Chicken Wheat-Berry Casserole

When my mom came to take care of me after E was born, we bought some wheat-berries.  She then left town and they sat there for the next two months.  She sent me recipes for things to do with them, but the ungrateful child that I am, I ignored them.  P then decided he wanted to cut out white grains/pasta from our diet as much as possible and I started thinking about those darn wheat-berries again.  Here is the recipe I ended up using them in, and it was a real winner.


Original recipe found here


Ingredients:


1 cup wheat berries
1-1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 carrots, sliced
2 cups frozen corn
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken broth
1 tp cumin
1 tp salt
1/4 tp pepper
1 Tb cornstarch
1/4 cup water

Directions:

1. Rinse wheat berries and drain well. Cut chicken into 1-½” pieces and combine with remaining ingredients, except for cornstarch and ¼ cup water, in a 4- to 5-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours or until wheat berries are tender and chicken is cooked.

2. In small bowl, combine cornstarch and water and blend well. Add to casserole in slow cooker, cover, and cook on high for 20 to 30 minutes until thickened, then stir again and serve.

Why I need a mandolin

Last Tuesday, P and I made zucchini pasta for dinner.  It turned out delicious, I simply blanched the zucchini for about 10-30 seconds and served it with spaghetti sauce and Parmesan cheese.  However, I sliced 4 zucchinis extremely thin by hand.  This took forever!  I would love to make this dish again, however I refuse to until I have a mandolin.  Isn't it beautiful?

Quinoac and cheese

I've mentioned before my addiction to pinterest.  Now combine that with the fact that I'm slightly OCD and I'm always looking for better ways to organize things.  Imagine my surprise when I realized that pinterest is not perfect!  sometimes, the links for recipes that I've made are broken the next time that I go to make that recipe, so disappointing.  So, I am going to continue to steal other peoples recipes, but I'm going to put them in my blog with a link to theirs, but also write it out so I don't lose it!
Here is my first one, I made this last night with rave reviews from P, meaning he would at least eat it again.


Quinoac and cheese  (original recipe found here)

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained

2 chicken breasts

garlic salt

pepper

2 Tablespoons flour

1-1/2 cups 2% milk, divided

2 green onions, sliced

1/3 cup Franks buffalo Sauce

1-1/2 cups + handful of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Bring 3 cups water to a boil.  Add quinoa and return to boil, then reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 12-15 minutes or until water is absorbed.  Let sit for 10-15 minutes.

2. Preheat broiler.Season chicken breast on both sides with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper, and cook in a non-stick sprayed skillet over medium heat until cooked all the way through. Chop into bite-sized pieces and set aside.

3. Whisk together flour and 1/2 cup milk in a separate saucepan over medium heat. Pour in remaining milk, and green onions. Switch to a spatula and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, then cook for one minute while boiling.

4. Remove the pan from the heat then add in buffalo sauce and cheddar cheese. Stir until the cheese is completely melted then add in cooked quinoa and chicken, and stir to combine.

5. Pour into a non-stick sprayed casserole dish and top with handful of cheddar cheese. Broil for 5-7 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown and sauce is bubbly.

Three Months!

You aren't going to believe this, our little E is three months old!  So much has happened.  she has started to smile so much more, and she makes this little giggle sound in the back of her throat.

The brace has come off now during the day.  She will still have to wear it at night for the next month or so, but she is so much happier during the day now, kicking out on her back for 20-30 minutes at a time.

She is also, thankfully, sleeping through the night now!  Sometimes, she goes to sleep as early 6:00 and she stays asleep until 5 or so in the morning.  I'm finally feeling like myself again.  I started going to the gym again, and I feel great!  She is doing well at the gym daycare too, everyone loves her.

Our new couch

We have now been living in this house for 6 months now.  It honestly feels like just yesterday we moved in here.  This is a very exciting time in our lives with so many changes happening.  E takes up most of our time, but we have managed to work on a few household project here and there.  One room we have been slowly trying to make our own is the family room.  We had a futon in that room for the first five months and when E came, I practically lived on that thing.  Last month, we finally got a couch.  This is the first step to redoing and decorating this room.  I of course had to immediately make pillows for the couch. 

I ended up making three pillows, one for each end and one for the bend in the sectional.  The next project is to wall mount our TV and try to reduce the amount of cords below the TV.  Then comes painting!

2 months

Our little E is 2 months old today.  Today is also Mother's Day, and I had such a great day.  P watched our little bug for 3 hours while I gardened, then we spent most of the rest of the day together, it was wonderful.  E bought me some books about Mother's day and insisted we read them.  Here are the results of our 2 month photo shoot.

nursery storage

I love organizing.  I could spend all day cleaning out a closet and think it was a great day.  I love organizing E's clothes and picking out outfits, putting all of her stuff away at the end of the day, etc.  However, until recently, her dresser was her crib.  She was sleeping in the bassinet and I had nowhere else to put anything.  We needed to move her into the crib this week though, so last week I finally went through and made a dresser for her stuff...kind of.  Here is how it turned out!