Super Easy Beef Pot Pie

After making a Beef Pot Roast, I had lots of leftovers which I froze. A few days ago I pulled the last chunk of pot roast out of my freezer to make Beef Pot Pies.

I took a shortcut by buying frozen pie shells and using one for the base and a second for the top of my pies.

Here's what you need:

* 2 pie shells per pie, defrosted

* leftover beef pulled apart or cut into small bite-size pieces, You need about 1 cup per pie

* Beef gravy. You can use a shortcut here if you haven't got any gravy made and in your freezer. Just buy an envelope of any brand beef gravy powder and follow the instructions on the package. One envelope will do for 2 pies.

*1 cup of carrots cut into small pieces. I used baby carrots cut in half

*1 onion chopped

*1/2 - 3/4 cup quartered mushrooms

*1/2 cup peas or corn (optional) I used celery instead because I'm afraid I detest peas and I wanted something green

Here are photos and a description explaining how to make these super-easy, super-yummy pot pies! And best of all they freeze well. Just wrap them individually in heavy duty tin foil (or double your regular tin foil) then place in ziploc baggies! What a nice easy supper, just pull out of freezer, leave in the tin foil and heat in a 250' oven for an hour. You may have to zap individual pieces in the microwave near the end.

First step is to cut your baby carrots in half. Then chop your onion into whatever size you prefer, but not too small! I like to make my vegetables approximately the same size so they cook evenly. Then you will quarter some whole mushrooms (they cook faster than carrots and you don't want mushy mushrooms!

Toss your carrots, onions, celery and mushrooms into your pre-made gravy, which is in a heavy pot on the stove. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. You want to pre-cook the carrots and onions slightly before they go into the pie shells.

Here are the vegetables cooked in the gravy. I usually toss my mushrooms in about 5 minutes before the carrots and onions are ready. It's a personal choice.

Add your meat to the saucepan of gravy about 5 minutes before it's ready (just to bring the meat to heat) then stir well and pour everything into a pre-made pie shell. This is where I took the shortcut method and used a frozen pie shell. They work well and they are quite suitable if you don't want to make your own pastry.

Doesn't that beef look tender? It's from my leftover pot roast which I wrapped and froze for about 2 weeks before I got around to using it in these pies.

This is the fun part. Now you can take a second pie shell and turn it upside down over your beef pot pie mixture. This is what it looks like but it's going to collapse. Don't worry. Even though it doesn't look pretty when it collapses, it bakes perfectly and tastes great.

Because I made beef pot pies and chicken pot pies, I scored my pie tops lightly with an initial so I would know what I was getting out of the freezer. I also secured the edges of the top crust to the bottom as best I could.

And here is the final product fresh out of the oven! I baked them at 350' for 30 minutes.