Menu Plan Monday — December 21

It's the week of Christmas! I can't believe it's already here and the year is almost up. The next week is my birthday week, too. We'll just ignore that for now though.

Monday — I know, I know, I've planned on Chicken and Dumplings for the past two weeks, but it just hasn't happened. I do have the chicken and vegetables for it in my refrigerator, and it has to be made today. I bought enough that I think there will be enough for leftovers on Tuesday. I'm using Snowhite's recipe for the chicken part of the Chicken and Dumplings. Since she had trouble with her dumplings rising, I found a dumpling recipe in a cookbook I have and I'm using it. I'm including it at the bottom of the post.

Tuesday — Leftovers. If there aren't enough, we'll have to eat from the pantry.

Wednesday — I bought a large family pack of ground beef at the store and cooked it up over the weekend and then froze it. I'm going to make taco meat with homemade taco seasoning and then attempt homemade nachos. I've never done this before, so we'll see how it goes.

Thursday — We're having our Christmas Eve service at church. I haven't made waffles in an eternity, so I'll probably make those. I always double the recipe and make extra so I can freeze them. We have a toaster with bagel-sized slots so the frozen waffles can be warmed up in there.

I tried a couple of recipes, and this was by far my favorite. Waffles are tricky. Also, this is the waffle iron I have. I got it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond with a coupon. The regular price was what Amazon's sale price is right now before my coupon. I've had it for about two years. I personally love mine and it works for me. It does take a while to make all the waffles, but every single one comes out perfect.

Friday — Christmas! I'm going to post my Christmas menu and some recipes later.

Saturday — Oh, you know there will be leftovers.

Sunday — Eat out since we ate in all week, or if we still have a lot of leftovers, we'll put it off.

Dumplings
from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp double-acting baking powder
1 tsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt

Mix above ingredients in a large bowl with a fork.

In a cup, combine 2/3 cup milk with 2 T vegetable oil; slowly stir into flour until soft dough forms.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto chicken. Cook uncovered 10 minutes; cover and cook 10 minutes more (simmering).

With slotted spoon, remove dumplings. Spoon chicken into serving dish; top with dumplings.

Go visit The Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday!