One dish dinner...

here's the happy little camper eating some leftovers from the One Dish Dinner.... only he's showing that of course, there really doesn't have to be only one dish- maybe you'd like to add cheesy cauliflower, watermelon and yogurt too!
hopefully this little picture won't send you running for the hills or opt to never try my One Dish Dinner... but I understand if it does.... i actually apologize for the photo, i keep forgetting to take pics as I cook! it really did look much prettier than this in the beginning.

so, back to the ODD, it seems to be a favorite of mine...it does make it easy to plan for dinner. i like a vegetable, meat and carb- having it all in one dish, great!

so my latest one dish dinner: Spinach and Mushroom Chicken casserole

now with a title like that, i bet you are all kinds of curious as to the main ingredients, right? i bet... ha ha ha...

I started with leftover Rotisserie Chicken (traditional herb seasoning from Walmart) - and as always, it's just guessing here on the amounts...well, to start, actually--- i sprayed a 9x13 glass dish with Pam and preheated the oven to 350.

So, Rotisserie Chicken- maybe 2-3 cups

an entire container of fresh mushrooms, sliced

a box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and pressed dry

2-3T frozen seasoning vegetable mix

a whole small onion, chopped (I really only use sweet onions, the others give me a headache)

1/2 of a large bag of whole wheat pasta- egg noodle type- boiled, only partially cooked though since they are headed into the oven

1 can cream of mushroom soup

4oz reduced fat sour cream

and I definitely would have added sliced water chestnuts if I had any on hand, seeing as I was out- no addy this time

for added crunch, once this was in the casserole dish, I sprinkled chopped pecans across the top

this baked for about 35 minutes, during the last 5 minutes I added French's French Fried Onions on the top and baked for 5 more minutes

It turned out pretty good. I would possibly cook the noodles only 3 minutes, remove them from the boiling water and layer them on the bottom of the casserole next time, instead of mixing them in...don't know just might.

DIY... who? me???

Crafty? Me? Most of the time I am really not feeling that. But then along comes a little project that I think I can use... so I give it a whirl. Here goes.... I am TOTALLY a blog stalker these days and found this on one of them. It seems as though it was passed along from one blog to another a few times over- or maybe only once or twice? Ha ha... I don't know... Let me give credit to design*sponge...since that is what got saved in my favorites.
So, with the beginning of my project you will probably conclude that, in fact, I am a big fan of Duke's mayonnaise- and you would be correct! Me and Paula Deen...gotta love a recipe with a little mayo in it. However, not to go off on a totally different tangent, I would never use the AMOUNT of mayo Paula uses... but we might rival in frequency. So, that declared... let's move on....
This pic (sorry, not a photoshopper, yet...) shows that we have several snack jars in the cabinet that, while at least uniform in lid color, are a bit boring. And seeing as how I stumbled across an o-so-fun DIY (do it yourself), it seems fitting to take these jars from 'eh' to, well, a little bit better than 'eh'??? At least I think so...

step one: get your jars, wash, rinse, dry
this shows what it looked like after I practiced on a lid...pretty cool, huh?

but, a little out of order here, this is actually what happens before... you glue the lid to the circle you have cut out, I used Mod Podge or whatever that stuff is called. I also realized when I got home, the tutorial I was following showed the MP for paper. I just got the regular kind with a matte finish. I also realized once I got started, scrapbook paper (at least the kind I found at Michael's) was pretty sturdy. This project might go over better with thinner paper- origami? wrapping?

here you can see I cut the slits in the paper once the MP was dry...

they are about 1/2-3/4 of an inch each

here's a finished product...

and here they are, all finished! fun times... glad I did it, cabinet looks lots cuter!?

ahhh... it's been a wild one...

Mike has been out of town for the past week. It's been an easy week and I am so grateful for that. It's always a little daunting on the outset to think of being alone with a toddler for the week by myself. But we quickly settle into a routine and get comfy. Some challenges have crept into our routines- not because Mike's been gone- but more like, Giles has turned two... didn't you know? Yup. He's all grown up. He doesn't like a diaper change- although that has just gotten a little more challenging because he's getting physically bigger... we're kind of used to that because one day way back when he was 7 months old, he dropped enjoying getting a clean bootie. Nope. It's a waste of time and a total inconvience. And then he also isn't too fond of brushing teeth because that means it's bedtime. But he's fairly easily bribed distracted, so we manage. And, speaking of bedtime...it now includes TWO loveys... bun-bun and raffy. This worries me only because we now have one more to lose! But hopefully that fate will not be met by either furry friend.
This past weekend we celebrated with Lauren. She turned 17. Lauren is Mike's middle brother, Greg's, oldest. She is absolutely precious and Giles loves her.

And then, here's Giles. His teacher sent home a blank face and some yellow yarn. And left me with the words, "here, feel free to be very creative." huh? oh, and she also said i could maybe use some googlie eyes. Well, didn't have any of those... but I did have some wraphia ribbon! I decided to use that- instead of plain ol' yarn. There. I was creative. Maybe not VERY, but at least somewhat- right?

Speaking of wraphia... it's located in my home office. And I actually did some organizing in there this week. I will work on getting some pictures up - I wish I had remembered to take 'before' pics... it didn't happen. O well. I will show some exciting 'afters' tho.

