Momma's Chicken and Dumplins

Ok y'all! It's finally the first day of fall so I thought today would be the perfect day to share my most favorite cherished recipe EVER! My momma makes the best chicken and dumplins! She's made them from scratch my whole life and whenever I'm sick or sad or heck, just alive and kickin, that's the meal I request the most! We stayed in Tuscaloosa a few years ago for the hubby's job and I got really missing my momma and her cooking so I wanted to see if I could make it myself with her instructions over the phone...she's never been one to use actual recipes so I thought there was no way I would be able to do it just using eyeball measurements...Well, I did and it was amazing! It was like she was there in Alabama with me cooking it for me! So now that we're back in Texas and even though she's down the road, when I want me some comfort food, I can make it all by myself! So with my momma's ok, I'm gonna share the "recipe" with you! A lot of it is eyeballing and not exact but its pretty simple so here you go! I tried to make a recipe out of it the best I could! :)

- 1 whole frying chicken
-1 48 oz container of chicken broth
-1 26 oz can of cream of chicken
-2 cups of flour
-2 to 3 eggs
-2 cups of water
-1 to 2 stems of celery (finely chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste

Start out by filling a large Stock Pot 2/3 full with water (just make sure the chicken is covered with the water and the water has enough room to boil and not spill over)
Add chicken to pot and bring to a boil Boil 2-3 hours or until completely cooked...water will have evaporated quite alot...thats ok...just keep it in there
When chicken is done...remove the pot from heat.... Keep chicken in pot with water after cooking until chicken is completely cooled...Preferably the night before you want to make the meal
If doing the night before, when chicken is COMPLETELY cooled....put lid on pot and place in refrigerator until ready to make meal the next day.
When chicken is completely cooled, remove it from the pot of water
DE-Bone the chicken and set aside the chicken until ready to add to pot

Cut celery very thin (thin and diced)
Take pot with left over water and add whole container of chicken broth and the whole can of cream of chicken and the diced celery and bring it to a boil (if you like onions cut as much or as little as you wish just like the celery and add them as well)
 Take a large bowl out and add 2 cups of flour to bowl add s and p to taste add 1 to 2 eggs
 add water to form dough - if too watery add more flour when you reach a dough ball consistency you'll know
Tear off some dough from the dough ball and roll it out and cut into one inch strips

Make sure the pot of broth is BOILING and drop the dumplins in the boiling water...repeat until you have the amount of dumplins you desire
 add however many you wish and LEAVE THEM ALONE!!! DONT STIR THE POT UNTIL THE DUMPLINS HAVE COOKED!!
After about 10 minutes of boiling the dumplins, add chicken to pot ...add about 2-3 cups of milk and 1-2 cups of water to broth to make it thick...GO slow on this and eyeball it and taste it until it tastes the way you want it to....add water or milk to your taste...
Fold the soup over once with spoon Let Boil a while until everything is mixed and soup is HOT! Turn heat to a simmer and ENJOY!

Hope this works for you....It's not exact but just eyeball it until it tastes however you like it Tweak it to your liking!

 

This is one meal, you'll make again and again! Its definitely not a LAZY meal but its so worth it and I will always give it 10 lazy thumbs up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

North Dakota Special

Hey guys! It's been a while!! I've been getting the kids settled into their new schedules with school and all and I've been repeating meals so I haven't been able to make a new post but I have a super simple super quick recipe for you today. When I was younger, my memaw (yes, we're southern lol) used to make some kind of ramen, beef skillet soup thing and it was so yummy but there was no real recipe for it so while we were stuck in North Dakota, I began to google because I really wanted to eat some! I found one that was pretty accurate if not easier and I've since lost the link since I know how to make it by heart now. 
I made it like all the time while we were stuck in the tundra hence the name, North Dakota Special.

So here's what you'll need but first a little disclaimer: If you're looking for a healthy, organic No MSG, non processed meal this one is NOT for you! LOL

Here's what you'll need:

2 packages of Ramen use your favorite flavor- I chose beef - place seasoning packets to the side for later
a bag of frozen veggies (any kind will do)
1 pound of ground beef

that's it!

Brown the beef in a large skillet
While the meat is browning, cook the ramen in a separate pot-  once done, drain and set aside
Once beef is cooked thoroughly, drain the fat
Add vegetables to the ground beef (I only used about half the bag since it was pretty large) and lightly season with a bit of pepper and garlic salt
Once vegetables are cooked through, add drained ramen noodles to pan with veggies and meat
stir to incorporate
Add ramen seasoning packets and stir until distributed and seasoned well..season to your liking...add more salt if you wish, whatever suits your fancy

and you're done!!

