Meatless Monday shouldn't be a boring old salad.

I started spending a lot more time on my bike as of late, so I was craving something with a hearty feel but without most of the guilt that would still keep me fueled for the coming week's torture I plan to inflict on myself.  Even if your energy demands are simply the every day; just juggling a busy work, school schedule peppered in with kids and a gym trip can leave you feeling drained.

I asked my husband today for dinner ideas and he suggested pot pie.  The traditional dish can be a real monster where excess carbs, sodium and fat can be concerned.  In using the small amount of dinner roll dough as a topper, we are getting the satisfaction of the doughy crust, but there will be a lot less of it.   And please just forget the frozen variety, that's not real food. Stop it.

This revision takes only about 30 minutes from start to finish, and is super cheap.

I was also super excited to use these individual oven safe dishes to make individual servings. You could also achieve this in a larger baking dish to feed a larger family.

You will also notice if I use pre-packaged foods like soups etc, I almost always opt for low sodium options to control my own flavors and sodium levels.

So I give you my considerably lightened and vegetarian version, though feel free to sub out the garbanzo beans ( aka chick peas) for chicken or tofu if you prefer.

Veggie Pot Pie
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

-4 celery ribs
-1/2 large yellow onion
-1 1/2 cups  carrots
-1 8 oz. white package mushrooms
- 1 15 oz can garbanzo beans
- 1.5 cups low sodium chicken or veggie broth
- 1 can low sodium condensed mushroom soup
-1 can reduced calorie rolls ( they sell mini- cans some places which only contain only enough for 4 rolls, which is more than enough to make this dish for 2).
-1/2 palm full dried tarragon
-paprika, salt, pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Begin by adding splash of olive oil to pan and then add onions, celery and carrot, season now with salt to release water from vegetables. Cook these on low- medium heat; stirring frequently.  Add sliced mushrooms and continue to cook.  Periodically add small quantities of broth to loosen the mixture and to allow flavors to come together.  Once the vegetable mixture is cooked through and the mix has the texture you like, add the garbanzo beans and season the whole pot. Finally, add the mushroom soup mix and stir to incorporate.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

Spoon the veggie mix into your serving dishes until they are about 3/4 of the way full, then cover with the dough of 1.5 of the dinner rolls.  Try to gently pull the edges of the dough to reach the edges of the dish and put in the oven, preferably on a cookie sheet.  Cook for about 11 minutes or until the dishes appear golden brown; like so:

Make sure to let them cool before you dig in, I assure you, they are like LAVA inside.

Side note, if you're feeding your whole family or soccer team, double the recipe and use a large 9x13 baking dish and just place the roll dough throughout the top of the dish.  Cook for the same amount of time, as the oven is just for cooking the dough.