Crockpot Italian Chicken

This Recipe I got from my sister in law Christine. I am obsessed with chicken, I can eat it all day everyday and I do :) Christine got it off of an email which all and all came from a website The Girl Who Ate Everything. It kinda ends up as becoming like an alfredo/cheese sauce.

You will need:

• 4 Chicken breast (I use 2 because its just the hubby and I)
• 1 Packet of Zesty Italian dressing (I use reg italian. She says sometimes she uses a pkg and a half but I find it taste better if you use one, less of a BAM its italian dressing flavor)
• 8oz Cream cheese (block or tub, I use tub bc its cheaper here for me)
• 1-2 cans of Cream of chicken soup (taste good with cream of mushroom also)
• Noodles or rice, depending on your preference

Put chicken in crock pot and add the package of Italian dressing (dry). In a small pot on low, add the cream of chicken and cream cheese, let the soup and cream cheese melt into a creamy sauce. Make sure you constantly stir because it starts to melt fast and it burns easily. Pour over the chicken, then set crock pot on low for atleast 4 hrs. My crock pot only has one setting... on, so I leave it on for the 4 hrs and check on it. You can leave it on all day and it's still good. When the chicken is done I prefer to shred it... I try to cube it but its so tender that it ends up shredding by itself. After you cut it up, put it back in the crock pot and start your noodles or rice, then serve.

If the sauce is too thick add a little milk to taste (I've never had to, it's perfect everytime)

WA-LA! easy easy easy and very good!
Enjoy,
Love you all,

How to: distress my coffee table

   I’ve had my coffee table for about 2 years, and I bought it off of a girl I worked with for $25. She couldn’t use it because her daughter was learning how to walk so she needed a circular table. I couldn't believe that I was getting this table for so cheap, it was solid wood and pretty big. After putting it in our living room I was happy but the color was so-so and with wooden floors it washed it out. There was no stain or color on the table, just raw wood. So, I’ve been begging my husband since we got it to sand and stain it for me, Of course he never got around to it... what husband actually follows through with their "honey do-list" anyways? None :/ After 2 1/2 years I decided to take matters into my own hands.

   Our friend's mom distresses all their furniture so I asked her to give me a quick lesson on how to do it. This is a mixture of how she told me and of the YouTube videos from Beach Bum Livin aka BBL

You will need:

· Paint brushes. I use the $1 ones at Wal-Mart that are 2"

· Hand sander

· Sand paper

· Minwax PolyShades stain (it was cheaper and I really like the color; also "BBL" uses this in his videos)

· Paint (I got only one quart size because my table isn’t that big) you can get two different colors, just paint one coat for each color you use. I don’t think it matters which brand you use. I used Colorplace exterior semi-gloss. When you sand your furniture the two different colors will come through, along with the wood behind it. make a cool effect, but I decided to go with only one for now

A square sander would have been better but you got to work with what you have :)

To start:

Before you start you have to sand your furniture to remove all the oils, even if it isn’t been stained prior. I sanded my table two times to ensure I didn't miss anything, then I hand sanded the places that were hard to get. After, I wiped down the table with a damp rag to remove the excess dust. I let it dry and began painting at the bottom of my table and worked my way around so by the time I finished the whole table besides the top, it was ready to start sanding. (Note: I did one coat of paint and it was a hot day, not humid, so the table dried faster than expected.)

 

My practice section: I used the bottom of the table because if I messed up no one would know. Sand the table the same way of the wood grain, just like you sand it normally. I made long strokes and repeated the strokes in the same place until I started seeing the wood (only took about 5-6 passes, while pushing down at medium pressure). I did that over the hole bottom and along all the edges. Edges only really need one pass to remove the paint.

 

Next I painted the top of the table. I didn’t fully mix up the paint so throughout the table there is light blue streaks and sort of whitish blue streaks also. After I painted the top, I stuck my finger under the lip of the paint can where all the white is and put it on the brush to get this sort of white drift wood effect (cheaper way instead of buying white paint. I don’t know if this is how all paint is before you mix it up or if I was just lucky to have enough white to do the whole top. My recommendations is get a white sample colors at lows, they are like $3-4 for a pretty decent size sample color)

When I was letting the top dry I finished sanding all the legs. This is a closer look at the effect you want to get. You will need to go around and sand by hand to get into all the angles.

