Chicken & Broccoli Casserole

This is one of my absolute favorite, easy dinners to make! I was first introduced to it when a wonderful woman from church brought us dinner after having a baby (I'm so glad ladies from church traditionally do that, by the way). It's just so creamy & flavorful, and I'm sure it's not low fat, but... use fat free sour cream and skim milk cheese to make yourself feel better. It's also very kid friendly- Sawyer eats it right up, enthusiastically! I should note: you actually have to enjoy chicken, broccoli, & croutons, to enjoy this dish. Approximate prep time: 30 min. Cook time, 30 min.

RECIPE:

2 lbs chicken breast, cooked & cubed (bite sized)
16 oz. bag chopped frozen broccoli, cooked & drained
8 oz. sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar
3 T. butter or margarine
1 bag/small box caesar croutons (as many as desired, it's just the topping)

***In 9x13 pan layer the cooked chicken & broccoli. In small bowl combine soup, sour cream, & half of the cheese. Spread mixture over chicken & broccoli.

In small microwavable container melt butter/margarine. Add croutons and toss to coat. Sprinkle croutons over casserole. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. COVER WITH FOIL, and bake at 350* for about 1/2 hour (if you're refrigerating it and heating it later, double heating time). Uncover last 5-10 minutes to brown croutons.

NC Fort Fisher Aquarium!

I finally got out of the house! I even drove the car! It's great to be alive again. Food tastes amazing. It's like a blind person getting their sight back (well, on a small scale). Even the chicken salad on wet, soggy, cheap bread I had for lunch at the aquarium tasted phenomenal.

Sawyer and I had an amazing day at the GORGEOUS Fort Fisher Aquarium. If you've looked at a map of our area of NC, it's about a 20 mile long peninsula going southward into the Atlantic. This aquarium is down on the very TIP of the peninsula, surrounded by water, and it's absolutely stunning! I can't believe it hasn't gotten wiped out by hurricanes, now that I think about it...

Here's your mini-tour of the aquarium:

Box turtle lunch time!

They have an amazing, huge "touch tank", full of things that can be touched (crabs, shells full of creatures to flip over, star fish, other anemone type creatures). These are horse shoe crabs:

The under side of a horse shoe crab (we could touch it... it just feels like fingernails tapping against you):

MONSTER lobsters! This isn't the touch tank anymore...

Their ocean tank is 30 feet deep and absolutely GORGEOUS! Look at the size of these windows compared to Sawyer at the bottom! They're full of sharks, monster sting rays, eels, and other huge sea creatures. We must've sat at these two huge windows for half an hour or more.

Another view of the ocean tank from around the corner, this is a concave circular window into it (with a diver in there this time, coming over to say hi):

We got a great shot of the octopus in action:

Banana Bread!

So, I had 3 bananas turning brown on the counter, and lo and behold, that's the exact number you generally need for banana bread. Even with being sick, I thought I'd give baking a try, and I'm glad I did! I've made this recipe once before, and it's SO GOOD I definitely thought it was worth sharing (and easy)! Throw out your old banana bread recipes, this one's taking over for moistness, sweetness, gooeyness....

3/4 C. Butter
1 & 1/2 C. Sugar
1 & 1/2 C. Bananas, smashed (3)
2 Beaten Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 C. Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 C. Buttermilk (I actually just have used the fattiest milk I have on hand at the time, but I'm guessing this original buttermilk that it calls for is a tad better)

***Cream butter & sugar. Blend in bananas. Add eggs & vanilla. Sift dry ingredients in separate bowl, and then add to mixture alternating with milk. Bake in 2 greased loaf pans for 1 hour.***

Memories!

Well, I'm still pretty sick. It's wonderful because my mom is here to help take care of me & Sawyer for 9 days! But, since I still haven't been out doing anything to blog about, I'm going to use a new blog idea my friend Laura had on hers. Here's how it works:

MEMORIES:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory about me, or that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

More to it than we thought...

So, you all know that I had the flu, and then I was dehydrated... but even after those things were wrapped up, I continued to be sick. Turns out there's something more serious going on: I have, what the doctors call, a BABY on the way! Due February 11th (Sawyer's birthday is February 12th)! This will inevitably be a c-section like the first, so the baby will probably be pulled out a week or two before the due date (more like Joe's birthday, January 29th). We'll be a family of 4 with all of our birthdays within 2 weeks of each other! Hope we can afford all those birthday parties right after Christmas!

Seriously, we feel extremely blessed. I always wanted kids 3 year apart (it didn't have to be THIS literally, but still, how cool is it to get what you ask for)! The only hard thing is being so extremely sick with this pregnancy. I wasn't that sick with Sawyer (sickness would always clear up by lunch), so the doctors were a little concerned, checking for other problems. They didn't find anything, but I did have the "comfort" of being told one theory could be that it's "multiples". Ahh! Well, the ultrasound that falls around 20 weeks will be the end of September, so check back then! For now, I'm just taking all of the meds and supplements that the doctor gave me, and hoping and praying that this sickness wraps up at the end of the first trimester (end of this month-ish).

Sick

If you've noticed it's been awhile since I posted, it's not because I got behind, it's because I haven't done anything! About 2 1/2 weeks ago I got really sick, knocked out on the couch nauseous, crazy migraines, no appetite, dizzy, etc... I tried to wait it out thinking it was just a bad bug (people sometimes just get sick, you know?), but when I was still sick a week and a half later, I finally gave in and went to a doctor here. His best guess was that it was the flu, because I still had a temp & the blood tests showed that I was really dehydrated. It's been another week since the doctor, and I'm still dealing with it a little bit, but generally feel much better. We finally got me showered & out of the house last night and went to a park.

Joe has been the best husband in the world, turning into a poor single parent for 2 1/2 weeks! He did nearly all of the housework while I was knocked out, and took care of Sawyer from the second he came home in the evenings up through bed time. He had to make his own meals, and go to the dreaded grocery store several times. He even took Sawyer out to play nearly every evening to make sure Sawyer was able to have some fun each day (like playing at home alone while your mom is laying on the couch sick isn't fun?). He even learned how to use the dishwasher and the washer & dryer! Joe, I'm a lucky girl to have you!!!