Some recipes are just all time favorites, aren't they? Now, I know that people have different opinions of what "Chicken and Dumplings" are - some say noodles and some say biscuits. We are more the biscuit kind of people. Do you know what is kinda funny? Growing up, both Darryl and I had the same family tradition for birthdays and that is that the birthday kid got to pick the family meal on their day. Guess what both Darryl and I picked growing up? Chicken and Dumplings! Is that destiny or what?????
This recipe really is perfect as it is but I do a few things to doctor it up. One, I very seldom have a whole chicken in the freezer so I use chicken tenders or chicken breasts instead. Because of that, I add a few chicken bouillon cubes to the water to give it "stock" flavor. We also like corn in our chicken "soup" so about 30 minutes before I'm going to add the biscuits, I add a bag of frozen corn. Enjoy!!
Ingredients:
1 cup-up whole chicken (3 to 3 1/2 pounds)
2 medium stalks celery, cut up (about 1 cup)
1 medium carrot, sliced (1/2 cup)
1 small onion, sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons parsley flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
5 cups of water
2 1/2 cups Original Bisquick mix
2/3 cup milk
Directions:
1. Remove and discard excess fat from chicken. In 4-quart Dutch oven, place chicken. Add celery, carrot, onion, parsley, salt, pepper and water. Cover; heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer about 2 hours or until juice of chicken is clear when thickest part is cut to the bone.
2. Remove chicken and vegetables from Dutch oven. De bone chicken and reserve meat. Skim 1/2 cup fat from broth; reserve. Transfer broth to large bowl; reserve 4 cups.
3. In Dutch oven, heat reserved 1/2 cup fat over low heat. Stir in 1/2 cup of fat over low heat. Stir in 1/2 cup of the Bisquick mix. Cook and stir until mixture is smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in reserved 4 cups broth. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minutes. Add chicken and vegetables; reduce heat to low. Heat about 20 minutes or until hot.
4. In medium bowl, stir remaining 2 cups Bisquick mix and the milk with wire whisk or fork until soft dough forms. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto hot chicken mixture. Cook uncovered over low heat 10 minutes. Cover and cook 10 minutes longer.
Ok, honestly - I totally skip numbers 2 and 3 - that is way too much work especially when I don't use a whole chicken. I just add the biscuits to the top 20 minutes before I want to serve dinner and cook 10 minutes uncovered/10 minutes covered. :-) So I guess it is the cheaters version LOL
So, I've done some reading this week and have some success and some fails with books.
Last week I mentioned reading books from the Sister-to-Sister books.
Age Before Beauty was the book I was in the middle of when I posted last week and this one was just as good as the first book in the series. It was a refreshing story of learning how to respect those we love as well as learning to love ourselves. Ally, the main character, learns some difficult lessons about herself, how she views others and her need for a heavenly father. It was great to see the character develop throughout the book.
Third Time's a Charm tells the story of the youngest sister, Tori. Tori has some strong insecurities that she works to cover up with working too hard, and spending money. She is set up on a date by her sisters which ultimately alters her ways of thinking and ultimately her beliefs. This was an excellent book as well but I will say is the weakest of the three (which is often the case so I wasn't surprised). It is still very well written and a great read though. I do have two tiny negative pet peeves that came up in these books (and do in others as well) . .. .1) Everyone is "perfect" - beautiful, good jobs, money ect. That is not real life HA! 2) The books get predictable. I still loved them, don't get me wrong, but when you can guess how it will turn out in the first few pages, well, book three needed a few more surprises :-)
Now, once I finished that book, I scanned to the end of my Kindle list and randomly picked a book that I will not name because it was AWFUL!!!!! It had awful language from the first sentence and to make it worse, the writing was ridiculous!!!!! I was almost laughing out loud it was so bad, and it was a serious book. Needless to say, this book is gone from my list.
The Daddy Pact was a quick and easy book to read. I can't say it was a fantastic book by any means but it was a good read. It does take place in Lansing and, considering the fact that I've from the great state of Michigan, it made it more fun to read. I think this book would have been better if it had been edited better - I found one glaring error that actually had to re-read several pages to see if I was one who missed something and I wasn't - it was the editor! The premise of the story is that a young newlywed wife, loses her husband. Through a strange turn of events, she ends up married to the brother of the man who murdered her husband. The book takes the reader through their journey as they face unexpected difficulties. Now, I have to admit it has its corny moments but, not all books can be great :-) (This book is now showing as $1.99 - personally, I wouldn't pay for it . . )
One for the Money is a book I actually bought. No, not because of the movie but rather because some friends of mine that I know through the Flylady Facebook Page keep talking about how fantastic the Stephanie Plum series is to read. So, when I saw the movie, I thought I might as well bite the bullet on this one and get it. I've just started it and my first disclaimer on this book is that it is NOT a Christian book :-) It has language it. (Umm .. I would say Rated R) I'm not a big fan of that but if the book is fantastic, I can skip over them. So far, this book is a good read. I was intrigued from the first page by the writing and it sucked me in from that point. (But I could really do without the bad words HA!)
