Chicken with Creamy Chive Sauce

Chicken with Creamy Chive Sauce

 

 

boneless chicken breasts        1 package Italian salad dressing mix

 

1/4 C butter                    1 can of cream of mushroom soup

 

1/2 C dry white wine            cooked pasta (optional)

 

1/2 of 8 oz. cream cheese with chives and onion



 

 

1) Place the chicken in the slow cooker. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

 

 

2) Stir in the dressing mix, mushroom soup, wine, and cream cheese until combined.

 

 

Is there anything better than the smell of melted butter?  Nope, there isn't!

 

3) Pour mix over the chicken in the cooker.

 

 

 

4) Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours. Serve chicken with sauce. If desired, serve with hot cooked pasta and sprinkle with chopped fresh chives.

 

 

Now I didn't have 'dry' white wine so I replaced it with a splash of chicken stock and I couldn't find the chive and onion cream cheese. I used the regular kind. The sauce was UH-MAZING. I knew I had to make mashed potatoes with the sauce drizzled over it.

Hubby was quite happy with it too so that was a bonus for me.

Book Worm Wednesday

"...Our kitchen shelves were filled with jars of dried beans and whole grains. There was a tub of miso in our refrigerator, bottles of soy sauce, and packets of seaweed. This might have been understandable had we been Asian, but we weren't, so it was mostly just odd. A neighborhood playmate once saw the block of tofu floating in a bowl of water in the fridge and asked why were soaking our cream cheese..."


"...My mother went out of her way to feed my brother and me the healthiest food possible, an effort we rarely appreciated. One year she drove hours our of her way and spent far more money than necessary to purchase a 'healthy' birthday cake at a hippie bakery in the small coastal town of Bolinas. The icing was made out of tofu and coconut oil and kept slipping off the dense sugar-free cake..."


"...Growing up in such a world, I wanted more-I wanted food that tasted good. At elementary school one day, I stole potato chips out of a classmate's lunch. I meant to take only one but was woefully unprepared for the addictive nature of the potato chip. The combination of crispy and salty was intoxicating to a kid who had neither. I couldn't stop, and by lunchtime they were almost all gone. When my theft was discovered, the girl whose lunch I had plundered cried, and I felt awful for making her sad..."

"...As we got older, my mother allowed us to eat meat outside of the house, in restaurants or in the homes of our friends. She didn't feel she could dictate her children's morals. At the same time, if ever we picked a meaty entrée off the menu, she gave a small sigh. She wanted us to make our own decisions, but it was clear what her preferred choice was. You don't spend your entire adult life as a vegetarian without having strong opinions over the matter..."

Types of Military Wives

I accidentally came across ArmyWife101 blog and found this link. I thought it would be fun to share it with you.

Know anyone of the follow descriptions? I certainly do.

Sleepy Lion

If there is one thing I love, it's catching my hubby sleeping. I enjoy watching my life partner sleep. Is that creepy? Perhaps. It certainly makes me happy that I will have the rest of my life to have little moments like this.

I call it his 'sleepy lion' face. Sometimes I even imagine a tiny baby sleeping beside him. Little fingers clutching one of his large thumbs. My heart pitter patters just thinking about it.

I have to admit, it's getting harder and harder for me to steel my heart from wanting a baby, especially when little ones are all over the place! I'm not kidding. There's not much to do at the base except making babies! I've seen mommies with multiples little ones and pregnant at the same time. CRAZY!!! Enough baby talk before I get myself into trouble.



Have a blessed day!

Interview With The Hubby

As a treat, I decided to share an interview with the hubby. That's right folks you'll get to read the very words of Mr. J Campbell himself! I thought I would just ask him a few questions regarding to the pair of us and married life to give everyone the man's perspective. Enjoy!


What was your deciding moment that you wanted to marry me?

The moment I discovered that beautiful girl I had seen was a God loving, church going, sweet, innocent, little band geek.

If I didn't tell you that you have to ask my dad's permission, would you still do it?

I asked even before you said I had to. Its the right, gentlemanly thing to do.

Were you scared? Nervous?

Not in the slightest.

What are you enjoying most about our marriage? Please keep it PG.

Coming home to your smiling face every day.

Let's get to the nitty, gritty stuff. What are some habits I have that irritates you?

Leaving dirty laundry on the floor, putting toothpaste in the toothbrush holder, and putting towels in the dirty hamper after using them once.

Last but not least, how much do you love me?

*fingers cross* this much. (Inside Joke) To the moon and back.

Good Ol' Days

When we first dated, on Fridays J and I would have friends over at my tiny apartment and play RockBand. I would make home-made pizzas (usually one chicken alfredo and one pepperoni with cheese) too. We would have a blast playing RockBand for hours while getting stuffed with pizzas and booze.

