Chicken and Biscuit Bake Recipe!

Being a military spouse, I am often separated from my husband. One thing I struggle with when he is away is quick and easy recipes for me and the kids. We have two kids, one 11 years and one 3 years...

my 3 year old is ridiculously picky (he was tube fed for his first 1.5 years of life and has been a picky eater ever since we weaned him off his feeding tube) I hate cooking a big elaborate meal when I

know only my 11 year old and I will be eating it. But I also don't want to get greasy unhealthy

fast food all the time. So when I find a great, quick recipe, I like to share it for other busy moms!

This may not be the picture of health, but it sure beats drive through food hands down!

Chicken and Biscuit Bake

Ingredients:

1 small can condensed cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups cooked chicken 

(I LOVE keeping a rotisserie chicken in the fridge for an easy chicken fix in recipes like these! Even better is that I get 2-3 recipes worth out of one chicken)

1/2 stick of butter (next time I'll use less, I don't find it necessary)

frozen peas 

3 TBS milk

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 can refrigerated biscuits

I mixed all the ingredients (except for cheese and biscuits) up directly in my baking dish... (next time I will melt the butter first)

Next just stir it up.....

Top it with cheese and biscuits....

Bake @ 375 for 35 minutes

I personally would have liked it a bit more heated through, it was hot but not piping hot. So next time I will bake it without the biscuits for 10 minutes and then pull it out of the oven, put the biscuits on and bake for another 35 minutes.

Dont be alarmed if your biscuits regular cook time is only 10 minutes or so, I was worried the biscuits would burn but they didn't... they cooked perfectly (pictured above)

It was really delicious! You could add other veggies to it if you want too...

ENJOY!

Christmas Teacher Gift {Pretzel-Kiss Buttons}

Today I threw together a very inexpensive, but super cute Christmas gift for my daughters teacher.

I started in the dollar section of Target and picked up this adorable little paint can and some Christmas ribbon (the little spool of ribbon was in the dollar section as well). Then I strolled over to the Christmas section and grabbed a bag of peppermint Hershey Kisses and a bag of Christmas colored M&Ms...next I grabbed a bag of pretzels and headed home to make these cute little pretzel-kiss buttons (yummy) and put them into the little paint can. I then printed out that adorable little gift tag on the front of my can (pictured below) and hot glued it on.

http://www.miniurl.com/s/2HC

^^That is the link to print out the free little gift tag^^

Lastly, I cut the ribbon and tied it around the handle of the can. 

Easy, right? And so stinkin' cute!

To make the pretzel-kiss buttons:

First, preheat your oven to 185.

Lay your pretzels out on a baking sheet covered in foil (for easy cleanup)

and top each one with a Hershey Kiss

Bake them for about 5 minutes, watching them carefully. They should look like the photo below when they are ready... shiny and melted down just a tad.

Then, carefully push an M&M into each one.

I really love the finished product, cute and thoughtful but inexpensive. 

This gift only cost me about $11 and I have tons of extra pretzels for my kids to snack on!

Our Elf has arrived!

Last year was our first year with Clyde, our Elf on the Shelf.

At the time we had just moved to Virginia due to a military move and were in a hotel for Christmas.

Needless to say, we didn't have much fun with Clyde... but I tried my best!

This year, Clyde is going to get into lots of mischief around our house! 

This year Santa shipped Clyde to us, with a sweet letter about the naughty and nice list...

about forgiveness and Jesus and Christmas.

I picked my son up from preschool and Clyde was sitting on the doorstep in a box.....

Cole *loves* getting mail, so he was absolutely thrilled to see a box on the doorstep.

When I told him it was from Santa, he freaked out in excitement!

It's nice to relive the magic and wonder of Christmas through my three year olds eyes.

His sister will see Clyde when she gets home, although she knows the truth about

Santa... she plays along for her little brother. 

She's a great big sister... and threatening her with her life helped her keep the secret too!! hahaha ;-)

Have fun with your Elf on the Shelf antics this year... please do share all your ideas!

