Home Made Chicken and Dumplings

The "Challenge" has really forced me to start cooking from scratch. Now if you know me at all (or have been talking to the hubby), you know that it is a hit or miss situation with me in the kitchen. By the time I'm done it looks like a tornado whirled through and that is not an exaggeration.

The hubby loves Chicken and Dumplings (his mother's to be exact!), however I have never been able to make them worth a damn, oops, darn. Well, I decided it was time to change that so I searned the web, pulled outevery cookbook I own and came up with a recipe that was pretty darn good. And of course, it had to be easy or I wouldn't have made it.

Here's what I did...

I took a soup type pot and pour 5 (15 or 16 oz) cans of chicken broth in it. To that I added 2 big chicken breast and turned on medium and let it go. While the chicken was cooking I added 4 stalks of celery, a big hand full of carrots (the little ones that come in a bag in your produce department), and 1 small onion that I chopped up in the food processor. Then I added 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp of minced garlic and 1 tsp Poultry season and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Once the chicken was cooked, I turned it off and removed the chicken. I let the chicken cool a bit so that I could work with it and then I shredded it with a fork and returned it to the pot.

Now for the dumplings.....take 2 cups of flour, add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp baking soda. Swirl that around with a whisk. Then add in 3 tablespoons of shortening. I cut mine in with a fork but you could use a pastry fork if you wanted to. Then I added between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of milk. I added it a bit at a time until the dough stuck togther.

Once the dough sticks together, add a little bit of flour to your counter, work top (whatever) and knead the dough about 5 to times then start rolling it out. You want it pretty thin because the dumplings plump up when they cook. I actually cut my dough into 3 parts and did one part at a time. While you are rolling it out, turn the pot bad on to about medium with the lid on so that it comes up to a slow slight boil. Then you will start dropping the dumplings in one at a time. I rolled my dough out into rectangles and cut into strips. Only drop a few dumplings in at a time and then stir or they will stick together. After you have all of the dumplings in the pot, I turned it down to about medium low and let it cook for about 8 minutes. When I took the lid off, my first thought spoken out loud was "holy hell I've made mud". The dog ran into the bedroom and the husband was cracking up. It took me a second to realize the Poultry seasoning change the color of everthing to a light mud color. However, don't be discouraged because it taste pretty good.

One note to you....I didn't realize it, but the chicken broth is pretty salty so when you add in the teaspoon of salt, it's that much saltier. The husband loved it, however I would have preferred it be a bit less salty tasting. If you are the same, then I would suggest a low sodium broth instead.

As cold as it was yesterday, home made chicken and dumplings hit the spot. I figured the price out to $3.22 and that was mostly the cost of the broth which I had purchased for $.40/can. I had 1 bowl each night, the husband had two bowls each night and I split a bowl between the pooches (yes they are horribly spoiled!). So the cost comes out to $.46 a bowl. It's very filling and taste great. (Remember if the hubby eats more than one bowl it has to be good - Picky picky man!!!!).





This post is part of the Becentsable Gathering

Cheesy Vegetable and Ham Chowder

Cheesy Vegetable and Ham Chowder

Here's the recipe I told you about yesterday......

Ingredients:
2 cups water
2 medium potatoes (chopped)
1 carrot (chopped)
2 stalks celery (chopped)
1/4 cup onion (chopped) 1 small onion works
1/4 cup butter or margarine (I preferred to use butter in this)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups milk
2-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups cubed ham
1 can cream corn (standard size can - 15 ounce or so)
1/4 tsp black pepper

1. Put the water, potato, carrot, celery and onion in a medium cooking pot (medium size soup pot works perfect). Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer and let simmer for 10 minutes with the lid on.

2. In a medium sized saucepan melt the butter over medium-low heat (you don't want the butter to burn). Get a whisk out and whisk in the flour and the pepper. Now add the milk and keep whisking over medium heat until the mixture thickens. (within about 2 minutes). Now add the cheese and keep whisking until the cheese has melted.

3. Immediately pour the cheese mixture into the vegetable mixture and stir to blend with the whisk. Now add your ham and corn and you are done.

Couple of points here:

1) Have the cheese, flour, pepper and milk measured out before you start the cheese mixture. Once you melt the butter, it goes pretty fast and you don't want the butter to burn while you are trying to measure the other ingredients and get them into the saucepan. Makes it much easier if you already have them all measured out.

2) The leftovers thicken considerably in the fridge. You have a couple of options here. You can either add a little bit more milk or water and thin the soup back out a bit. But I chose a different option. I heated some up (without adding additional milk or water) and poured it over dry toast. Great. You can either pour it over toast or biscuits or cornbread. Yum Yum.

