Abby & Brandon’s Blog

We are working on packing up our apartment so things are getting pretty messy and the fridge is getting pretty empty…which left me to invent something for us to eat tonight.

I pulled some chicken out to thaw and figured, if anything, I could simply bake it and mix up a box of Pasta Roni. Later this afternoon, however, I got creative and “made-up” a recipe.

I used 3 chicken breasts, an egg, Italian bread crumbs, paprika, alfredo sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

Dip each of the chicken breasts in the egg then cover them in Italian bread crumbs, sprinkle a little paprika over each and bake them at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes add Alfredo sauce (however much you feel, but don’t be stingy!) and sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top. Bake another 10 minutes.

I cooked up some noodles and served the chicken over the noodles.

It was very simple and easy plus it tasted great! I’m sure I could expand on this recipe and make it fancier, but this was a great way to use the few things we have left in the house and not have to go out for more groceries!

Hope you enjoy and I will try to get back on track with my recipes next week!

I haven’t done any new recipes this last week! I started a nanny job last week but found out quickly that it wasn’t a good fit for me. This week was my last week there and I haven’t had anytime for grocery shopping or cooking so I will have to start catching up!

Brandon and I have been looking for a new home and we found one! We are moving on March 3rd into a duplex in Hopkins, MN which is just a few miles away from where we are at now. We are very excited because it is a two bedroom place with an unfinished basement! SO MUCH STORAGE!

I will be starting the packing this next week and will probably just be making meals out of the stuff we have at home in an attempt to use up as many of the perishable items that I can before the move.

Life has been up and down for us, but we are trusting God to guide us. I am now back on the job hunt and am really hoping for some direction and keeping my heart open to God’s leading. We are both so happy to be facing life and it’s challenges together.

We are heading back to Alexandria this weekend…so excited! We made a pit stop in St. Cloud because Brandon had a meeting so I am currently shivering at a Caribou thinking about finding a gas station so I can pick up some puff corn.

Until the next recipe~

Tonight I made Chow Mein Hot Dish for supper.

I just started a new job this week as a nanny and I have to get up at 5:30 and be there by 6:50. My commute is about 20 minutes…although all this snow has made it longer. I get done at 3:30, but a day with two vivacious boys (3 & 4) leaves me with little energy to want to make a big dinner. Thankfully, tonight, I had planned to make this and was well prepared with everything I needed.

The prep time on this was probably around 20 minutes. I was also talking on the phone at the same time so it could take even less if I had been concentrating.

I only made one small mistake and the hot dish tasted just fine so it didn’t affect it too much…I had my hamburger, onions, and celery all fried up and I dumped it into the casserole dish…then I realized I never drained the meat!!! We probably added on a little more fat than we needed tonight, but all things considered, it wasn’t the worst mistake.

Here is the recipe…don’t forget to drain the meat!

Chow Mein Hot Dish-

1-1 1/2# hamburger (I used 1 1/2)

2 onions-chopped

1 cup raw celery-chopped

*Brown hamburger, onions, and celery together in a frying pan

Pour this mixture into a casserole. Add 1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup, 1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup and 2 cans water. Add 1/2 c. uncooked white rice and 2 Tbls. Soy Sauce.

Bake, uncovered, for 2 hours at 350 degrees. Top with Chow Mein Noodles 1/2 hour before serving.

Bon Appetite!

The new recipe countdown continues! Well it actually continued on Friday night, but I haven’t gotten around to blogging it until now.

Friday evening’s recipe was Saucy Beef and Rice or you can use noodles. I went to noodle route for a couple reasons.

1. I am not a huge fan of rice…it is so dry

2. I have never made rice before and decided it was easier to just make noodles for this time around. I’ll attempt the rice another night.

Something I’ve always found hard with noodles is that so many recipes seem to just say “serve with noodles” or “serve over noodles”. It would be nice if they could tell me how many noodles to cook! I have yet to figure out how to guesstimate the amount of noodles I need for the amount of whatever I am making. Something else you just learn with time I guess!

I also made chocolate chip cookies last night…I have made those before, but I thought we needed something sweet in the house. I used a recipe my mother has always used and I have always loved. Somehow they just didn’t turn out like they should. Again, probably something I will just master over time, but it seemed even though I had the oven temp right, the cookies were a little too dark on the bottom and too light on the top. I was using a dark, non-stick pan which perhaps could have been part of the reason, but my mom’s pans are dark and her cookies are perfect. *sigh*

I will keep trying until I get those cookies right!!

Here is the recipe for Saucy Beef and Rice (or noodles)

1 1/2# of Round Steak

4 tbls. oil

1/4 c. water

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

3 cloves of garlic-crushed

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

1 can water

Cooked rice or noodles

Trim fat from steak and cut into cubes. In a large pot, brown steak cubes in oil. Drain fat. Add water, salt, pepper, and garlic. Simmer 1/2 hour, covered, stirring occasionally. Add soup and water. Cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Serve over rice or noodles. Makes 4 serving.

