Another easy recipe

Since I got so much great feedback (and even got published!) the last time I shared an easy recipe, I've decided to share another. But don't laugh. It, like the first, contains crescent rolls, and has an obvious, no frills name: chicken squares. I promise these are the only two things I make that call for crescent rolls...and they're both delicious. These are Scott's favorite (he wanted me to mention that). And when they're finished, they don't really look like squares, but that's the name. Again, I got this from my mom. I believe it came from a magazine or something years ago. I remember the first time she made them when I was growing up. These are a once every two or three weeks recipe in our house because I can get Landen to eat chicken by making them. Just plain chicken is pretty dicey at times for her. 


Here are the ingredients:


2 rolls of Pillsbury crescent rolls (buy the Pillsbury ones - the cheap ones don't work, I promise)


1 block of cream cheese (I use 1/3 less fat)


3-4 TBS milk


1/2 tsp salt


1/4 tsp pepper


3 TBS butter melted


1 can of white meat chicken - chopped (I use 12-16 oz)


Preheat oven to 350.


First, melt the butter and soften the cream cheese for easy mixing. Add milk, salt, pepper and chicken and mix together. The mixture will be a little soupy. That's ok. 


Unroll crescent rolls and separate into eight squares (two rolls per square). Pinch the perforation together to form the square.

Next, spoon some of your mixture into the center (about 1/4-1/2 cup). Then pull the corners together and twist. Try to keep the mixture from coming out the sides because it's difficult to get back in and can get messy.

Finally, pop them in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Bake until they're golden brown. 

Caution, they will be extremely hot inside, so if you're feeding to little ones (or big ones) cut them open to cool for a few minutes. Enjoy!

How to spice up a t-shirt

I promised a fashion post long ago, and it's finally here! I've decided to share with you how to make a basic t-shirt something presentable for a night out, for work, or for any casual-dress occasion. 


Back in the fall I purchased a couple of awesome v-neck burnout t's from Old Navy. I say awesome because they're soft, stretchy and long enough to be my perfect t-shirt. These shirts are a polyester, cotton and rayon blend, so they won't shrink...possibly my most favorite quality.


Once I realized just how great these t-shirts were, I tried to figure out how I could get away with wearing them to work without looking like a total slob. This was my solution: first, pair the t-shirt with a cute cardigan (long or short), next, add a fun belt... 

and sometimes even a scarf. 

I pretty much wear this combo at least once a week and usually once on the weekends. I hope you enjoy wearing that favorite t-shirt as much as I do!


P.S. Please excuse the crazy tilted photos. I was trying to figure out how to take a picture of myself from the neck down with one hand while making dinner and entertaining Landen. Multi-tasking at its best!

Happy Birthday to Hayes!

On Saturday we traveled to Centerville to visit our nephew, Hayes, for his first birthday party. We had fun spending time with family and watching Hayes waddle around the house. Landen was very excited to see her only cousin, who is always on her mind. We all enjoyed The Poky Little Puppy themed party from the "dog bone" pretzels to the stuffed puppy party favors. Here are some of my favorite images from the party...


Adoptable puppies! These were Landen's favorite. I think she wanted to adopt them all. To her disappointment, she only took home one. His name is "Cake".

Just some of the puppy themed snacks..."water bowl" (jello) and "dog bones" (soft pretzels)...

Birthday boy, Hayes! So smiley and sweet!

Wider shot of the "dog treats"...

Time for presents...Hayes liked the bows and tissue paper best. :)

And who doesn't like watching a one year old get their first real sugar high? Hayes loved every bit of his icing (and a little cake)...

Later in the evening, Landen and Hayes enjoyed their own little dance party in Hayes' bed. I think Hayes really enjoyed being bounced all over the place by Landen. Of course, when she wasn't trying to tackle him or bounce him out of the crib, Landen did try giving him a few hugs (that just resemble head-locks a bit).

Finally, I'll share one of the gifts we gave to Hayes for his birthday. I recently found this craft on Pinterest and decided it would be a good first sewing project with my brand new sewing machine. With minimal experience, I knew it would be a bit of a challenge, but my mom helped me work through some of the kinks.

The goal was to make the entire alphabet, but it's a work in progress. We'll call it "the gift that keeps on giving". Hayes got his name plus the letters "B" and "C" to get his alphabet started. The letters consist of two pieces of fabric with two pieces of felt in between (so the letters are stiff enough to hang on the refrigerator). They also include a magnet sewn inside (not as easy as it sounds). Older children could have letters with the magnet hot glued to the back, but the younger ones should have ones with magnets on the inside so not to cause a choking hazard. 

That's it for now. Fashion post coming soon. Promise.

Happy Valentines Day!

Landen and I are enjoying a two-hour delay morning together, so I thought I'd post pictures of the valentines we made over the weekend. She was a little leery of getting her hand painted (she likes clean hands), but she had a great time putting her print on the cards. :)  We hope your Valentine's Day is full of love. 

World famous recipe? Well...maybe.

