Recipe Hack : Chicken Alfredo!

Hiiiii, blogbots!

I was in exceptionally good spirits today, partly due to the fact that it's becoming clear that our months and months of working towards the goal of Rob moving to, living in and working in Cincinnati have all come to fruition... but also because I had my heart set on sticking to the menu we planned out over the weekend. Tonight was decidedly Alfredo, and I wasted no time trying out a new, easier way to make it. I will be the first to say that this is DEFINITELY a good hack! No, it's probably not the healthiest way to do it, but if you're planning to eat Chicken Alfredo, you're probably not overly concerned with your carb or calorie count... at least not at this sitting ;)

Anywho.. This barely took any time at all, and was delicious. I'm adding this to the books of must-makes for company and for Sydni, when she's here, too.

Here's what I used. Feel free to alter based on your time & preference!:

* 1 lb chicken
* 1 box Linguine noodles.
* 1 can cream of chicken soup (or mushroom, if you're into that kinda thing) - I used Campbell's.
* 1 bag of frozen broccoli florets (the kind that steam in the bag in the microwave work great!)
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (grated, shredded, pulverized in the plastic can, whatever)
* 2 tbsp butter
* Salt & pepper

HOW TO:

1. Cook pasta according to directions. It takes about 10 minutes or so. Add some salt and just a LITTLE oil to the water if you'd like, to season and help the noodles from sticking together, respectively. Microwave your frozen broccoli. If you use fresh broccoli, the recipe I have said to add it to the last 4-5 minutes of boil time for the pasta. I don't know if/how that turns out. Drain pasta when cooked and set aside.

2. Heat a flat pan over medium heat. Add butter, then chicken. Brown it on both sides, until cooked through. Don't be impatient; let it cook at medium heat!

3. Once chicken is cooked, start stirring in milk, cheese and cream of chicken soup. Stir it gently until it mixes down together. Add in noodles.

Honestly, that's it. Serve with bread or whatever side you'd like!

nom nom nom!

Rob has promised he'll try this one next time [making, that is; there was no problem eating.. haha]. I certainly won't complain if this dish hits our house again.

We are still plugging away at this house-settling thing... hopefully by the end of this week we'll have decided on a couch for the living room. The rest has all fallen into place, so I'm not too worried.

Stay tuned ;)

xo | cmd

HBD, JENNICA! | Things of a Saturday (:

It's birthday time, again!

Happy birthday to my lovely lovely Jen!!! 

♥ you jennica! | happy birthday!

Ohhhh... I miss you, friend. I'll see you sooooon. :) 

So yeah. It's Saturday, and our original plan was to head to the zoo after I picked Sydni up. Howeeeeever, it was a little colder than we'd originally planned. Couple that with the fact that none of us really got moving until about 1pm, we opted out of a trip over to STL. 

Instead, we took a mini-jaunt over to the park for a little bit. 

wintery girls! 

butterrrr hahah

I've learned that the easiest way to get Sydni out of the park is to offer her food [testament that she's mine... duurrrrhhh]. That being said, we promised her a home-cooked dinner and left the park at go time with little to no contest.

For my butter-lovin' friend Marianne, this was the message I sent as a pre-courser to dinner itself: butter and a pepper. I personally believe those are two of the greatest combinations anyway - fresh food & butter. Success.

After a quick stop at the store to get some shrimp [I was on a war path tonight for some shrimp.....], we headed back to the house and started in on the deliciousness that resulted from the mixing of fresh veggies & butter... & pasta. 

Yumm....

shrimp bow-tie pasta (: 

So that puts us here.... now.... on the couch vegging out. Marianne... Rob.... Syd... and myself. We're party animals watching Nacho Libre and discussing how Marianne's official role in the dinner dynamic of my house has become Butter Intake Coordinator. 

Love. 

fun with photobooth? yes.... (: 

Ohhhhh, Saturday. It's supposed to snow tonight/tomorrow, so we'll see what that does for the getting-outta-the-house situation.... 

For now... zZzZzZ.

'Nite, ya'll. 

xo | cmd

Spoiled Girl. Handy Boy. Crazy Pup.

This whole Monday thing needs to stop repeating itself. I'm not opposed to the actual day itself, but I'm definitely not a fan of all that it brings with it off of the weekend lapse. Tonya was out sick today [feel better!!], so we ran a man short for the day. Thankfully, Marc & Diana are back from ILC [with greetings from 1663, aw ♥], so that at least eased the regular ache of Monday. 

*Unrelated note to self: Remind Ali that we planned on getting massages two Mondays ago, which has yet to happen. Let's make that happen, soonish... yeah?*

  

Anyway, today was day one of leaving Stella at home for the entire day. I quarantined her in my room like I've done for shorter periods over the last couple of days, and thankfully she did just fine. She's a champ (: As a reward, we took the early part of the evening to play in the backyard. I may or may not have put the D90 to work for a few minutes as she romped around the yard. 

stella the pit... aka #stellapittie

She ran and ran, and ran around some more, before we finally brought it in for the evening. Rob came by after work and much to my surprise practically made a beeline to the kitchen and started right in on DINNER. Gosh, I'm a spoiled girl. (: Excuse the cornball mash-up, but I found these two completely separate shots and figured I'd create an applicable blend of sorts.

yep. true story ♥

Not saying that guys are typically bad chefs, because really they aren't, but if I'm being honest I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by my boyfriend's culinary skill. Seriously! I think I was more surprised by the impromptu delving into my kitchen than anything else; it occurred to me tonight that this is the first time he's done dinner.. solo. Haha. We just hit a new level.... and soooomeone else wanted to be a part of it....

