Chicken Casserole Bake

It's chicken week here, I've declared, and started the week off last night with this new conjoured up recipe all on my own! How about that? Of course I had to add in some veggies, are you starting to get the clue here that I love veggies??

2 large chicken breasts, butterflied
2 (15 oz i think) cans of cream of chicken soup
12 small slices of pepper jack cheese (3 per chicken)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 a can of water
1 1/2 - 2 cups panko lemon bread crumbs
1/2 cup sliced zucchini
1/2 cup chunked carrots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 35 minutes, until chicken is done. Check with knife.

I made this on the fly so my measurements weren't quite exact. I had to large chicken breasts and butterflied them. Basically sliced in half to make them thinner. I put them at the bottom of a casserole dish, sprayed with non-stick grease. Place the cheese slices on top of the chicken breasts. If you love cheese and want to add more, feel free. The pepper jack adds a very small kick to this and gives some good flavor to the chicken. Next throw in the veggies. Again, I just used what I had and what I felt like chopping up. Add more or none if you like. Then add both cans of cream of chicken soup and spread over chicken to cover the chicken. This is the best part, I think: spread bread crumbs over the top. I used what I had remaining in the bag and it looked to be about 1 1/2 cups worth. This made it taste so good! Adding that crusty topping made this dish complete. If you've ever had scalloped potatoes, this is way of making the chicken is similar to that, except no potatoes :) Enjoy!

 

The complete opposite of fun

On Wednesday I went to the dentist due to a throbbing pain that hurt so bad I wanted to cry and couldn't sleep after coming off working all night long. After 2 hours of trying to sleep I decided I couldn't go on like this any longer and couldn't manage this pain that started hours earlier. I found a dentist and they were actually able to take me in that day, score!

 If there's one thing I have been scared of it has been to go to the dentist. I'm not sure exactly what it is about going to the dentist that scares me, the pain maybe, but I just don't like going. As much pain as I'm in now, I am glad I went and will be on the road to better healthy teeth. So upon getting to the dentist and him looking at my teeth, he determined I needed a root canal. Oh what fun....so he went ahead and did it right there and I was out of there 2 and a half hours later. I wasn't put under but when I was done boy did I feel drugged up. My mouth still hurts and I'm in so much pain, and my face is all swollen like a cabbage patch kid. I think dental pain is one of the worst pains ever. I'm not a happy girl :( 

I've been eating chicken noodle soup and chicken broth. While I havn't been cooking, I did have to make some soup. How easy was this? 3 ingredients: chicken broth, cooked noodles (bow ties in my case) and 1 can of cooked chicken chunks.

There is something about eating chicken noodle soup that helps make you feel better. While this hasn't taken the pain away, it sure helps and makes me feel better. Back to sleep on the couch for me now.... :(

Popeye Eats Spinach & You Should Too!

Your mom always told you to eat your vegetables, and it was for a good reason. Vegetables have so many benefits to our bodies and can be prepared in so many ways to make them taste good. Yes, i said vegetables can and do taste good. Remember that cartoon Popeye?

 

The fuel for that superhero was Spinach! How many cartoon superhero's were telling kids to eat Spinach, let alone any vegetable, to be stronger?! He was on to something. I found a great recipe over at The Health Seekers Kitchen site for a green smoothie drink, and I've modified it just a bit to my own liking. Let me tell you this first before you dis this drink: It doesn't taste like spinach! I only taste the banana and it is a great boost-giver when you need one or great after a workout. Spinach has so many great benefits: full of Vitamin A and K (helping weak eyes/eye strain and helping anti-aging), Calcium and Iron to name a few benefits. Overall, we should all have more of it in our diet. You should strive to eat something green (not moldy green!) everyday. So, I'd like to share this green smoothie-drink with you. 

In a blender add:

about 1 cup spinach

1 cup water (cold)

1-2 bananas; better if frozen to make more of a smoothie consistency

2-3 tablespoons wheatgerm

*I add wheatgerm as an additional protein supplement. This is a great additive in almost anything! Banana bread, pumpkin bread, muffins, waffles, etc. It doesn't change the flavor of whatever you're making, just adds more goodness!

  I know this looks  pretty strange being green and all, but like I said, you CAN NOT taste the spinach. I only taste banana. I think it would also be great to add blueberries or strawberries as well. Enjoy!

image found here

{Pumpkins}

I think it has been more than 5 years since we last carved pumpkins so we decided we should carve some up. It just didn't feel quite like Halloween around here since I'm used to colder weather, snow even and it has been in the 90's here. So carving pumpkins did the trick.We enjoyed carving out on our little porch, Lucy even joined us!

We had our Pumpkin Beer, pumpkin carving set and pumpkins!

