Easy (and coincidentally pretty healthy) Chicken & Dumplings

I found this recipe in last month's Southern Living magazine and it was beside the original, full fat and loads of prep recipe. I always opt for the simple. Let that be known.

My first time making chicken & dumplings went smoothly. I must have eaten it at some point but don't have a clear memory of having it. Big, on the other hand, was giddy when he knew I was going to give this recipe a whirl. He is a fan of this tasty dish. It turned out wonderfully and the 3 of us sat in deafening silence as we each inhaled our bowls. Bug and I capped off our dinner with a dessert of Rio Star ruby red grapefruit and I LOVED that too. I swear, you haven't had a deliciously sweet, juicy red grapefruit until you have eaten a  Rio Star. Oddly, I learned of that too in a Southern Living issue recently. We are lucky enough to have easy access to the Rio Star as they are grown in the "Valley" here in Texas. And it can't be beat that they were 10 for $1 at our grocery store last week when I loaded up on them.



Easy Chicken & Dumplings- 4-6 servings


1 (32 oz) container low-sodium chicken broth
3 c shredded, cooked chicken
1 (10 ¾ oz) can reduced-fat cream of chicken soup
¼ t poultry seasoning
1 (10.2 oz)can refrigerated jumbo buttermilk biscuits
2 carrots, diced
3 celery ribs, diced


-Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cover reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and return to a low boil.
-Place biscuits on a lightly floured surface. Roll or pat each biscuit to ¼” thickness and cut into ½”-wide strips.
-Drop strips, one at a time, into boiling broth mixture. Add carrots and celery. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent dumplings from sticking.

Try this recipe and give yourself and your family something to love this Valentine's season!

Why do I feel special?

This morning at church was my LOVE moment for the day. I am not the most sensitive or emotional person (even when I'm pregnant) and this brought tears to my eyes and a gi-normous lump in my throat.

First, let me say that I really like our church. I was raised Lutheran as was Big and we lucked into a local Lutheran church about 10 minutes from our house that fits us to a T. Before we moved here and had Bug, we didn't attend church. But once I knew we would raise Bug with a basis in the church it was critical that we find our church home. Prior to his baptism, we began to attend new member classes and were welcomed to the church family a couple weeks before Bug's baptism.

We go most every Sunday during the year but take a hiatus in the summer when the band takes their vacation break...July and August. Bug loves the music so we go to the contemporary family service and he plays along with the tiny percussion instruments on the kids carpet during the songs at the beginning and end of the service with all the other little ones.

Wow...a lot of background for this little moment.

Today after communion, Bug was looking especially happy. Since he turned 3, we have let him walk up for his blessing without holding hands and he takes this as a very serious sign of his "big boy-ness". Since he looked so happy, I asked him if he was feeling special and he said, "Yes! God loves me!" It just caught me so off guard and it really got to me. Even just typing it, I get a little weepy. I am glad he is getting anything at all out of church at such a young age and that he seems so touched by it inspires me to get more involved in church. He likes how he feels there and he deserves more of that. It was quite a moment and I LOVE it!

Family dinners

It is super simple and makes a happy bunch of us...family dinner! We do them every night...minus Big when he travels but Bug & I enjoy our dinners when he's away. There is nothing quite so nice as sitting down with the family and enjoying a meal together. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I have been trying out new recipes and that has brought family dinners to a new happy place.

Of course, we didn't try anything new tonight but it all came together quickly and easily and tasted wonderful! The three of us sat down with our plates of fish, pintos & rice and buttery brussel sprouts...yum! We each gobbled our dinners and then Bug enjoyed a yogurt for dessert while I cleaned up our mess.

Nothing over the top...just a special way to head into the end of a day!

And I will appreciate it extra tonight since tomorrow we'll be eating over at some friends' for a kid's birthday/Super Bowl celebration...and although that will be fun, it won't just be our little family unit together. We'll feast and have a ball without a doubt though...are you ready for some football?

Strawberry milk takes me back

A few days ago I bought a small bottle of strawberry milk at the grocery store. I figured it would be a nice treat with a Bug snack on a good behavior day. Today was that day! He was a very good helper on our morning errands and he did great listening to his teacher at swim class. These things need not go unnoticed so I surprised him with strawberry milk at lunchtime. Needless to say, he is a fan and finished every last drop of milk today with lunch. Yum...a family tradition continues...I LOVED strawberry milk as a kid and probably haven't had any since I was one.

I thought I had earned a little sip, too. After all, I had been a nice mommy at swim class and I behaved well on our morning errands. Really, if I am going to start earning treats it will have to be in reward for all the errands and day-to-day mom stuff that I do.

Holy cow...one tiny sip threw me right back into childhood. And I mean the good stuff of childhood...not the unfairness of being too young to do everything I wanted and the ultimate betrayal of my spirit in having an early bedtime. It was sweet and strawberry-delicious! Heck, I may even have to go out and pick up a package of Nesquik Strawberry mix...that rabbit has the key to powdered-strawberry-nectar-of- happiness in a plastic container. Although the packaging of my youth was a tin one, I recall that rabbit and the sweetness his milk offers. Today I LOVE strawberry milk!

I'm tightly-wound

I love when Bug tells me, "You need to look on the bright side when you have a bad day." He really is my tiny Zen master. Thank goodness he gets so much of his attitude and calm nature from his daddy...if he were more like me, we'd be trouble together. Of course, he told me that 'Caillou' taught him to look on the bright side. So, perhaps he is getting more of it from Caillou on PBS than from Big but I think they both have an equal importance in his life at times...after all, I have seen Caillou dressed as an astronaut and Big has never pulled that off.

I am evidently a little too tightly wound when a 3 year old needs to remind me that "things happen" and "it's okay." God bless this little man and the balance he gives me!

Television freedom

Sure it isn't ideal to have a husband who travels for work. It would be great to have an extra set of hands to help prep dinner or clean up afterward. And at bathtime, my aching back and bulging belly would prefer to be kicked back in the recliner rather than hunched up trying to clean a squiggly, wiggly boy who loves to splash like he's in the ocean. Still, in this economy it IS ideal to have a husband with a job that permits us to keep me at home with our son and soon-to-be second son. And it is ideal that I am able to handle the daily tasks on my own at this stage of pregnancy and be just a bit more tired at the end of every day.

And at the end of each day while Big travels...I LOVE the television freedom when I get to sit down and finish off the day. I can watch whatever series of worthless reality or other crap and disconnect from it all. And I can do it without having to defend my ridiculous choices in programming. Big doesn't give me too much grief but I can feel his puzzled expression when he catches me watching an episode of "The Hills" and other shows of that breed. I enjoy, for some crazy reason, watching crap and it is a treat to do it without guilt.

So, here's one thing that I can embrace and truly LOVE about Big having a job that takes him away from home. There's a silver lining to almost every cloud!

Really?! A fire truck?

I love fire trucks! Thanks in large part to Bug...I love fire trucks.

I was alone in the car after grocery shopping (as Bug was in school this morning) and I caught a glimpse of a fire truck coming up behind me in my driver-side rearview mirror. Before I knew what was happening, I realized I was smiling BIG and feeling pretty happy. Bug LOVES fire trucks. And that love has translated to me...I can't see them without thinking of him and how happy it would make him. So, today...I love fire trucks!

And while I'm confessing, I am also the one who starts merrily mooing whenever I see a cow...and we live near a lot of cows. I spend a lot of time mooing.