My "in a clutch" quick recipe

This is one of my all time favorite recipes to make because it is soooo easy, cheap, and relatively healthy. I am a casserole and crock pot kind of girl. This casserole is super quick and could be made in the morning and popped in the oven when you get home or thrown together when you get home.

Here is what you need

Cook the rice according to the package. I add a bit of butter

Get all the good stuff off the chicken and feed what you don't want to the dog

(or at least that's what I do)

Get everything measured out

Combine it all together and stir, stir, stir!

Transfer to a casserole dish and top with a bit of cheese.

Here's what you need:

Ingredients

• 2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts or 1 rotisserie chicken
• 4 cups Cooked Brown Rice
• ¾ cups Frozen Corn
• 15 ounces, fluid Can Black Beans, Drained And Rinsed
• 1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt (or Sour Cream)
• 4 ounces, fluid Can Green Chilis
• ½ cups Salsa
• 1 cup Low-fat Cheddar Cheese, Plus More For Topping
• Garnish with fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cook the rice according to package directions

A rotisserie chicken is sooo much quicker, so just pull all the chicken off that you want.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, except cilantro, mix thoroughly to combine. Make sure the yogurt and cheese are stirred in throughout the entire bowl. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Transfer to an oven-safe dish and top with extra cheese if you would like. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until heated through. Garnish with cilantro. We don't garnish at our house unless there is company so I leave it out usually.

This is sure to please even picky eaters and this is one of those leftovers that is gone the next day.

I usually pair it with a salad.

Hope you enjoy and let me know if you try it and what you think!

Happy Friday!


Linking up with Raising Bean! Go cheeck her out!

Tidbits

Crewe and I have been doing quite a bit of running lately.

 Well I run and he sits back and enjoys the fresh air. It is great because it is one of the few workouts I can do with him. He loves to be outside and I love getting my workout in while he is awake rather than waiting for him to nap. Waving at every single tree we pass is his current favorite. We stock up on plenty of snacks, juice and toys.

On this particular day is was mid morning and around 45 degress so I really had to bundle him up. I could just envision Randy from A Christmas Story saying "I can't put my arms down".

We have our routine down and after every run he gets to say high to the vacuums because his love affair with them continues.

Crewe has been getting his A game on in  the basement.

To keep in style with his Superman talent my sweet sis sent him this outfit. I am all for the baby legs even on little boys. A lot of people disagree, but I think they are adorable.
Thanks Aunt Jen!

He really has been a little super hero considering he has been super pleasant and cutting 6 teeth!

Wordless Wednesday

Because I have no words!!

Happy Wednesday!

Bacehlor Ben and Bellini's

I have NEVER been a trashy  classy reality television watcher UNTIL we moved in with my Dad and Cindy, unless you count Teen Mom 2 as trashy, my deep secret is out, I will record that show just to make sure I don't miss it. The jury is still out as to why I watch it every. single. week. I go back and forth between it making me feel spectacular about myself to it just being good entertainment.

Anyway the point I am making is I am hooked on Bachelor Ben. This is my first experience with The Bachelor and I am convinced I could love any reality t.v. show if I just watch 1 episode. Sad I know!

It is even more of a problem now because we are planning to not get cable when we move into our house; to try and save money. I am afraid I will now have withdrawls from all the shows Cindy I have gotten myself hooked on!

The Texas Tech Club here is Lubbock has Bachelor Ben and Bellini's every Monday night and we just had to go see what it was all about. I was convinced this was the "it" event and it was going to be packed. I mean I thought we were the only one's not there the past 6 weeks. Well..... I was wrong. We were pretty much the only ones there.



The view, however; was spectacular!

 And I downed 2 of these and could have easily downed another five one. Sorry, I heart the mark out line!

The atmosphere was fun even though we were the only ones. I am convinced the bartender was cursing us as we walkud out.

These lovly ladies were my company! We really did have a good time, but apparently there is other venues of awesomeness happening on Monday night. Who woulda thought?!?!

weekend recap in photos

We had a pretty relaxing weekend which was wonderful considering things are going to get fairly hectic until we close on the house. And then we have some major house projects that I am so excited to share. Everything in the house we are doing on a budget and I have some super cute projects lined up that are very affordable and add that extra warmth to a home, so stay tuned for that. 

Our day was spent lounging around while the hubs worked on his truck. Can I tell you watching your man be a mechanic has a sexy feel to it. Seriously it does! Hat backwards, greasy hands, I don't know maybe I am weird, but I always like it when he works on the vehicles and I like even more that it saves us sooooo... much money.

While John was being all manly, Crewe and I decided to take a trip to Target. The way to my little man's heart is in the front seat of any vehicle. Pure joy! He checks the seatbelt, horn, and emergency lights everytime!

Saturday evening we had a cook-out at my Dad and Cindy's. Crewe is getting to the age where he likes to "play" with other kids and it is pretty funny to watch. Sharing does not quite make sense to him yet, but I can tell he is starting to figure out what is his and gets slightly confused when other kids are playing with those toys. Luckily he is easily distracted with other toys and a Poppers (Grandpa) who will ALWAYS play with him. I LOVE watching my Dad with Crewe. He will always drop whatever he is doing to get on the floor and play with him. Crewe was also in charge of the potatoes and he took his job very seriously!

