Vegetarian Chicken Mug Pie

It's raining. Its been raining for day :( Some people, crazy people, like the rain. I don't because I don't like the wet. yuck.

On the other hand, when it rains for days during the middle of the summer, I get the chance to make really yummy, warm comfort food such as Vegetarian Chicken Mug Pies.

I've been holding on to this recipe for years. I love pot pies. My mom actually has a very good pot pie recipe thats made with leftover potato soup, but its time consuming. You have to make the potato soup the day before. If you've already gone to the trouble of making soup, why bother making pot pie? I got this recipe out of Rachael Ray's Kids Cookbook, and its for Chicken Mug Pies. You basically make pot pie filling, pour it in a coffee mug, and top it with a biscuit. It its really good.

Even though I've been holding on to this recipe for a few years, I've never made it because cooking chicken grosses me out. Its squishy and full of germs. ew. So Bob and I decided to make it with the Morningstar 'Chicken' Meal Starters. You get chicken texture without chicken grossness.

Here is the recipe:

1 tube jumbo biscuits like Pilsbury

a little paprika

3 tablespoons butter

1 sack of Morningstar Chicken Meal Starters

Couple of stalks of celery

Couple of carrots

Couple of shakes of poultry seasoning

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup frozen hash browns

1 sack of frozen veggies

1 cup cream

1 quart vegetable stock

1 cup frozen peas

Preheat the oven according to the biscuit directions and arrange biscuits on a baking sheet. Sprinkle a little paprika on top of the uncooked biscuits. Don't fear paprika. It has no flavor and just adds some color. It's  like blush for food. Bake the biscuits for 10 to 12 minutes.

Cut the Morningstar strips, celery, and carrots into smaller pieces. In a medium pot over medium heat, melt butter and cook Morningstar Chicken in the butter. Add celery and carrots. Season with poultry seasoning. Add a little more butter, and the flour and stir the pot so that the Morningstar pieces, celery, and carrots get coated in the flour. Add frozen hash browns, frozen veggies, cream and vegetable stock. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a boil. After it boils, cover, lower heat and let simmer 10mins. Stir in the peas and cook for 1 minute just to warm them through. Remove from heat to thicken a bit.

Laddle the soup into a coffee mug. I have giant ones from Crate and Barrel that work perfectly. Set a biscuit on top. Bob wasn't sure how to eat it, but you just go in with your spoon, and try to get a little piece of biscuit and some soup. Be careful because it might overflow out of the mug the first couple of bites.

We served these with sauteed spinach, chili rellenos, and grapes. It was a very filling meal.