Apple "Soup"

My daughter will be 3 in February (2017) and she is a very picky eater. She likes the strangest "foods". I say "foods" because she will stick her finger in ketchup..barbecue sauce..salad dressing - those types of things that aren't a food, but goes on foods or are used to dip. Yeah. She's that kind of kid. My brother is the same way, still to this day..maybe. We will see if she outgrows that or not.

But with a picky eater, she will almost always eat certain foods consistently. She LOVES pasta. So macaroni and cheese or just noodles with butter. Pretty simple kid. If my grandma makes chicken and dumplings - she will scarf that down too. If you eat salad with tomatoes, she will eat all of your tomatoes and try to steal your dressing.

Her latest thing is "soup". But to her, everything liquid is called "soup". If she's eating a fruit cup (peaches) the liquid is called soup. She will eat the peaches too - which is good, but she always wants to drink the "soup".

Sometimes it is hard to get her to finish what she is eating. Sometimes she just takes a few bites and that's it. Other times she's asking for more and actually eating it - which is rare lately..but with noodles and "soup" I've been lucky.

Today I made cinnamon apples. There's no real recipe. And it isn't really a "soup". It's more of a dessert apple or good on oatmeal. But I used apple juice to cook them in - added some brown sugar and cinnamon, then cooked them down until the liquid reduced a bit. The whole house smells like fall baking. Delish.

But she is eating her apple soup, apples and all..and I am happy about that.

Chicken Pot Pie Lasagna

I'm not a professional chef. And I am certainly not a professional blogger. I'm okay with that though.
Why? Because, I am confident that I can cook creative meals that I know my hubby will eat. The kid is still a little bit picky, though.

So how did I come up with this recipe?
 - A month or so ago we decided to take that shortcut and buy a frozen lasagna. We went with the veggie lasagna, with a white sauce. It was pretty good. My creative mind thought, "Hmm...it is missing chicken"...And then I thought...hmm that's close to a chicken pot pie. THEN I thought I could just plop a store bought crust on top and call it Chicken Pot Pie Lasagna. So, that's what I tried out tonight.

The ingredients can definitely be changed to your taste. If you don't like celery, leave it out. If you want to add in peas, toss them in before you bake (on top of the mixture in between layers). If you want to add cheese, then cheese it up! That's what I love about cooking.

You can also decide between cooking your lasagna noodles prior to assembly or buy the ones that bake in the oven. I found a box of the oven bake noodles at the Dollar Tree!
You can also turn this into a Pot Pie Casserole, just use any noodle you like and top with the crust.

*If you use dry noodles make sure the mixture is a bit runny. Wet enough to dampen the noodles so they cook thoroughly and to keep everything moist while it bakes so it doesn't turn out too dry.

The amount of liquid will depend on if the noodles are pre-cooked or dry (oven baked).
The amount of chicken also depends on how much meat you like. You can also use canned chicken, honestly if you really don't feel like dealing with raw chicken.


Here are the ingredients that I used for mine.

• 3 Chicken Breasts (use 2-3 small to medium ones, mine were large because that's what I had)
• 1 Package of pre-made pie crust. (There are 2 rolls to the package. We are just topping the pot pies with them. If you choose to line your baking pans with crust, you will need more. Also depending on the size of your pans, you may need another box. One box worked for 3 loaf pan pot pies)
• 1 can Cream of Chicken soup
• 1 can Cream of Celery soup (or use 2 Cream of Chicken soups if you don't like celery)
• 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of diced potatoes (fresh or frozen, add more if you prefer)
• 1/4 cup of diced carrots (fresh or frozen, peas and carrot mix works too)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup diced onion
• 3/4 to 1 cup of diced celery
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• Water or Stock/Broth of choice. I used Chicken stock. 1/2 cup to cook the veggies in. 2-3 cups for entire mix (more or less depending on your noodles!)
• 1 box of lasagna noodles. The oven baked kind or the kind you have to pre-cook first, up to you.
• 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of Poultry Seasoning
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat your oven to 350F

First I boiled the chicken breasts until fully cooked. The time will depend on how large/thick your cuts of meat are. 20 to 30 minutes, be sure to check for pink. Cool off once done. Halfway through boiling your chicken would be when you'd want to boil your noodles if you are pre-cooking them. 

While the chicken was boiling I diced up some potatoes, carrots, celery and onion. I cooked them in about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chicken stock instead of using oil. I added a dash of the seasonings. When the veggies were tender I added in the 2 cans of soup. Added in more of the seasonings, more stock/liquid and when the chicken cooled I shredded/diced the meat and added to the mixture. 

I didn't have a big lasagna pan. Instead, all I could find were 3 loaf pans. It still worked!

I sprayed my pans with nonstick spray. I added a little bit of liquid mixture to the bottom of the pans and put in the first layer of noodles. 

Layer in until you are done with your pan, ending with the mixture on the top. Then you will roll out the crust and place it over the whole thing.

I used the oven bake noodles. So I baked my 3 pans for 45 to 50 minutes. Came out perfect! Not pretty, but just like chicken pot pie with some noodles added in.

Thanks for checking out this post! I hope you give it a try. Remember, you can add/subtract or substitute many of the ingredients. It would also work well with left over rotisserie chicken or Turkey.