Chicken & Broccoli Rice Casserole

This is one of the more complicated recipes I've made recently only because it requires several different moving parts and pans to cook the chicken, broccoli and rice separately before assembling the casserole but it's worth the few extra dishes. Chicken & Broccoli Rice casserole it a great recipe for the Fall and can feed 8 to 10 people.



Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cooked & chopped
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 head of broccoli
1.5 cups cooked rice
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup of milk
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 small onion, chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
2 eggs, beaten
1.5 cups shredded cheese
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper, to taste

What To Do:
1. Boil chicken breasts with poultry seasoning for 15 minutes or until cooked fully. Once chicken has cooled, cut into small bite-size pieces.
2. Cook rice according to directions on the package. I used instant brown rice to speed up the process a bit.
3. Cut broccoli florets off the stem and place in a microwave-safe bowl. Pour 1/2 cup water evenly over the broccoli and cook in microwave for 4 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 9x13 backing dish with nonstick spray.

5.  In a medium skillet, melt butter and add chopped onion and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes over medium heat. Add cream of chicken soup and whisk in the milk, flour, and eggs. Finally add 3/4 cup of shredded cheese along with salt and pepper and whisk together until smooth. Cook for another 5 minutes or until thickened.
6. In a large mixing bowl, combine cooked chicken, rice, broccoli and soup mixture and mix well with a spoon.
7. Pour mixture into baking dish, top with remainder of shredded cheese and then sprinkle panko breadcrumbs over cheese.
 8. Bake on 350 for 35 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are golden brown.

Enjoy!

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Low Key Weekend

The weekend was fairly quiet so nothing crazy to write about. We are traveling later in the week for the 3rd wedding I'm a bridesmaid in for the year so most of the weekend was spent shopping for odds and ends (sunblock, swimsuits, gifts for the bride) and organizing what to pack.

One of the things I bought the bride-to-be was this Soft Cotton Bride Sleepwear Set for under $25. I put together a whole gift bag for her with lingerie, perfumes, sleepwear and other bridal things.

On Friday I went to happy hour with some coworkers and then just relaxed at home for the rest of the evening with K and Lola, which was much needed!

On Saturday, K and I headed out to do some shopping and then had some empanadas for lunch at a small Colombian restaurant close to home.

On Saturday night I went to a charity event for the Special Olympics of Florida which I've attended for the past 5 years. The event included live music, Black Jack table games (with funny money), silent auctions, and food tastings from some of the best local restaurants. It was fun walking from tent to tent trying different tapas and I also got black jack on one my hands so I won a gift card to a local sports restaurant. It was a really fun night out with K and some of my coworkers.

 

Sunday was spent relaxing, blogging, food prepping and packing for our trip. I also tried out this Triple Cream Brie with Wild Mushrooms from Trader Joe's which is amazing with pita chips! If you like mushrooms and brie cheese then I definitely recommend it.

How was your weekend? Linking up with the lovely Biana.

Friday Weekly Recap

I'm excited Friday and the weekend are here but I have to say this week was a pretty good one. You don't hear me say that too often because I'm, more often than not, overwhelmed and stressed out about work. But things this week just went smoothly and my stress-level had a chance to run normally.

The best part about this week was celebrating Kerri's birthday yesterday with the ladies after work. We met up at Parkview to have some wine flights and catch up. Fun times as always with Kate, Pamela and the birthday beauty Kerri!

Some other happenings for this week:

Tried:
I went to check it out a new Asian Boba Tea place on my lunch break. The coffee boba (which has fruit jellies at the bottom) was so amazing and I'm not kidding when I say it's better than Starbucks.

Accomplished:

The second best part about this week: passing my photography exam and becoming a certified photographer!!

Now, I just need to practice, practice, practice and learn my camera's settings 100% before I feel fully confident with my skills. 

Watched:

On Wednesday our team got to leave a little early for Back to the Future Day and head to the movies to watch the trilogy. We also had a work costume contest. Of course, I forgot to dress up. 

Ate:

I just discovered the Teriyaki Chicken bowl from Publix which is made fresh on the spot and, for only $6.99, it's a nice and affordable lunch or dinner. 

Feeling:

Loving:
Dog treats from Chewy.com have been a life saver for helping to train Lola. When she's doing something naughty like jumping on top our patio table. I just say "treats" and she'll go running to the pantry where I store them. It's probably the only way to get her to stop what she's doing because #spoiledbulldog.

Browsed:

The Loft has 50% off this week online and up to 60% in the store. Who doesn't love a good sale, especially for good quality clothing? 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Booties & Scarves

Florida has been getting it's first taste of Fall mainly at night which means it almost time to pull out our sweaters, booties and scarves. I love booties with a medium height heel and just bought the first pair of studded ankle booties in gray since I wore my other gray pair to the ground. All of these booties are under $75 and look very comfortable yet stylish. I also own a black pair like the bottom left one which I've only had a chance to wear a handful of times.

