Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake

I was browsing around Pinterest earlier this week and found this recipe for a cheesy chicken and rice bake and thought to myself that it looked pretty good. So I repinned it and decided instead of waiting to make it I was gonna make it this week! So I bought the ingredients and cooked it last night. I was a little apprehensive about whether I was going to like it or not because I'm kind of a picky eater and it had a different smell while it was cooking but it was delicious!! And healthy, too! I love it when I find a yummy new recipe that both Collin and I like.

2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
4 cups Cooked Brown Rice
¾ cups Frozen Corn
15 ounce Can Black Beans, Drained And Rinsed
1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt (or Sour Cream)
4 ounces, fluid Can Green Chilis
½ cup Salsa
1 cup Low-fat Cheddar Cheese, Plus More For Topping
2 Tablespoons Fresh Cilantro For Garnish

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except for cilantro and mix thoroughly to combine. Make sure the yogurt and cheese are stirred in throughout the entire bowl. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Transfer to an oven-safe dish and top with extra cheese if you would like. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until heated through. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

I actually used a can of chicken - it was MUCH easier and quicker. Though next time I cook it I'm going to put my chicken breasts in the crock pot in the morning to cook and then all I'll have to do is shred it before mixing it in when I go to bake this in the evening.

This made A LOT of food so if it's just two of you eating it, you might want to halve the recipe. As you can see it filled a full 13x9 casserole dish and we only ate maybe 1/8 of it for dinner since it's so filling. So we have lots of leftovers. Good thing we enjoy leftovers! Let me know if you make it and what you think!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

This is just a typical evening at home. Sitting on the couch in comfy clothes with slippers on. And we're either playing something on the PS3 or watching something via Netflix on the PS3. =) I love our everyday "routine".

Cindy

Instagram Weekend

This weekend was quite delightful! I had Friday off from work so my weekend started Thursday night! And Collin took me on a date to Outback courtesy of a gift card from his manager! We had a delightful date night and the food was sooo yummy! Friday was a good and gorgeous day. It got up into the mid 60's! I got to go by church and change the decorations in our worship space from Christmas to winter which was pretty fun. It's neat being able to decorate our worship space and make it beautiful for everyone. And I went to Target and printed out a bunch of photos from my phone. Then Collin and I had a nice lazy evening at home and it was delightful!

Saturday was even more gorgeous than Friday was!!

I want to move somewhere where it's always like it was this weekend. It was perfect! It actually hit 70 (according to my car) on Saturday. I spent the afternoon on Saturday with my sister. We hung out at her apartment since both our husbands work on Saturdays and we watched a movie (Morning Glory, so good!) and a half (we started From Prada to Nada but never finished it because Kaity thought it was boring) and we made ice cream sundaes. Which included needing a trip to the store for all the stuff to make them, including the ice cream! I so wish I had of gotten a picture of our fun afternoon but I just didn't snap any. =(

Saturday night Collin and I went over to our friends Butch and Donna's house. We spent some time chatting and we played a game of Words of Wizdom. So fun. We had a great time with them but we stayed over too late and we were all running a little late for church the next morning. Oops!

Sunday consisted of church which was great! Then afterwards Collin and I got to go to the thrift store and I got a new brown courdoroy skirt from Old Navy for 5 dollars, a cute Christmas tin for 10 cents and a photo album for my iPhone photos for only 50 cents! I would say we had a successful trip to the thrift store! We then went home and had lunch then snuggled on the couch and planned games for youth group.

Then we took a nice nap on the couch. Apparently I was snoring? haha I don't snore so it must have been how I was laying. The best part was Collin waking up and needing to go to the bathroom but his left leg was asleep so he literally crawled to the bathroom dragging his leg along. So funny!

After our nap we decided we wanted to go frisbee golfing before youth group and we had a great time! We didn't play the full course because it was nearing dusk but we played 8 holes. 1-4, 7-9 and 17. So random but the way the course is set up it worked for us to skip 5 and 6. And they changed where hole 17 is (it was very out of kilter and didn't make sense where it was before now it's great!) so we wanted to try out the new 17 layout!

The sunset while we were at the park was so neat! There were lots of colors and I love the way it looked on the horizon behind all the trees. And I especially love the silhouette that the trees make with the sun behind them!

We had a good time at youth group and we played a game with the kids called Pictionary Down the Lane (or Telephone Pictionary) which is something we used to play in college all the time (SO MUCH FUN!) and Collin facilitated and I actually got to play to make the numbers even. It was fantastic. The group I was with came up with some fun phrases and the drawings were so funny! The kids really seemed to enjoy themselves. I love our group of middle schoolers and fifth graders. They are such a fun group and I am so glad and blessed to be one of their leaders!

After we got home from youth group we caught the last little bit of the Steelers vs. Broncos game and I must admit, I was glad the Broncos won! It was a close game. We started watching right after the Steelers tied it up. I'm not a football fan and I don't watch it regularly at all, like I watch the Super Bowl and that's it but Collin's dad had it on and we were interested in watching the Steelers potentially lose so we were happy when they did! While watching I got to eat a very delicious box of chocolates that Collin's boss gave me for Christmas!

Anyway, it was a wonderful weekend! Sorry I haven't yet posted my recap of 2011 post yet. I keep making empty promises about posting it so I'm not going to promise I'll post it this week but I sure do hope to have it posted this week! So keep your eyes out for it! I hope you had a wonderful weekend like I did! May your week be filled with lots of fun and blessings!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Just wanted to share a few more Christmas-y pictures with you all that I took yesterday. When I walked in the door from work I got inspired to snap a few shots of my in-law's Christmas tree from the foyer and then one from the entrance to the living room before heading down to our little basement apartment.

Also, I promise my recap will come tomorrow. It's tough gathering up all the pictures from the last year in one spot. I was going to do it last night to post today but I decided I'd rather watch a movie with my husband after praise band practice. =)

Cindy