She's Gonna Listen to Her Heart, It's Gonna Tell Her What to Do

I like the idea of cooking once and then making several meals throughout the week.  I guess it normally requires planning.  It seems I'm allotted one clear energetic day a month and this time it happened on my day off.  Somehow I instinctually knew exactly what to buy and for once it actually all worked out.  I made 4 key components like chicken, chicken stock, corn meal masa and roasted seasoning sauce that worked well in several meals.  The seasoning sauce was a base of roasted tomatillos, onion, a full head of garlic and plum tomatoes.  This was an answer to two problems.  It's a fix for my search for an alternative to chicken seasoning cubes and powders which have so much salt or they have MSG.  I need bold flavors and dry spices are great but sometimes you need to taste a fresher vibe. Fresh herbs will come with spring and in the meantime, this salsa is perfect as a winter flavor base.

As I mentioned in the last post I added it to the corn meal masa along with yogurt.  After it cooled and set in the fridge, I made little dumplings and threw them into this Mexican Chicken Dumpling Soup.

I used my homemade chicken stock, chopped cabbage, carrots, celery, onion, a can of diced tomatoes, chili and a cup of my roasted seasoning sauce. And one can of rinsed black beans.  A splash of balsamic vinegar.

Then I seasoned little ground chicken meatballs with cumin seed, garlic, oatmeal a little egg. Brought the soup to a boil and threw the meatballs in.

So the only fail was the masa dumplings mostly dissolved in the boiling soup.  I should have added them last after lightly steaming them separately.  Next time. 

But they did add a great surprising texture to the soup and I loved it.

A topping of cilantro, fresh avocado and green onions took this soup into orbit. .