Chicken & Dumpling Soup

Jordan has been craving soups lately. We've eaten it three times already this week - well guess what we had for dinner again?  Hint: It's the title of the post.

Yes! Homemade Chicken & Dumpling Soup.

So I sent Jordan a text message earlier this evening to ask him what he wanted for dinner between "Spicy Honey Chicken" or Chicken & Dumpling Soup. I already had the chicken set out to dethaw so that's where those choices came from. Yes, I do freeze our meats. I buy in bulk and freeze - it's cheaper and easier. shoot me. ;)

Well, I guess I wasn't to prepared for his answer because I had to scour the internet for a recipe of chicken and dumpling soup that didn't require EGGS to make the dumplings. We happened to use up all of our eggs the past two days. Go figure! So after much research, I found a recipe from Taste Of Home that I edited and adapted.

I mentioned in my latest post, Autumn Yummies, that I really enjoy when I have all the ingredients of a recipe in the pantry or fridge. Well, needless to say... I didn't for this one. I was missing some of the veggies so I just left them out.

After a few bites of eating the soup, Jordan goes "What are these?" talking about the dumplings. I answered "dumplings, kinda like biscuits." Jordan preceded to eat one and goes, "WOW! These are good!" Not sure why he didn't know what Chicken & Dumpling soup was since he chose it for dinner... but hey, he loved it!

So this soup ends up to be a delicious creamy chicken and dumpling soup. The chicken is moist and falls apart in your mouth and the dumplings hit the spot! [recipe below pictures]

 Cut up 2 chicken breasts in 1 inch cubes, using a pair of kitchen sheers

Season chicken with salt and pepper

Cook chicken in 1 Tbs oil until browned; make sure there is no more pink meat

Dice up half of an onion.

 In a large saucepan, combine 1/4 cup flour with 1/2 cup chicken broth until smooth. NO heat.

 Add 1 cup of water and the rest of the chicken broth (3.5 cups) to the flour/broth mixture

Stir all together and turn the heat to high

Add the chicken and the onions (and other veggies, if you choose) to the broth mixture. Bring to a boil then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes

 While the broth is simmering, combine Bisquick, flour mixture, and cheddar cheese.

 Slowly pour in milk. (DO NOT use a whisk to mix together... trust me!)

This is what the batter should look like.

Pinch off quarter sized balls and drop in the simmering broth. They will get bigger when dropped in like this. They will eventually get smaller. COVER up the pot and simmer for 15 minutes.

When finished, you will have a creamy chicken and dumpling soup!

Seriously Delish!

Chicken & Dumpling Soup
Printable Version of Recipe
Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (I used freshly ground so I just guessed, I'm including the measurement to give you an idea)
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper (just guessed)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (or canola oil)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups chicken broth, divided
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups frozen green beans (not included in mine)
• 1.5 cups diced onions
• 1 cup coarsely shredded carrots (not included in mine)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (feel free to use freshly minced garlic - I just broke my garlic crusher so I couldn't)
• 2/3 cup Bisquick
• 1/3 cup cornmeal (instead of cornmeal, I did 2 tablespoons cornstarch and 2 tablespoons flour)
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup milk

Directions:
1. Sprinkle cut chicken with salt and pepper. In a medium skillet, saute chicken in oil until browned and longer pink.
2. In a large saucepan with NO heat, combine flour and 1/2 cup broth until smooth. Stir in water and remaining broth. Turn heat to High. Add the beans, onions, carrots, garlic, and chicken. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the Bisquick, cornmeal (or my mixture), and cheese. Stir in milk just until moistened. Pinch of balls about the size of a quarter off the batter and drop into the simmering soup. (I got about 18 dumplings) Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Makes three large servings (original recipe said four servings... but the way Jordan eats... it's definitely 3 large servings)

Eat up!

Autumn Yummies

In the past three days, I've successfully made two different baked treats! Both found on Pinterest, of course!

