Inspired Dinner Plans for This Week

Chicken and Dumplings at Hubby's request

My Way: I boiled 6 pounds of chicken breast in 12 cups broth and one cup water with Garlic Salt and Thyme...I chopped 5 carrots, 5 stalks of celery, 3 yellow onions and sauteed them in oil in a skillet...while these were cooking I made the dumplings with 3 cups flour, 1 cup cornmeal, 2 heaping tablespoons baking powder and 2 teaspoons salt - mixing all these dry ingredients together, then added in 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream and 1 1/2 cups whole milk...after the chicken cooked, I removed it from the broth, let it cool some, chopped it and then put it back in the broth with the veggies and 1 cup heavy cream...last, I dropped by tablespoons the dumpling mixture into the broth mixture, let it simmer covered on low for 10-15 minutes checking often to make sure it didn't scorch...then I carefully stirred it all together...now mine didn't have distinct dumplings...they were all kind of mixed in with the broth, chicken and veggies...but my husband and in laws raved and raved about it....so I was happy :)

Italian Sausage Burgers

Poppy Seed Chicken - a recipe I remember a friend making when I was a kid

My Way:  I boiled 6 pounds of chicken breasts until cooked through; while it was cooking, I mixed together 24 ounces of sour cream and a large/family size can of cream of chicken soup (and if I would have had my head on straight, I would have added garlic powder and fajita seasoning...I still can't believe I forgot to season...); then in a separate bowl, I mixed 3 sleeves of crushed Ritz (next time I will use 4) and 2 melted sticks of butter; after chicken cooked and cooled I chopped it up and mixed it into sour cream mixture; I sprinkled 1/2 Ritz mixture on bottom of 2 casserole dishes, scooped chicken/sour cream mixture on top then topped with the rest of Ritz mixture and baked at 325 degrees for 20 minutes...Big Hit with the in-laws, even though I forgot the seasoning...

Brats and Fries - a nice simple weekend quickie