Chicken and Dumplings

Jenna had a meeting to run off to for her job at the newspaper, so I get the honors of blogging this time.  She watched Harlee while I had two clients and she reported he pretty much slept the whole time, allowing her to keep working on her knitting.  She's getting really good at it too!  Wish Harlee would sleep that much for me when I need to get stuff done... haha :-)  It's okay - Harlee is an adorable little bundle of fun and a whopping six months old as of Monday, and I'm loving every minute of it!  He just figured out how to sit unsupported and life is a lot easier on me now!

Taken by Be Lovely Photography

Look out, he'll be starting solids just around the corner, and then cooking is going to really get fun!  Not that it isn't already, though.  Tonight we made chicken and dumplings - perfect for this cold weather and it was super quick and easy which was great for Jenna to get to her meeting on time.  We were going to make the dumplings out of prepackaged biscuit dough to save on time, but luckily we found a simple homemade dumpling recipe instead.  Quality should not be sacrificed for convenience!

Here's the recipe:

Dumplings (we made these while the chicken was boiling for the soup)
     (from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dumplings/detail.aspx)

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp parsley (optional)
1 tablespoon margarine
1/2 cup milk
 
Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and parsley in medium size bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in milk to make a soft dough.
Drop by spoonfuls into boiling stew. Cover and simmer 15 minutes without lifting lid. Serve. 

Chicken and Dumplings

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can chicken broth
2 cups water
2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups chopped celery
Small white onion, chopped
2 cans condensed cream of celery soup
Salt & Pepper to taste


Combine chicken with broth and water, boil until chicken is no longer pink in the middle, about 15-20 minutes.
Drain the liquid, reserving 3 cups
Remove the chicken and shred.  Return to remainder of liquid in the pot.
Reduce to medium heat, add cans of soup, vegetables, and season with salt & pepper.  Add dumplings and simmer until dumplings reach desired consistency (I think ours took about 10 minutes).  Serve!