Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Yesterday I was on the hunt for a quick and easy recipe that I could make. I found this recipe in one of my Kraft Food and Family magazines. It looked simple and tasty, so I tried it. We thought it was pretty good! I served it with a garden salad and some Grands biscuits.


Bruschetta Chicken Bake
from Kraft Food and Family Magazine

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 pkg (6ox) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp dried basil leaves
1 cup Kraft 2% Milk Shredded Reduced Fat Mozzarella Cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees, Mix tomatoes, stuffing mix, water and garlic just until stuffing is moistened.
Layer chicken, basil, cheese and stuffing in 13x9 or 3-qt baking dish.
Bake 30 min, or until chicken is cooked through.

(I just realized as I was typing this that I mixed everything together in a bowl and didn't layer it. Hmm, might turn out a little better if you do it the right way.)

I also had some left-over frosting from my Christmas cookies so we had some yummy graham cracker sandwiches for dessert.

2008 Recap

Well it seems only fitting to do a little recap of 2008 since all my other blogging friends have. I hope I remember all the important stuff, my calendar that has all my 'events' on it is at work.

January- I started in a new department at work. I was expecting to have to do a lot more work than I did. The first month was insanely boring. My car gets broken into at my apartment on New Years Eve and isn't fixed for nearly a month and I'm forced to drive the Stratus I drove in college. My brothers had apparently trashed it after I used it. It was torture. Zach and I star thinking about buying a house. Celebrate Mom's 50th birthday at Manny's. Feel guilty for not throwing a party.

February- Most of the month was spent house hunting. Every weekend was spent driving around Lee's Summit and hours were spent obsessing over house listings online. Went to the Matchbox Twenty/Alianas Morisette concert at the Sprint Center with Jessica. Celebrate Valentine's Day with Zach at Accurso's. Find two houses we want, but someone else gets them first. Find "Our House", make an unbelievable offer and it gets accepted. Successful home inspection. The waiting game begins. Celebrate Zach's birthday, but neither of us can remember what we did.

March- Go to the Carrie Underwood/Keith Urban concert with Jill and Kristy. It was amazing. Jump through a million hoops to get our house. Can't close on the house because the paperwork was done for the wrong home. Can't close on the house because the bank didn't fax over the correct paperwork. Finally close on the house with a few hours to spare before losing it completely. Celebrate with dinner at The Peachtree.

April- Paint the master bedroom and office. Move into brand new house. Love every bit of it. Get a huge tax return. Decide to get a privacy fence. Find an unbelievable deal on fence. Run the Trolley Run. Fall in love with running races. Zach loses his job before we even make our first mortgage payment. Stressful.

May- Zach finds new job with great flexible hours. Zach studies for test for work all the time. I decide I want a puppy. Spend hours online looking for the perfect dog to adopt. Find Misty at Wayside Waifs. Drag Zach to meet her. She's not there. She's filming a movie. Put our name on waiting list. Go to Sioux Falls for Alicia's (Zach's sister) graduation and bridal shower that I hosted. Get the call that Misty is ours. Run out and buy books, toys, kennel, food, collar and leash for new puppy. Meet Misty for the first time and change her name to Missy. Fall in love. Sleepless nights and hours of crying after she gets sick 3 days after bringing her home. Spend lots of money at the vet.

June- Run the Hospital Hill 5K on my 27th birthday. Vow to complete the 10K next year. Celebrate birthday with McDonalds fries, shopping and dinner with Zach at Minsky's. Eat delicious Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Go to Sioux Falls for Alicia's wedding. End up coordinating wedding and decide to do look into starting an event planning business. Stain my gorgeous red dress and cry hysterically when the dry cleaner can't get the stain out.

July- Celebrate the 4th at my aunt's house. Cuddle with cousins new baby. Erica moves back to KC from Colorado. Host a welcome home party for her at my house on the hottest day of the year.

August- Take Missy to the lake. She swims for the first time and I get in the lake for the first time in almost 7 years. Went to the new LS pool and float around the lazy river. Realize I'm old. Go to my first Nebraska football game.

September- Paint the Dining Room and kitchen. Love the color. Take Missy to "Strutt With Your Mutt". Longest walk ever. Paint the downstairs landing. Hate the color. Repaint landing and hallway.

October- Run the KC Marathon (5K) sicker than a dog. Feel like a loser running a 5K at a marathon. Vow to run the 1/2 marathon next year. Celebrate my 1 year wedding anniversary with Zach at The American Restaurant. Realize they packed the wrong layer of my wedding cake. Zach loses his job. Again. His family comes to visit.

November- Paint the living room and entryway. It looks so much better than the horrible white walls. Dread watching the news. Vote for a new president and he gets elected. Go to another Nebraska game. This time they beat Kansas. Celebrate Thanksgiving at my aunts house. Go shopping on Black Friday for the first time. Decide it's overrated. Decorate my new house for Christmas. It looked beautiful.

December- Zach gets new job. Doesn't start until January. Carefully budget money. Host a baby shower for my cousin. Go to The Nutcracker with my mom and brother's girlfriends. Go to The Radio City Christmas Spectacular show featuring The Rockettes. Love it. Spend my first Christmas away from home, in Sioux Falls. Watch housing prices in our nighborhood plummet to insanely low prices. Spy on everyone who comes to look at them. Prepare to ring in the new year with dinner at Chili's with Zach and Erica and Guitar Hero at home.

So, I guess 2008 had it's definite ups and downs. Next year should be much better.

