RECIPE | MUSHROOM POTATO POT PIE

Mushroom Potato Pot Pie. Creamy with deep mushroom flavour, filled with potato goodness and flakey on the outside. It's primarily made of potatoes, vegetables, carrots, peas, cream and earthy mushrooms. Like creamy mushroom soup with delicious veggies encrusted in a flaky pie. Who can resist? For more on why this recipe is meatless and how we can all help stop climate change, scroll down and read below.

SERVES 4 | PREP TIME 40 MINS | COOK TIME 40 MINS

• 1 PINT OF ORGANIC BELLA MUSHROOMS CHOPPED IN QUARTERS
• 1 PINT OF ORGANIC BUTTON MUSHROOMS CHOPPED IN QUARTERS
• 3 MEDIUM PARBOILED ORGANIC POTATOES DICED
• 4 SHALLOTS FINELY CHOPPED
• 1 1/2 CUPS OF FROZEN PEAS, CORN AND CARROTS THAWED
• PUFF PASTRY
• 1/4 CUP OF ALL PURPOSE FLOUR
• 1 1/2 CUPS OF VEGETABLE STOCK
• 1 CUP OF CREAM
• 1 TBSP OF DRIED THYME LEAVES
• 2 TBSP OF BUTTER
• SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE
• WATER OR OLIVE OIL

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F & prepare your ingredients as listed above
2. Parboil your diced potatoes for 10 minutes
3. In a large deep pan set on low heat, add your butter and shallots. Fry until soft.
4. Increase the heat to medium. Throw in your chopped mushrooms and thyme and cook until juices start to form.
5. Add in the thawed vegetables and par boiled potatoes. Fry until the juices have absorbed into your potatoes.
6. Pour in your vegetable stock and stir. Then add in cream.
7. Season with salt and pepper. Allow this to come to a boil and remove off stove and let the pie stuffing cool down.
8. Meanwhile, line your casserole dish (9 x 9 x 4 inches) with a layer of puff pastry. Pour in your cooled mixture.
9. Close your pie with the second layer of puff pastry and seal in the edges. Cut four small holes in the top of the pie.
10. Brush the puff pastry with water or oil. Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown.

When a snow storm hit Toronto in April, I decided why not warm up the house with a creamy baked pot pie? I'm sure everyone has noticed the crazy weather patterns we are experiencing. In early March, we thought Spring came early but then we were hit with a cold blast for a few weeks. Unfortunately I don't think it was mother nature giving us the last winter storm of the season. A lot of it has to do with those two words we all love to hear - climate change. But I do have good news, **we each have the power to fix this issue by making alterations to our lifestyle**. The biggest change my husband I made was to _reduce_ our meat consumption and the support of animal products, like leather goods.

You're probably wondering how animal production affects global warming? Ruminant animals such as chickens, cows and pigs produce methane gas and when released it's actually more powerful at deteriorating the ozone layer than carbon dioxide emissions from cars! A lot of people are surprised that this is the number one cause for climate change but it's scientifically true. Climate change is accelerating even faster now because methane gas (once frozen in our ocean beds) is leaking due to the warming waters. If we all continue living the way we do, we could see an inhabitable earth in the next few decades which will affect us and our future children. It's not easy to make a diet change and I'm not saying go vegan/vegetarian but try approaching it in baby steps like having a "Meatless Monday" then increasing that to meatless Tuesdays or think if you really need that new leather purse or consider buying it second hand. If we all make a small change, collectively we can possibly fix this global issue or we really can't blame anyone else for the bad weather but ourselves.

You'll be glad to know this pot pie is meatless.