Saturday morning I wanted to make Jordan breakfast. I searched through all of my Pinterest breakfast goodies to find something yummy. I came across a few recipes that I wanted to make that morning but I only had ALL the ingredients for one of them... so by default I picked "Cinnamon-Sugar Crusted Coffee Muffins" by Andie at Can you Stay for Dinner?

credit by Andie

So I think it was a God-thing that I only had the ingredients for those muffins because WE LOVED THEM! Jordan went crazy! Andie even typed a note that said "*WARNING: They taste like a donut. Be prepared for euphoria." True.


A couple notes on these delightful muffins:

• They have a suggested cooking range of 15-20 minutes. I ended up baking mine at about 22-23 minutes, so just make sure you are on top of your oven and watching these guys.
• I would suggest doubling the Cinnamon Sugar topping portion of the recipe because I ran out of topping and had to make more.

These were seriously easy to craft. I had all the ingredients in my pantry... there were no obscure items! So worth trying these melt in your mouth muffins!!


Today, I crafted "Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts" by Lauren on Healthy Delicious. Maybe I am on a doughnut kick? Not sure but I seriously loves all this baking that I'm doing. Of course, Lauren's pictures make the delectable treats look way more delicious... so check out her photos.

Tasted one with a cup of hot apple cider

These doughnuts are seriously delicious. They brought  Autumn into my home. Their aroma filled the apartment with the smell of baked apples. Their taste was full of Fall spices and apples. Yum! Jordan has yet to try these, since he's still on the course but I'm sure he'll be a fan of these guys too!

They were also pretty easy to make. I had everything in my pantry, which I loved. I hate when you need like one item from the store when you are trying to make something but this was crazy simple. Flour, sugar, apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, apple cider, milk... that's pretty much the gist of it. I suppose that I lucked out that I had apple cider and apples in my fridge but hey, its that time of the year!

May I make a couple suggestions for you?

• I chose to bake them over fry them (she has both instructions) since I was going for the healthier approach BUT I did brush some melted butter on the top of each doughnut and sprinkled them with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar as suggested for the frying method.
• Try fun shapes when making them! I gave up on the trying to make them look like real doughnuts - since I was having a difficult time with cutting them out... so I just ended up making them circular blobs. Maybe not as cute but surely delicious!
• When having a cup of hot apple cider, stir in a spoonful of light brown sugar. It just adds a little something special!

Enjoy and dive into the season!

Aching Times

The past two weeks have been a difficult journey physically and spiritually. My body and soul have been aching.

Let's get physical.
Two weeks ago, I noticed that my quadriceps was slightly sore. I really thought no big deal of it because I feel like something always hurts when your running. A couple days later, on a Thursday, the sore turned into a hurt. My quadricep was killing me. I did what I was supposed to and rest, ice, and elevate it for a couple days. However, I probably pushed my muscle to the limits since I was out running two days later. For the following week, after every run I would ice my quad. It really felt immensely better to where I didn't even notice the soreness.

However, this past Saturday the supposedly healed muscle suddenly became hurt. I was doing a little run around campus before we were going to tailgate and my quad just oozed pain. I can't even describe the pain, which is silly, since I know pretty much every adjective used to describe pain but it's not there. It's a mix of sharp, dull, ache, constant, intermittent, and stinging. I definitely didn't tear my muscle but perhaps stretched it.

a little anatomy lesson ;)

I am writing all this because the condition of my leg is of utmost importance as I am supposed to be running in the Virginia 10 Miler THIS Saturday, September 24. I haven't run since this past Saturday. I took Sunday, Monday, and today off. It is pure torture to me. I am not the person to sit and wait for something to feel better before I'll use it again. I push through it because the activity of running is so much more important to me than the pain I feel in my leg. I ran through the "first" injury so much that Jordan didn't even believe me that I had hurt my quad. That's why the past few days have been torture... because I just want to run.