Love one another... it makes the world a much better place!

Nite, nite!

yes.

I will accept help in figuring out the INSANELY annoying header on this blog... why does my trellis print not fit the box???? arg.

the Approximate casserole...

First of all, I am sad. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product! However, it was good enough that I will make it again and make up for the transgression then.

What's the Approximate Casserole? A last ditch desperate attempt to feel domestic and also use the last of the rotisserie chicken that I just didn't want to throw out!
I am queen of wanting to find a perfect recipe, not finding exactly what I am looking for and then just putting together a 'mess o stuff' -the following is an example:

• somewhere between 2-4 cups of rotisserie chicken (my FAVORITE and only kind i will buy is the traditional seasoning one at Walmart... i have been disapointed by too many rot chicks to buy anywhere else--- and rot chick is exactly how i write it on my grocery list!) placed in the bottom of the dish (i used a 2.5qt round bowl)
• enough frozen vegetable mix (like veg all, but frozen- i do not like the texture of canned veg all) to cover the top of the chicken layer
• a glob of reduced fat sour cream, only about 1/2 a cup based on the size of the container and how much was left
• a can of cream of mushroom soup
• a can of cream of chicken soup
• 2T of frozen vegetable seasoning mix (it's found with the vegetable in the freezer section and it is a mix of onions and maybe peppers? that are already seasoned??? very good- adds great flavor!)
• and 1 can of water chestnuts that are already sliced, i then slice them into strips... i LOVE the crunch!
• oh, and i also added some chopped pecans
• for the topping i used fried onions and saltine crackers... didn't have too much of either...
• cooked for 35 min at 350, added the topping and cooked for about 5 more minutes...

DELICIOUS! Kinda surprised it turned out as good as it did. But it will grace the table again... also would make a great freezer meal for a friend... or for yourself for later!

That's all folks! It's been a glorious afternoon here... thunderstorms (which i LOVE) and organizing... can't beat that!

First day of Pouncing Pandas....

here are a few pictures from yesterday at Open House... i just wasn't able to get pictures into my post yesterday... blogging must come in small chunks

giles has been helping me in the kitchen at home... seems to have rubbed off...

giles found a train to hang with... that's always a good thing

here is giles with ms kisha and ms megan

some of the sweet friends giles will be in class with this year

First of all... I think I have a lot to learn about blogger. Yesterday I had a great post 'all prepared' but it just didn't go so well. It turned out to be less than I was hoping for. I have to figure out how come it is all of my pictures end up at the top of my post??? Would LOVE to have some insight on that!

So, today I took Giles to his new class at First Pres. He went in without a hitch. WHAT?!?!? Wow! That was awesome! So glad about that. He headed over to his friend Jack and started playing cars and such. He's bound to be a little confused... last year (which technically was just 2 weeks ago...) he had another Jack in his class and to make it absolutely confusing for him, there is another kid in his class that LOOKS like the OLD Jack, but his name is Kamden. Whoa.


We'll have a pretty fun and exciting week this week. We're expecting company. When Giles comes home from school on Wednesday he'll be happy to greet his cousins who will be coming to town! My sister is braving the highway with all 4 of her kiddos. We're so glad they'll be spending some of the last days of their summer vacation with us!! We're planning on cooking out and hanging out... And with Christmas in July (aka...Giles' birthday) having just occurred I am sure that there won't be a shortage of things to do and toys to play with. While they are here we're also planning a trip to McWane Science Center in Birmingham hopefully followed up by lunch at my favorite spot of all time- Cocina Superior in Brookwood Village. If you haven't ever been there... either hurry and go because it's the very best mexican food on the planet OR stay far away because it's the very best mexican food on the planet... to further tempt you...head on over to http://www.thecocinasuperior.com/ , go on... you'll thank me. I am sure it will be fun times. And once they are gone, then I will come here to be sad that their visit was all too short.

Better scoot along... have the house to tidy and recipes to devour. With 5 kids and 3 adults, we need to have a nice variety for all of the appetites in the house. I am thinking Banana Nut Bread, my grandmother's recipe... some pigs n'blankets because they're easy... a little cooking out, but not sure what yet... we'll see... I will post pictures, if I feel that there's anything worthy!

'til later... xoxo

BIG day...

What a fun and exciting day we had today. It was the start of a new school year- we had Open House today. We went to First Presbyterian for Giles' preschool Open House. I was a little leary of how our second OH would go, I remember having a great time at the first one a year ago (man, that went by in a hurry!). My worry was that Giles would have routine kick in and going to a new classroom would be less than welcome. Well, we turned down the new hall (all 20 ft from the old one! lol) and went in to his new classroom. He handed his ziplock bag filled with his new school supplies (boy, i LOVE back to school supply shopping!!!) to his new teacher, Ms. Keisha, and then went on to find some fun toys to play with. Pretty cool! No shyness, just flat out glad to have some new fun toys to discover. We're really pleased with his new teachers, Ms. Keisha and Ms. Megan. Both are expecting and will be out at times throughout the year, but Ms. Angie will fill in and she's great. Giles already knows her,... heck, everyone knows Ms. Angie! So, that change should go smoothly too. So, good times had at the preschool. Glad to know his comfort level with his new surroundings... just saying a big prayer that it will remain high tomorrow when I actually leave him there!