Memories.......

Oh, how I love Chicken N' Dumplins!  It's one of those foods that for me conjures specific memories of nights at the kitchen table.  My C n' D turned out great tonight.  Lucy wasn't a fan, but dutifully ate her two bites.  Lily loved the broth, but I'm not sure she took any bites with chicken or dumplins in them.  I wonder if my girls will some day cook C n' D for their own kids and think back fondly on nights at the dining room table?  Probably not Lucy!

Chicken N' Dumplins (as prepared tonight by me)

1/2 a large stock pot full of water (I'm going to guess it was a 3 1/2 quart pot, probably about 1 3/4 - 2 quarts)
3 large chicken breasts

Simmer chicken until cooked through.  Remove from broth, skim nasty stuff from broth, cut chicken into bite sized pieces and return to broth.

Combine 1/2 cup flour with water until it is a thin paste.  Add slowly to broth.  Broth will become very cloudy, almost opaque)  Bring broth to a boil.

2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
Combine Bisquick and milk until it makes a sticky dough.  Drop by spoonfuls into broth, cook UNCOVERED for ten minutes.  COVER and cook another 10 minutes.  Dumplins should be fluffy and float at the top.

There is also a fantastic easy recipe for shortcake on the Bisquick box.  I made that during the twenty minutes I was waiting for the dumplins to cook.  Consider pairing the C n' D with strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Pantry Staples

It's very important to make sure you stay stocked up on your pantry staples.  Most people would count flour, sugar, olive oil, etc as the staples.  At our house it's shredded cheese and tortilla chips. 

The plan for dinner yesterday was chicken and dumplings, but when we got home at 5:30 and Matthew realized he had a big job to complete for a client, and I realized that we didn't have any chicken broth....plans changed.  (chicken broth should be on that staple list)  So the kids got chicken nuggets and pizza rolls, and mom and dad had chicken nachos with the leftover chicken from Saturday.  It's another cheap meal, and had the girls been interested in eating it I had plenty of chicken to do the whole meal for the family for about $5. 

So today is grocery day.  I'll post again later when I've decided what I'm making for the week, so far the list includes lobster tails, chicken and dumplings (I'm determined), and baked ravioli with meat sauce.  You can get free pasta at Kroger this week with a $1 ronzoni coupon, so there may be some pasta on the menu this week, too.