Mexican Chicken

This recipe goes way back.   I'm talking WAY back to Junior High kind of back.  You see, in cheerleading we used to always have Potluck.  I would always make a cake called "Better Than Sex" (another post, another time) and a girl's mom on the squad younger than us would always bring a huge casserole dish of Mexican Chicken.  Now... everyone has recipes for Mexican Chicken, my mom included and she used to make it often.  But what made this version special was the Nacho Doritos chips.  It was cheesy, mexican american goodness.

Now, Jeremy begs me to make this.  I'll admit, he doesn't get to eat it near as much as he would like.  It's crazy unhealthy!  But occasionally I'll give in and he has enough mexican chicken to last a week :)

The Ingredients

1 Can of Cream of Mushroom
1 Can of Cream of Chicken
1 Can of Rotel (Mild, Medium or Hot depending on how much heat you like)
1 small block of Velveeta cut into cubes
1 rotisserie chicken shredded
1/2 bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos

Tip:  If making this for just Jeremy and I, I like to split it into two casserole dishes and freeze one for later on.   It freezes very well.

On the stove top melt Velveeta cheese and combine with cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, and rotel.  In the casserole dish crush 1/4 of the Doritos chips on the bottom of the pan.  Layer with shredded chicken.  Cover the shredded chicken with the cheese mixture.  Top with more crushed Doritos. 

Cook at 350 for 20 minutes covered. Uncover and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Enjoy!

Our fun weekend!

Well I survived the first week back to school, and to celebrate we decided to head up to Branson with some great friends. 

Before we headed out of town, we had Friday date night :)  Jeremy told me to dress "casually" and if you know anything about me, you know that's pretty difficult!  Luckily I had worn jeans and a BHS t-shirt to school for Jeans Day so I was all ready for a fun night!  I had no clue where we were going, but after lots of guessing Jeremy finally gave in and told me we were going to Faith & Family night at the Naturals game!  I had been wanting to go to this because they were having a Brit Nicole concert before, but I had thought we had already missed it.  Jeremy being the great guy he is remembered and figured out when it was so he could take me.  Isn't he the greatest??

It rained a little, ok a lot, on us but it was still a fun night. 

The next morning we headed out to Branson to meet everyone for lunch.  We had lunch at Old Chicago and then the girls headed out shopping while the guys went and played golf.  Unfortunately it rained most of the day and we all were soaked!  We still had a great time anyways....   Later that night we went for dinner at Cantina Laredo followed by drinks at Ernie Biggs.  It was a great way to end a crazy week!  

Jeremy and I are so thankful to have such great friends who enjoy doing all the same things we do.  It's nice to have friends to go through life with!

 

 

Pigskin Classic & Tiger Pride

This is one of my favorite times of the year.... the air starts to turn a little crisp, I have a full classroom of excited teenagers, and... football season!  The first Razorback game of the year is only a few short weeks away, and high school football starts everywhere next week!  My cheerleaders have been working hard to prepare for our back to school event called Tiger Pride and their hardwork paid off this weekend!

 They did a great job performing, and cheered for the Black/Gold scrimmage.  It's always funny to me how shy and quiet they are at their first game, compared to their last basketball game at the end of the year.  They still haven't gotten used to the crowds and having to cheer LOUD!  It's such a learning curve at the beginning, but they will get used to it in no time.

At BHS we have Varsity Cheer and Dance, JV Cheer and Dance, and 9th grade Cheer and Dance.  Add all those together and you have over 100 cheerleaders on the field for Tiger Pride.  It took ALL of us coaches working hard to get this MASSIVE formation looking decent.  They looked great though and seeing everyone perform together was really neat.

Jeremy's little sister Megan is also a cheerleading coach for Springdale!  Poor Jeremy is surrounded by lots of cheerleaders all the time.  On Friday night, they had their back to school event the Pigskin Classic.  We went to watch Megan and her squad.  They were great!  It's so fun seeing other schools perform, especially since we will be competing against each other come October!  SO fun!

Jeremy is such a good sport about attending so many of my cheerleading events, football games, and basketball games.  Saturday night as I looked up into the stands and saw him sitting there, I couldn't help but say a quick prayer of gratitude for the amazing man God has brought into my life. 





July 26, 2013

Where are you going to be July 26th, 2013???  Well I know where Jeremy and I will be... GETTING MARRIED!!!!

Choosing a location and picking a date was definitely so much harder than I thought it would be!  We thought we knew exactly where we wanted to get married back before we were even engaged.  In fact, we had visited the place many times picturing how everything would be.  After much thought, we decided that place would not be the ideal location for us or our guests who would be traveling from out of town.  (The place was pretty far away, and we would have to have our reception about 20 minutes from the ceremony location). 

When my mom came in town a week or so after Jeremy popped the question, we began to hunt for the perfect place for us to get married!  Well... after a lot of looking we found it! 

St. Anthony's on the Creeks in Lowell, Arkansas!