Saturday we had another couple come over and I was reminiscing the good ol' days. So what did we do? We pulled out the guitar, the bass, the mic, and the drum set. And we ROCKED!

Look at the concentration on that face!!!

 

After a few concerts we took a break.  Jenny wanted to do my nails to keep her from being rusty (she's a beautician). Meanwhile the guys played the old fashioned game "Pick Up Sticks". 

 

Those two were intense with that game. Some good natured insults were thrown here and there to the point that Jenny and I had to step in. 

 After my nails were done, all four of us played a game of Dirty Minds. If you don't know what that is, it's a guessing game where you're given three clues of an object but the clues are pretty dirty.

Here's an example: You spread me on your slice before you eat me. If you get your fingers in me, they'll get sticky. I usually come in a jar. Can you guess the word?

 

 

Come on, Bell. It's Jelly! You dirty minded man!!!

 

 

It was a successful couples' night with Rockband, pizza, and good friends.

Book Worm Wednesday

"...I continued to consult doctors. An endocrine specialist I saw after college told me to limit my carbohydrates and eat more protein. I was living in Japan at the time and horrified my friends and colleagues there by turning down bowls of rice. Instead I ate cartons of low-fat cottage cheese, blocks of tofu, and plenty of vegetables. I even ate fish, which I've never liked. Nothing made a difference. I was always tired, my weight 10 to 20 pounds over where the charts said I should be..."


"...I should avoid raw foods, she told me, they are hard to digest. Ginseng tea with ginger should be drunk each morning to give warmth. She gave me a small bag of herbs specially selected for my constitution. These are important, she said. They were to be stewed in chicken stock. I should make the stock myself, from chicken bones I could buy at the nearby butcher shop. They weren't on display, but I could ask for them.
    "But I don't really eat meat," I explained somewhat apologetically. I always feel bad letting people down.
    The acupuncturist brushed off my protest.
    "Your system is weak," she repeated. "You need to prioritize your health-you need to take care of yourself."
    Have I not been taking care of myself?
Faced with such a barely veiled accusation, I did the only thing it seemed I could do. I went to the butcher shop..."


"...I try to act casual, but I have to clear my throat before I can manage to say "Chicken pieces, for stock." It comes out as more of squawk than I had planned.
    The butcher doesn't seem to notice. He nods and turns away from the display case, disappearing into a door that I imagine leads to some gore-splattered back room. He emerges with a clean plastic bag filled with a large frozen lump. I pay quickly, avoiding all eye contact, and walk off with my shameful purchase. I wonder if I should be emblazoned with a scarlet letter: C, for carnivore.

Libraries Are Gold

Yesterday I visited the base for a few hours because I had a doctor's appointment to request a refill of my...um...pills. Anywho, afterward I  had some time to kill until J was done at work so I went up to the base library (because I'm a bookworm like that). There I discovered something wonderful: cookbooks.

 There were lots of old and fairly new cookbooks in the food and health section. This made me very happy, especially finding the Giada at Home cookbook. Did you know that borrowing books from the library is free?! No joke! Ain't that neat?

I adore that sweet little Italian lady! I also grabbed Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home.

For a while I've been writing down recipes in a little black book (I call it my personal cookbook). I've been filling it up with things I've found tasty on Pinterest, Food Network, and other cookbooks. Whatever I find delicious or new to try I jot it down. When I saw the cookbooks at the library it was like finding gold!

On my way home with two cookbooks and a book for leisure, I thanked God for libraries. I just love that I can borrow a book and not pay a dime. It's the best way to cheat a bit. For example if you've been hearing good/bad things about a book you've been curious about but you're not sure you want to commit to actually BUYING it, you can try to see if there's a copy at your local library. If you're lucky you can find it; then, you can try it out.

This method has saved me a lot of money from buying books that I ended up not liking.

 

 

 

 Have a blessed day!

 

 

 

All The Pretty Horses

I found out within a few weeks after moving into our house that our neighbors have horses. I must say they are beautiful!

 

This little guy is my favorite. I don't know if you can tell but he's dark grey with white speckles around his bum and white socks around his hooves.

 He's a real sweetie and very eager for attention.

 

For extra I took a few shots of the fields of grain. I've actually been wanting to take shots before the fields were harvested. Some day I'm going to have to take some shots of the fields at sunset. Gorgeous I tell you!

Have a blessed day!

The Perfect Housewife

I always loved history lessons regarding the late 50s and early 60s. Think Stepford Wives and the popular show Mad Men. I immediately fell in love with that show when it came out. Growing up I was interested in the life of being a housewife and engrossed myself in how to be a proper housewife.

She cleans, cooks, and takes care of the kids while hubby was away. She always made sure there is dinner ready for him and that his laundry is folded how he likes them. She’s usually the first one up in the morning and last to go to bed. Or at least, that’s what I thought a proper housewife was supposed to be.

