Budget-friendly meal: Chicken pot pie

Who doesn't love warm, hearty Chicken Pot Pie? The flaky crust and creamy center may be comforting, but they're also loaded with calories and fat.

An average serving of regular Chicken Pot Pie can have close to 700 calories and 37 grams of fat. Holy Cow! This version has less than 300 calories and around 10 grams of fat.

Rona's Chicken Pot Pie (with cost per serving)
Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 Raw Pie Crust -- $2
  

Filling:

• Butter Spray -- 2 cents
  
• 1 leek, sliced and rinsed -- $1
  
• 1 large carrot or a handful of small, peeled -- 25 cents
  
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and diced (can use regular if desired) -- $2.50
  
• 1 Tbs all purpose flour -- 3 cents
  
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced -- 30 cents
  
• 2 tbsp fresh dill -- 75 cents
  
• ½ red pepper, diced -- 75 cents
  
• ½ cup Portobello mushrooms, diced -- $2.25
  
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth -- $1.50
  
• 2.5 cups cubed chicken breast, cooked & seasoned -- $3.50
  
• 1 cup of peas, fresh or frozen and thawed -- 75 cents
  
• 1 cup non-fat half and half -- 50 cents
  
• ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley -- 25 cents
  
• Ground pepper, to taste -- 3 cents
  

Total Cost of Recipe: $16.38
Per Serving Cost: $2.73

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
   
   
2. In a saucepan, generously spray oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add the leek, carrot and potato.
   
   
3. Cook, stirring until the leek is softened. About 5 minutes.
   
   
4. Add the flour and garlic and stir for 1 minute. Stir in the broth.
   
   
5. Bring it to a boil and reduce the heat to low and simmer until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the chicken, peas, red pepper, Portobello, half and half, parsley and dill.
   
   
6. Simmer until slightly thickened, about 5 more minutes. Season with lots of pepper. Spoon the filling into a deep 2 or 3 quart baking dish.
   
   
7. Place the dough on top of the filling whole or in strips (less carbs this way!). Bake until crust is golden brown, about 35-40 minutes. Serve immediately.

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Nutritional Breakdown per serving without crust:

• Calories: 227
  
• Fat: 4 gr
  
• Saturated Fat: 1 gr
  
• Cholesterol: 53 mgs
  
• Sodium: 193 mgs
  
• Carbohydrates: 23 gr
  
• Fiber: 3 gr
  
• Sugar: 7 gr
  
• Protein: 24 gr
  

Overall caloric intake will differ depending on the amount of crust you use. I end up using about ½ a full crust for the whole dish when I crosshatch it. Here's the nutritional breakdown from a FULL crust, divided by 6.

This will vary slightly by manufacturer, as well. You can half that for the crosshatched version.

Calories from 1/6 full crust:

• Calories: 225
  
• Fat: 16 gr (this is why I cross hatch!)
  
• Saturated Fat: 9 gr
  
• Cholesterol: 26 mg
  
• Sodium: 280 mg
  
• Carbohydrates: 16 gr
  
• Fiber: 0 gr
  
• Sugar: 0 gr
  
• Protein: 3 gr
  

About Rona Lewis:

Rona Lewis is a celebrity fitness trainer and healthy gourmet cook who believes anyone can laugh and cook healthfully at the same time.

Her biting sense of humor makes "Does this Cookbook Make Me Look Fat?" uniquely entertaining, while imparting interesting and pertinent information about food not usually seen in a basic cookbook.

Included in this low fat/low carb cookbook are nutritional breakdowns of the recipes and explanations of what these vitamin and minerals actually DO for the body. Rona regales us with fun food facts and helpful tips as well as hysterical quotes about food from some surprising sources.

>> Buy this book on Amazon: Does This Cookbook Make Me Look Fat?: Healthy Recipes That Even HE Will Eat!

For more information, go to www.ronafitness.com
To read Rona's blog, go to ronalewis.wordpress.com