My resolutions (first ever!)
-Lose 10 pounds
-Spend more time with Zach
-Drastically reduce my sugar intake and up my water consumption
-Run the KC 1/2 marathon.

Happy 2009 People!

My Movie Star!

As you are well aware, my beloved Missy was used in a locally-shot movie before we got her. My mom and I went to the "premier" back in September and while the movie is cheeztastic, it was still so fun to see my puppy dog on the big screen! During the Q&A session at the premier someone asked "what happened to the puppies". Then there was a big hub-bub and barrage of questions "How big is she!?" (Small). "Why didn't you bring her?!" (cause she's crazy). "How did you get so lucky to get her?!" (We just are. We just are).

Well I finally got my hot little hands on the trailer. Apparently the DVD comes out some time in 2009. You can bet we'll be getting a copy or two. It's totally a kids movie, so there's hope that my children may enjoy seeing their puppy on TV someday.

Enjoy for yourselves.

Matchmaker Mary Trailer from Pure Flix on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Zach and I are headed to Sioux Falls, South Dakota tomorrow morning. It will be my first official Christmas away from KC. I'm a little upset, but I'm sure it will be fine. There are new traditions to be discovered. I will miss my Missy and George horribly though. Miss will have fun at Gma Gpas and George will get to roam around without having to worry about a dog putting their slobbery mouth completely over his head.

Ho Ho Ho!

Brown Sugar Cookies

So I think I'm finally done making cookies now. I've made 6 different varieties of cookies this year. That's for sure a record for me. I think last year I made 3. I'm pretty much cookied out. These were a last minute add because I realized that I had to give cookies to 3 more families than originally planned and I didn't want to run out. I had all the ingredients for these Brown Sugar Cookies at home and they seemed pretty simple, plus I love brown sugar, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. They were easy and are quite tasty!




Brown Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter; softened
1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Decorator sugar crystals

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
Gradually add brown sugar, beating well.
Add egg and vanilla, beating well.
Combine flour, soda and salt; add to butter mixture, beating just until blended.
Roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness between 2 sheets of waxed paper (this wasn't working too well so I abandoned ship and just left the dough in the bowl)
Cut with 4-inch cookie cutters (couldn't get the dough to cut right so I rolled dough into quarter sized balls and flattened with my hand)
Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets (I greased mine).
Sprinkle cookies with decorator sugar crystals.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden.
Let cool for 1 minute on baking sheet then remove to wire cooling racks
Yield: about 2 1/2 dozen. Mine made about twice that but I made small cookies.

They taste similar to a chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate, just a bit more caramelly- Very tasty. They are also on the crisp side, but I lik that too. Zach said they remind him of his moms caramel rolls in cookie form. He kept trying to steal some away, so that's always a good sign!

Happy eating!

Run it, Run it.

I remember one time when I got what I thought were some cool new Nike Shox and went to immediately try them out at a local park. I got there and they hurt my feet. Really bad. So bad that I actually had to check to make sure they were on the right feet. My feet were going numb from the pain. I hobbled back to my car and drove home, cussed a bit, but then changed into my old running shoes and went BACK to the park to finish up my 4 miles.

That was back when I had this thing called MOTIVATION. I can't even fathom driving home for new shoes then driving back to continue my workout nowadays. I'd probably just give up and eat pizza.

So I need to get back to it. I need to start pounding some pavement (or treadmill until it's warm enough). Working out is addictive for me. Something happened when we moved to our new house. The gym moved about 10 miles away. Driving to the gym is such a chore. Add on top of that a needy puppy and husband in school, I barely ever have the time or patience to go to the gym. That all is going to change. We are going to switch gyms so I can go to one that's a little closer. While it might not be a fancyschmansy 24 Hour Fitness that I've grown to love, it is still a gym with all the same stuff and similar classes. I'll make due. Plus it's nearly half the cost of 24 Hour. Hell, when I was a poor wedding consultant I worked out with old people in room no bigger than my living room with 2 treadmills, 1 elliptical and a couple old weight machines. I'd never been skinner.

I've also outlined my race plan for the Spring/Summer. It's pretty ambitious. I'm half tempted to go ahead and actually sign up and pay so I can't back out.

Here Goes:
-April 26 - Trolley Run (4 miles)
-May 25 - Amy Thompson Run (8K)
-June 6 - Hospital Hill Run (10K)
-October 12 - KC Half Marathon (13.1 Miles)

Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it.

Kisses

So I've been baking. A lot. Every Christmas I tend to go a little overboard with my cookie list. It runs in the family. You would not believe the sheer amount of cookies my mom makes every year. I can think of at least 7 kinds right off the top of my head. So far I've made 4.

I've been trying to document my baking adventures (mostly to see if/how much I improve from recipe to recipe). Zach does not understand this. I'll be in the kitchen snapping away and he'll go "did you just take a picture of the beaters?" He doesn't get it.

Anyway, so these aren't my most favorite cookies, but they are quiet the crowd pleaser, so I make them every so often. They make a ton, so plan on sharing!



Peanut Blossoms
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar - packed
1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Hershey's Kisses

Cream sugars, butter and peanut butter together. Beat in eggs, milk & vanilla.
Sift flour, soda & salt together and stir (I never sift, pain in the rear) into cookie batter.
Chill throughly for best results.
Shape into the size of walnuts. Roll in additioal sugar.
Bake on ungreased (I grease) cookie sheet.
375 degrees for 10-12 minutes
Press kiss in middle while still hot
Makes SEVEN DOZEN!




This cute picture was taken at my wedding....awww.