I love my Kindle. I mean LOVE it. I love that I can slip it into my purse and not have to think about whether I only have a chapter left to read. I used to haul 2 or 3 books with me if we were going to be somewhere all day. Now I can have like 100 books with me!
Valentine's Day at our house was kinda "quiet". I didn't plan like I did last year, but I don't think the boys noticed HA! I will share what we did do by way of photos though!
The boys got special shirts for Valentine's Day. Josh's says "My Mommy Loves me!" If you are wondering about the look on his face . .. well I was standing in the way of his favorite cartoon and he was really into it!!!!
Nate's shirt says "Most eligible bachelor". When I purchase special "holiday" shirts I try to buy them one size larger so that I get two years worth of wear out of them. Granted, these are short sleeve so I may just use them for the summer instead!
For lunch we had Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches cut into hearts plus some "berries on a stick" (i.e. grapes) and chips.
The boys all got chocolate (even Darryl!) from me. They loved it. Darryl brought flowers home for me!
Dinner was our annual celebration - Spaghetti, garlic bread, asparagus!! I must confess though, for the first time in like 15 years, my home made spaghetti sauce did not turn out well. It was over seasoned, a little greasy from the meat and . .. well . . I burned it. I guess next time I need to be a little more patient with it and, well, measure.
I did actually plan to decorate heart cookies as a family after dinner but, due to the intake of chocolate (actually, my kids have pretty good self-control . .. a few bites and they were done) we decided to hold off on more sweets and we'll do the cookies a different night. Plus, I also had some things for them to color but the boys were having so much fun just playing this afternoon, I decided to not get that stuff out either!
I hope you enjoyed your day! Now, time to start thinking about St. Patrick's Day and deciding if I will actually cook Corned Beef and Cabbage again HA!
Welcome to Valentine's Day! I have a few fun things planned for today with the family. I was trying to figure out why I did so much more last year and then it hit me. Last year, I still had nap time to get things done . . .this year I have very active boys or limit my creativity time HA! Oh well, I figure by next year, they will want me to do stuff so that they can benefit from all of that creativity, right?
Lets start with an idea from one of my favorite blogs, Craftomaniac, and an easy but adorable Valentine's idea. This would also be fitting for a bridal shower :-)
I love game ideas to put into our Activities of the Month folder so when I saw this idea fromCreations by Kara for a fun game I had to share it!
Ok, this makes me happy because I have nothing for March as of yet - I know that fellow crafters would come through and Every Creative Endeaver did not disappoint. You WILL see this show up in March in my house!
So, I love fun shirts for my boys and this one fromrhapsody of cacophony - it would be a great shirt for them to wear in the car on a long trip . . it would give them something to do! I might have to make these for their Easter Baskets :-)
I love this party idea from Homespun with Love because it can be used for so many things - a Valentines Party, a little girls birthday party, a wedding shower or even a baby shower - it is just the inspiration that gets the party going!
This recipe looks so great to me, but we love blue cheese dressing. Comfy in the Kitchen share a super easy, but elegant salad idea; I'm going to have to try this to see if it makes salad at home taste better!
This great dessert recipe is also from Comfy in the Kitchen - I would love to try it soon!
If you read my post yesterday, you will know that I made one Cone Tree this year. Well, I cam across this idea from I gotta create for some adorable trees for Valentine's Day. I think in a few years, it will be a fun craft for the boys to make too.
This idea from Mom on Timeout is too adorable not to share. I love the little pom-pom creatures and think they will be a fun thing to make for the boys in years to come - I can see having them write a story about each of their fuzzy friends :-)
One day soon I will actually finish the walls in my kitchen, which is also our main entrance so as I redecorate a little I've been watching for some new and creative ideas - I really liked this idea from Queen B Creative Me.
Ok, this door decor is the cutest thing ever from My Life and Kids.
I love free printables and this one from Sweet Anne is no exception. I will be printing this and adding it to my February binder!
I really do love to do fun things with kid food so when I saw this post fromMeaningful Mama I had to share it. I love how she did something heart based for each meal.
That's it for today!
I also wanted to say that there will not be my normal Pinterest Challenge post this week. I think I actually did complete a couple of things but it's been such a crazy few days that I'm not sure what things are Pinterest and which are just things I wanted to do!!
Welcome back to the rest of my crafts :-) I have three simple things to share with you today that I created. Two were inspired and one . . wait for it . . . .. wait for it . . I made up all by my lonesome!
The first idea is this simple specimen art idea from Racks and Mooby ; I want to show you the original photo first.