Making your Elf on the Shelf posable

Last year, I had the hardest time posing our Elf, Clyde! I couldn't figure out how people got theirs to sit and pose...mine kept flopping over when I would try and pose him. But this year I fixed my elf so he can pose too! Excuse the camera phone photos but I'm sick and sitting in bed doing this...lol. So yes, that's my comforter in the photos as well!

And totally off topic, but I haven't blogged in a YEAR! My last blog post was last Christmas that we spent in a hotel due to a military PCS (permanent change of station) It's been a busy year but I am back... :)

What you'll need:
Floral wire
Wire cutters
Needle nose pliers
Needle and thread
Seam ripper
Small piece of Velcro

(I had floral wire but no wire cutter or pliers... So I improvised. Not the safest to cut the wire with a box cutter (please be careful if you do that!! I don't recommend it) but it worked. I also couldn't find my Velcro but will add it later)

So first, you'll take your elfs hand and rip a stitch or two like so....

Then you'll take your floral wire (don't cut it yet) and bend the tip so it doesn't rip through the fabric... Insert it and mark it where you need to cut it. Then loop/bend the tip of the other side too and insert it. Then just sew it up! Do this on both arms and repeat on the legs. Some legs have stitching at the bend of the Elfs knee so just rip a stitch or two there as well if the wire won't go through.

Lastly, take a very very small piece of Velcro and sew it to each hand so your Elf can open and close his hands!

Viola... All done! Easy, right?
Enjoy your Elf this Christmas!
Ours is being shipped to us from Santa this year with a letter to my children about being good, forgiveness and Jesus.

Oh Christmas Treeeee- Xmas in a hotel!

Sorry I've been MIA, it's been crazy in my life right now! We have made it to Quantico, VA.. Our new home thanks to the Marine Corps. I've been pretty stressed with the move, this makes two cross country moves in 9 months and 3 schools for our daughter.

Right now we are living in a hotel and waiting for base housing. It could take up to THREE months. So, Christmas is taking place in a hotel and I'm trying to make the best of it. We have set up a teeny Christmas tree in the room and I'm trying to think of things we can do with the kids to make Christmas special this year even though we are homeless...lol... Any ideas?

Here's a picture of Chrissy the Christmas tree! Yes, we named her. :)

Another ah-mazing recipe!

Doesn't this photo look disgusting? It's a little messy looking but I assure you this recipe is tha bomb!!
Yes, I just said "tha bomb."
It's that good.
Its also ridiculously easy! (and cheap!)
So get your crock pot out and get ready to rock.

Take 2 chicken breasts, they can be FROZEN, how awesome is that?
Throw them in a crock pot, throw a can of black beans (drained) on top, throw a can of corn (drained, I don't use corn cause my husband hates it) on next, then dump a 15oz jar of your favorite salsa and cook on
High for 3 hours, or low for about 5. Once it's cooked, take the chicken out and shred it (I use two forks and shred it easily), return it to the crock pot. Sprinkle some cumin, garlic powder and a tad bit of chili powder on and then throw an 8 oz package of cream cheese on top. Cover and let the cream cheese melt (about 15 mins). Once melted stir it up and serve over rice or on warm corn tortillas, it's even good eaten by itself.

Super easy, majorly yum!!

Picture overload from my daughter Halloween party!

I just realized I never finished this blog! Even though it's almost Christmas... I'll share it! Haha

Good evening! I'm off soon to a haunted house with some friends but they are running late so while I wait I figured I'd share some pictures from my daughters Halloween party last night! It was SO fun!
Unfortunately a lot of her friends couldn't attend because there was a football game, a fall festival, free pumpkin patch for us military folk and the schools dance at the same time. Go figure. I definitely didn't plan that one well, had no idea all that was going on as well! It was still a hit, even with just a few kids. And I can just say that I'm not exactly disappointed that more didn't show because it was absolutely chaotic with the ones that did show! lol
Since I'm on my phone I can't explain each photo but I'll say I got most everything from Dollar Tree and made the decorations myself. The spider topiary, Barbie parts and fake hand in jars with red colored water, cupcakes, glowing jars (break a glow stick and pour into jar... I hot glued the lids down so the kids couldn't open them) etc... All made by me! :) not to toot my own horn or anything...Bahaha