When life gives you no ripe tomatoes....make Chicken 'n Dumplings

I planted 6 tomato plants of various types Memorial Day weekend. They are all almost 5' tall, but I have maybe one heirloom just starting to turn red, two grape tomatoes ready to turn yellow and a half dozen small green ones, but, sorry to say, that's it!!

I am either going to get a ton all at the same time or this year will be a total bust.

I do envy everyone I see who is already picking produce from their gardens.
I will have to settle for pesto I guess.

It is so hot & humid today that I will have no choice but to put the AC on all day, upstairs and down. Eating outside tonight will he a horror story with all the flies and mosquitoes that nowadays continuously frequent this area. Without a breeze they hover like helicopters and are as huge.

I am already reading posts about berries starting to disappear from the farmer's market and that depresses me, so I have been buying pints and freezing them. I haven't even made my first raspberry sorbet yet.

The end of July I will be in Maine for a week at a wedding and visiting family, so I know when I get home all the berries will be gone. The robins have stripped our wild raspberry bushes clean and raspberries in my market are up $.50 a pound (highway robbery, I say).

I know Chicken 'N Dumplings are not summer fare, but I have lots of leftover cooked chicken, a package of carrots I need to use, the last of a bag of frozen peas and 2 cups of stock in the carton. I need to desperately clean out my fridge. Sounds like the makin's for chicken 'n dumplings to me.



I'm sorry but, this has to be one of our favorite dishes of all time and it's made in one pot....Yay, for me!!

Chicken and Dumplings
* 1 teaspoon olive oil
* 1/2 onion, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
* 5 small carrots, cut into coins
* 1 bay leaf
* 2 sprigs fresh thyme
* 2 T olive oil
* 2 cups chicken broth
* 1/2 packet Goya Chicken Broth
* 1 cup water
* 1/2 cup peas
* 1/2 cup mushrooms
* 1-2 cups leftover cooked chicken (whatever you have)
* 1 tablespoon goat cheese or Boursin cheese
* salt & pepper to taste
* fresh parsley for garnish

1. Saute onions & garlic in olive oil until softened. Add carrots and cook another 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour on top and stir in.
2. Add chicken broth, chicken packet and water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and add in peas, mushrooms and sherry. Cook until the carrots are tender. Add chicken, cheese and salt & pepper.
3. Spoon in the dumplings, cover and simmer for 10 minutes until the dumplings are puffy and steamed through.

OK, ok...I will give you my fast and easy dumpling recipe also....

* 1 1/2 cup self rising flour or Bisquick (heart smart version please) if you have too.
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp pepper
* 1/2 tsp fresh thyme and fresh parsley, minced
* 1/2 cup buttermilk + more if needed (I used 1% milk because I was out of buttermilk)

Mix dry ingredients together and pour in milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture is moist but not wet.

Using two spoons, scrape off 1 tablespoon of mixture from one spoon to the other until you have a football-shaped quenelle of dough.

Drop into the broth and simmer until you push it with your finger, and it springs back.



This blog is not about the perfect picture of a dish, it is not about the perfect dish with a stylized picture, this blog is what we eat in my house on a day to day basis, good, gourmet, and healthy dishes that taste great.

If I can control my sugar and my weight and still eat tasty, gourmet meals, why should I not want to share that with others??

Sooner or later, diabetics will find this site and learn that having Diabetes is not a death sentence....food-wise.

What I cook, with a diabetic twist of course, is healthier then what some families eat on an average night. Anyone who says healthy food doesn't taste good, is using that as an excuse to not cook good food but to go out to eat instead.