3 Moms, 3 Kitchens, 31 Days: Day 23: Lots of Chocolate

For some reason (maybe it was my discovery yesterday), I was craving chocolate today. So I decided to start the day with a not-too-sweet chocolaty treat for everyone. I made chocolate pancakes for breakfast. This was done by simply adding a few tablespoons of chocolate syrup along with the other liquid ingredients in my usual pancake recipe. They turned out great and the kids sure did love them! I've also done a variation of this a few times by making hot chocolate pancakes (using a cup of hot chocolate in place of milk). Those are great too, especially with a little whipped cream on top.

My chocolate craving wasn't satisfied yet, so I made some chocolate-chocolate chip cookies also. They turned out good, nice and chewy, with an almost brownie-like texture. I ended up with a total of 5 dozen cookies from the recipe. There are currently 25 cookies left. I guess you could say we like these cookies. They were made with whole wheat flour, so I think that qualifies them as a "healthy" treat, doesn't it?
Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 c. whole wheat flout

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1/4 c. cocoa powder

1 c. butter or margarine

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 t. vanilla

2 eggs

1 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a small bowl and set aside. Cream butter, sugars, and vanilla until fluffy. Beat in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture and blend well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes. (I always bake our cookies for 8 minutes. We like them chewy, not crispy.)

For lunch today, we had leftover lasagna from last night and honeydew melon. (The melon was a gift from a neighbor that we were blessed with yesterday.) Between the 6 of us, we ate the entire thing! I am so glad it is almost summer and melons can be a regular part of our eating habits again. I think the kids would eat nothing but melon and strawberries all summer long if I let them.

Tonight's dinner was supposed to be tomorrow night's dinner, based on my menu plan. However, I swapped the two because my father in law is coming over tomorrow and he does not eat chicken. No big deal!

I made chicken and dumplings tonight with one of the containers of chicken and gravy from the freezer. I defrosted it in the microwave, put it in a pot on the stove, added two cups of chicken stock (also from the freezer), and topped with the dumplings. You can't get much easier than that.

Dumplings
2 c. flour
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
any additional seasonings you want (I added a teaspoon of Penzey's Sunny Paris seasoning that I also put in the gravy to tie the two flavors together.)
1 T. cold butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
2/3 c. milk

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and any additional seasonings in a bowl; cut in butter until crumbly. Combine the egg and milk; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Drop batter by the tablespoon into boiling broth. Reduce heat to medium and cook for ten minutes. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook an additional 15 minutes.

As of tomorrow, there will only be one week left in the 3 Moms, 3 Kitchens, 31 Days series. I have been trying to keep up with answering questions and giving recipes, but if there is anything I have missed, or any other questions or recipe requests, please let me know. I'll make sure I get to them all by the end of the month.

Make sure you also stop by Joy and Toni's blogs to see what they have been up to in their kitchens today.