Easy Recipe: Chicken Tetrazzini

It's been awhile since I've posted a recipe. After moving into our new house it took awhile for our appliances to be hooked up and operational, so there wasn't a lot of cooking going on around here. Recently, we had a delicious chicken tetrazzini dish at one of our weekly family gatherings. My aunt and uncle, Eileen and Chad, were in charge of this main dish and, wow, was it delicious! It's one of those recipes that you can really play with, and measurements aren't really that important. (Love those!) 


Instead of making a full batch (full box of spaghetti), I decided to cut it back a bit for our family. Leftovers are fine with me, but I didn't want too much in case I royally screwed things up. Lucky for me, I think that would be difficult to do with this one.


The original recipe calls for the following:

• whole cooked chicken (keep the broth)
• box of spaghetti
• can of cream of mushroom soup
• can of cream of chicken soup
• block of white cheddar cheese (shredded)
• block of colby cheese (shredded)
• butter (a lot - like, a stick)

Here's what I used/had:

• precooked, frozen fajita style chicken (from Schwann's)
• about 1/2 box of spaghetti
• can of cream of chicken soup (I figured I just needed one can for 1/2 the recipe, so I picked my favorite)
• 3/4 block of white cheddar (shredded)
• 3/4 block of colby (shredded)
• about 2-3 tablespoons of butter

Preheat your oven to 350. Plan on baking for 30-45 minutes depending on how much you make and if it's been refrigerated or frozen previously.

First, I sprayed my dish with some non-stick cooking spray. Then I boiled the spaghetti (you can do this in the broth as the original calls for it, but I did not), and heated the chicken. Once these were complete, I drained/rinsed the spaghetti and cut the chicken into smaller pieces (to better hide them from Landen). Next, I placed these items in the dish.

Then I added the can of cream of chicken soup to the dish - I just dumped it in and spread it around some. Next, I added the shredded cheeses and sliced the butter on top of everything.

I prepared this late in the morning, so I covered it and put it in the refrigerator until it was time to heat it up. I think I ended up baking it for about 30 minutes (covered), and that was plenty for this amount. Sorry, I didn't take a photo of the finished product - it basically looks like a gooey, cheesy mess.

And it was a success! We gobbled it up (even Landen), and had some leftovers that didn't make it to the weekend. :)

Enjoy!

Summer Fun

We had an enjoyable Father's Day weekend which included a visit from Scott's brother's family. They arrived Saturday afternoon, so Scott prepared some delicious "stuffed burgers" for dinner. Prior to dinner, Landen and her cousin Hayes spent some time in the pool and ran wild through the house and back yard. 


Sunday included breakfast from Baked to Perfection (yummmmm!) and some family photo shoots before heading to Maimeo and Papa's for Father's Day gifts and lunch. Later Scott, Landen and I visited my extended family for an afternoon by the pool and my grandma's (and grandpa's) famous burgers for dinner. 


I'll share a few pics from the weekend. Most are from our family photo shoots Sunday morning. Katie and I are pretty passionate about photography and finally enjoyed practicing on people other than our own children. Although, we quickly realized that photographing ANY child that has no desire or attention span to stand/sit still is HARD WORK. The entire shoot lasted maybe 25 minutes because our kids were quite squirmy. :)


Landen and Hayes enjoying some pool time on Saturday.

Katie, Ryan & Hayes...

Our family...and some I shot of just Scott and Landen...

My sweet, goofy, one-of-a-kind, Landy...

Hayes and Landen playing in the yard...

Finally, this is what happens when we tell Landen to give Charlie a kiss...She thinks she has to stick out her tongue too...Never a dull moment with this girl!

Super-sized Top 10

It has been a verrrryyyyyy long time since I've blogged. Over two months! Not the ideal situation for me, but after reading my "Super-sized Top 10", you'll see why I've been slacking. April and May were extremely busy months, so instead of writing a super long post, I'll try to condense it into a top 10. :)


1. This one I mentioned in March, but didn't want to say too much. We sold our house and bought a house. All in 24 hours. The sign was literally in our yard for six hours before the deal was done. Everything just fell into place at the right time, and we were blessed to have it all happen the way it did.  