1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6

 I own several cute scarves but there's only a small window here in Florida when a thick scarf is needed so most of mine are on the lighter side but it's good to own a few of each especially for traveling to colder temp places. All of these are super cute and very affordable in the under $25 price range.

1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8 * 9 * 10 * 11 * 12

Over the next few weekends, I'll slowly be putting away the summer clothes and pulling out all the cute Fall things.

Where do you shop for affordable boots/booties, sweaters and scarves?

 

Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Sliders

I finally got around to making this Slow Cooker Shredded Buffalo Chicken Sliders recently for Sunday dinner. I've mentioned them before in this post about healthier game day recipes. This recipe also goes a long way making about 20 sliders (we had tons of leftovers for lunch during the week) so it's also perfect to make for football parties or any party/event. I also used pre-made coleslaw as a topping. Mine look a little sloppy but nevertheless the recipe was a winner in my books!

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 (12 oz.) bottle buffalo wing sauce, divided
1/2 (1 oz.) package dry ranch salad dressing mix

2 tbsp. butter
2 packs of Hawaiian sweet rolls

 Cooking spray

What To Do:

Spray crockpot with cooking spray and place chicken breasts in crockpot. Sprinkle ranch dressing evenly over chicken along with 3/4 of the bottle of wing sauce. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Once the chicken has cooked (drain any excessive liquid but keep some) use two forks to shred the chicken. Add butter and the remainder of the wing sauce to shredded chicken and mix well.

Enjoy!

Weeked Happenings

Since I was under the weather last week, this weekend was the perfect break to feel healthy again.

On Friday evening we took Lola to a doggie event hosted by her trainer from when she was a puppy. We wanted to show our faces and let Lola socialize with some other dogs for a bit.

We then met up with some friends for an impromptu dinner at Maxine's on Shine downtown. We love this place because it's dog-friendly and serves an mean brunch with live music. The bruschetta we shared as an appetizer was amazing but our dinner entrees weren't anything to rave about. We still love the relaxed, eclectic atmosphere and the owner Maxine even stopped by our table to chat for a bit.

On Saturday I spent a couple hours at the hairdresser getting highlights done. As they say beauty is pain and upkeeping my blonde highlights is definitely the most painful part of my beauty routine but thankfully I love my hairdresser and we usually spend the whole time chatting and catching up.

 On Saturday evening K and I headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios to walk around and check out a couple shows. Our season passes are expiring in November so I'm trying to hit all the parks when we have a free day here and there.

We didn't go on any rides, just browsed several shops and saw the Muppet Vision 3D show. Finally we stopped off at the Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge for some martinis and a meat & cheese plate followed by dessert. Everything was excellent!

 Sunday was all about relaxing and get my usual house cleaning, laundry, cooking and blogging done. Perfectly productive with some lazy to feel refreshed for this new week. I also finished my last online photography class module on Sunday night so now I just need to sit the exam to hopefully get certified! I've been good about doing the classes but have had little time to practice so that's my next challenge.

How was your weekend?

Five on Friday

How did this week treat everyone? I'm sure you're thankful Friday is here as I am. I got hit with a 24-hour bug on Wednesday which sucked but thankfully I was able to work from home yesterday and keep quiet. I'm feeling much better already although not 100%. So lets just say I'm more than ready for the weekend to fully recover and relax. 

 A few other bloggers already pointed it out but Trader Joe's has outdone themselves this year with pumpkin any and everything you can think of. 

ONE:

I did fall victim to the pumpkin macarons from the frozen section because I've never tasted a macaron before and always see people raving about them. So I decided to treat my team (and myself of course) to some dessert and they were worth the calories! Very sweet though as I'm more of a savory person.  

TWO:
I also bought some of the cute mini pumpkins to decorate our dining room table for Fall. I just realized that I'll be in Barbados for Halloween this year so there's no need to carve a big pumpkin plus they don't last really long outdoors in the Florida heat.

THREE:

I celebrated my 5th work anniversary this week and received the sweetest card from one of my coworkers. You know who you are! She actually reminded me it was my anniversary since I forgot the actual date.

FOUR:

Work catered Chipotle for lunch on Wednesday since our team hit a major milestone with one of the services I'm responsible for marketing. Let's just say we've built the subscriber base to over 100,000 users in 3 years.

FIVE:

We also celebrated Breast Cancer Awareness Month at work with some Pink Ribbon Bagels from Panera for breakfast. 

Joining Amanda for her Friday Faves linkup. 

Have a wonderful weekend!