Yummy!

In my quest to really capture this housewife thing, I created my own recipe last night as a twist on an old favorite. Chicken pot pie casserole.
Really, I promise it is good. Think of it as something your mom would have made on Sunday after church. It is warm, filling and if you are craving comfort food..this is it! Plus, it is a great way to get picky eaters to eat their veggies. My sweet husband hates carrots, but I caught him standing over the casserole dish last night after dinner was over, sneaking another spoonful!

I should have taken a picture of it, it turned out really pretty, but...we devoured half of it last night!

Pictures of leftovers aren't so pretty.

Here is what you need:

4 skinless , boneless chicken breasts
1 can of jumbo buttermilk biscuits( needs to be 8 count)
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of mushroom
3 tablespoons of flour
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp celery salt
pinch of kosher salt
1 small package frozen peas
1 1/2 cups diced, cooked potatoes
1 1/2 cups diced, cooked carrots


Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350
Slice chicken into 1/4 inch strips and saute in a little bit of olive oil or non stick spray. Sprinkle with the pinch of kosher salt.
While chicken is cooking through, mix together the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl-
minus the biscuits. Those will go on top of the mixture.
Mix in cooked chicken and pour into a 9x13 baking dish.
Cut the biscuits in half so you have 16 pieces and arrange over the top of the dish.
Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Bump the heat up to 375 for the last 5 minutes so the biscuits get nice and golden and the mixture is bubbling. Make sure to let the casserole sit for at least 10 minutes so everything will thicken.

You might have to play with the time a little as I know all ovens are different.
This is seriously good and really easy to make. And if you want to be good you can use reduced fat biscuits and reduced fat cream of chicken and mushroom soups.

Make it tonight, and your family will thank you:)

Playing Housewife

Well friends,
I am now part of the un-employed- actually it is rather an interesting story. I have been in the past job for almost 5 years- publicity and promotions for movie studios. It is a great company, but the job was starting to wear on me just a tad- late nights, stress, deadlines, the usual . I had been thinking for a while that I should maybe think about searching for another career. SO I took a big step last Thursday and actually decided to pray about it. Let me tell you right now that prayer works, but be careful what you pray for!
I asked that HE would show me, make it abundantly clear, if I was supposed to be doing something else. That afternoon I was laid off!! An answer, but not quite the way I was expecting it:)
SO for now I am getting to clean the house, something I haven't really been able to do in a long time, updating my resume, searching for my new career and reaching out to friends I haven't talked to in a long time.
I'm getting to take time to cook, read and really for the first time in a long time, de-compress.
I think my dogs are the happiest that I am home, no one has chewed, peed or otherwise destroyed the house because we are not here:)
I am actually really excited about the next step in life. I know that God is completely in control and HE has been so faithful to both Ryan and I. We are in his hands and I am excited to start this new chapter in life.
By the way in discovering yummy new things to cook, I think I'll post a few recepies here on our blog.
Tonight- Salmon- yumm.
I think I'll do a soy/brown sugar glaze
Mashed new potatos, french green beans and something citrus for dessert- maybe lemon cream pie!
I'm off to the store!

SNOW DAY!!!!

It snowed here in Dallas today!

I got to work from home, so that means, I got to see the girls play in the snow!

Lilly and Dixie both seem to love it- in short little snippits, then the are ready to come back in and warm up!

To be quite honest, I'm actually really glad I got to stay home today. I was able to get a BUNCH of work done and still had time to do some much needed housework. I could get used to this!!

End of 2009

Well I suppose if Mr & Mrs Williams can finally update their blog then so can we. You know it has been a while when you have to go back and catch up with what you wrote just so you know where to begin. Well to sum it all up we have been busy. Spend Thanksgiving weekend down at the farm with a stinky skunk who decided that he wants to live under the house. Dixie had a great time getting to explore all that is the farm and gave a curious effort to get into the tank, maybe next time. December was full of events mainly our Home Team Christmas Chili Cook-Off Party where I might have committed myself to one session of Bikram Yoga.