If you mess up and sand too much off you can easily go back with the paint and lightly paint over the area. it actually makes a cool old effect which I found out :) When you’re done and the paint is dry, make sure it is in fact dry, start staining. The stain I use is very easy to work with; you just paint it normally. I went around the table 2x to ensure it was completely sealed. I had to go over the top 3x because I’m going to have drinks on it so I wanted to make sure it didn’t ruin the top by the 1st drink I set on it.

Beware: depending on the color stain you use, it will affect the color you chose for your table. My color was a little lighter than the color I wanted so I chose a "classic oak" look which brightens up the actual color of my wood, and darkened up my color just enough. That made me happy :)

Before ^

This is the finish project. It looks a little teal here because of the lighting of my house. The pictures above are closer to the actual color. It’s called Blue Boundary Waters. I got the color pallet at

Wal-Mart

If you have any questions feel free to comment and I will get back to you.

Happy distressing,
Love you all,

To help me function

Here is a few more crafts i've been doing:

Work week calander:

Got the idea off of theaestheticwriter.blogspot.com. All you do is get paint chips from any paint store, cut them to size and tape or glue them into the calander. Place them into a frame with the glass and it becomes a dry erase board. My frame I got at Wal-Mart for $5. It wasnt big enough so I just did the work week; which is all I need. Its just to keep track of events, doc apts, and birthdays. If somthing falls on the weekend there is room on the edges to put the event. It hasnt been a problem for us so far :) and hey you cant beat $5

3D picture frame: 

All materials I got from michaels 

 Paint the letters

Pick out a cute frame, and add scrapbook paper for a cute background if you have

white walls like I do

I use foam sticky tape stuff to make them pop off the paper 

Finish product

I added it to my stairs :)

 Weekly dinner menu:

got this printable page from The nest effects

 My scrapbooking nook. not finished but as it is now

Cute way to display puppy treats. got the glass from a thrift store

Coffee table center peice. extra shells I had from a project, candles I burned unevenly

and a candle drip holder thingy lol

Im in the middle of a few more projects so when I finish with them I will post them :)

Untill then,

Love you all,

It's Craft Time

Here is a few crafts hat I've been doing over the last few weeks:

Both of my brothers are expecting their very 1st baby in the next few months. I looked online for cute idea on what to do for a baby shower gift. I got one brother a baby bullet.

 They are having twins so its a lot cheaper to make your own food :)

My other brother ( younger) I got them a onsie from Zelda video game

Its an inside joke with my family because my little brother is obsessed with the game Zelda ever since it came out on game boy. If they had a girl they wanted to name her Zelda (fits my brother to the "T").

My Point was I didn't think that it was enough because I'm the aunt, I get to spoil them and they're mothers so I made a cute New moms hospital survival kit:

This one is for Mandi (younger brothers girlfriend) I got the actual hospital survival kit paper off of Cutest Babyshowers the printable was free.

This one is for Christine, My older brothers wife, they are having twins, One boy and one girl.

 

  The balloon stickers I got from Michaels and the stickers on top I got from my SMASHbook stickers, it says "Hey! About time!" So they can record the time, and the other sticker will record the day and date. The Paint can I also got a Michaels for $5.99. They can be used for A LOT of fun crafts

 I put Q-tips, deodorant, tooth paste, tooth brush, shaving cream, razor, 2 in one shampoo, body wash, mouthwash, mints, hand sanitizer, lotion, Chapstick, makeup remover, Maxi pads, socks, and for funzies toilet sanitize wipes. All of this I got in the travel section at the commissary (no tax :D ), Wal-Mart, and the $1 store. each item I never paid more then $1.50, most of it was less then $1

It all fits cute in there. I took out a few so you can get a better look.

