Growing up, I loved hanging out in the kitchen with my great-grandmother.  She had a stool in her kitchen just for me so I could sit and watch her work her magic, and help, too.  She taught me a lot, and was very patient in spite of how young and messy I was.  I love having Princess Nagger help out in the kitchen – she reminds me of myself at that age wanting to do everything and do it ‘just so’.

Both Princess Nagger and I are fighting colds – it’s that time of year, not to mention our furnace has not been working for over a week (yeah, I know – they had to order a part, so we’ve been suffering in the cold).  At any rate, after the awesome feast also known as Thanksgiving, we were brainstorming about what we should make to warm up and be healthy.

Getting Princess Nagger to eat vegetables is a major chore.  She used to like broccoli until she saw them being made fun of as ‘little trees’ on one of her favorite cartoons, and swore off eating ‘little trees’ ever since.  I’ve had to get creative and sneak veggies into her diet (shhh don’t tell her) and so far it’s been a successful trait.  She did figure out what spinach tastes like, though, so there’s no more fooling her into thinking a spinach pizza is simply Basil and cheese.

We were supposed to create one of the Birds Eye “Kid-Inspired” recipes from the Birds Eye Kids Website, but Princess Nagger wasn’t interested in any of them, so we decided to create our own – one that she would actually eat, being the supreme picky eater that she is.  Instead, she wanted to make a Turkey Pot Pie, so that’s what we did (and since she’s a kid and it was her idea, it’s “Kid-Inspired, right?).  We used these yummy Birds Eye Steamfresh Veggies:

And made a variation of this recipe:

Turkey Pot Pie

Ingredients:

1 pkg (12 oz) Birds Eye Steamfresh Fresh Frozen Vegetables
1/2 cup frozen chopped onions*
approx 2 cups diced cooked turkey
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 can reduced sodium cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
1 pkg refrigerated pie dough

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Position oven rack in the bottom third of the oven.

Place mixed vegetables and onion in dish; cover and microwave on HIGH 4 minutes or until just tender. 

Meanwhile, stir together remaining ingredients (except dough) in large bowl.

Add turkey mixture to vegetables in dish.  Stir gently to combine.

Microwave covered 2 minutes on HIGH.  Stir, then microwave 2 minutes more or until steaming hot.

Remove dough from package and divide each in half, rolling to fit in small pie plates (you’ll end up with 4 dough sections for 2 small pot pies).

Cover the bottom of each pie plate with rolled dough, then divide the turkey mixture between each.  Cover each with the remaining dough and pinch together the edges to seal.

Bake for 17 to 2o minutes until the dough is golden brown.

*Helpful Hint:  When chopping onions for other recipes, if you only need half an onion, chop the other half and place in a Ziploc baggie (I use the snack size, and double bag them) and place in your freezer for future recipes.  You can use fresh chopped onions for this recipe, but they might turn out soggy. 

They were delicious.  Princess Nagger ate her whole pie, vegetables and all, and proclaimed it a big success.  Whatever gets her to eat her veggies.  When we were perusing the Birds Eye Kids site, she thought Jeannette McCurdy (aka Sam on iCarly) holding a hot dog with corn on it was hysterical:

She started laughing and exclaimed: “Now that’s a corn-dog – literally!”  I’m betting I could con her into eating some corn like that – maybe.  She does love corn on the cob, and she does love hot dogs, so it could be a win/win situation, right?

If you happen to be looking for kid-friendly recipes, I definitely recommend you visit the Birds Eye Kids website for lots of suggestions and ideas. You can also find Birds Eye on Twitter and Birds Eye on Facebook too.

Do your kids like helping in the kitchen? How do you get them to eat their vegetables?

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Printable version here:


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I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Birds Eye. I received product coupons to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item as a thank-you for participating. All opinions are mine and not influenced by outside sources. See my Disclosure Policy here.

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