OOhf it has been over 10 days since my last recipe post. Christmas is sneaking up on us over here in Orange County & we are not ready. On top of my crazy holiday schedule at the store, Chris has been studying for a professional exam to get a title at the end of his name, we are getting ready for a trip to Connecticut to see my family in January, & of course we had to spend our annual Christmas day at Disneyland. Oh & last week Chris had a last minute, emergency dental surgery. Oh what fun.

There has been very little time for writing & pretty much no time for cooking. The high was 58 the day we spent at DLand & it was pretty cold for us So Cal kids. After spending the entire 14 hours at the park we needed to heat up by scarfing down some herb chicken dumpling soup! Yumm!

And honestly, is there a better way to heat your house (or 800 square feet apartment) by cooking? No, nothing is better.

So when I started blogging a few years ago, one of the first food bloggers I found & truly started following was Christina over at Dessert for Two. When I starting making my chicken soup this time I wanted something different. I didn’t want rice in it & honestly I was far too lazy to go to the grocery store & get a pasta.

So I started searching the internet & came across Christina’s recipe for Easy Chicken N Dumplings with Collard Greens and Confetti & I had to try to dumplings. They were amazing! A perfect carb for loaded herb chicken soup. So here is my soup recipe topped off with Dessert for Two’s fabulous dumplings & while you’re at it, check out her amazing cookbooks that came out this year here & here. I have them both & they are perfect!

2 Tbsp olive oil
5 carrots
5 celery stalks
1 parsnip
2 cups baby spinach
48 oz chicken broth
2 cups water
1 lb chicken breast tenders
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp rosemary
1 ½ tsp thyme

Dumplings from Dessert for Two:
½ cup flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 Tbsp butter, softened
¼ cup milk

1. Remove butter from refrigerator and bring to room temperature. Set aside for later.
2. Season chicken on one side with one half the amount salt and pepper, and 1 tsp each of thyme and rosemary.
3. Chop all veggie and cook them until tender in olive oil.
4. After 8-10 minutes, add chicken broth and water.
5. Cut chicken in ½ cubes and add slowly into soup while stirring so chicken doesn’t stick together.
6. Allow to cook on medium to medium-high and pull out all ingredients for dumplings.
7. Mix flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Add room temperature butter and mix together with your hands. Make sure the butter is distributed evenly though the mixture. Add milk into mixture. I used a plastic spatula to make sure all of the flour mixture is moistened.
8. Flour a cutting board and your hands. Place dough only cutting board and shape into a thin rectangle about ¼ inch thick. Add flour to top and cut dough into small squares. Drop dough into cooking soup one at a time stirring regularly.
9. Allow to cook another 10-15 minutes, adding the remaining salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme and enjoy.