 

Easy, hella cheap and super yummy!!

Hope you enjoy it! Its a family fav and I usually make bisquick cheddar biscuits to go along with it too!!

My family gives it 5 Lazy Thumbs UP!!!

3 Ingredient Pork Chops

Hey y'all! Its been a while! I've been busy getting everything ready for the crazies to start school next week! I wanted to share a super easy, super yummy recipe with you for Pork Chops and Mushroom Gravy. My mother in law has made this forever and now I do! The kiddos love it and always, always eat it!

I was so so lazy yesterday that I almost, ALMOST got *GASP* Fast Food! But I didn't!!! I got my lazy butt up and grabbed the ingredients and cooked like a good housewife and in the end this meal was so much better than some nasty drive through food! LOL

So here are the ingredients you'll need:

 

One package of THAWED Pork Chops (Pardon the pic, I just grabbed these out of the freezer to take the photo lol)

I use boneless

One can Golden Mushroom Soup

and one can Mushroom soup

 

That's it!

 

Here's how simple it is:

Season your chops, I just use a bit of salt and pepper on each side

pour some olive oil in a skillet and get it hot

Sear the chops for a few minutes on each side until no longer pink

then place in a baking dish I used an 8 X 8 glass pyrex dish (it's ok if they overlap)

Once all the chops are seared and placed in baking dish, pour both cans of soup into hot skillet and combine well gathering all the drippings from the pork chops

Pour over the pork chops in the baking dish

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until thoroughly cooked

And you're done!!!

 

That simple and quick!

 

Also,  I did something yesterday that I never, ever do!!

Instead of making instant mashed potatoes (like the lazy cook I am) to go with this, I used the few red potatoes I had left in the pantry to make roasted potatoes!

OH SO GOOD!!! and oh so easy! Who knew?

 

Take about 8-10 small red potatoes and quarter them

Throw in a bowl and coat with olive oil,

add, garlic salt, dill, salt and pepper, basil, minced garlic (really any spices you fancy)

and mix it all together

Place at the bottom of your 350 degree oven (I cooked the chops at the same time)

make a little boat with foil and cook them stirring them around occasionally for about 30 minutes

Pump up the heat to 450 for about 10- 15 minutes until they're completely done and OMG so stinkin yummy! WAAAAAY better and better for you than the instant mashed potatoes too! :)

 

I did use a frozen bag of Broccoli and Cheese but still really good! and perfect for the lazy mom! LOL

 

This meal, gets 5 Lazy Thumbs UP!

 

 

 

 Been a family favorite since we became a family and it will continue to do so! Hope you enjoy!! <3

In a Jiffy Jambalaya

So While my family and I were stuck in the snowy tundra of North Dakota a few years ago, There were no fast food joints so I actually had to be a good housewife and cook meals! So I scoured the web and found some easy and tasty meals on Pinterest. Most I still continue to make today and have become family favs!

One of these is what I like to call In a Jiffy Jambalaya!
6 simple ingredients and takes less than 30 minutes from stove to table!

 

 

 

You will need:
A packet of Sausage (I use Butterball Everyday Turkey Sausage
2 cans of Kidney Beans - One light and One Dark
One to Two cans of Rotel (I use mild because Original is too spicy for the crazies)
Minute rice
and chicken broth to boil the rice in


Heat a bit of olive oil or butter in large skillet
Cut up the sausage into half inch slices and throw in the pan
brown sausage until thoroughly cooked
add rotel and simmer for about 5 minutes

While this is going, measure your chicken broth for the rice instead of water (I used 2 cups of broth to 2 cups of rice)
Make the rice according the package directions just subbing the broth for the water

Empty the cans of beans into a colander and rinse well
add the beans to the rotel and sausage and cook on low for about 10 minutes until thoroughly warmed and cooked

Once rice is cooked, Voila, Dinner is done!

Spoon Jambalaya over Rice and season with Creole Seasoning to your liking!

Its easy, it's cheap and best of all, it's delicious!

                                                                5 Lazy Thumbs Up!!!

 

Heres the link to the original blog post I took the recipe from! :)

 

http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/2012/09/creole-comfort.html

Too Easy Two Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

DUUUDE!
When August comes I can almost smell the fall season approaching and I cant freakin wait!!! I always want to hurry the summer along because I love when Autumn comes! Its such a wonderful time of year full of pumpkins and cinnamon and just yummy comforts that make me giddy! and it also counts down until my ULTIMATE favorite holiday, Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OOOOOH I cant wait!