Maybe that’s why after high school I convinced myself that I needed to start learning how to cook. To this day I’m still learning. Now that I’m almost twenty-three the idea of being a 50s housewife is laughable, especially after finding things like this on Pinterst.

 

 

 

 

Terrible, isn’t it? Now a housewife myself I have been figuring out what my purpose is. Before marriage it was to do well in college and to grow alongside my sisters in becoming a Chi Omega. My purpose, now,  is to take care of my husband and our home. I want to feel like I’m contributing in some way instead of sitting on my butt on the couch watching Netflix all day long. I’ve discovered it can be little things like doing the laundry, prepping the grocery list of the week, or tidying up the house. After I get up from bed and had my cup of coffee, I make my husband’s lunch. He’s never asked me to do it in the first place. It was something I offered to do as a kind gesture. My favorite thing to do for him is make him something to eat. I’ll come up with something different to cook for dinner and I get excited to cook it for him. I guess you can say this is my way of expressing my love to J.

 

 

 

Apricot Crisp

Apricot Crisp

Fruit Base                                        Topping

 1 lb. apricots                                ½  stick of butter

 3 Tbsp. sugar                               6 Tbsp. sugar

 1 Tbsp. flour                                ½ C oats

 pinch nutmeg                              ½  C flour

                                                        pinch salt

                                                        2 Tbsp. sliced almonds

 

 

 

 

 

 

1)      Preheat oven to 400°F. Pull apart apricots at their seam, remove pits, and tear them one more time in quarters.

 

 

2)      Place apricots in baking dish.

3)      Add and stir sugar, flour, and nutmeg.

4)      Melt butter and stir in sugar, oats, flour, salt, and almonds into large clumps.

 

 

5)      Sprinkle mixture over fruit.

6)      Bake for 30-40 minutes and serve warm.

It does seem to be a lot of sugar and I cut back on it but when I tried it out I realized why you need so much sugar because the apricots were TART. The dish was still tasty (along with a glass of milk) but it definitely could use some more sugar to cut the tartness out so I recommend to stick with the amount the recipe asks.

Book Worm Wednesday

Since it looks like Time Keeper is not coming in anytime soon and I’m already getting bored of reading about corn, I went ahead and started on a new book that’s not on my reading list but something that a friend recommended- The Butcher and the Vegetarian by Tara Austen Weaver. It’s funny, encouraging, and thoughtful. Tara has her own blog called Tea and Cookies if you want to check it out. This woman has been struggling with weight gain and lack of energy and doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with her. She’s tried numerous diets and food restrictions throughout her life and no results but one thing doctors keep telling her: eat more meat. I’ll share my favorite tid bits to you and hope you enjoy it.

 

                                      Prologue

My friend Christine says that butchers make the best flirts, and on this I will have to trust her. While I may have some experience with flirting, with butchers I have none. And to tell the truth, I find them unnerving.

          Unnerving is one word for it; terrifying is another.

          I find the entire meat section unnerving. In the grocery store I walk past the meat department quickly, eyes adverted, even when the cute redheaded Irish butcher is on duty. Redheaded Irishmen are usually a weakness of mine, but a redheaded Irish butcher renders me mute.

          Secretly, I think butchers are like dogs: I am sure they can smell my fear.

          Why all this bother over butchers-over men who spend their days with muscle and sinew, bone and marrow? The answer to that is complicated, but I will tell you what I told Christine that day.

Butchers know all about sins of the flesh.

 

Unlike most vegetarians who adopt the lifestyle as adults or in an act of youthful rebellion, I was raised meat free from birth. My diet consisted of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and tofu, not a bit of flesh in sight. While our neighbors sat down to meat loaf, hot dogs, or fried chicken, my family was tucking into plates of steamed vegetables and brown rice. By the age of 10, I was an expert on millet, barley, and buckwheat. I know the technical difference between tofu and tempeh, but nothing in my background prepared me for the blood or bones.

          What am I doing at a butcher shop? I can answer that question in two words: doctor’s orders. It certainly wasn’t my idea.

          The problems started when I was about 12-mild fatigue and weight gain after a childhood where I had been lean and active. The doctors diagnosed me as having a low-functioning thyroid gland and prescribed a supplement to correct it. My symptoms persisted, even on the medication. I woke up tired every morning and couldn’t lose weight.

Finding The Happy Medium

Sometimes I am amazed how different my husband and I are. There will be moments that I will look at my life partner and realize that I'm still learning about him. It can be fun, other times not so much. Saturday I had one of those moments.

