Low Calorie Strawberry Pie

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cold water
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
3 cups fresh, sliced strawberries
1 large package sugar-free strawberry gelatin
1 graham-cracker pie crust

Directions:

• Mix water and cornstarch in small saucepan.
• Cook over medium heat till bubbly and thickened.
• Add gelatin and stir till cooled.
• Fold in strawberries.
• Pour into pie crust and chill.

This is a delicious treat and is much like Shoney's famous strawberry pie.

Mama's Pecan Pie

Ingredients:
Deep dish pie shell
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

• Heat oven to 275 degrees.
• Beat eggs, sugar, salt, syrup, and slightly cooled butter together.
• Stir in pecan pieces.
• Pour into unbaked pastry shell.
• Bake 40-50 minutes.

Strawberry Pie

Delicious and low calorie!

Ingredients:
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 1/2 cups cold water
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
1 large package strawberry sugar-free Jello

• Blend water and cornstarch in a small saucepan over medium heat.
• Stir till bubbly.
• Add strawberry Jello and continue to stir till cool.
• Pour over sliced strawberries and stir to coat them well.
• Pour strawberry filling mix into pie crust.
• Chill till set.
• Serve with a dollop of whipped topping.

If you are counting Weight Watcher points, this entire pie is about 30 points!

Chicken Pot Pie

This is truly a comfort food recipe.  It is delicious and easy, too. 

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can peas and carrots
2 cans mixed vegetables

Topping Ingredients:

1 cup self-rising flour
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup milk

• Gather all your ingredients because if you don't do that first, you might find yourself in the middle of preparing and realize, "Oh gosh, I'm out of..." and that is just so frustrating.
• Spray a casserole dish with non-stick vegetable spray.  I'm using my Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker but just because it is a good size for this and the crust comes out a nice thickness.  You can use any 9" x 13" baking dish.

• Drain the liquid into a bowl, pour in your vegetables into the casserole dish, and give them a little stir to mix them together.

• Since I was using canned chicken chunks, I drained the juices out into the liquid bowl and dumped the chicken into another.  (I have used left-over chicken and that meant I had to add a half-cup or so of chicken broth.)

• With a fork, break the large chunks up till it is almost like shredded chicken and blend this into the veggies.

• Blend together the liquids from the veggies and the chicken with the can of soup because that makes the liquid ingredients a nice consistency and so much easier to stir in than that gloppy, clumpy blob of cream soup.

• Pour the blended liquid mixture over the chicken and veggies and stir it up till it looks like a calico quilt.

Now it is time to make the topping - better known as that rich, buttery crust!

• Melt a stick of butter.

• Add a cup of milk and stir.

• Add a cup of sifted flour.  I know that pile of flour looks like it wasn't sifted but it was... OK. OK.  I did just dump it into the bowl but it still will turn out just fine... trust me.  Stir all that together to make a creamy batter.

• Pour that batter on top of your casserole, place it into a 350 degree oven, and bake for sixty to ninety minutes or until the topping turns a golden brown.

• Let set for a few minutes or you will burn your mouth when you dig in!

• Doesn't that just look like a golden picture of bubbling wonderfulness?  I hate this isn't one of those scratch-and-sniff blogs because that dish is smelling like a warm cuddle on a cold, shivery day!

• Scoop some out onto a purty Blue Willow plate and set that on a red gingham placemat and it will be a feast before it even hits yore belly - before it even touches yore tongue.  Whew!  That is some kind of wonderfulness!

This is one of those one-dish meals that is so buttery and delicious that it is hard to just eat a little bit on a cold day.  I have substituted ground beef or ham for the chicken and had that as the base for the pot pie and they were equally delicious. I've also substituted the cream of chicken soup with cream of celery or mushroom with success.

Dump Cake

1 can cherry pie filling
1 large can crushed pineapple
1 box yellow cake mix
1 1/2 sticks butter

• Coat a 9" x 13" casserole dish with vegetable spray.
• Dump pie filling and pineapple and stir together to mix.
• Sprinkle cake mix over the top of the fruit and smooth out with a fork
• Cut up butter and dot the top of the cake mix with chunks (or melt it and pour evenly over the top of the cake mix if you are in a dashing hurry).
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45-55 minutes.
• Cool only till it won't burn a blister on your tongue and serve it up!

This is a recipe I grew to love when I was a farm woman with chores that kept me out at the barn till it was later than most people even think about stirring something up for supper (the evening meal for those of you who are hoity-toity).  I could come in from the barn and stir up a pot of chili or something equally as quick, easy, and filling simple, tasty, and nourishing, dump the ingredients for this cake into a pan and we had a gourmet meal in a jif!

Peach Fried Pie Filling

1 gallon peach peelings
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons vinegar

• Place peelings into food processor and puree till they are about the consistency of runny applesauce.
• Put puree into pot and cook until tender.
• Add other ingredients and bring to a low boil over medium heat.
• Cook until the mixture is thickened and about the consistency of a thick applesauce.
• Freeze (or put into jars) and use for fried pies.

This recipe was offered by my Mama.  She learned this one from a customer at Pratt's Peach Orchard.  The mix is really beautiful and tasty.  Plus, it is using a by-product that you would normally toss in the compost heap!  Daddy says this is like using all of the pig except the squeal!

Mama's Peach Pie with a Crust

Crust for one double crust pie
3-4 cups sliced or diced fresh peaches
3/4 cup sugar
cinnamon
butter

• Make crust.  (I cheated and used a Pillsbury refrigerated crust.)
• Wash, peel, and slice or dice peaches.  (Do not throw the peelings away!  They can be used to make fried pie filling using the recipe found HERE.)
• Roll bottom crust into pie plate.  Then, fill with peaches.
• Pour sugar evenly over peaches and sprinkle with cinnamon.
• Place top crust over this.
• Dot top crust with pats of butter and sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake in 350 degree oven till golden brown.

This makes a really juicy, rich pie!  It can easily be doubled and made in a 9x13" casserole dish to serve a crowd.