Chicken and Dumplings

Oh man. There is no better time of year for this. I've made this a few times, I'm just so busy scarfing it down, I always forget to take pictures. So finally- here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Rotisserie chicken (you can opt out of this and use cooked chicken breasts, but the roasted chicken flavor is SO MUCH BETTER.)

2 carrots

2 stalks of celery

3 small yukon gold potatoes

1/2 yellow onion

1 clove garlic

2 T olive oil

2 boxes of Chicken Broth

Salt & Pepper for seasoning

(optional) 1 Chicken boullion cube

For Dumplings:

2 C. flour

1 tsp. salt

3/4c-1 cup of ice water

Chop your vegetables into bite sized cubes and chop the onion finely. In a large dutch oven pot or soup pot, heat the olive oil over med-high heat and saute the onion and garlic till fragrant. Add the carrots, celery and potatoes and stir around for a few minutes. Don't them burn..

Pour in the broth and bring to a subtle boil, then simmer for about 10-15 minutes, till the vegetables have softened. Then add the shredded chicken and simmer for another 5-7 minutes. Flavor with salt and pepper, and check to see if you want the boullion cube. I added because my family likes lots of flavor and though it was fine, I know Josh would have asked for the salt. So I added the cube, and it was fine. No requesting the salt shaker.

While that all simmers on LOW, make your dumplings. Mix the flour and salt and start adding the water while stirring with your fingers. As soon as it is wet enough to form a solid ball, you are done adding water. Flour a clean surface and roll out the dough to about 1/8" thick. Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut strips 1-1.5 inches thick, then again across to make little square dumplings. Once cut, turn the heat up to med-high to get it boiling again and add the dumplings. Shove them all down to the bottom with a wooden spoon, and once they are all floating again, they are cooked.

This makes great leftovers. And I hate leftovers.

Back to Business: Quinoa Burgers

I finally buckled down, well- I shouldn't say "buckled down" cause I've been wanting to jump on the quinoa bandwagon for awhile. I just finally did it. I'm not one for salads.. so I opted to make a main dish with my quinoa and found these burgers. It was SO SO good, Jack gobbled them up. Though rough at first, I got the hang of it and they ended up really good. They sound super healthy- but after the cheeses and the frying... who knows. But hey- all that fiber and iron can't be a bad thing, right?

Quinoa Burgers

(adapted from the website: www.eatingwelllivingthin.wordpress.com, just fattied it up a bit..)

1 cup uncooked quinoa

2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt*

To cook quinoa:

In a medium saucepan bring the 2 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil over high heat. Add quinoa and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 18-20 minutes, or until all water is absorbed and the seeds are tender. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

*I'm a carnivore. I added half a teaspoon of chicken boullion. Yep.

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or other variety, if you prefer)

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1/2 small zuchinni, finely grated and squeezed

3 eggs

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 green onions, including white parts

1 /2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Veggie oil (or olive oil) for frying

In a large bowl combine the cooked quinoa, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, zuchinni, eggs, flour, green onions, sugar, pepper, cumin, salt, and garlic powder.

Heat a frying pan and a couple teaspoons olive oil over medium-low heat. Measure 1/4 cup and form into patties about 1/2 inch thick - mixture will be more like a batter. (I find it’s easiest to just drop the mixture from the measuring cup into the pan and slightly flatten it out.) Fry until golden-brown, about 4 minutes on each side. Makes approx. 10 burgers. (for real... I should have halved this recipe...)

I served them warm, with sour cream that had a little garlic salt and onion powder mixed in. It was mouth watering.

*follow up note: I made these again and it was a total disaster. They wouldn't stay together, they spread too much when put in the pan, the oil was FOAMING and it was a total mess. I'm not sure what was different; maybe I didn't squeeze the zucchini enough, maybe I didn't drain the quinoa, I forgot the sugar... I don't know. But it was rough. So my advice on avoiding this fiasco, is to not make them too big, or they'll be hard to turn. And DON'T turn them, till you are able to, and what I mean by that is only turn when they are stiff enough to handle it, which means they may need a good 4 minutes at med heat to cook through enough to stiffen them, without burning them.....

Tricky business. Don't be intimidated though, cause they are SO good..