I can cook. Really, I can. I used to make a mean chicken marsala. That was back when I had plenty of time to devote to a good recipe. But to be honest with you there hasn't been a lot of five star, gourmet recipes tried out in our house lately. Well, I did try out one I found on Pinterest that "seemed" pretty easy but turned out to be a nightmare in my kitchen.

In an ideal world I would come home from work, play with Landen, and when Scott would arrive home, I would whip up some elaborate meal while he occupied my busy little girl. 

The truth is that we cannot be eating dinner at 7pm every night. We are early dinner people. My stomach is usually growling by 4:30. On most days we're out the door by 6:30am. I am a teacher, so I eat lunch at 11:45am (Landen eats even earlier), and we are hungry by 5. Scott usually doesn't get home much before 5:30, so my ideal plan does not work in our household. Not to mention that I feel it's important to establish family dinner time for Landen now, even at the age of one and a half. 

In reality, I'm usually trying to quickly whip something up while trying to keep Landen busy with tupperware and coloring in her high chair or on the floor. It's not easy to manage a difficult recipe (or one that involves more than one pot or pan) with that going on.

I was recently inspired by Kristin and her first blog post referencing chicken nuggets for dinner...been there, done that. I've decided to share an EASY recipe that might not be five star material, but it's one that we enjoy.

This one is called "Taco Ring"...sounds fancy, I know. I got it from my mom who has been making it for years. And I've included pictures for some visual aid.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef, browned and drained
• Taco seasoning (pre-packaged or your own)
• Some shredded cheese
• 2 packages of Pillsbury crescent rolls

Preheat oven to 375.

Lay out the crescent rolls in a circle while overlapping the edges with the points facing out.

Next, after mixing some of the shredded cheese in with your seasoned hamburger, distribute it evenly around the ring of crescent rolls. I like to mix the cheese in to the meat because it keeps it from falling all over the stone while I'm spooning it on.

Finally, fold the crescent roll points over before placing in the oven.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes (or until rolls are golden brown) and remove from the oven.

Serve and top with your favorite Mexican condiments like salsa or taco sauce and sour cream.

This honestly takes 25 minutes from the first to last step. Ten minutes to prep and 15 minutes in the oven. Enjoy!

Long lost blog...

What can I say? Time flies when you're having...fun? Er. Time flies when you're raising a toddler is more like it. Not that Landen isn't fun or the light of my life, but we have had a crazy few months since my last post. 


I'm not going to get too deep into excuses but the following have each played their own role in my blogging hiatus: work, ear infections, tubes in ears, Thanksgiving, pneumonia, Christmas, teething, 24 hour (but takes all weekend to recover) stomach bug, end of the semester grading, colds, and just busy life in general. There you go. That's what has happened to us since the beginning of October. 


I'm also not going to get too ambitious with my first blog back. I have some things cooking for future (sooner rather than later) posts, so stay tuned. Instead, I'll post some images of what goes on in the McCormick house on a typical day...


Here Landen is eating one of her favorite foods...applesauce. She loves to feed herself and refuses help. This creates a bit of a mess to clean up, but we'll live with that.

Next is "colors". Landen has become obsessed with coloring. Scott and I went away for a night while she stayed at Nana & Papa's house. We got several texts and photos saying/showing that Landen was basically coloring the entire time we were gone. We estimated she colored for about five hours that day...Do I have a future artist on my hands? We'll see. She's even dabbled in watercolors at daycare.

Finally, there's BOOKS! Landen LOVES to read books. She usually gets stuck on one or two for a bit that we tend to read ten times a night. But there are some days we read every book in the pile. She's currently stuck on this My Little Train book...two weeks ago it was the Potty book. What will next week bring? 

So you can probably see why I haven't had time to blog. I have one busy little girl on my hands! Would I have had more time to blog before she came along...sure! But I wouldn't trade her for anything. She is constantly amazing me with her intelligence and her silliness. She's a good distraction from all of the to do lists going on inside my brain.


Next up...a fashion post. Give me a few days, okay?! 

Fall: Favorite season & photo shoot

It's hard not to love this time of year. Mums, pumpkins, changing leaves...these are just a few reasons I love fall. I also love the cooler weather (I'm not fully enjoying this 80 degree heat wave) and the wardrobe that comes with it. 


We decided to take advantage of the beautiful day for a quick photo shoot in our front yard. I decided to post a few because it's been awhile since I've done any blogging, and I promised my grandparents, who just left Ohio for their home in Florida, that I would post some new pics soon.

It's hard to believe that my little baby is now a talking, walking, and, sometimes, running toddler. Every day she amazes me with what she's learned, what she notices, and what she repeats! Her favorite new word this week is socks. In Landen speak it's "ock-ies" pronounced just that way with the second syllable stressed and much higher pitched. 

For now, that's all I have. I've been a bit uninspired lately in regards to the blog. I hope that changes soon. I'm sure there's a grammatical pet peeve or fashion don't out there just ready to drive me crazy very soon!