There's two sides to every story...
My mother says, "Lindsay, don't do the race! It's not worth hurting yourself more. Just sit this one out. There's always more races. Heal your leg."
My father says, "Lindsay, take your runs easy the next couple days. Don't push yourself, just loosen up. Rest again Friday. You can do this race! You can do the 10 miles, your body is conditioned."

Well, I think this situation is in the Lord's hands. I am going to try to do a light run tomorrow afternoon to see how my quad feels but I am not going to push it. Keep this silly injury in your prayers so that I may run this big race on Saturday.

Let's get spiritual. 
Spiritual Emphasis Week (SEW) happens once a semester here at Liberty and it three days packed full of sermons and awesome worship time. There is a total of 5 different messages in the three days. Clayton King was the speaker for this Fall. He is an completely energetic southern evangelist. He knows how to draw a crowd to hear God's word. He is a teaching pastor at Newspring church in South Carolina, a campus pastor at Liberty, the founder of Crossroads Ministries, and an author of several books. Clayton has a heart for the Lord and winning souls for Him.

I only attended two of this semester's messages including one on Monday night and one on Wednesday morning during convocation. I got a lot out of each individual message but what I really got out of this week was that I needed to incorporate a journal into my daily quiet times, which wasn't even talked about in either of the messages. I have tried several times before to journal my quiet times but never really succeeded. I just felt God telling me to try again. I felt the same call last Fall when I started my "Church Service Journal," in which I take down notes from the sermons and church services that I attend. This journal has truly been a blessing in my spiritual life for I able to recall and reread what the sermon was on or what I learned through that individual message. I knew that this new effort to start a "QT journal" would succeed since I have succeeded with my other journal.

I've been diligent in journaling my quiet times. I've been writing down the questions that I have over the individual passages of scripture. I've been jotting down the take-away points from each quiet time. I've also been writing down my praises and prayer requests so that I may look back and see how God has fulfilled each one. I am excited about this new 'task' but it's definitely not an easy one because as most of us have experienced  "life" gets in the way of our time with God. It baffles me that this can even happen since God has given us life yet I am most definitely not immune to the "busyness of life." I am asking that you would pray for diligence and desire for me when it comes to having quiet times and journaling on them.

I am going to share the five pertinent questions to ask yourself that Clayton related to David's faithfulness described in Pslam 139 on that Monday night. I challenge you to honestly answer them about your own walk with God.

1) Am I seeking to impress people or inspire them?
2) Am I performing in worship or am I praising Christ?
3) Am I laboring in the spirit or am I loving the spotlight?
4) Am I pursuing fads or am I practicing faithfulness?
5) Am I driven by desire or am I compelled by a calling?

Some things to think about,

The Approaching Fall

Fall is my absolute favorite season. I would constantly live in Fall weather, if it was possible. I love the colors, the temperature, the smells, the clothes, the activities, the foods, and the attitudes.

Found via Lilli via Sweet Home Style

Fall means precious light weight sweaters, flowing scarfs, and leather riding boots.

Found via Danielle Molloy via the The Vogue Diaries

Fall means football games, apple orchards, pumpkin farms, hay rides, carved pumpkins, campfires, and haunted houses.

Found via Reji Coffey, recipe on Be Different Act Normal

Fall means apple pies, pumpkin breads, apple cider, pumpkin lattes, soups, stews, s'mores, and foods adorned with cinnamon.

Found via Jenn Minigh, recipe on Closet Cooking

Fall means changing leaves, cool breezes, and crisp mornings.

Found via Jennifer Mullis via A Lemon Tree

Fall means friends and family.

Fall brings a huge smile.

I've been wanting it to be Fall since the middle of this summer and my Pinterest account it quite proof of that since I have so many Fall items pinned (like all the photos above). I found this "Fall Bucket List" on Pinterest and it just reminded me how much I am craving Fall...

Found via Biven Norris; Link to a bigger picture.

