Family Meal Plan: Very Cozy Veggie Mug Pot Pie + Frozen Salted Hot Cocoa Bombs

Very Cozy Veggie Mug Pot Pie

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• chill :

  to cool, not freeze, food or drink by putting it on ice or in a refrigerator.

• cut in :

  to mix a cold, solid fat, like butter or shortening, into a dry ingredient, like flour, until there are particles of fat covered with the dry ingredient. The recipe might call for "pea size" particles or a mixture that looks like "coarse meal." You can use a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingers to cut in the fat.

• freeze :

  to lower the temperature of a liquid or solid food below its freezing point to change its properties or to preserve it.

• measure :

  to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).

• microwave :

  to heat or cook food or liquid quickly in a microwave oven, which uses high-frequency electromagnetic waves to generate heat in the food's water molecules.

• shape :

  to form food into a specific shape by hand or with a cutting tool—examples are cutting cookie dough into shapes with cookie cutters, forming bread dough into a roll or crescent shape, and rolling ground meat into a meatball.

• snip :

  to use scissors to cut something with quick, sharp strokes.

• stir :

  to mix together two or more ingredients with a spoon or spatula, usually in a circle pattern, or figure eight, or in whatever direction you like!

• whisk :

  to beat or stir ingredients vigorously with a fork or whisk to mix, blend, or incorporate air.

History of Pot Pies!

Who is the genius behind pot pie? It would be easier to answer whether the chicken or the egg came first! The idea of stuffing pie with meats and vegetables dates back to 5th-century Rome, possibly further. In fact, the savory pie outdated the dessert version by a long shot.

Initially, the purpose was to keep meat moist, but later Europeans turned the dish into one fit for a king. Pot pies were considered an art form and often served to royalty. The peasants eventually began eating the dish, but only because the addition of breading caused the soup to feed more mouths. Since then, nearly every civilization has adapted, improved, and tweaked pot pies. 

Is pot pie good for you? Pot pie does a pretty good job of covering all the food groups except fruit, though the health factor depends on your chosen recipe. If you load it with salt and mostly meat, it is not as healthy. An average chicken pot pie recipe has 300 to 400 calories per serving. It offers 20 to 30 percent of your daily protein needs and plenty of vitamin A, fiber, and potassium.

Let's learn about England!

• England is ruled by a Monarch, a Prime Minister, and a Parliament. Windsor Castle is the oldest royal castle in the world that is still being used by the royal family.
• England is on the island of Great Britain, along with Wales and Scotland. It is also part of the United Kingdom, which consists of those three countries and Northern Ireland. 
• Did you know that there's no place in the UK that is more than 70 miles from the sea?! 
• Stonehenge is a construction of immense stones that the early inhabitants of what's now Wiltshire, England, began building around 3100 BCE. The final sections were completed around 1600 BCE. Scientists are still not sure how or why they built it. One theory for its purpose is an astronomical observatory. It is very popular with tourists.
• Other popular tourist spots in England include the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament (Palace of Westminster), the Roman Baths and the city of Bath, and the Lake District.  
• London, the capital city, wasn't always called that. In the past, its name was Londonium.
• England took part in the briefest war in history. They fought Zanzibar in 1896, and Zanzibar surrendered after just 38 minutes!
• There have been several influential English authors, but perhaps the most well-known is William Shakespeare, who wrote classics such as Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet.
• English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web.
• The British really like their sandwiches—they eat almost 11.5 billion a year!

What's It Like to Be a Kid in England?

• Most schools in England require students to wear a school uniform. 
• Sports kids play include football (soccer), cricket, rugby, tennis, netball (similar to basketball), and rounders (similar to baseball). They also play video games, watch the telly, and ride bikes or skateboards.
• Boxing Day is a unique holiday kids celebrate in England the day after Christmas, December 26. The official public holiday is the first weekday after Christmas if Boxing Day falls on a weekend. When the English created the holiday, it was the day to share the contents of alms boxes with the poor. Today, it is mostly a day off from school and work, although some small gifts may be given out to family and employees, or collected to give to the poor.
• English kids may have different names for everyday items also found in the United States. For example, a kid will call his mom "mum." Their backyard is a "garden." A big truck is called a "lorry," and the trunk of a car is a "boot." Biscuits in the US are closest to the British "scones," and cookies in England are "biscuits." A TV is usually called a "telly." Bags of chips are referred to as bags of "crisps." French fries, like those from a fast-food hamburger place, might be called "fries," but if they are thicker, like the ones typically served with batter-fried fish, they're called "chips" (fish and chips). Finally, kids call the fish sticks they might have for lunch "fish fingers.