Anyways, I got a little too excited there, pardon me! LOL
I saw a can of pumpkin chillin in my pantry and I really really really wanted some fallness in my tummy! So what did I do??? Well, I went back on Pinterest...Man I love that website...and found a recipe for 2 ingredient pumpkin muffins!

2 ingredients you say??
Yes 2!! That's it!

 

One can of Pumpkin Puree

and one box of Spice Cake mix!

Mix it  together in a bowl and spray some muffin tins with nonstick spray

Fill the cups and bake at 350 for about 15-25 minutes!

 

So simple and so stinkin delicious!

They were moist and perfect!

The crazies tore them up for breakfast this morning!

 I stocked up on cake mix and pumpkin so I can make this whenever the

 mood strikes and since its only 2 weeks until September I'm sure that will be ALOT!

 

 

5 Lazy Thumbs Up!!

 

 

 

Link to the Original Pin I found this on:

 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/202028733259364252/

3 Packet Pot Roast

Hey y'all! So this morning I put a roast in the crock pot! Have I mentioned I love my crock pot? I don't think I've ever cooked or used it this much! I'm gonna have to get me a pretty one so that when it sits on the counter, it looks good! :P

I used to buy the pre-packaged roasts from Kroger that came with a seasoning packet and the meat and potatoes and carrots but the hubs wasn't too fond of the flavor. He said the packet made it taste weird and when I went to the store, my lazy butt couldn't find a pre-packaged roast to buy so I settled for the real thing. And I'm glad I did,

Anyway so I kept hearing about this 3 packet roast and I'm all about the less is more theory when it comes to ingredients so I decided to try it!

^^^^ Pardon the pic, I was putting the leftovers away and realized I didn't take a picture! haha

Here's what you need:
A big hunk of roast (I used shoulder roast)
Baby Carrots (I think I threw half the bag in there)
Potatoes ( I used baby reds and I quartered about 8 or so)


Here comes the yummy yet easy part:
1 packet of Brown Gravy mix
1 packet of Ranch Dressing Mix
1 packet of Italian seasoning mix

Place the potatoes and carrots in the bottom of the crock
Season the roast to your liking (I just rubbed some season all, garlic salt and pepper on it)
and place it on top of the veggies in the crock pot.

In a bowl, mix all three packets of seasonings with 1 cup of chicken broth or beef broth (I used chicken - you could use water but the broth gave it waaay more flavor)

and pour the mixture over the roast.

Cover and cook on low for 5 hours and then high for 3.

Enjoy! Simple and So so good! The kids didn't even waste tonight which means either I starved them all day or they actually liked it! LOL

This will definitely be making the rounds in our menu!

5 Lazy Thumbs Up!!!!!!!

Heres the link to the recipe I found on Pinterest:

http://whenthedinnerbellrings.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-09-23T07:49:00-05:00&max-results=1&start=3&by-date=false

Easy Peasy Meatball Subs

Tonight I made easy peasy Meatball Subs!
Now the hubs always orders meatball subs at Subway and I always thought he was disgusting but being pregnant and all, they started to sound good to me. So I found a recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it!

Only 4 simple and cheap ingredients make up this yummy meal!

A Bag of frozen meatballs - I chose Italian Style
One can of Spaghetti Sauce - my go to is Hunts Garlic and Herb
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
and Sub Rolls


That's it!

Place the entire bag of meatballs and  the whole can of sauce in the crockpot and mix well
Cook on high for 2-3 hours until meatballs are thoroughly cooked and sauce is hot

Warm up the buns in the oven if you'd like. I find it makes it hold better and doesn't get soggy!
Spoon the meatballs on the sub with a slotted spoon
top with a bit of the sauce and top with Mozzarella Cheese and a bit of grated parmesan if you have it and Voila! Easy Peasy Meatball Subs! I paired this with some sea salt and vinegar chips (because who wants to make a side dish? :P) and it went great with it since the subs are a tad on the sweeter side!

There was plenty for the family to eat and plenty more for leftovers!

This will definitely be a new favorite and is going into the meal rotation!

5 Lazy Thumbs Up!

 

Here's the link to the Pin on Pinterest from Eatathomecooks.com

 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/202028733259412886/