And who can forget the Superbowl? Sadly John experienced first hand what trying to watch the Superbowl with an infant was like. He was not too amused, but handled it well.
Crewe on the other hand had a ball running around like a mad man.

I hope everyone else was able to watch the first 3 quarters of the super bowl.

Also, I stumbled upon the Diptic app today which allowed me to do all the collages above. I am in love. It is only 99 cents and totally worth it in my book, because not all of us can afford a $700 camera :).








Ok on to the photos.

I was......

So yesterday I was going to have a cute little post with all my iphone photos from the week. A lot of bloggers do a Friday phonedump which I think is such a cute idea and then last night my phone met the bathtub thanks to this bub and his infatuation with the tub. Momma takes the blame as well because who lets their 14 months old get anywhere close to the bathroom with their phone.

Please notice the Baby Einstein DVD that has also found its way into the tub.

Thankfully with a bag full of rice and a 24 hour wait my phone is fully functioning again. The rice definitely was a life saver. It was eye opening to me how much I rely on my phone ALL day. I think I am going to start trying to leave it on the counter periodically and not attached to my hand. I will let you know how that goes.

That is a quilty face if you ask me

 

This was pretty much our day on Friday. Crewe had been working on 5 teeth, yes you heard that right, 5! The nights this past week have been neat : )! Crewe is not a spectacular sleeper to begin with, so throw in 5 teeth and naps have been non-exsistent.

 

Lubbock has a really awesome restaurant that we just had to try on Friday night, so we ventured out and it did not disappoint. It is a burger joint called Belly's and the atmosphere is really fun and it is REALLY loud so if you have a toddler who likes to bang Buzz Lightyear on the table over and over and over, THIS is your place to eat!

Crewe had his first kids meal which consisted of grilled cheese and french fries. To say he was a fan is an understatement. I have been trying to shield him for so long from any type of junk food and am realizing that one day he will probably have a Happy Meal and also get to make his own food choices, but for now I will control it as much as I can and the grilled cheese was on wheat bread.

Love that little chompin face in the last picture. All these sleepless nights are at least giving him some molars.

I wish I would have taken a picture of this whole wall, it was solid glass, stones, and broken plates. Absolutely beautiful and Crewe didn't know what to think about it.

I do intend to finish my post about how we make it all work on one income, but that is for another day.

I hope everyone had a wonderful week.

Committed

Warning: There is a lot of rambling and ho humming about my bad day yesterday, but there are pictures at the end. Don't say you weren't warned :)

Do you ever have those days where you just feel like a complete failure and that the devil has gotten the best of you? When I have those days they seem to stick with me for several days and I end up crawling in bed feeling liked a whipped dog. That would pretty much sum up my day yesterday.

                                                                             source
I would not call myself an unconfrontational individual. Sometimes there are times when confrontation is necessary and even beneficial, but then there are those times that catch you totally off guard and you stand there after, wondering what in the hell world just happened. 

There are so many changes happening in our family right now and luckily none of the problems of yesterday had anything to do with that. Having somebody question your integrity is a very humbling experience, especially when you make a point to be an intentional person. If you want to see me go from "sweet momma" to "blood boiling momma" question my integrity. The conversation ended heated and I will probably never talk to the person again.

I was able to step back from the whole situation and look for the meaning in this madness when it hit me. I realized some pretty important changes and steps that I am taking with my faith right now and to me if you believe that God plays an active role in your life then it is safe to believe that so does Satan.  The crappy parts, but active none the less. He wants us to question our value, who we are, what others think about us, do we really have what it takes, are we loved, desired, accepted and the list goes on.

THAT is exactly what yesterday did to me. I questioned all of those things mentioned above.

Our church sermon last Sunday was about experiencing God and the avenues God uses to communitcate with us, the bible being number 1. That's when it hit me how little time I spend reading my bible and how much time I seem to have for blogging, facebook, pinterest, etc.....

I have fully committed to spending time each day to reading the bible, to the extent that I have an alarm set on my phone and will not let myself do anything internet related until I have had that time. I have a  LARGE small addiction going on with a little thing called Pinterest (to the extent that I do not allow myself to browse until Crewe goes to bed (sad I know)). Can you have a parenthesis inside of parenthesis? Hmmmm....

Of course you will be attacked when trying to grow your faith, but we need not back down from those attacks because it means we are doing something right. The way I see it, if you are being attacked it is because you are doing something good that he is not happy with, which even though it is hard in the moment I truly feel the outcome is worth it, so I will stay committed.

If you stuck with me this far bravo and thanks!

On to some cute pictures. Our week has not been super picture worthy, but the weather has been so beautiful I fully intend to take Crewe to the park.

Crewe tormenting Sophie

This was my little man exactly a year ago today! Where does the time go!?!?

Helping dad work on his truck

And of course his "Blue Steel" ALWAYS brightens my day!

Hope your Wednesday was fantastic!