Sean, my personal trainer, Dr. V checking in on my blog posts on a weekly basis during this #GiantDifference campaign, etc. I know that it helps to be held accountable. An easy way to keep yourself accountable is to use an app. Green Giant is offering one on their site called Lose It. I love this app and have been using it for a little while. You can go HERE to get more information about it. It's great for keeping track of all sorts of things fitness-related!

** If you have enjoyed this post, please take a second to visit the Green Giant #GiantDifference site by clicking here: http://linqia.cc/bf94e9a. THANK YOU!*


Do you think you eat enough vegetables? If you have a great recipe or idea for getting more vegetables into your diet, please share it with us!
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