When searching for the venue, I did not want to get married in a huge church.  Ideally, I wanted a quaint Chapel that would fit the number of guests we will have there.  I just didn't want a bunch of empty space that wasn't being filled by all of our family and friends.   Also, because we have such a large number of guests attending from out of town, I wanted the reception venue to be either on location or very close by.  I didn't want my guests having to drive very far and possibly get lost (hint hint Grandma and Grandpa :) )

St. Anthony's is perfect.  It seats around 160 guests, and also has a reception venue on location.  The reception venue is amazing.  It has indoor space for all our guests plus an outdoor patio!  I love it so much and cannot wait to get married there! 

Oh... and Jeremy loves it too :)   I guess that's important too!  haha.

It was really hard trying to figure out the perfect date.  Even though I'm a teacher, most of my summer's are tied up with professional development and cheerleading practice/camps.  All of June every year is booked solid.  We initially thought we would get married the last weekend of June, but after much consideration, decided to wait until the end of July.  This will give me time to do all the last minute wedding stuff and we will still have a few weeks to go on our honeymoon and get adjusted to the married life before cheerleading and school starts again!

AND... you might have noticed... July 26th is a Friday!  We chose to get married on a Friday for many reasons.  Mainly it is WAY cheaper to do this!  Also though, for our guests from out of town, they will still have the WHOLE weekend to enjoy Northwest Arkansas and get back home.  Sometimes you feel like a wedding takes up your whole weekend and you return to work the next week just plain exhausted!  I wanted to try to make our wedding as much fun and less stress on our guests as possible.  Plus, we can fly out on Saturday for our honeymoon instead of on a Sunday!  Saving more money!  Remember... Jeremy IS an accountant :)  Haha... saving money is a way of life for him!

So mark your calendars... July 26th, 2013 we will become husband & wife!

A week in Kansas City & a trip to the ER

Jeremy headed to Kansas City last week for work, and after discovering that I had the week free, I decided to tag along and do some back to school shopping! 

I shopped every day and got caught up on some work to prepare for school starting in a few weeks.  In the evenings we enjoyed dinner out and walking around the Plaza.  If you've never been to the Plaza in Kansas City before it's really a neat little shopping district with some AMAZING stores. 

It's no secret that The Cheesecake Factory is my favorite restaurant.  I may or may not have convinced Jeremy to buy me cheesecake every night we were there :) 

One night we met Jeremy's boss and his boss' wife at a quant little restaurant called "Cafe Trio".  It was a lot of fun and great to get to meet his boss finally!  Jeremy says he had one of the best steaks of his life there, haha.  I agree,  it was that good!

Our trip took a turn for the worse when my stomach suddenly started hurting incredibly bad our last night there.  Over the night it only became worse, and I could barely walk the next day I was in so much pain.  Around noon the next day we decided I needed to visit the ER.  Not the end to our trip that I had imagined.  They were concerned it could be my appendix and then ruled that out and became concerned about my gall bladder and the possibility of having to have it removed.  There's NO way I could have had surgery with cheer practice starting this week and school starting next week for us teachers.  Luckily, my stomach pain started to subside after going over 24 hrs without food and it was decided I just had a flare up from so much rich food ( oops, probably too much cheesecake). 

Jeremy was by my side throughout the entire ordeal and I was so glad to have him there.  So, although our trip didn't turn out quite like we had planned, does life ever??



Chicken Parmesan

Jeremy loves Chicken Parm.  I on the other am not so crazy about anything with marinara sauce on it.  I decided to cave though and make him his favorite.  While looking for a recipe, I came across this one over at Emily Bites.  It's a "healthier" version of this Italian classic, and I'm not going to lie, it was pretty good :)  Jeremy was pleased too ;)

Chicken Parmesan
Source: “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Fattening” by Devin Alexander

Ingredients:
2 (4 oz) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to ½ inch thickness
1/3 c reduced-fat buttermilk
Olive Oil Spray (from a spray bottle like a Misto, not a store bought pre-filled one that contains propellant)
1 oz Fat Free Italian or Caesar seasoned croutons
¼ c low fat marinara sauce
½ oz finely shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese
1 t grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Place the chicken breasts in a medium Ziploc bag. Pour the buttermilk over the top and seal it shut. Put them in the refrigerator and let them soak for at least 6 hours, or overnight, turning the bag over 1-2 times.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 450. Lightly mist a baking sheet with olive oil spray. Add the croutons to another Ziploc bag and pound them with the rolling pin, meat mallet or other flat, blunt object until crushed into very fine crumbs. Transfer crumbs to a medium shallow bowl or plate.
3. Remove a chicken breast from the bag and let any excess buttermilk drip off. Dip it into the crumbs, rotating it to cover the breast completely. Place the breaded breast on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining breast. If crumbs remain in the bowl, press them into the tops of the breasts. Lightly spray the tops of the chicken with olive oil spray. Bake them 5 minutes and then carefully, being sure not to remove coating, flip them. Lightly mist the tops with spray and continue to bake for another 2 minutes and then top each breast with half the sauce, half the mozzarella and half the Parmesan. Continue to bake 3-5 minutes or until the cheese is melted, the coating is crisp and the chicken is no longer pink inside. Serve immediately.