Isn't that so pretty and so simple too? Well, here is what my finished project looked like:
So, what do you need? Just a frame, some pretty paper and coordinating stickers of different sizes.
I know it is hard to see in my photo but there are two colors of hearts stacked on top of each other. I found the stickers at my local supermarket for a couple of bucks and the frame at a great sale at Hobby Lobby so it was a very inexpensive project.
Ok, on to my next inspired project. The idea came from Brassy Apple and here is what the inspiration looked liked:
The trees are just beautiful and I fell in love with them when I saw them last year and posted about them in a Too Cute post. So, off I went to the store and this is what I made:
I already know what you are thinking. This looks nothing like the inspiration photo and you are very right. Three reasons. 1) I did try to make the tree with the beads. I glue the beads on and then spray painted the bejeebies out of the stupid thing and the paint did not cover the beads at all. Apparently I needed to use spray primer first. That was a fail! 2) I did not buy rose petals - they were pretty expensive. 3) I didn't buy glitter either but I did buy the heart garland and ended up just using that and making one cone.
Now, I'll be honest, up close and personal, this tree is not the prettiest thing but, sitting on top of my fridge, catching the sunlight, it sure looks pretty :-)
Finally, here is my original idea. I was walking through Hobby Lobby and saw these things:
Yes, it is a giant chipboard letter "V" and a wooden oval. I already had spray paint to use so this was turning out to be a very inexpensive project.
I spray painted it Raspberry, added some jewels and pink ribbon and this is my final product.
Isn't that so cute? The letter is really large enough to stand on its own but I wanted extra stability so I glued the wood oval to the bottom of it for that reason.
Do you have those things in life that just aren't "you" but you wish they were? Those things that you just don't seem to have a knack for, yet you wish I did? Well, one of my is style. I've never been good at picking out outfits - no matter how "in style" I want to dress, I usually pick out the outfit from the catalog and hope it looks good HA!
Well, welcome to my new obsession . . .Pinterest Style Boards. I love the ideas because it shows everything you need for the perfect outfit. Most of them link back to the place to purchase the item but I like that I can go to my favorite stores and find similar items to make a similar outfit. I thought today, I'd share some of my favorite ideas from my "Outfits I actually like" board.
Hello again! Welcome back to another installment of my weekly menu. Thrilling, isn't it? :-)
We've made a few minor changes in our house and by minor, I mean m.i.n.o.r. Up until Christmas time, my kids could care less about cookies or other treats but, after having lots of fun stuff on the cupboard during the holidays plus their growing height that allowed them to see things they couldn't see before (like the cookie jar) I knew I wanted to replace what I kept on the counter. So, I put away the "cookie jar" that has been sitting my kitchen counter for over 10 years. (Well, it was actually a Cake dome that I got as a wedding gift and loved so much, I used it to put our sweet treats in through the years) and now keep fruit out on the counter instead. Guess what? The boys (and the adults) are eating more fruit. Eventually I will do a trick that someone shared with me and keep a small bowl of fruit on the kitchen table for them to grab from each day - grapes, strawberries, sliced apples, oranges, ect. The cookies are now kept up in a cupboard in a Ziploc container and we all eat less of them. Small changes are good, right? My kids are very healthy but I also desire for them to want to snack on the good stuff so there is no time like the present to build some good habits and who knows, maybe I'll pick up a few along the way!
On to the menu :-)
Saturday: The boys had chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches; We are ordering from our favorite local Italian place for an at home date night.
Sunday: Roast, potatoes and carrots. (This is the only way my kids eat carrots - cooked with a roast - they literally inhale them!) My husband has a concert this evening so I bought something easy for the kids to eat on the way home and then I have a new recipe for a dip I wanted to try and we'll have that for "dinner" after the concert. It is called Cheeseburger Dip. If it is good - I'll share the recipe soon!
Monday: Beef Brisket, Twice Baked Potatoes, Brown Sugar Carrots and Puff Pastry Twists
Tuesday: For Valentine's Day we are having our traditional meal: Homemade Spaghetti, Homemade Garlic Bread, Roasted Asparagus followed by a special Valentine's Day dessert using Twinkies and Raspberry Jam and, of course, we will dip Marshmallows into Chocolate!
Wednesday: Crazy Bacon and Chocolate Waffles with Smokey Links
Thursday: Lemon Chicken, Cheesy Broccoli and Rice Casserole, and Easy Peasant Bread
Friday: Gravy Baked Pork Chops, Roasted Cauliflower, Sweet Potato Casserole and leftover bread from Thursday.
I have to admit - there are quite a few great recipes I'm using this week that I'm kinda surprised I haven't posted about yet so you'll probably seem them in future weeks!
Our sweet treats for the week are two different brownie recipes - one will "Knock you Naked" and other is just Cheesy Good!
