What's for Dinner?

[heather]

MaryKay.. I LOVE chicken & dumplings!! I made them all the time when my kiddies were growing up, and now my daughter makes them... and the grandkiddies love them too. My current hubby (#2) doesn't like dumplings, so I never bother anymore... but maybe he would eat the chicken 'stuff' on mashed potatoes instead... and then I could have ALL the dumplings!

Here's what I do with the chicken and dumplings after the dumplings are gone and all that is left is the thick broth and chicken.....I freeze that, and later in the week I cook some potatos,carrots, celery, and frozen peas, defrost the broth and chicken, add it to the cooked veggies, and make a double crust chicken pot pie. There is NO better pot pie filling than left over chicken and dumplings! 400*oven, 25-30 min or until crust is almost brown.

[Luv2CUSmile]

Okay Mingo,
I am looking for a dinner invitation- LOL

Mmmm Heather! You are making my mouth water! Wonderful idea! I usually end up making homemade chicken stew after ANY leftovers we might have- (and I still end up having to add more meat) 5 kids w/ 4 of them being boys... enough said! LOL
I think this week I will do Chicken N Dumplings (Oh yeah! We didn't discuss... dropped or rolled??) I love rolled- dropped is okay except I always get them so thick! (cuz I'm a greedy dumplin eater) LOL I like them big- but... dropped ends up being too big and then not getting done enough in the inside... But, I love rolled and cut dumplins!
Gotta make a lot though so I can do up a nice pot pie afterwards!
Mmm-
Oh Yeah! well, today was the party and we had cake & ice cream! I didn't do a BBQ or anything this time- just tired from the last couple days- PLUS- when he was taking his invitations to school he was told if he didn't bring for all students he couldn't give them out- (some new rule at school)-
I was shocked and called- "I don't know about others but w/ the economy I can't afford to have a party w/ 30 kids! Whether they all show or not that is still a helluva lot more than I can handle right now- Yadda, yadda" Then we came to a compromise, D- can give them out during recess... DUH! I didn't expect him to take up class time handing an invitation to his friend anyway... So, fine but now a very short notice for some of his friends parents... He still had a blast today, I had 8 kids here besides my own 5...
Dinner: Me & hubby some leftover pot roast I had last week-
Kids... Pizza and hot dogs w/ chili- they can choose... LOL
Not what we always do but it is nice when my kids are easy to please...
It is usually me that can't stand dinners like that- (I like home made food and can't take too much fast food on my system)
Tomorrow, I have a plan...

[Mary Kay]

Dropped or rolled! Funny girl! I take pillsbury biscuits roll them in a bit of flour and pinch off bits and throw them in. I also boil two eggs with the chicken, then add the chopped eggs in the chicken and dumplings.
My mom like my chicken and dumplings but was appalled that i didn't make my dumplings from scratch and roll and cut them like she did when I was a kid.
She aslo couldn't figure out why I put chopped eggs in the sauce, I said because you did!...She said she never did, but liked it.

[heather]

We usually like it the way Mama used to make, and my mama did the drop method for dumplings, the rolled method is called noodles in our house.
Luv2CUSmile, A good pan make all the difference with getting them cooked and fluffy. My next door neighbor moved recently, and got rid of almost everything. I got an old set of her pots and pans, ever since then my dumplings are perfect everytime! I want alot of dumplings and so I make it in one big soup pot and one medium pot. I cook the chicken and onions first, pull the chicken out, add a bit more chicken stock, I double the recipe for bisquits from the bisquick box, and drop them in, cook 10 min with lid off, then 10 minutes with lid on. I hand pull chicken while thats cooking and salt and pepper it, when the dumplings are done I add the chicken back to the pan, and walaa!

Dinner tonight, kids are having frozen pizza, hubby and I are having morning star veggie burgers and leftover pesto pasta!

[kristin]

I had to smile when I saw this thread - it seems there is a thread like this in every forum I belong to!

Some good ole down home cookin' on this thread! lol

Tonight I had chicken breasts that I thought I was going to throw on some rotisserie seasoning & bake, but at the last minute, I decided to make up a marsala & mushroom sauce instead. I shook on some salt & pepper and sauteed the chicken in olive oil. Added marsala wine, mushrooms, red pepper flakes, a little soy sauce & brown sugar, reduced it for a while and thickened it with melted butter. It turned out better than I had hoped! My son, who wants to be a chef, was quite impressed, lol! Served with some broccoli cheddar rice and steamed broccoli. That will definitely be on the menu again - if I can remember it. Of course, I didn't measure anything, so now I hope I can do it again!

Who pre-plans their meals for the week? That's what I try to do.

We used to order delivery a lot more when we lived in Milwaukee, you could get just about anything you wanted, but the small town we just moved to doesn't have much more than a couple pizza delivery places. So, I'll be cooking even more now!

[RKayne]

We had a lazy day, I made us French Toast and bacon. Funny, we were just talking about Chicken and Dumplings. I have a cooking blog, here is my recipe for them. Here is my bacon

I am headed over to the store fr some wine soon and will probably pick up some super thin sliced deli pepperoni to go with some cheese and crackers for us to nosh a bit later

[mixxy]

Here's what I do with the chicken and dumplings after the dumplings are gone and all that is left is the thick broth and chicken.....I freeze that, and later in the week I cook some potatos,carrots, celery, and frozen peas, defrost the broth and chicken, add it to the cooked veggies, and make a double crust chicken pot pie. There is NO better pot pie filling than left over chicken and dumplings! 400*oven, 25-30 min or until crust is almost brown.

That's a great idea Heather.. and hubby does like chicken pot pie

[PatriciafromCO]

picked up a mushroom burger (no swiss cheese it taste funny so I always pass) so grab it on the way home from shopping lol got the food stock in lots of decent sales will be cooking up some lassanga (sp) to freeze in single portions.. always get the basic's that everything goes with...seems to work the best especially when you run out of an item you still have something else that goes with it... Had some nice looking cabbage so grabed some onions, carrots, and potatos to go with it...

[RKayne]

So, we have leftover Fajita wraps. And more of the wonderful deli pepperoni...so I took the wraps and brushed them with olive oil and will crisp them up in the over. Add my amazing pizza sauce, bit of mozzarella and pepperoni. Bam! Dinner. Today was my trek out to one of our fave shopping spots, always closeouts. One thing I picked up NEEDS mentioning. I found some chili lemon pistachios...omg these are amazing!!

[Luv2CUSmile]

RKayne,

2 moreof my loves...
French Toast u had the other day... And Fajita anything... LOL

We went ahead and had homemade calzone-
the kids wanted pizza.... AGAIN! LOL I couldn't do it and really almost couldn't manage the calzone except I made everyone's w/ their own filling they requested... I know, I know- a Monday and I am doing made to order...
& this is after my daughter and I rode the craft highway today... LOL after she got out of school, we headed straight to Fayetteville to hit the craft stores...
We didn't make them all so I could get back and cook and she could do homework...so>>> will be probably going again sometime this week.