Quick and Easy Chicken and Dumplings

As much as I am trying to switch to a more Traditional Foods diet, there are just some nights that I want quick, easy and comforting.  This is one of those meals.

2 chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
1 can condensed cream of celery soup
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
4 cups chicken stock or broth
1 can refrigerated biscuits

Cook up the chicken in a skillet adding salt and pepper.  Mix the chicken broth and the soups in a pot and bring to a boil, adding chicken once it is cooked.  Separate the biscuits and then cut each in half horizontally.  Tear each half into half again and drop into boiling soup.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.

It's Alive!!! (picture heavy post)

My sourdough starter that is.  I am so happy.  My friend Michaela over at Life in Small Town, Wyoming sent me some starter that she had dried.

I put it in a jar and added 1/3 cup water and a 1/3 cup whole wheat flour

This is it in it's small home

I've been feeding it daily and this is what it looked like last night.

And here it is in it's new home

Menu Monday - November 2

My menu plan starts on Saturday.

Saturday -Chick-fil-A

Sunday -Chili

Monday - Pasta with the rest of the homemade meat sauce

Tuesday -Hamburger Rice Skillet

Wednesday - Chicken and dumplings

Thursday - Tacos

Friday -Easy Chicken Parm

Lunch this week is a veggie stir fry over rice

For more menu plans, please visit Organizing Junkie.

The Simple Woman's Daybook - November 1

FOR TODAY. . .

Outside my window... Leaves on the ground

What I'm hearing . . .the furnace getting ready to run.  How wonderful it is to be able to have a cozy warm house

Reading to learn...The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook


From the kitchen... Sourdough Starter

A verse to ponder ... Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Psalm 90:2

In my Bible I am reading . . .Luke
 

A picture to share . . . My latest attempt at sourdough starter

Cream Soup Mix

This week I made a Cream Soup Mix.  The recipe comes from Taste of Home Magazine.  Because I was making it in place of potato gravy, I added some dehydrated diced potatoes to the mix when I cooked it up.  This mix works great and is one that I would recommend having on hand.  I did tweak it some.  Below are my tweaks:

 - Chicken Bouillon - I did not add this to the mix.  I prefer to use chicken stock instead of water
- Cornstarch - I actually used flour, and used more flour than the measurement listed for the cornstarch.  I used the conversion listed in my one cookbook.
- Water - I used chicken stock (homemade - yum!) instead.

The next time I make this up I will add garlic.  Also, I will probably increase the rest of the seasonings just a tad.

Another thing to note is that this doesn't have any salt, which is fine by me, I prefer to add mine to the dish as a whole.

Meat Sauce

After lots of experimenting, Jim and I came up with a meat sauce recipe that we both love.  Actually, we came up with it last year.  We usually don't make this during the summer, so this is the first time that we made it in a while.  It ended up being enough for dinner and then we jarred the rest in an old spaghetti sauce jar for next week.

1/3 pound bulk hot sausage
2/3 pound ground meat
29 oz tomato sauce
8 oz tomato paste
Water to fill empty tomato paste can
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 garlic cloves - crushed
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon grated Parmesan cheese
freshly ground black pepper

Brown the meat and drain.  Add the meat and the rest of the ingredients to a pot (I have a heavy cast iron dutch oven that I use) and let simmer for at least an hour.

Menu Monday - October 26

My menu plan starts on Saturday.

Saturday -Steak, macaroni and cheese, turnip greens

Sunday - Spaghetti with homemade meat sauce

Monday - Baby Shower

Tuesday -Beef patties in gravy

Wednesday - Chicken and dumplings

Thursday -Pork chops in potato gravy

Friday - Hillbilly Goulash

Lunch this week is a veggie stir fry over rice

For more menu plans, please visit Organizing Junkie.