I printed this off for it is my goal to do everything on this list! I thought it contained the perfect fall agenda. Of course I'll update the blog with the activities that we do! I am encouraging y'all to join me on the journey and do the "Fall Bucket List" too! Do y'all enjoy Fall as much as I do?

Precious Moments

Last Saturday prior to my girls night with Sarah, I spent the afternoon with my precious friend Libby. We decided that we were going to paint pottery because we never had done it since we've been at school here. There is this cute little place half way between our houses called All Fired Up where we met in the afternoon.

We spent a while to pick out our pieces of pottery. Libby went with a pretty coffee mug and I went with a cross. I decided against a coffee mug because Jordan and I literally do NOT have a spot for one more mug in our coffee cabinet. We already double stack our mugs... yep.

We chatted and painted for a couple hours at the little place and caught up on our lives. I love our chats because we talk about everything! From our families, our dreams, our husbands, school, friends, our plans, our future dogs, and our future kids... you name it. It's always covered every time we are together.

I love the time that I spend with Libby. As mentioned in previous posts, she is my "married friend." Libby and her husband, Isaac, are a true treasure to Jordan and I! It is such a fun thing to have married friends in our world filled with single people. I feel like there is something different between married friends and even our friends that are dating someone seriously. I think it just makes it a little more special since they are married and they do understand what it's like to be newlyweds and still in college!

Libby's sunflower mug

A couple weekends ago, the four of us went on a double date to see the movie The Help. I finally finished the book so I could go see the movie. I thought the movie was absolutely delightful and stayed true to the book. The only bummer I have to say is that there is so much more detail in the book that I wished that everyone who only saw the movie got to know... I kept on sharing things afterwards with the three of them since they hadn't read the book. Libby and the boys all enjoyed the movie! It provoked tears and laughter, just a wonderful blend.

My finished cross

After our matinee, we came back to Jordan and I's apartment to eat dinner and play games. I had cooked Upside Down Pizza (Jordan's favorite thing!) and a Cesar salad. We played girls verse boys in the games, of course! Libby and I took the boys down 4 to 1 in Sequence and the boys beat us in a round of Spades... although we let them win since they were such babies about Sequence. Probably because they really sucked it up! ;)

I do just have to spend a couple words bragging about our Sequence skills... Libby and Isaac had never played before so it was a new game for them! Anyways, Libby and I lost the first round as the boys took a
"run of all runs" in where they got 2 sequence runs along one WHOLE side of the board, which apparently is a world record because it's never been done all the times we've played. Libby and I came back in round two with a win and in round three. We had won the match since we were playing "best out of 3" which then became "best out of 5" since the boys couldn't handle loosing. Libby and I preceded to win the next game with a "run of all runs" and won the "best out of 5." Did we stop there? No, because the boys were still loosing. So our last and final hand would be "best of 7" in which Libby and I won the next game for the whole series to be 4 to 1. We were the champs of the round and even stole the guys "run of all runs" record!!

That night of games will never be forgotten for there were two "world records" and it was with such a wonderful couple. I am so happy with the way our pottery pieces came out... I can't wait to go again! Perhaps I might have to drag my man along...

In the Land of Rain

Inhabitants of this lush city of Lynchburg frequently call the town by the endearing term of "Drench-burg." It feels like it rains all the time like it has been for the past two days and will continue to do so for the next several days.

Take a look at our forecast from weather.com:

I actually enjoy rain. There's something peaceful about a rain shower. However, it does get dreary especially when the sun decides to disappear. 

I found this cool website that lets you compare the average rainfall of different U.S. cities. That's how I came to my conclusion that Lynchburg is in fact more rainy than Seattle. Actually, the thirty year averages of the cities shows that Lynchburg has a higher monthly rainfall than Seattle 7 months out of the year. Kind of interesting.

