Yum!

For dinner last night, I made an incredibly easy recipe that I wanted to pass on.  You can find the original recipe here, but I honestly altered it a little bit based on some of the reviews, so here is my recipe, with added or altered stuff in blue:

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbs minced garlic
• 3/4 pound cubed skinless, boneless chicken breast meat
• 1/2 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (8.75 ounce) can sweet corn, drained
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 can of green chiles
• 1 cup shredded Mexican-style cheese
• 1 1/2 cups crushed plain tortilla chips

Directions

1. In a large skillet over medium high heat, saute onion and garlic in the oil for about 5 minutes.
2. Add chicken, taco seasoning, beans, corn, salsa, and chiles. Cover skillet and simmer over medium low heat for 10 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4. Transfer chicken mixture to a 9x9 inch baking dish. Top with 1/2 cup of the cheese
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup cheese and tortilla chips and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly.

I actually didn't use a can of corn.  I used about a cup of frozen corn instead and it made it really watery, so I would make sure to actually use a can of corn or cook some frozen corn first.

J and I LOVED this.  It's definitely in our rotation and it made enough that more than half was leftover (I'm going to have some for lunches this week) once we had our fill.

(Sidenote... Paulie LOVES chicken.  We don't eat at our kitchen table, we eat on the couch -- bad habit I know -- and Paulie jumped up and sat staring at both of us like, "I smell chicken.  Gimme some chicken!"  Such a sweet boy.)

Quick Update

Other than our Christmas show, here's what's been going on in our life:

1. I'ms till struggling with underemployment. God is good, though. See # 3 to find out why.

2. I retook the PRAXIS (this time in Early Childhood Education) in November and got my score report this week. not only did I pass, but I blew that sucker out of the water. Highest score is 200 and I scored 188. Not too shabby, considering I didn't take any ECE classes at Lindenwood. This means I just have to send in paperwork to DESE to tack on certification for birth-grade 3. Woo hoo!

3. My church family is amazing. After we ran through the program yesterday morning, I returned to my purse to find a red envelope. A very thick red envelope. I opened it and inside I found four gift cards: one for Target, one for Wal Mart, one for QT, and one for Dierbergs -- each for $100. ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. I have NO idea who it's from -- they signed the card "Santa." We have our suspicions but I don't want to ask around. Jesus teaches us not to give if you're giving so others will see you and I want to do the same as a recipient. I had jsut gotten make up put on for the show and I had to try soooo hard not to cry and ruin it. Our church family is AMAZING and I really don't think we could have made it through the last year without the blessing they have been to us. God has used them immensely this year as a source of support and prayer.

4. I'm sooo excited about Christmas. That gift from the people at church made it possible for us to be able to purchase gifts for everyone whose name we pille as well as our niece and nephew. I got Kailey and DJ bible storybooks -- The Jesus Bible Storybook and My First Study Bible -- and something for my brother that I'm not revealing here since my blogs move to Facebook and he might be reading. I got Jerome a CD he's been wanting (see this entry) and a devotional he had pointed out a couple of times that he was interested in having.

5. Our friend Laura is moving out of her apartment and in with her almost-fiance who is incredibly allergic to cats. She needs a place for Sebastian, we want a playmate for Paulie, so we're adopting Sebs. She brought him over today and he wasn't very happy, LOL. Paulie was real curious and looking and everything but when Sebastian started hissing, so did Paulie. We're giving them a few days to duke it out through the door of the guest bedroom before we let them roam the house together. Our hope is that they are both so mellow that they'll get along great once they get used to each other.

In the Christmas Spirit

This is the first year I've had my own place to decorate. J and I moved into our townhouse last December 18, so when Christmas rolled around we were still basically living out of boxes, and there was no way I was going to stress myself out decorating for Christmas (not to mention we didn't even have a tree!!).

This year is a different story. I put up our tree on Sunday evening and let it stand for a while without decorations so Paulie could get used to it. Then I decorated it today -- My first day off since Thanksgiving. I want to get another set of lights and a set of those ball ornaments, but here is our first tree:




Last year my mom bought us a nativity scene set of ornaments. Check 'em out:


And did you catch who likes to sleep under the tree?

[[Leave me alone, Mom... I'm trying to sleep!]]
I'd rather he sleep under there than pull all the ornaments down.

Now, did you notice that we have no tree topper? One reason is because we just don't have one. The other is because we can't agree on what to put up there. J is a star man, and I'm partial to angels. What should we do?

So, What's New?

I promised you a substantial entry, so here it is!

First, I want to talk about American Idol. Tuesday night was probably the best perfomance show I have EVER seen. (I mean, I still FFWDed over Adam, but...) All of them were so awesome that I didn't even try to pick a bottom two, only that Matt would be the one to go. And you know what? This was when he SHOULD have gone home and I'm glad the judges used their save on him. Although I wonder how everything would have fallen had Alexis not gone home in 11th place? I love how surprised Allison and Danny were to find out they were the top 2. Like, what?! I hope that Adam goes home next week or the next, but he probably won't. My ideal order would be Adam, Danny, then a Kris and Allison finale. But that's me. What do you think?

