Day #43 - Chicken & Dumplings

I've been wanting to make Chicken & Dumplings for the last 12 months, but have never gotten the courage to do so. I have printed out multiple recipes for such a meal, but have never followed through with actually making it. I read review after review after review for the best dumpling recipe. I finally settled on this one and Jim and I were really disappointed with the dumplings. The "chicken" part, however, was REALLY good and we ended up having a chicken stew type dinner.

I do have to say though, that Miley really enjoyed the dumplings. She got all of our - at least they didn't go to waste.

Ingredients:

Stew -

2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup

3 Cups Water

1 Cup Celery, Chopped

2 Onions, Chopped

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Poultry Seasoning

1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper

4 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breast Halves

5 Carrots, Sliced

1 Package Frozen Corn (10 oz)

4 Potatoes, Quartered

Dumplings -

1 Egg

1/4 Cup Milk

1-1/2 Cups Flour

1-1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Directions:

In a large pot, combine soup, water, chicken, celery, onion, salt, poultry seasoning, and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat for about 1-1/2 hours.

Add potatoes and carrots. Cover and cook another 30 minutes.

Remove chicken from the pot, shred or cube it, and return it to the pot. Add corn and cook for five additional minutes.

To make dumplings: Mix egg, milk, four and baking powder until a soft dough forms.

After making dumpling mix, bring stew to a boil. Drop by tablespoonfuls of dumpling mix onto BOILING stew. Simmer covered for 10 minutes, then uncover and simmer and additional 10 minutes.

ENJOY!

A friend from work told me I should stick to using Bisquik for my dumplings. I insisted on trying the "old fashioned" way - but was really disappointed. Next time I make this (if there is ever such a thing), I will try it the Bisquik way as was recommended. Next time I will listen to her the first time!

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Day #42 - Kayla's Night Out

On Friday evenings, we are either picking up two kids so we have all three girls, or we are dropping off one kid so we are childless for the weekend. This weekend, we were supposed to have all the girls, but Kelsey had something going on that she needed to attend so we decided to have a "Kayla Weekend" since it was just going to be her for three whole days.

On Friday, she got to pick what we had for dinner. She wanted Olive Garden "so, so so, bad". So we caved and went to Olive Garden. It was fabulous! Then we took her shopping for some new clothes because she's just getting too tall!!! She really needs to stop growing!

Anyway - that was our Friday night! Olive Garden and Shopping - can't go wrong there!

Day #41 - Stuffed Chicken

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE sun-dried tomatoes? I'm always looking for awesome recipes with these little bad boys in it. Safeway used to have these amazing sun-dried tomato bagels that I would buy ALL the time - especially when they were on sale. And then one day, I went to buy some because I was completely out - and they were nowhere to be found!!! They just all of a sudden stopped selling them!!! Looking back, it may have been a good thing that they did away with them - but at the time, I was kind of upset! Anyway....

Jim was helping me plan the menu for the next couple of weeks when we came across this yummy recipe for stuffed chicken breasts. The original recipe alone looked SO good - and then I noticed it mentioned other "mix-in" options - one of them being SUN-DRIED TOMATOES!!! I thought I had died and gone to heaven....it was the best day ever to make this discovery.

My only critique: The recipe calls for 2 tsp of Thyme. I almost didn't put it in - but decided I might as well since part of this adventure is all about trying new things. Next time - I will add basil instead - the Thyme didn't go very well with the sun-dried tomatoes. But even so - this was actually still a REALLY good meal!

Ingredients:

8 oz Light Cream Cheese

4 oz Goat Cheese, Softened

2 tsp Minced Thyme (or basil)

1 Cup Oil-Packed Sun-Dried Tomatoes (drained, patted dry and minced)

1 Garlic Clove, Minced

Salt & Pepper

6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

3/4 Cup Fat Free Mayonnaise

2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice

3 Cups Bread Crumbs

Directions:

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Beat the cream cheese, goat cheese, thyme (or basil), garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper together until smooth.

Pound the chicken to an even 1/4 inch thickness. Pat dry with a paper towel, then season with salt and pepper. Mound 1/4 cup of the cream cheese filling at the wider end of the chicken. Form the cheese into a log and then roll the chicken up.

Arrange the chicken rolls, seam-side down, about 1/2 inch apart in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish, coated lightly with vegetable spray.

Mix any remaining cream cheese filling with the mayonnaise, mustard, and lemon juice, then brush the mixture over the tops and sides of the chicken. Press the breadcrumbs onto the tops and sides of the chicken rolls.

Bake until the breadcrumbs are golden and the very center of the chicken rolls registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 30 minutes.

Nutritional Information (Not Available For This Recipe - Sorry).