This is the finished product. im very proud of how it turned out. I hope they enjoy it!

Until next time,

Love you all,

Vacations where I wanna be....

Vacation is suppose to be relaxing and rejuvenating right? well not in this house hold. My husband and I got back from a week long vaca last Saturday. We went to the Outer banks in NC, Gatlinburg TN, Nashville TN then Clarksville TN, all in a week. We met up with family friends in the outer banks, my family in Gatlinburg, and stopped by Nashville and drove around on the way to Clarksville to see my best friend. Every day was packed full of fun. We were definitely exhausted by the time we came home, but it was well worth it.

Highlights:

 The Taylors, and us going for a jeep ride

 We took the Jeep onto the beach...

...where we saw wild horses

We got super close, it was amazing! 

We drove 27 miles to the VA boarder.

I'm in 2 places at once :) 

Sunday we saw the Taylor's Dad become a Pastor

of his church. It was very touching!

After church we took the boat out and went tubing.

It was our 1st time. I think we did pretty good :) 

Monday early morning we drove 9hrs to Gatlinburg, TN

for my family reunion

 Beautiful Gatlinburg

We rode on the ski lifts and rode on these cart

things down the cement slide. Surprisingly it went fast 

We went to "Dicks" for lunch one of the days.

Pretty much you pay for the waitress to be rude and make a fool out of you,

then you have to tip them lol. it was pretty funny. Zacks hat said

"She calls me speedy". 

Mine says "I'm like a turtle flip me on my back and im screwed" 

Went hiking. It was stunning!!!

Friday morning we drove to Nashville. It was completely packed... little did

we know it was CMA week and there was a ton of free concerts

all over the streets, so we quickly got back on the highway to head 45min

to Clarksville

Last night, Brit put together a BBQ and we got to meet a few of their close friends.

Overall we had the best time you could possibly have. It was nice to see my family. My husband finally got to meet my uncle and cousins, which was cool. We took loads of pictures and had even more fun! I recommend going to Gatlinburg for a vaca, there is shopping, putt putt, food, free testing of moonshine...which was a highlight of our night :) its very family oriented, something for everyone :)

Love you all,

Where'd you go? I missed you so....

    I'm going to start this off as a brand new blog. I haven’t been on in what looks to be 2 years.... almost exactly. I’m going to try and make this a weekly thing since I quit my job and I’m a stay at home wife with nothing to do except chase a puppy around all day.

    My husband Zack was deployed again for another year. He just got back Feb 3, 2012. He was on a MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) which pretty much means he was on a ship. He was in the Mediterranean sea on what seemed to be a yearlong cruise. He got to visit Spain, Dubai, Portugal, among other really cool places (lucky). This deployment was the hardest because we lived together for a year after he got home from Afghanistan, and then he left for what was supposed to be 7 months and it turned into a 10 month deployment. He got to email me almost every day but we only got to talk on the phone for maybe 10 times the hole time he was gone (maybe once a month). I got to Skype him for 3 days in a row during one of his ports and that’s it. That was a struggle because it’s hard to put into word every, little, thing that happens to you in one day. There is no summing up like you do in your diary, blog, or Facebook. When they are deployed they want to know everything because they “live through you” as he always tells me.

    For Christmas he bought me a car. We needed a reliable one for when he came home due to our wonderful luck with cars. He bought me a 2010 Chevy Equinox. Getting it was the real struggle. I fought with Navy Fed for a hole week. Literally, every day for a week. They thought we were fake and it was a scam all because I faxed over the wrong POA (power of attorney). They told me it was the wrong one so I set over the correct one and they for some reason put a red flag on us and they wouldn’t give me the loan. Zack called them twice proving that we were real but they had to see me in person. So, I had to drive 2 hours to Miami to show them that I was real…. Really!?! But 2 weeks later I got my car :) That’s the hard part about deployment, I was so stressed (which I hardly ever am) I was so mad (Which is never) and felt so alone and my husband couldn’t even call me to comfort me. Yea, I had my family but sometimes you need your significant other to be there for you, especially when he’s the only one in the world who can fix it. I never realized how strong you have to be for a deployment, not only for the other person but for yourself, to make it another month. That is why the number one thing you need is to surround yourself with family and friends… people who truly care about you. That is the only way I made it.