Second, my cat is so weird. I wanna share a story with ya real quick: Last night there was a beetle that kept flying at our living room window (which is low enough for him to jump onto from the floor) and he kept trying to catch it. Through the glass. And then his butt fell off of the ledge and he's like hanging there for dear life with his front paws. Too cute!! I was ROLLING.

Third, I finally convinced J to switch to U-Verse. We're paying a tiny bit more, but we're getting a LOT more channels than we have now, plus better DVR options. They're coming on May 13 and I can't wait!! I can watch my DVRed shows upstairs or he can watch TV upstairs while I watch my DVRed shows downstairs. That's his biggest gripe; I always want to watch my shows the NIGHT they're on because I catch up on all the blogging and gossip the next day.

J and I might be going to see Casting Crowns in Poplar Bluff in June and I'm excited. It's all dependent on if he can get off of work the next day (Sat.) 'cause if we go, we'll get a hotel since it's 3 hours away. I didn't get to see them the last time they were in town because J's friend only had one extra ticket. I was bummed because I LOVE CC. They always put on a great show.

Oh, and an update on something that I posted a few days ago, I was able to order my cap and gown. Turns out ordering doesn't end when they say it does for slackers like me who miss the deadline. ;-)

Drooling over this Bathroom Set...

We have a space underneath our bathroom counter that would be perfect for a set of storage drawers but the usual Sterilite drawers are too wide. I know that they sell skinny drawers but I haven't been able to find them. Well, my dad's girlfriend found these at World Market and I am in love with them:

Problem: they're $69.99 (on sale currently for $59.99). And while I love them, I'm not sure I love them $60 worth. But they have a whole matching set. Gorgeous:




That's a hamper for $99.99 (!!) and a basket that would look gorgeous on the over-the-toilet storage thing we have for $22.99. All waaaaay more than I want to pay. Anyone know where I can find anything similar for a whole lot cheaper?

And since I'm on a picture posting spree, I'll share a picture of our cat Paulie. Many of you have seen these pictures because I posted them on the board and on Facebook, but I wanted to share anyways...





He's a big cat, as you can see by the third picture. We've had our windows open the last day or two becuase of the nice weather and he only fits on the window sill when it's all the way open; otherwise, he falls off. Silly boy!!

What are your thoughts on the Wildcards in AI?? I'm suprised they decided to make it 13 and not 12, and I kind of feel they did it to let Megan or Jasmine in in addition to Matt and Anoop... My DVR didn't catch the very end of the episode, so if you missed it, catch it here.

My bachelorette party is tonight and I am hella excited!! I can't believe I get married next weekend!

American Idol and Wedding

those seem to be the top two things I'm thinking about recently, LOL.

First, American Idol: WTF?? Tatiana in the wildcard???!!! I mean, I saw it coming, but to choose her (or Jessie for that matter) over Felicia is idiocy; Felicia was AMAZING last night that sucks. Mostly, I agree wth the rest of the wildcards. Well, except for Von. For real... they should get rid of Tatiana and Von and add Felicia and Mishavonna.

Anyway, on to the most important thing of this post: I'm getting married. In TEN days. Like, in less than an hour from when I publish this post, I will be in the SINGLE DIGITS. Holy smokes! I can't believe how quickly this went by. A friend asked me how I liked being engaged for so long -- would I recommend it. I say absolutely, especially if you're the kind of person who has to control everything. Having a year to just gather ideas helped take a tremendous amount of stress off of me. It also allowed me and jerome to get to know each other even better than we knew each other 2 years ago. Now, when I say "I do" next week I KNOW that I mean it, that it is truly what I want. (Not that I didn't KNOW know in March 2007, but you know what I mean...) We've had an opportunity to plan for our marriage as well as our wedding, and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

I'm stalking the 10 day forecasts on weather.com and accuweather.com. Right now it's not too great... upper 40's with a chance of rain or SNOW. Yuck. But it's Missouri, so we'll see.

Oh, and I can't talk about J and I without talking about the new addition to our family. No, I'm not pregnant. We adopted a cat last weekend. A friend of a friend had a kitty that she needed to find a new home for and we just happened to be in the market for a cat (esp. a free one!) Thus, Paulie. I have no pics yet, at least no decent ones, but he's a light orange (almost tan) and a big kitty. He's hilarious; he played with this wind up mouse we bought him for HOURS. And the best part is that I haven't had a reaction to him. (I'm allergic to some cats and we were worried that any cat would flare 'em up real bad.) He's precious and he warmed up to us real quick. I will post pictures as soon as I can.

I imagine I'll post at least a few more times before I become a wife; stay tuned!