Day #40 - Chicken Fajitas

I've been giving Kayla piano lessons for the last couple of weeks. We finally got through the first half of the beginners book so we had my parents over for dinner and a short recital afterwards. We made chicken fajitas for dinner and they were absolutely amazing!!! Whenever I have made fajitas in the past, I have used one of those seasoning packets you buy at the store and I have ALWAYS been disappointed. I was a little hesitant to try making them using my own spices, but it turned out so good! I will never buy a seasoning packet from the store again!

Today I brought some leftover sauteed veggies and chicken to make a fajita salad for lunch! The calorie content for dinner was a little high because of the tortillas - cutting out the tortillas and putting the sauteed goodness on a bed of shredded lettuce cuts the calorie count by 240 calories!!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

I added this picture just because I thought the colors were AWESOME!

Ingredients:

1 lb Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

Salt & Pepper

2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

2 Tbsp Fresh Lime Juice

2 Red or Green Peppers, Sliced Thin

1 Onion, Sliced Thin

1 tsp Chili Powder

1/2 tsp Cumin

2 to 4 Tbsp Water

1 tsp Tobasco Sauce

10 Flour Tortillas (Fajita Size)

Directions:

Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and slice it into 1/2 inch wide strips.

Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add the chicken adn cook through, about 4 minutes. Toss with fresh lime juice.

In a separate pan, add the remaining 1 Tbsp oil to the skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the pepeprs, onion, chili powder, cumin, 1/2 tsp salk and 2 Tbsp of water. Cook, scraping up any browned bits, until the oinion is softened (about 5 minutes). Add remaining water as needed to prevent the pan from scorching.

Return chicken to heat on the stove. Stir in the Tobasco and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Stack the tortillas on a microwave-safe plate, cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high about 40 to 60 seconds.

Serve with cheese, sour cream, guacamole and whatever other toppings your little heart desires.

Nutritional Information (Approximately For 2 Fajitas):

Total Calories: 538 cal

Total Fat: 12 g

Total Carbs: 24 g

Total Protein: 32 g

Day #39 - Taco Salad

I originally had tacos on the menu - but decided to switch it up a little at the last minute. That and one serving of tortilla chips is less calories than two soft taco sized flour tortillas.

After tonight, Jim and I both decided we didn't like using ground turkey on our taco salads. There are just some foods where there is no proper substitution for ground beef. I also realized that we were out of refried beans which my family LOVES on tacos. But I found about 10 cans of low-sodium black beans in the pantry and decided to give those a try. I cooked one can of black beans with about 3/4 cup salsa and let me tell you - I will NEVER use refried beans again! The black beans were fabulous!

Ingredients:

Blue Corn Spicy Tortilla Chips (30 g per serving)

1 Recipe Black Bean Mix (See Mixture Instructions Above)

Taco Meat (2 oz per serving)

Taco Seasoning

Lettuce Shreds (2 cups per serving)

Fat Free Shredded Cheese (1/4 cup per serving)

2 Tbsp Light Sour Cream (1 Tbsp per serving)

1 Cup Salsa (1/8 cup per serving)

Optional:

Tomatoes, Diced

Green Onion, Chopped

Olives

Directions:

Taco making is pretty self explanatory. Like I mentioned above, I mixed 1 can of black beans with 3/4 cup salsa for the bean mixture. I also made my own salad dressing with 2 Tbsp of light sour cream and 1/4 cup of salsa (this mixture makes two servings of dressing).

Nutritional Information (Approximately For 1 Salad With Serving Sizes Above):

Total Calories: 398 cal

Total Fat: 13.5 g

Total Carbs: 33 g

Total Protein: 31 g

Day #38 - Turkey Panini

When Jim and I got married, we received a TON of gift cards. One of my favorites was a gift card to Crate & Barrel. There is so much that I could buy at this store - and for the first time, I actually had an excuse to purchase something for this store. I was so excited!!! We spent HOURS going from one side of the store to the other, upstairs to back downstairs, then across the store again. Our problem is that there was so much we wanted to buy - we couldn't decide!!!

We finally decided on this:

This was such a great purchase! We spent the next 3 or 4 days experimenting with different variations of the Panini. And the we discovered that we can also use it to do simple grilling like chicken and steak and it even makes those cool grill marks on your food. It is seriously an awesome machine!!!

Which leads me to what we had for dinner tonight:

Roasted Turkey & Tomato Panini

Day #37 - Super Bowl Sunday!!!

What A Game!

Just kidding - I didn't even watch it. I looked up at the TV to see some of the commercials and to watch the half-time show, but I don't recall a single play from the game. After suffering through the singing of the National Anthem, I figured the game would probably bore me just as much. I was right.

So today I cleaned - and cleaned some more. It was a cleaning day. In fact, I cleaned so much, we ended up having a late lunch, so dinner wasn't really necessary. Sundays are kind of weird for us like that. Sometimes we eat dinner, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we do laundry, sometimes we don't. It's hard to predict what's going to happen on Sundays.