Average annual rainfall:
Lynchburg: 43.31 inches
Seattle: 38.25 inches

The most important thing about living with rain is owning a pair of rain boots or wellies as the British love to call them. I have invested in three pairs of different rain boots since I've been in school year. That's an average of one new pair per year! I think that means that I need another new pair for this year. No worries, I have already found a pair that is way out of my "rain boot budget."

My favorite for this season by Joules // Photo Credit

Cowboy Boot Style; Every respectable southern girl needs a pair like these  // J. Peterman

Designer: Coach // Photo Credit

Designer: Burberry // Photo Credit

My other seasonal favorite is the slip on by Sperry Topsiders

The thing about wellies is that they come in all shapes, colors, styles, sizes, and prices. There is a pair out there for everyone. Do you have a pair of rain boots? What do they say about you? Do you NEED a pair of boots?

What are my three pairs of rain boots?

The Southern Girl's Sunshine // Photo Credit

my slide-on wellies that I bought from Academy last winter; these fit perfectly with all my pants!

Black & White Coach

I think rain boots allow me to love the rain just a little bit more. They can brighten a dull day.

Trying out "Tot"

Sometime this summer, I made a trip with my dad to Walmart to see if they carried shock for the pool. I was unaware of the love affair that I was about to embark on as I entered the Outdoor Living area of the store. After Dad and I discovered the aisle with the pool chemicals, we turned around to see small little grills. Yes, grills!

I walked over towards these little things and saw this precious little red round grill and fell in love. I even more so fell in love with it's delicate price of $15.00! I left my little love there at Walmart as I pondered how much Jordan and I would benefit from it's capabilities.

Pics of Tot in Black from Walmart

That little love story leads us to our first weekend back in Lynchburg. Aly and I were running errands around and I told her that I needed to go to Walmart. I went straight into the Outdoor Living area, didn't even walk through the general area of the store but straight to where I could find my little red grill. It was that moment when I bought him. Him being Tot, Jordan and I's small red grill. I was so pleased! We went back to our apartment right away and I put together Tot. He more precious than I had imagined.

Now this post on my little red grill may seem a bit extreme... but if you had visited our apartment just after I had cooked dinner, you would understand my excitement over this purchase. You see, when you use a grill pan on your stove to grill any food, your apartment fills up with an immense amount of smoke to the point of where you can hardly see anyone else in the room. The windows always had to be open, the ceiling fan going, and the crazy loud oven top fan sucking. The room was always filled with this smoke. It would take a good 60-90 minutes for it to clear out of our little one bedroom apartment. Now that doesn't seem like forever but it is unpleasant especially when you have people coming over.

Do you understand why I am thrilled about tot? We can do our grilling outside and at our convenience! Our apartment place does have several grills around the pool and the park but those are to far away to quickly grill. They really are good for large gathering or a fun day by the pool. So this is why my little red grill was necessary. 

Needless to say... we have never really used a charcoal grill by ourselves before. I think I was a little excited the first time that I tried to fire him up that I wasn't patient enough and well let's just say it didn't work.

as we were waiting for the charcoals to ash over

That all changed last night as Jordan and I fired up Tot for the second time to grill us some brats! Let me tell you, Tot did an excellent job. As well as my man ;)

the finished product

Jordan was in charge of the "man job" of grilling although I hung outside with him to keep him company. He asked me prior to grilling if I could play catch like he was disappointed that I was a girl. Well, of course I said I could and I would since he thought it would be fun... Well we had more than enough baseball mitts (3 total) but we were lacking in the baseball department since he managed to throw them all into the lake this past Saturday... so we just hung out, listened to music, and talked while Tot did his thing!

I also threw together some yummy corn for dinner too! I sauteed 2 tablespoons of butter with about 1 cup of frozen corn. I then flavored the corn with some garlic powder, freshly ground pepper and sea salt, Grill Mates "Roasted Garlic and Herb" seasoning, and a bit of sugar. The corn was delish!

I hope to get a lot of use out of this little guy.