Here is a picture of our Hometeam

For Christmas Day we had some friends and Heidi's folks over for a Christmas brunch and then kicked everyone out so we could take a Christmas nap after putting away a couple of cinnomon rolls, pancakes, & breakfast casserol. Due to scheduling conflicts we had our Headley Christmas with Heidi's folks and her brother and his family on Sunday but we all had some left over Christmas Cheer so fun was had by all.

Oh and we were bums for New Years Eve...

I know this was kind of random but Heidi is the writer in the family and there is to much to cover for my abilities.

Have a great 2010!

NEW FURRY KID

Well we did it, We finally broke down and got our dog Lilly a new sister to play with. After months of talking about it, searching shelters and rescue groups and everything else, we finally found our new, sweet, little puppy.

OK, so she is an almost 70 lb 10 month old Rottweiler puppy, but she is still a puppy none the less:)

Her name is Dixie. She and Lilly are very sweet with each other; are completely

inseparable and LOVE to play, running around the house, and into walls and sliding around on our hardwoods. Every once in a while we will hear a "kathunk" and one of them has managed to crash through our bedroom door that has never closed properly. Doggie bowling any one?

Dixie still has a lot of growing up to do and Lilly lets her know when she has had enough of the boundless energy a puppy, or in this case miniature pony of a dog, has!

Dixie is learning what is and is not hers to chew on.

Most recently I caught her lumbering down the hall with one of my Steve Madden shoes in her mouth. Hoping to rescue it from the attention only a puppy can give to a shoe, I called her and she brought it straight to me when she saw me, she was so proud, tail wagging. I however, was not. The back of the heel was completely chewed off. So long to my animal print flats.

She also likes to take items out of our dirty clothes basket and hide them in various places all over the house. I woke up a couple days ago and discovered she had carried a pair of Ryan's Boxers out and proudly displayed them in the middle of the living room, along with one of his shirts and a pair of socks. Seems all she was missing was the pants- oh wait she carried those into the office.

Even though she is a mess, we love her and she is here to stay. Welcome Dixie, our bear of a dog, to the McDow family!

Updates FINALLY

There have been a billion things we have done since our last update. Here is a snapshot.

Ryan celebrated his 32 birthday- I took him out to dinner at the really great restaurant that our friends Vim and Sarah recommended- 5 guys burgers and fries. Delicious, but HUGE!!! Note to anyone that wants to try them- order the Jr burger. The regular one is almost a pound of meat!!
You can see by the pictures how HUGE they are. The fries are to die for. Get a small and share. We did and still had left overs!!
















We went to Ryan's cousin's wedding ih Houston. It was a lot of fun, we had a blast with his family- Rachel and Mark took a "prom photo." Very cute:)














We had dinner with my brother Aaron and his wife and daughter. It was our niece Audry's first birthday a couple months ago and we were not able to make it to the party, so we brought Audry's birthday present for her to open. It was SO cute! I think she is a girl after my own heart, she was more interested in bag then the doll that was in it. She loved the doll too, but it was so cute to watch her walk around with the little pink bag it came in. Watch out little brother, you might just have a purse and shoe girl on your hands:)


After dinner I went upstairs and helped give her a bath. SO cute! She will kill her Aunt Heidi when she is older for this picture, but it is SOOOOO adorable. I had to put it in.





What else,
Oh yes we competed in a Triathlon last weekend in Keller TX - very fun. I think I am hooked. We don't have any pictures because I left the camera in the truck, but oh well..I looked pretty scary by the time it was over so it is probably a good thing:)
We were so exhausted and wanted to die by the time it was over, but I really enjoyed it! Ryan and I both won medals!!!
Ok, so they were completion medals, but who cares!!! We just competed in a Triathlon!!! After that we had our celebration lunch at BABES.It is the one time when I didn't feel gulity for eating fried chicken:) Our good friends Ginny and Neal Willams and my parents met us there for the celebration.

That is it for now good people, check in again soon!

Happy Birthday Taylor Made

Last Friday we celebrated our friend Taylor Made's birthday at Blue Fish. This has been a strong 4 year tradition of meeting up for sushi and T-Made birthday. Heidi and I do not eat as much sushi as we would like so this is always a special treat to get out and indulge at Blue Fish. This year our friend Amanda brought the birthday cake that she made herself. I think she has a talent here.

The cake

Ready for some sushi

Happy Birthday Taylor Made!