I didn't realize until we moved in together how OCD he can be about things. I tell him he has CDO because he's so OCD that the letters have to be in alphabetical order. A picture hanging on the wall might be crooked and it'll bother him. I might leave a hoodie on the floor in our bedroom, mind you, for two days and he'll remark that the said hoodie has been on the floor for two days. He won't say "babe, go put it away" but rather he will 'just let me know'. Now here is where I need to add that I am OCD myself on a few things but I think it's a different kind of OCD-ness; it's habitual I suppose. I cannot go through my day without a cup of coffee; I can try but I will become Godzilla's B****y wife on her period.

But there are other things that we are total opposites. Saturday we went to the Lib Club for country night dancing and it didn't go so well. Long story short I discovered that my husband does not care for two-stepping all night long. He'll partake in line dances and he will do the two-step with me; but he cannot two-step over and over and over. That's understandable. It's not for everyone. If the roles were reverse I would be the same way if we were to go to a club with hiphop music and people booty dancing and grinding each other. I would have no idea what to do in that environment. I would sit in a corner and enjoy my drink while watching my husband get his freak on. Bottom line: my domain is country two-stepping and my husband's is club-y hiphop.

We have different tastes and, to me, that's part of the fun. Even with furniture we're different. He likes matching items, color blocks, modern looks while I love things that are mix-matched, vintage and rustic, but somehow incorporate together.

I'm still learning to find the happy medium with our differences and I think that's (once again) part of the fun in marriage. A challenge, if you will. At the end of the night at our first attempt at country dancing we still went to bed with smiles, kissed each other goodnight, and told each other 'I love you' and meant it.

Let's Catch Up

I'm sorry for not posting for the last week. We were having issues with internet and I had none. I had no way of communicating with friends or family, or even watch Supernatural during my free time. Considering how much I rely on it (don't we all) I was struggling to keep myself busy while J was at work. Thankfully he has a hard drive FULL of movies and tv shows. And I will always have my books.

To catch up, last weekend hubby bought me a camera! It's a Fugifilm finepix s6800.

And a printer!

I have been dying to get a new camera since I graduated from college. For my photography classes I've been borrowing the department's cameras, specifically a Nikon D90. I loved it! But right now I can't afford to get one of those so hubby and I agreed that I will be working my way up.

I've been learning to get to know my new baby and I'm very pleased with it. It has a very good zoom and decent quality shots. It can play movies too which I haven't figured out yet. I can't wait to use it for the honeymoon coming up in September. This weekend a couple of friends of ours invited us for their son's birthday and I definitely took my baby with me. Here's a few shots I got.

Birthday Boy!

 



My little buddy. He was wearing cute chucks and I almost stole him.

 



We Have Our Orders

Yep, we're going to Fort Worth, Dallas, Texas. Now granted I was hoping for somewhere besides Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico (where I've spend all my life in the southwest) I am very happy with Dallas.

We had a possible swap with another family but after look at Rapid City, South Dakota we realized we would be happier in Dallas. It is a big country city like Nashville (we love that city), has plenty of things to do and see, it is equal distance to my family in New Mexico and Nashville (where his family is at), and it's somewhere a bit familiar.

I'm most excited about the food trucks. On my bucket list I have written 'eat from a food truck'. I have been dying to experience this. I know it sounds silly but that's me. I looked around online and found out that this company has a truck there.

 

That's right. That's the Coolhaus! This 'ice cream' truck serves ice cream sandwhiches but the carb is cookies! I even had a dream about eating from Coolhaus last night. J and I are very excited and happy to know where our future home will be.


On top of all this, yesterday J-man found out that he made Staff! We're so happy and feeling blessed beyond belief. My baby brother also got promoted to PFC. I get so excited to see my boys succeed.

Have a blessed weekend everyone!

Home-Made Lasagna

For this week's recipe I thought I'd try making a lasagna. Growing up when we would have friends or relatives stay over at our house I can count on my mom buying the Stoffers frozen lasagna. Hey it's cheap and feeds a lot so why not. I've never seen anyone make their own lasagna before. Thanks to Pinterest (once again) I found a delicious looking recipe and dove in.

White Cheese and Chicken Lasagna

*The actual recipe with the ingredient amount is at bottom of the page*

* I only ended up using two of the three cans of chicken*

*I have discovered that it is easier to combine the chicken and the ricotta together before adding it to the dish*

 The recipe called for frozen spinach but I used the fresh spinach. Either way works.

 

 While waiting for the lasagna to be cooked, I enjoyed myself with watching Supernatural and one of these delicious babies. I love limeade!

 

I had a lot of leftover ricotta so I added a few dollops at the top. The end result was super cheese-y and rich! So rich! J and I had lots of leftovers for the weekend so it's perfect for a new couple trying to save money. I love the regular kind of lasagna but this was very good too. I would definitely use this again if I'm in the mood for something different other than the regular stuff.