Week 1: Chicken Chili with Cornbread Dumplings

I kicked off my new year of new meal with this hearty, semi-homemade meal, mildly adapted from Betty Crocker. I love chili, but don't eat it because I haven't a found a good recipe that doesn't call for tomatoes. This one is tasty and smells really good, too.

Chili

3 cups cubed cooked chicken

1 1/2 cups water

1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup

1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Frozen corn (to your liking)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Dumplings

1 1/3 cups Heart Healthy Bisquick(r) mix

2/3 cup yellow cornmeal

2/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Heat chili ingredients over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until bubbly.

2. Meanwhile, stir dumpling ingredients in a medium bowl until soft dough forms.

3. Drop dough by 6 rounded spoonfuls onto simmering chili. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and cook 13-15 minutes or until dumplings are dry. Dumplings will expand during cooking.

Note that 3 average sized chicken breasts, boiled and shredded, will yield about 3 cups of chicken. Or you can use one deli-roasted chicken to save even more time.

I omitted cumin from the dumplings to cut down on the spice factor. The dumplings need a little flavor, though. Add vanilla or some sugar. We also used kidney beans instead of navy beans, and regular corn instead of Mexicorn(r) so the color is a bit different than pictured.