We watched Julie and Julia with my parents and brother and sister-in-law to be last weekend. Brandon and I had already watched it once, but it was fun to watch it again! Meryl Streep did such a great job.

Earlier that day I had a conversation with my mom and Mer (my brother’s soon-to-be wife) about how I am not good at cooking meals. I am a fairly good cook, most of the things I try turn out well, but I hate to go shopping for everything! It is rare that I have all the ingredients in the house and while we have a Target close by it isn’t a Super Target and has a very limited grocery selection. I also am terrible at actually coming up with something to make. When I flip through the cookbook I am uninterested in the things listed and my collection of recipes is limited and we tend to eat many of the same meals.

So, I was inspired to fix my cooking problem. I will not be cooking through Julia Child’s cookbook or any cookbook for that matter, but I am planning to fix 50 NEW recipes this year. That will be about 1 a week which at this point seems doable.

I am going to define “NEW”: “New” for this project will mean anything I haven’t made myself…I may have eaten it, but I have not made it. I did look through my Rachael Ray cookbook and picked out a few recipes I have never had before and will also try my hand at those.

Tonight was the beginning of my project…1 meal down 49 to go!

I made Tater Tot Hot Dish tonight…it was delicious and so easy!

Here is the recipe if anyone would like to try:

Brown 1# ground beef with chopped onions (it does not list how much onion…Brandon is not fond of onion so I    used 1/2 an onion for ours.) Drain. Add Salt and Pepper to taste. Put in bottom of a small roaster pan.

Drain a can of corn or green beans and layer on top of meat.

Dilute 1 can of Cream of Celery soup with 1/2 can of milk. Spoon mixture over vegetables.

Top with tater tots

Bake at 350 for 1 hr.

Enjoy!

Today was a great day. Some things were not so great but looking back over the day right now I just feel happy. Brandon was home sick today-not such a great thing. I got up at 8:30 and got ready for the day, then sat down and watched The Fox 9 Buzz and The Bonnie Hunt Show, while Brandon continued to sleep until 11:00.

Our bedroom had water damage last weekend and they have been working on it, but we slept on the air mattress in the living room last night because our room is still a little messy, hopefully we will be sleeping in there tonight.

After the TV programs were over we watched the second hour of The Bachelor on Hulu together then Brandon got himself up and ready. I figured I would finish catching up on TV so I watched Secret Life of the American Teenager…then I had some lunch.

I was going to put the air mattress away this afternoon, but Brandon still wasn’t feeling great so he had laid back down. We had The Office playing from our Netflix and we relaxed while watching a few episodes. Around 2:00 I fell asleep for 2 hours!! My body has grown used to being able to take a nap everyday…there is no way I really need as much sleep as I have been getting. Although I have used the excuse that I am sick and trying to get over it, which I am.

I woke up at 4:00 and Brandon came back to lay down (he had been up doing other things) so we watched HGTV until we left for the chiropractor.

Our nerve system now clear we came back home, I changed, and we drove downtown to meet a family looking for a nanny. We had coffee with them at Dunn Bros for an hour then we headed home. I am now back on the air mattress typing my, as I now realize, incredibly lazy day.

However lazy and useless I was today I still feel good. It was such a relaxing day and even though I wish Brandon hadn’t been sick it was fun to spend some time together and sleep in.

Tomorrow I plan to be much more productive and get myself out and about…but for now I will enjoy my time on the air mattress watching Brandon play video games and thinking about the popcorn I am planning to make.

It started out as a wonderful day. Brandon is working from home today, I have a great list of stuff to do, I am feeling ready for the day, and the Bonnie Hunt Show had Richard Simmons as it’s first guest, so I had a great laugh to start the day.
Then…
The apartment building is doing an inspection of each unit today and we aren’t supposed to store things in our furnace closet. I made note of this and this morning I made sure I took the roasting pan out of that closet (there is only so much space and that is the only good spot for the pan!). I opened the closet up and took the roasting pan, in its box, out of the closet. It was dark in the closet, but I thought I saw something on the floor. I set the pan in our bedroom out of the way and went back to the closet to inspect the “thing” on the floor.
“AHHHHHH” it was a MOUSE!! “BLECH!”
It was dead, thankfully, but it still is making me shiver! Thankfully, Brandon chose this day to be home. He cleaned it up and will be telling the inspectors when they get here.
I have to walk by this closet to get to the bathroom, bedroom, and laundry room…I really wish I didn’t have to!
I will be brave!! I will put on my shoes and have a bat in hand ready to face whatever else might come out of the furnace closet!
Or, more accurately, I will hurry past the closet when I have to go by it, and I will keep my eyes on the floor and my voice ready to scream should another “friend” decide to make a visit.