Old house. (Sniff)

New house. :)

2. Scott and I were in such disbelief at our luck with the house buying/selling that we were nervous to start packing up the old house before the papers were signed. In hindsight, this was probably a bad idea since we were getting immediate possession of our new house. This left a lot of packing for the days leading up to, and including, moving day. A little stressful? Yes.

3. Even before moving day we had A LOT to accomplish in the new house. We tore up all of the first floor flooring and replaced it with new. We also painted most of the rooms (including removing some wallpaper borders). It was difficult to tell if everything was going to be accomplished by the time we moved in, but we did it. 

4. One week after moving, Landen moved to the next room at "school" (daycare). This was a BIG deal for Landen. She moved to the "toddler room" in which she now participates in a more structured day with more concrete times for activities, lessons, and even naps. The biggest change was that she would no longer be dropped off to Mrs. Davis (one of her favorites), whom she had previously been dropped off to ever since she started going to school at the age of three months. She was excited to see Mrs. Davis every morning, and I think the feeling was mutual. Some tears were shed that first week by Landen and me. It was hard for us to walk by the room for the first week without tears over seeing/not seeing Mrs. Davis, but we're good now. Landen happily waves at her old teachers when she sees them in the hallways. 

Landen's gifts for her teachers.

5. Update: all of these changes have not been good for the "uh-oh" (pacifier) situation here. Getting rid of the uh-oh is a goal of the summer.

6. We survived the Memorial Day weekend heat wave. We decided to have some friends over to the new house and had to go out and buy a kids' pool and sprinkler for everyone (including ourselves) to stay cool. By the end of the night, Landen was a hot mess (literally and figuratively).

Landen and her buddy, Claire.

Staying cool!

7. I survived the end of the school year! Crestview was THE last school in the area to finish, and after the Memorial Day weekend, we couldn't wait to get out of there. Unfortunately we still had over a week to go. That being said, it's over now, and I'm preparing to finish up the last of the yearbook page shipment tomorrow morning. And that makes me happy. :) On to planning for next year!

8. Speaking of next year, I am changing positions within the school. Instead of teaching English 10 for half of the day and Mass Media, Yearbook, and Web Design the rest of the day, I'll be teaching technology/media type courses all day. What will I miss about teaching English? Shakespeare. Love him. Love teaching him. What will I not miss? GRADING tons of essays! This task got more and more difficult as Landen came along. I'm looking forward to developing my new courses this summer and getting to teach them next school year. :)

9. I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to explore one of my favorite hobbies even more this summer and this coming fall as I will be helping Heather Marie Photography with shooting some local weddings. I'll be assisting her as a second shooter starting in July. So I'll probably be practicing a lot over the next several weeks. 

10. And the biggest event of the past few months...our family is growing! That's right, Baby McCormick is due to arrive in early December. What's more is that we have decided not to find out the gender of this baby. This is not something I would have ever expected to say, but these two "planners" have decided to wait it out....I think. ;) 

So I hope you can see why no blogs have been posted lately. Moving, the end of the school year, and general lack of energy have slowed this mama. The good news is that my energy level is returning and things have slowed a bit around here. More to come soon!

Pinterest: Love it or Hate it?

The jury is still out for me. I know all of the reasons people "love" Pinterest. It's great for organizing ideas, finding recipes, decorating your existing (or dream) home, crafting with/for your kids, etc.


But are any of you like me? Does Pinterest make you feel inadequate? Have you had any major Pinterest "flops" like I have? Two examples. My first Pinterest flop was a "great" cheesy penne chicken blah blah blah recipe. One hour, five pots and pans, and a soupy sloshy mess later...I was cursing Pinterest. Second example. Anyone else try the oh, so chic and adorable striped Easter eggs? I did. They looked like garbage. They were the most hideous Easter eggs I've seen. Now, maybe I can't blame Pinterest. Maybe the penne chicken recipe called for whole milk and I used 1%. Maybe the Easter egg craft called for electrical tape and I used painter's tape. Maybe those were my fault.


I still feel that Pinterest, although trying to be helpful, makes me feel like I don't do enough cute crafts with Landen. It makes me feel like I don't have enough clever organizational solutions in my home. It makes me feel like I haven't properly preserved Landen's precious artwork from daycare, or decorated my house in a really thoughtful and innovative way, or made the best, easiest, most delicious food out there. 