"can i have just one little bite???"

Aw. (: 

Oh, and let me just say she's been barking a bit over the past few days; I'm sure it's a huge adjustment to her coming out cramped quarters with a family including a couple small kids and another dog to my house: unnecessarily spacious and quiet for the most part, especially when it's completely void of Sydni or other rare company. We're getting better, though, and tonight Rob laid down the law with a rolled up newspaper. Not only did I snag a good chef, I found a dog whisperer. Haha. I feel spoiled! :p Seriously, though... lucky me (:

Well, he's nerdin' away at COD and I'm nerdin' away at some other edits and ... this blog.. and Stella's finally settled down some. It's proved to be a pretty good day and not an awful start to the week, either. 

Let's try this again tomorrow... 

xo | cmd

[Her] Last Day

[[Happy Birthday[s] to Jess Cochran & Eric Edwards, two separate friends of ours back home in Cincinnati! I truly hope today is a wonderful day for you!]]

Today was my office’s current FOC’s last day before she moves on to her new position [to which we assigned her, ironically]. We took full advantage of any reason to celebrate, and I was introduced to Imo’s. Imo’s is a pizza parlor-esque restaurant that seems to have a good reputation for reasonably priced lunches. The girl I’m replacing seemed to have a habitual craving for this place, so we secretly ordered the office a round of Imo’s for a group lunch.

Basically, for $5, they give you a 10” personal thin crust w/ one topping, and a side salad. I was impressed, for it being quick, inexpensive take-out.

Behold, Imo's: 



imo's | pizza + salad | yum.



What better way to find the best quickie digs than by referrals? While I definitely wouldn’t want to eat this more than once a month, I’ll have to, on one of those lazy, unhealthy days, introduce this stuff to Joe.

Back at home, I had about 15 minutes to finish the prep on a pasta salad I was to take to our evening small group Bible study at Pastor Ron & Debbie’s. It didn’t turn out half bad, and went over much better with the crowd than the Skyline dip we took last week. I don’t blame them; apparently that stuff tastes like pure magic, but is far less appealing in appearance. Oh well.



Do we have huge plans for the weekend? Of course we do. *Kidding.



pasta salad



Tomorrow = Base picnic. We’ll see how this goes in this ridiculous weather J

Who knows, I may even sport some sunscreen… we’ll see!

xo | cmd

Ημέρα πέντε | Iméra pénte | [[day 5!]]

That's Greek, ya'll. Kalyn & I went downtown to It's Just Crepes, which is becoming one of my favorite digs in Cincy. There are two of these within two miles downtown, but unfortunately those are the closest and only locations around here [sad face].

REWIND:



oh, hello, shellac

 Why? Well, Kalyn needed a quick touch up, but her normal spot was well out of the way of our agenda. So we settled for a *different* place, to which neither one of us had ever been. We figured it would suffice, since it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, anyway.

Long story short, TWO AND A HALF HOURS later, after filing her nails down beyond the fingertips and applying about 15 layers of bonding, clear coat, more bonding, shellac, clear coat, pixie dust, and who knows whatever else she had, the lady was finally done. An hour and 45 minutes into our visit, a girl came in to get a whole new set of acrylics, each one painted a different color, and was almost done by the time Kalyn was being finished. Oy.



southwestern crepe | it's just crepes | cincinnati, oh

I've recounted previous visits to this place, and I've yet to take someone who hasn't enjoyed it. I mean, look at that sucker! {the food, not KP} My favorite thing about this place is that its founder/owner is originally from Greece, so he's legit Greek. His motive in opening a restaurant was because there are crepe stands on practically every corner in his home Greek city, but none here. Basically, I love crepes, and I love this place. De-lish.


brittany | cori | kalyn

Sorry about that reso [phone camera]. This was our little visit to Bellevue/Covington to see Brittany and her beau, Rob.


pasta salad

  Pasta salad, compliments of Brittany!

There's not many better ways to spend a Saturday night than to just hang out on the backporch of someone's house and do nothing but relax.

Coming from a house headed by an Italian mother, I am such a sucker for pasta salad.

Plus, we brought out the D90 and got some silly candids to go along:


`brittany. cori. kalyn | gun show | lol

 

best friend :)

All in all, pretty good little Saturday!

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Oh, and for the record, it's Saturday night, so that means that the rapture did NOT happen. We are still here, so that means that that 80something-year-old Harold Camping was wrong, once again [1994]. His contextual abuse of scripture that resulted in thousands of followers makes me honestly, literally sad. It is this type of fanatical heresy that scars the true efforts behind genuine Christianity and the promises upon which it is actually based. As a Christian, the one thing I do know about the Rapture and any related events, is that it will come as a thief in the night, at a time that only God can see [2 Peter 3:10-11]. Let's get Biblical and remember that we are to live our lives every day, every moment to a capacity that would honor God, not just in the moments we think may be our last. Nowhere in the Bible does it state that we'll be instructed to sell all of our belongings, quit our jobs, or try to murder our families [read about that here] in advance. I mean really?

 

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
 ¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.

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So, with that on my mind, I'm going to live this life the best way I know how that will glorify my God, so that when that day does come, I will have given my best for every moment on the books.

See you tomorrow :)

xo | cmd