Dinner Time

Tonight I made dinner, which usually isn't anything to write a blog about, but tonight is special because the meal I made I semi invented it all by myself. I am not really a big experimenter in the kitchen, which is to say that I don't just start throwing stuff together and watch what happens. I always have a recipe and I follow it exactly (at least the first time). Tonight though was not the case and I wanted to share the amazing recipe with my readers (which I think is only about 2, so Chris and Kelly if you try it I hope you like it too).

A side note before I begin: When I said "semi" a minute ago what I meant was that I found a recipe on allrecipes.com which gave me the idea for what I made, and I went from there.

My Recipe (Maybe we should call it, Pasta-Chicken-Vegi Goodness)

1ish pound of chicken
A smidge bit of vegetable oil (or other type of oil) for cooking chicken
Pepper
1lb box of rotini pasta
1 bag of mixed vegetables, frozen(We used broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots since my kids like all of those)
1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 ish can of milk (by can I mean use the soup can)
2 cups of cheese

Instructions for Cooking
1. Thaw chicken; While the chicken is thawing cook the pasta as directed on the box.
2. When the chicken is thawed cut chicken into cubes and cook in a skillet until about 3/4 of the chicken is cooked on the outside. Sprinkle pepper on the cooking chicken (as much as you want).
2.5 When the pasta has about 3 minutes left to cook pour the whole bag of mixed, frozen vegetables in to the pot with the pasta. Obviously stir. When the pasta is finished cooking drain the whole thing and set aside until the chicken is finished.
3. When 3/4 of the chicken is cooked on the outside pour the soup and milk in with it, into the skillet. (When I made mine I didn't drain any of the water out of the pan, so I just let it boil a little longer. Also, I mixed the soup and milk together before I poured it into the chicken)
4. Let the chicken/soup continue to cook for about 5 minutes on Med/High heat; until the chicken is finished or the soup isn't as thin. Stir regularly.
5. At 5 minutes dump the cheese into the chicken and stir until it is melted and mixed thoroughly. (Be careful here, the cheese might burn if you are stirring consistently)
6. When the chicken is finished and the cheese is melted pour the whole pan over the pasta and vegetables and mix together.
7. Serve.

The whole dish from start to finish maybe took 30 minutes and what is even better my kids LOVED it. (I don't know about Rob though he was out tonight)

Well, I am just so proud of my accomplishment tonight I had to tell someone. I hope that you think it sounds as yummy as I think it is and that you try it too. Enjoy!

Exciting stuff!

This is my second'ish blog about things that I have found online and i am not making it a trend or anything it just has happened. But I wanted to share this picture, which I am sure everyone has seen, anyway. When I see the picture it kind of makes me really happy. Which isn't to say that I think that everything is going to be better because Barack Obama is our soon-to-be president, its just to say that how exciting is it that instead of 5 old, white guys standing in a line smiling it 4 old, white guys and 1 tall, youngish, black guy. Just thought I would share that thought, even though I don't think my words are saying all that the picture means to me.

Young Love

I found this story on the BBC's website, I thought someone else might enjoy it as much as I do.

Child Elopers' Africa Plan Foiled

Enjoy!

God's Insights

I'm sitting in my office getting ready for a meeting with my workers in the nursery which really has been planned for about a month but I did ZERO planning for it until Monday... OH the Holidays. And I thought to myself, "Yeah, Alicia, you may have all the t's crossed and the i's dotted, but have you every asked God to help you with this meeting? Maybe that is why you aren't feeling ready or why you didn't start working on the meeting until THIS week." So, I took a moment to say a little prayer. After I prayed I decided that I wanted to open my meeting up with a short little "devotional" and I turned to my bookshelf and grabbed a book I have had for a while and have yet to open it... Inside was some great words. The book is Leadership Essentials for Children's Ministry by Craig Jutila and the first two pages had what I was looking for and out of my pen came an entire page of words I want to say. They weren't just words though they were like little answers to prayers I have said about my lack of enjoyment in working in a church that sometimes seems to focus on procedures and guidelines instead of spreading Jesus' love or even, as it seems to me, relying on God and the work he has set out for us to do. 

So, now I am ready and feeling renewed and excited about getting started!!

THANK GOD!!!