Does this only happen to over-achievers like me who want to do it all and do it all correctly, the first time? Maybe. Maybe, I need to let go of Pinterest a bit and only use it for idea pin boards - like Landen's 2nd birthday party. Maybe I shouldn't check out what others are pinning. Because when I do, my mind assumes that all of the pinners I'm following are actually DOING all of those cute, crafty, clever things that I'm just pinning and not actually doing much of. I know that this is not 100% true, but I can't get my over-achieving self to admit it.


A possible solution to this dilemma might be a "like/dislike" symbol (like Pandora) for people that have actually tried these things. 


I'll tell you what I would give a BIG thumbs up to: tonight's dinner. Here's what you need. Crock pot, frozen chicken tenders, block of cream cheese, can of Rotel or some salsa, black beans or pinto beans, can of corn (optional - I didn't). Turn on the crock pot for a few hours. The original blog said 6-8 hours. I cooked for maybe three on high last night and it was fine/cooked through. We heated it for dinner tonight and put into some whole wheat tortillas. Delicious. I will warn you, it looks absolutely disgusting (so good luck getting your picky kids to eat it), but it tastes fantastic. 


And THIS is why the jury is still out for me on my opinion of Pinterest. After a total flop - like ugly Easter eggs, Pinterest comes back with an amazing and super-easy dinner like tonight.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! We couldn't be happier with the way our weekend turned out. We were able to see family and friends from Friday night on through Sunday, and we filled ourselves to the brim with tasty food too! Landen slept great and was in good spirits all weekend and even made it through Easter mass. She really enjoyed finding Easter eggs around the living room this morning. We held a pre- and post-mass hunt since she liked it so much. I thought I'd share a few pictures from our day.

With Nana and cousin Michelle's dog Caesar this afternoon.

Having fun outside despite the windy day.

Easter pinata time! She needed a little guidance from daddy at first, but then she knew exactly what to do!

Love this one...

On her second turn, she thought she'd tap it from the bottom to see if that would work.

Landen wasn't the one to break it open, but she sure did collect a lot of candy. Here she's showing off her prize. :)

Top 10!

When I was looking for inspiration to get the blog started back up my clever sister-in-law, Katie, suggested "Top 10's". She does them on her blog and it's basically a list of ten things on her mind. I was trying to think of something to write about tonight, but there's too many things going on inside my head to focus on just one. So here it goes....

1. Something that's been on my mind A LOT lately....we bought a house! Details coming soon.
2. And something just as important....we sold our house! (fingers crossed) It happened so quickly I'm afraid to say it out loud too many times in case it was just a dream. 
3. Gotta say it....the weather is amazing. Outside of work, I love it. But it makes me nervous that my students are going to shut down wayyyy too early this year.
4. Landen is doing a great job of getting rid of her "uh-oh" (paci). She only wants it if she wakes in the middle of the night and in the car driving to and from school. The girl is a recovering paci addict. This is progress.
5. Now that she's letting go of the uh-oh, she's become an avid (stuffed) animal lover. Her first love was "Kiko" the dog. Now we have a zoo of animals lining her bed at night to keep her company. She's always got an animal under her arm. 
6. In case you haven't heard enough about Landen, she's growing up so fast and proves it every day by showing us her intelligence. She's now forming her own sentences (2-3 words) and not just repeating what we say. It's so fun to see her learning and displaying her unique personality right in front of our eyes.
7. So when is baby #2 coming along? Um, we just bought a house...give us a break! :)  Oh, and Landen is keeping us PLENTY busy.
8. I'm turning 30 in a couple of weeks. Living up my 20's by partying every night and pulling reckless stunts. If partying and reckless are code for staying up past 10pm once or twice a week, then my last statement is true.
9. I'm planning an awesome baby shower for my best friend, Rachel. I can't wait to celebrate the arrival of her little one even though she's refusing to find out the gender.  ;)
10. In fashion news, get yourself some bright colors for summer/spring. I recently purchased some orangey/red khaki cropped pants and a "highlighter yellow" cardigan and am in love with both. Something about all these bright colors makes me feel so cheerful. :)

That's it! My first top 10 in the books. Enjoy your weekend!

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!