She really was curious about the pumpkins

My Arizona "Zona" state flag pumpkin

Josh's "New Belgium" pumpkin

the magic word is: family

This past weekend was Halloween, but for me it was Thanksgiving. My family came into town {Mom, Dad and brother} and we got to spend the entire weekend together. It was a much needed family time together. We didn't do anything spectacularly exciting other than hang out with each other and take in the time together -- which was by far the best thing we could have done! So my idea was to celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday, which was Halloween, since we won't get to see each other in November for the real Thanksgiving. What a riot it was! It really didn't feel like Halloween in the first place, since the temperature outside was above 85 degrees and there were clear skies and green leaves on all of the trees. Something about that picture just doesn't scream "cold-gloomy-trick-or-treat-weather" anyway. By the time my mom and I were in the kitchen cooking away it started to smell like Thanksgiving and I kept saying that it smelled like Thanksgiving. It really did make it feel like Thanksgiving by having my mom there helping me cook. What a great time we had! The boys were out in the living room watching TV; changing between football games and movies.

It was a great weekend overall and I was sad when they leave early Monday morning. Lucy even was running through the house all day looking for them all. She loves to go into the spare room that they stayed in and wait for them to come back. Poor little girl doesn't realize they won't be back for a while. She sure did love having the extra people around. She really takes a liking to Jimmy {brother} and is so fascinated by him, but who isn't??

So without further a-do, pictures of the weekend :)

Me and the Jimmy

Us girls were out grilling and enjoying the hot tub!

Road trip to Avondale

Random cotton field...we had to stop

Thanksgiving favorite: Cranberry-Apple Casserole

The feast!

The boys doing dishes - Hard to believe I know!

It was such a wonderful weekend and I'm so glad we got to spend time together. I miss them all already

Quotable Wednesday & Fall Pictures

“Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.” -Oprah Winfrey

“If you can't be content with what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped” -Anonymous

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Walt Emerson 

"Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm ... As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others."  -Audrey Hepburn 

Here's to a wonderful Wednesday and an even better rest of the week. Hard to believe it is the end of October all ready; November is just around the corner and thus bringing the Holiday season. What is even harder to believe is it is still, or only depending how you look at it, near 80 degrees at the end of October. This girl is used to snow on the ground by now and freezing temperatures. Not this year though. Too bad I wasn't 8 years old and still dressing up for Halloween to go trick-or-treating; every other year I dressed up growing up I had to wear a coat per my mom's request due to it being near freezing temperatures outside. This year, I will be lucky enough to have my Mom, Dad and brother out to visit for the Halloween weekend. AND, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Halloween. More to come about that later.

Thought I'd add some random Fall pictures, that were taken during Fall over the last couple of years.



AMS Club at the Corn Maze, yearly tradition




Ahh, the traditional Corn Maze!




Credit Dann Cianca for this picture




The "4 Musketeers" at Super Science Saturday



Finally, Lemon Bread

I think this may be one of my new weekly fixations. I love to make pumpkin and banana bread, as I've been making some all summer long and have always loved my mom's banana bread. Pumpkin bread is a favorite all year long for me. So looking through my favorite cookbook (can you tell since I use it SO often!) Taste of Home, I found many recipes for some delicious breads. One night I came across this Lemon Bread recipe and it sounded so light and flavorful - and it was! This is super easy and I was a bit shocked when I noticed that the only lemon flavoring comes from the glaze put on at the last second, but don't be fooled, the amount of lemon flavor this gives makes the whole loaf taste like lemon heaven (if that's even possible?!).

And I recently bought a mini loaf pan to make mini loaves, which I did upon buying said pan that night :) Those mini loaves are perfect for a breakfast on the go, which I usually have since I'm on my way to work. Prior to the mini loaves, I also didn't have a bread loaf pan so I've made this in a square 8x8 pan, and it turned out perfectly. Now, I do have a bread pan so I can use that as well. I'm sure these would be good made as muffins too!

Lemon Bread

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk (I used soy milk and couldn't taste the difference)

Topping: to be made while bread is in oven

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar (aka powdered sugar)

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice (I've used small lemons and used the juice from 2 lemons)

In a large bowl, cream together shortening and sugar with a mixer. Add in eggs one at a time mixing very well. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add the dry mix to the shortening-sugar-egg mixture, alternating with adding the milk. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and add the mixture to a greased 9x5 loaf pan or 8x8 square dish or mini loaf pan, whatever you choose. Baking time may differ depending on the pan used, but bake for 40-45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

As soon as the bread comes out of the oven, pour the mixture over the top of it so the flavor soaks into the warm bread. The first time I made this I didnt' have powdered sugar so I used regular sugar and it seemed to turn out the same. Might be a little more "sugary" on the top, but basically the same. If using regular sugar, use a bit more lemon juice.



Made in my 8x8 pan



Image from Taste of Home



Wa-la! So yummy, I eat this for breakfast. It's light and a great way to start the day.