I'm on the slippery slope to 40 and I'm working my way to being as healthy as possible in mind, body and soul. I have an awesome husband and three fluffy kitties. I love to run, cook and help others, but I'm always looking for more ways to improve my life and the lives around me. I also have a weird sense of humor, so be warned.Failures In Improvisation
What you see above was the beginnings of a chicken rice soup with dumplings. In addition to those lovely vegetables (I love those purple carrots!), I had bone-in, organic chicken breasts that I had poached in water with peppercorns, salt and three sprigs of rosemary from my herb garden. That broth was heavenly! Plus I was tweaking my traditional soup dumpling recipe to make it more healthy by reducing the number of egg yolks and using wheat flour instead of white.
Having never made a chicken rice soup before, I didn’t do any research beforehand. Why is this important? Read on, dear friends, read on.
Onions and garlic getting a sauté.
I get the vegetables sautéed and I add that broth back in with some water and some rice.
Now here’s where things get hairy.
I put too much rice in.
The problem with putting in too much rice in a soup is that you don’t know that you put too much in until it’s too late. I’m pretty sure that I put the wrong type of rice in the soup too – I used jasmine rice, but that’s what I had on hand – so that didn’t help the disaster!
I kept adding water and ended up with what my husband called “chicken rice porridge.” I didn’t take a photo of the finished product because I was so mad about screwing it up, I kinda forgot to take one!
*grins sheepishly*
If you recall my story about the beef and barley soup, just know that nobody is immune to kitchen disasters! Even Angela over at Oh She Glows fessed up to her vegan pumpkin pie failure, so I feel like I’m in good company!
What did I learn from this disaster? Well, it made me realize while I have a lot of knowledge and experience cooking, I don’t know everything. It also made me realize that rice isn’t interchangeable – that there’s a correct rice for whatever recipe you’re making and to substitute carefully.
I can also guarantee that my NEXT chicken rice soup will be perfect! Well, at least perfect to me! 
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Oh, before I forget – It’s Monday Weigh In! I’m down to 168, which is a miracle because I really went off the reservation on my diet yesterday! Raspberry pastries for breakfast and a Panera panini + chips for lunch…hello calories! But, we’re back on track this morning and I hope next Monday I’ll be down again.
Happy Monday!
Oh yea it happens to the best of us! Anyone who says otherwise isn’t experimenting much, right?
Good luck with your next one!
Indeed!
If I had a penny for every time I royaly messed up on a recipe, I’d be one rich lady!
Congrats on your weightloss progress. Something my clients find very helpful when they have moments where they don’t choose the most healthful things, is to realize that the next second brings with it another opportunity to make a healthy decision. Many people wait until the following day to start over, but they rarely realize that the opportunity is there all the time!
That’s what I try to do! No sense wasting the entire day!
It can help (especially with white rice) if you pre-soak and rinse it before adding it to a soup. I’ve had the best results just throwing in leftover cooked rice at the end of the cooking time, enough to heat it up, but not so much that it gets mushy. Those purple carrots are awesome!
I should’ve done that! I had leftover rice in the fridge! *facepalm*
I bet Don Draper would’ve added more scotch.