Whew...

Whew. The first week of school has almost come to a close. We survived. I do, however, need to have a chat with the scheduling person who decided that the first week of school should be a full 5 days. Shame. If you remember, the start of school generally fell on a Wednesday...and you had the chance to ease on in. By Wednesday of this week, my feet were begging for the weekend! I wore some really cute Target flats on Monday, that apparently made the heel out of plastic, so now I have some rockin' blisters on my heels. That called for me to pull out my new best friends...these shoes...

My school has a pretty strict 'no flip flop' policy, so I'm banking on these to get me thru the year! I even the slides in navy too, so I am covered!

Moving on...I was super proud of myself for cooking Monday thru Wednesday...I boycotted tonight, because Joe had a scrimmage so we went to that. Monday I made a ridiculously yummy new recipe. I found it on Kelly's mom's blog: His Door Keeper. It's called a Chicken Enchilada Ring, and if you're a fan of crescent rolls, then this is for you!!

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked chicken
1/4 cup chopped block olives
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 small can chopped chilies, undrained
1/2 cup sour cream
1 package taco seasoning
2 rolls of crescent rolls
1 small chopped tomato
1 lime (juice)
2/3 cup finely crushed tortilla chips

Directions:

1. Chop chicken and add olives, cheese, chilies, sour cream and taco mix. Seed and chop 1 tomato and add 2 tablespoons lime juice; add to chicken mixture. Reserve 2 Tblsp. crushed chips and add remaining chips to mixture.


2.Unroll crescent dough and separate triangles. Arrange on round baking stone or cookie sheet making a circle with wide ends OVERLAPPING in the center and points toward outside. ( I did lightly spray oil on the cookie sheet I used). There should be a 5 inch diameter opening in the center.

3. Spread chicken mixture evenly onto widest end of each triangle.

4. Bring points of triangles up and over filling and tuck under wide ends of dough at the center of the ring.

Sprinkle with 2 Tblsp. crushed chips. ( I put shredded cheese all on top!)

5. Bake @ 375 for 20-25 minutes. Garnish with tomato and serve with salsa and sour cream.

Seriously, make this. You won't regret it! Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

T minus 2 days!

School starts on Monday! Whoa, where'd the time go?! We've gotten back into our normal routine of getting up early, dropping Joe off at school, Trey and Em heading to Grammie's, and me to school. Fun times!

This weekend we have our coaches get together, in which I'm taking all of the family pictures. Should be a fun time...except for the whole 110 degree heat index. Seriously?

OH, I actually cooked 3 days in a row! Write. that. down. It may never happen again.

I want to share the recipes, they were yummy! Head on over to Missy's blog to get the recipe for the Chicken Pesto Penne bake. It was FABULOUS. Makes a ton. You can freeze it. Serve it with a salad and some bread, and call it a day.

Another one I made Wednesday night, and it was seriously done in 20 minutes. The entire dinner. Not joking. Here's the recipe for that:

Savory Pork Chops

You'll need:

• 4 boneless pork loin chops (3/4-inch thick and 4 ounces each)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 3/4 cup beer or nonalcoholic beer
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions:

1. Sprinkle both sides of pork chops with salt and pepper.
2. Add oil to skillet, and add pork chops.
   
3. Combine: beer, ketchup, brown sugar. Stir together and pour over pork.
4. Let simmer for about 20 minutes. Flipping periodically to cook evenly.
   

I served these over brown rice, and spooned the extra sauce over the meat. Add your favorite veggie or salad and you're all done!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Welcome Home!

Today we went to help welcome home the 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat team. Wow. I took my camera because I knew I wanted to help document this day for these families. I was in the right place at the right time when a gentleman asked me if I'd share my images with him. He was there with his camera, because he works for a local magazine. He invited me to tag along with him because he had press rights to go on stage. I had a first hand look at these amazing men and women who serve our country and sacrifice themselves and time with their family on a daily basis. What an inspiration. I sized the images down to fit on my photo blog, so head over here to go check them out.

I think everyone needs to add this to their bucket list. Go. You won't regret it!

Get Gone...

When I say, "Get Gone!", I'm talking to the germs in my house that have taken over Trey and Emery. Friday, I had Emery at the doctor and she has croup. Yesterday had us back to the doctor with Trey. Not quite croup, but a nasty upper respiratory infection. I LOVE our doctor, have I said that before? While most doctors would have taken the 'viral' croup and said to just ride it out...go ahead and let out that 'sigh' every time the doctor tells you that. Not my doctor. We are stocked up with some meds and trying to turn the corner before we go back to work on Monday. Hence the reason there is not.a.picture to post today...sorry. Joe got me a new 'hood' for my lens, so maybe while we are cooped up today I will break it in.

I am really looking forward to Friday night, Joe's school has a tradition to finish off two-a-days. They have a 10:30 p.m. pep rally that night, and then head straight out to the practice field for an inter-squad scrimmage. The community fills the gym and it is just fun to watch. Have no fear, my camera will make it there...thanks to Mimi who is going to come hang out with the kids while they sleep, so I can go solo. Woo hoo!

I'm also excited to do some back to school shopping this weekend, but I'm afraid I can't beat my deals from last week. I went to JCPenney and no lie got the following for $50: pair of jeans, 5 shirts for me, a polo for Joe, and a shirt for Trey. How? The jeans and like 3 of the shirts were....wait for it.....$1.67 a piece! What? Yep. For a bargain hunter like me...that was the BEST.

That is enough rambling for one post, stay tuned for some pictures in the near future.

A New Recipe...

Since I'm friends with several of y'all on Facebook I won't bore you with all of our beach pictures from this weekend...you can however, go check a few out over here.

I made a new recipe last night, and t got a thumbs up from my crew and I thought I'd share it. I found it over at Skinnytaste.com...There are bunches of recipes on there I want to try! We had the Asian Glazed Drumsticks. It was VERY easy and a lot of the ingredients you probably already have on hand.

Click HERE to go check it out and try it. YUM. We just had those with a salad and were FULL.

Sorry for the short post, but not much happenin' at the Owens' residence since Joe is back on the field full time. I am ready for the Fall to get started...you know what that means....craft shows!! :)