I originally served it with home made corn bread and it was a very filling meal. This is a great soup to make from the left over ham or turkey from your holiday dinners. You could easily have made this with turkey as well and I'm certain it would taste just as good. In reality, it doesn't cost that much to make. Honestly, I would say about $1.00 to $2 for the soup. The recipe makes enough for a family of 4. Great dinner when it's really cold outside.

Home Made Waffles - The Best

In attempting this 6-month challenge, I resigned myself to the fact that I needed to get out the cookbooks and start cooking again in order to keep the budget at $35/week. No I didn't have to blow dust off the tops of them, but they practically came crashing down on my head when I opened the cabinet door, which reminds me that I need to clean out that cabinet. Maybe this weekend.



One of the things that my husband loves is Waffles so for Christmas one of his gifts was a waffle maker. Now don't laugh. I told him it was a gift for him but that I would have to use it for him (the man doesn't cook). Anyway, when he opened it he looked at me and said "you mean I finally get real waffles?", translated means Eggo no longer get my business. Cross one more thing off my list to purchase from the store. Maybe this challenge won't be so hard.



I have to tell you that he demanded Waffles Christmas morning so I dug out the cookbook to find the recipe. Can't remember it by heart because it's only been a zillion years since I made one. Anyway.....it amazed me how I could forget the wonderful smell a home made waffle makes. You don't get that popping a waffle in the toaster that's for certain. And since when did Waffles become yellow? I don't even want to know what's in those things we have been eating.



Everyone loves Waffles. If we didn't, there would be no need for IHOP. Home made Waffles are incredible and incredibly easy to make. And, the best of all, as the batch makes more than we can eat in one sitting, they freeze very very well. Just get out your trusty dusty ole vacuum bags and you're in business. How often do you get free waffles....not very if you are honest about it, and now I don't have to take up a ton of space with those bulky boxes.



Here's the recipe....


First, get out the waffle iron and plug it in to warm it up...if you don't have one, consider investing in one from Wal-Mart, K-Mart, the Dollar Store or Target. You can get them pretty cheap.


Next
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt


Mix all of these ingredients in a medium size bowl and make a little well in the center. Set aside.


Now, beat slightly 2 eggs, add 1-3/4 cups of milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Once you have everything mixed, pour this into the flour mixture and mix until moistened. Batter should be SLIGHTLY lumpy.

Pour one cup onto the waffle iron and there you have it. In about 2 minutes you will have a home made waffle that smells incredible and taste great. Of course my waffle iron turns green when the Waffle is ready. I'm sure they had cooking challenged people like me in mind when they designed it.

I estimated the cost to be about $.30 - $.40 a batch which makes as many waffles as you get in a box, no preservatives and they aren't YELLOW!!!

The Cheapest Easiest Cookies To Make

Seems like these days you are being asked to make cookies for everything. You've got your kids parties at school and don't forget Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and Day Care parties and don't forget the office luncheons and the Ladies Auxiliary and your hubby's office party, etc.

Whatcha gonna make...Peanut Butter cookies, Sugar Cookies, Brownies, Oatmeal Cookies, or do you go for the fancier kind like Chocolaty Carmel Thumbprints, or Toffee Bars or maybe Brown-Sugar Hazelnut Bars and we can't forget the famous Lemon Bars. They are all awesome cookies and everybody loves them and everyone loves making them as well. But with today's economic times, when you are stressed enough as it is trying to pay the bills and buy the Christmas gifts, why strain your wallet any further by spending a small fortune buying the ingredients to make all of these goodies. Why not try an old standby that everyone loves, is the easiest cookie in the world to make and cost pennies. What cookie is that?

The shortbread cookie of course. Now don't turn your nose up....you know when you see that familiar can at the office you know what is going to be inside and you KNOW you are going to grab one or two.

Three ingredients:
1-1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons sugar

Make sure the butter is softened, mix them all up and away you go. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on the counter, or board, or whatever you use and roll them out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Use your favorite little cookie cutters or make little circles or little squares or whatever you like. Sprinkle a little sugar on top and there you go. Turn the oven on 325 and cook for 20 to 25 minutes.

Now let's look at the cost.
Flour cost = $.6 - I purchased the Flour for $1 a couple of weeks ago at SuperValu (I told posted it in the machups) when they were on sale and there was a coupon (Golden Medal)

Sugar = Free (Remember when Meijers had the Kool-Aid/Sugar special. You purchased 20 packets of Kool-Aid and get $2 off sugar.) You bet I was there.

The butter I purchased at Wal-Mart for $1.50 for a package of 4 sticks. You use 1 stick per recipe. So that cost = $.37

So for a grand total of $.43 I made two dozen cookies.

I only use real butter when baking cookies, but I'm sure you could use something like I Can't Believe It Isn't Butter which you can get free on occassion with the right coupons which would make your cost even cheaper.

So there you have a couple of dozen cookies for change. It's easy and very cheap on your pocket book which is exactly what you are after. If you have a cookie press, you can make great little designs.