    My husband is home now, possibly not much longer, he might have to deploy again in November for 6 months (so they say). He really wants to go recruiting and to be stationed in AK, which we will be there for 3 years. Sounds good to me because he constantly talks about how he misses it and he wants to move back and blah blah blah. My thing is we live there for 3 years and then we can retire somewhere in the middle between FL and AK. Which seems fair to me :) . We will find out Thursday what he has to do to go recruiting. Hopefully it all works out because I do not want him to deploy again.


    Let’s see how long I can keep this blog thing up for. I really want to stay on top of this, it’s nice to go back and look at everything that happened to me over the past 2 years ( my hole 4 post earlier lol) Life has been ok. When my husband deployed I moved to AK again but I was only there for 6 months. I had 3 jobs (subway, Rogues garden coffee shop and health food store, and Northwind floral and gift shop) and I also baby sat a bunch of kids in town. I met some amazing people and made a lot of really cool friends. This time was different, I felt last time people were just hanging out with me because of my husband (I hung out with all of his old friends) this time I made my own friends people who didn’t know my husband and that didn’t grow up in that town. I felt as if I actually made my own friends and didn’t just get “grand fathered in” to my husband’s friends… my friends hung out with me for me not because I was new in town and Zack’s wife. I miss them a lot, it was definitely a good trip, kind of wished it lasted longer. I moved back to FL in the beginning of November due to a family emergency (I will explain in another post soon).  I got hired back at my old job working with a kids camp in the four seasons of Palm beach (my absolute favorite job), hung out with old friends, it was great, but I’m so glad to be in NC now with my husband though. This place is…. Ok I guess… just a normal military town, nothing to do, but my husband is here and that’s all that I care about :)


    I got a job working at the front desk at a Quality Inn. They hired me as the 6-2pm shift so I could still pick up my husband from work, low and behold they kept scheduling me for the 2-10pm which I never got to see Zack except for driving him to work at 6am and saying goodnight to him when I finally got home at 10:30 pm. I did that for about a month and we just couldn't take it. We are still like newly weds, we only actually saw each other for a year and the hole time he was state side ,we had roommates so we never got to do the normal newly wed things. When I cooked I cooked for all and cleaned for all too... it was never just us two, so I had to quit my job so I can see him and spend time with him. Now between the new puppy and my crazy cat all I want to do is get out of the house :) I literally can't even go to the bathroom by myself. Kiski (Siberian husky puppy) has separation problems with me, I cant get up for anything without her following me. If she cant see me she will start barking... same with Taylor (Bombay cat), he follows me every where too... bathroom and all. Guess this is what it feels like to be a mom :D I've got my hands full now


Until next time...

Love you all,

Recent Love

     My most recent love is this book. Those of you that love a romantic comedy.... this book isn't for you! Im just kidding, its has romance...kind of and its very fun, I mean I literally LAUGHED OUT LOUD at every page! Chelsea Handler is very blunt, in this book, and on her show called "Chelsea Lately", which is by far the funniest show I have ever seen in a very long time, which is why I wanted her book. It takes you from kindergarten, where she lies to her hole school about a movie role, to where she's 12 where she pretends she's 16 and babysits a 14 yr old boy, to family issues to friends. she gets down to the niddy griddy and tells you how it is, well her perception on it!

     I personally haven't finished the book, I'm about half way done with it. I usually don't review books but this one I needed to get the word out. I really wanted her book called "Chelsea, Chelsea, bang, bang" but I wanted to start off with her earlier books so I can get an idea of what to expect. Oh boy I didn't expect it to be as funny and cleaver as it was! My recommendation is you need to buy this book!

     I will give it a final review as soon as I finish it but as of right now its a 5 star book.... no wonder it was #1


Love you all,