Comfort Craze :: Homemade Chicken & Dumplings

Seeing as it's Mardi Gras, I figure I'm probably the only twenty-something in Louisiana blogging right now after a very unadventurous day, and I can see that many are already far gone from all the parading and partying (oh Facebook, you make me so jealous!). Though I wish I could say differently, I am stone sober and already curled up in bed with my space heater by my feet (this is typically my ideal kind of night, but I've been cooped up in the house for so long now that I'm just plain bored!). Considering today's cold and rainy weather, my empty bank account and the fact that I still worked a full day (yes, some of us still have to work on Fat Tuesday!), I'd say a good home cooked comfort meal was a good way to end my blah kind of day!

I don't know about you, but comfort food to me is basically anything tossed in a pot to simmer with enough salt and butter to clog the arteries. This recipe for chicken & dumplings is what my dad's mom (aka Maw-Maw) uses and what I remember my mom cooking, and I love it just as much as I did growing up!

The ingredients are simple... chicken, biscuits, butter, and salt and pepper. But the flavor is amazing! The preparation can be a bit messy and time consuming, but it's worth every minute and every bit of flour spilled.

Before leaving for work this morning, I stuck 3 frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts in the bottom of my Crockpot, poured one carton of Swanson chicken broth, filled the rest up with water, sprinkled salt and pepper, and dropped several tablespoons of butter (this part took less than 5 minutes!). I set the Crockpot timer to 6 1/2 hours and went on my way!

Since Marc goes to work well before the sun's even up (I still don't know how he does it!), he ends up getting home a couple hours before I do.. so I had him take care of the chicken for me. I had him take out the chicken and shred it, putting it aside in a bowl. The broth was transferred to a pot that I would later use on the stove.

Maw-Maw goes the old-fashioned route and usually uses whole bone-in chicken for most of her cooking. It definitely adds more flavor and gets you more meat for your buck. As for me, I'd rather save myself some time and energy by using boneless meat.. not to mention, I buy breasts because I prefer white meat to dark meat.

As for cooking the chicken, I highly recommend using a slow-cooker. The chicken falls apart much easier and tends to be juicier than plain old boiled chicken.

For a large pot of chicken & dumplings, you'll want to use 4 cans of biscuits.. and it's important to get the FLAKY kind!

Lightly spray non-stick cooking spray onto a rolling pin (or if you don't own one like me, a large plastic cup will work just fine!) and gently roll each biscuit flat on a light layer of flour.

Each biscuit should look a little something like this...

Then you'll want to cut them into strips about 1/2 inch wide...

Bring the chicken broth to a light boil, and lay each dough strip flat one by one (if you drop them in, the dough will curl up and clump which you don't want to happen). Use a spoon to gently move the biscuits around and let them cook evenly. Cover, reduce the heat, and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Stir in the cooked chicken once the dumplings are close to being done. Don't let the chicken simmer in for too long or it can dry out.

You will most definitely underestimate the amount of salt and pepper you'll need, so do a few taste tests and season to your liking before serving out this delicious feast.

It's not a very picturesque meal, but it's hearty and oh so amazing!

Enjoy!

My Acne Miracle

When I graduated college and entered true adulthood, I thought that my acne days were over. Unfortunately, and little did I know that my acne was far from being gone. Between the stress of not being able to find a job and my lack of health insurance causing me to forgo birth control which had helped regulate my hormones since I was 18, my acne took a turn for the worst. So, there I was going on 23 and battling self-consciousness as blemishes and pimples awkwardly covered my face in areas impossible to cover up (in addition to enduring the painful ovarian cysts that immediately returned when birth control was no longer an option for me). I always struggled with my childish look and was worried no one would take me seriously, especially in the professional world and now especially with acne. I went through college listening to comments about how I looked 16 (now that I've crossed over into the "going on 30" age, I would kill to look like I did then!), and it wasn't long before I got my college degree that my braces finally came off. I went through my acne spurts in high school where some days/weeks were better/worse than others (and let's not forget the breakouts that always accompany that dreaded time of the month!), but I was very fortunate that my acne was mild and typically hormone-driven. Bad acne was difficult to deal with as an adult, and I can't even imagine how hard it must have been for the teenagers who suffered from it in high school when kids are cruel and expectations are high.

Anyway, almost a year after I graduated when I was made a full-time employee where I work now and was given health benefits, I immediately sought out a lady doctor and got back on birth control. I'm not sure if it had to do with my year-long hiatus from it and/or post-college hormone changes, but I ended up having to switch a few times before I found one I liked. My awful ovarian cysts finally subsided (thank GOD!), but unfortunately my acne did not clear up. After this, I decided to visit a dermatologist. Dr. Dickerson (who is AMAZING) first tried me on an oral antibiotic called monodox (doxycycline) as well as a prescription acne cream. I didn't have high hopes for the acne cream because they have NEVER worked on my skin, and just as I expected, it dried my face out and made the breakouts worse. After upping the dose of the antibiotic and still seeing no results, we cut that out of my daily regimen and finally found my miracle medicine: spironolactone!

So, in my unprofessional and pseudo-scientific description, spironolactone is an inhibitor of the hormone androgen which is produced in the ovaries and converted into estrogen (in men, androgen is the sex hormone that "plays a role in male traits and productivity"). Overproduction of androgen in women can cause acne, which is why the antiandrogen spironolactone can help decrease and clear acne breakouts. A friend of mine who tried spironolactone didn't see any results, but I was very fortunate that it worked! Since then, I've been on the 50 mg pill once nightly, and aside from my 28th-day-breakout, I rarely have any acne hiccups. I will say, however, that the rare occasion when I forget to take it results in an almost immediate breakout. But I guess that just means the medicine is working!

Spironolactone may or may not work for others like it has for me, but it has been such a life-changer and confidence-booster and I wanted to share my miracle drug. Being a young adult while striving to be healthy, look good, do well and have your colleagues and superiors take you seriously is a hard task, but having clear skin can give you the extra boost of confidence you need to strut your stuff and succeed in life. Society expects women to look a certain way, but when we're honest with ourselves, we also know that our outer beauty can most definitely make us feel better inside, even if it is subjective to our own reflections.

I also want to make a point of saying that the right makeup has played a role in my skin's comeback as well. Up until recently, I used store-bought makeup (aka Covergirl, Maybelline, Revlon...) and I assumed that "good" makeup was too expensive to afford. I was wrong. For the Clinique products I now use, I probably spend between $5 and $15 more per item than I did at Walmart. This slight increase in price, however, gets me more bang for my buck (ex: my Clinique foundation lasts a LOT longer than my Covergirl foundation ever did) AND it's better for my skin. My new makeup even feels lighter, which common sense can tell us is a good thing considering we don't want our skin being bogged down by heavy chemicals. Who wants wrinkles anyway? I sure don't!

And lastly, I'll admit that I've been guilty of not properly washing my face or taking my makeup off before bed. I always thought of it as an added chore, and aside from using soap & water in the shower, my makeup was never truly cleaned free. So, I got me a bottle of Clinique Take the Day Off Makeup Remover, and Dr. Dickerson gave me samples of Cetaphil Dermacontrol Oil Control Foam Wash to last a freakin lifetime (not really... but she did give me a LOT), and I've kept a pretty good record of keeping a pretty clean face!

Hopefully you didn't go a quarter of your life before realizing these simple girl rules, but remember.. it's never too late to start healthy habits!