A day in the life....

I made chicken & dumplings in my crock pot today.

I was VERY excited since the recipe made my mouth water... but I couldn't honestly remember having had it before so I wasn't entirely sure what it was supposed to look/taste like, which always makes for an interesting cooking adventure!!

In the end I realized, yet again, I should have followed my gut and made my drop biscuits the way I normally do (I'll have to share that recipe someday 'cause it's pretty much AMAZING and takes minutes....), and then served the soup over them. Instead I did as the recipe said and dropped them in for the last hour... they are doughy and gross. Although my husband is still eating them. lol. Poor guy gets stuck eating a lot of my experiments... what a good man. But I picked through and ate the soup without them.

The soup part however was wonderful!!! I started it around 8am. I have a 3 1/2 quart crock pot and I modified the recipe so it was the following:

2 large frozen chicken breasts

2 cans (about 10 oz each), cream of chicken soup

1/2 of a large white onion

salt (I guessed at the amount, maybe a tablespoon??)

a touch of ground pepper

2 cups (heaping) of frozen mixed veggies

I placed everything in and covered it about 2/3 of the way with chicken broth, and the last bit with water, cooked it on high for 3 hours, turned it to low for the rest of the day... about 4pm I pulled the chicken breasts out and shredded them which was very simple considering they'd been cooking all day. After I put the chicken all back in I turned it on high again for about an hour.

I'm purposefully leaving out the part about putting biscuits in 'cause that part didn't turn out so well. lol. Also next time I'll probably do just a little less water/chicken broth. It was VERY near perfect though... and I now know how to make it so it'll be easy next time. :)

I also finally made sugar cookies like I've been promising my oldest son for a week now. We used our new cookie press, (Mommy's $1 garage sale find, brand new!), and he's thrilled to have little shaped cookies. And I'm thrilled they're made with organic sugar. lol.

At this point I think I'm sounding like super-mom or something... yeah. Not so much!! Since I spent most of the day cooking, baking, and attempting to watch "Did You Hear About the Morgans?", (which took 5 hours thanks to constant interruptions!), I didn't clean my house or take care of myself so well. There are toys around my living room, laundry in a pile by my washing machine just begging to be put in, my oldest spent half the day asking me a million questions til I thought my head would explode, my baby napped shorter than usual, I didn't eat nearly enough for the baby still inside me, I still haven't showered, and my kitchen looks like... well, like I spent most of the day cooking and baking and not cleaning it. :) And I'm supposed to now get my kids in bed and be ready for a date night with my husband. Haha!! I love it!! I really do. :) I should have my own reality show... I bet my life would look far more entertaining on television. Ever feel like you run in circles all day and at the end wonder if you actually accomplished ANYTHING? Good. Me too.

Earlier I mentioned I should have listened to my gut... I say that a lot. My Mom and I spent a good long phone conversation the other morning discussing just that. I'd sure save myself a heck of a lot of trouble if I'd do that more often. It's such a habit to 2nd guess myself that I often don't notice how many times a day I blow myself off. Not good. I am making it a personal resolution to start working on that... I figure if I start now that sometime in the next 5 years I might actually make progress and then who knows, at some point in my life I may listen to my gut again and not have learn something the hard way!! ;-p

I was very proud of my son Caleb today... he fell off his bike, scrapped up his elbow and stomach, and when I went out to help him up and get him inside to clean his wounds he insisted on getting back on the bike and told me he'd come in later to get cleaned. :) His Daddy taught him well... although it broke my heart to not be needed, I've never been so proud as I was watching him pick himself up and climb back on that bike! Way to go son!!

Well, children's bedtime has come, and I really should shower and get pretty for my date tonight, so until next time....

:)