I'm not exactly sure where my mom got this recipe, but once she started making this I would request it all the time.  I don't make it that much because my husband generally just pulls out the chicken breast, leaving me with a lot of veggie and stuffing leftovers.  I decided to make it since I haven't made it in quite some time and wanted to share this yummy recipe.  If any of you are from my mom's church, this recipe is in the church's 40th anniversary cookbook on page 62.

You'll need:
4 boneless chicken breasts
1-20oz. package of frozen mixed vegetables (I have 2 bags of the steamable kind and they are only 12oz. each)
2 packages of chicken flavored stuffing (I was wanting to get the Walmart brand because it's cheaper, but they were out of the chicken flavored)
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 C chicken broth (you'll get that later - no need to buy)

Fill a large pot with water and put your chicken breasts in.  The recipe doesn't call for this, but I added some salt to the water to help flavor the chicken.  You are going to boil them until they are completely cooked.  The recipe doesn't say how long and I didn't keep track.  I generally cut through the breast to make sure they are cook thoroughly.

While your chicken is cooking, this is a good time to start the stuffing and the mixed vegetables.  Follow the instructions on both packages on how to cook.  With the stuffing, I cooked it all in one pot.
Once your chicken is cooked, you want to put them in a greased 9x13" baking dish.  One thing I added here that the recipe doesn't call for is, I put salt and pepper on the chicken breasts for a little more flavor.  Now that you're done cooking your chicken, don't pour out the water just yet.  Measure out a 1/2 C of it and add that to a pot with the cream of chicken.  Cook until it starts boiling.
Because I didn't put foil or lid over the dish, the top of the stuffing turned a nice golden brown and had a yummy crunchy texture.

In the past I always felt like I was running around the kitchen and not getting everything timed out right.  This time didn't seem like that at all.  I guess I must be getting better with cooking since I'm doing more if it.  I actually had this all put together a little too early so, I placed it in the microwave to keep it warm until I got a call from Jon saying he was on his way home.  Could not of timed it any better.  As soon as Jon walked through the door, the timer buzzed!

I've made this for potluck meals and have just shredded the chicken so that every serving had chicken in it.  Try it out and let me know what you think. 

It's Wednesday, so here's another review from my step-mom, Becki.  I must note that at the time of posting this, the website listed below does not bring up anything about the restaurant.  They do have a Facebook page, Georgia's Kitchen Cafe, which has the same website listed.

I know that Easter has long since come and gone, but wanted to share us dying our eggs this year.  Michael seemed to enjoy it a lot more this year than last year.  Here's the video we took of last year:
Oh, how things have changed over the year!  Michael's grown up so much and there's not more little pitter patter of doggy paws in the house.
At the end of season last year, I had bought this kit and another one.  Michael had also gotten a kit for Easter from Jon's mom.  This is the one that he picked.
Did you dye Easter eggs?  It was always something that I remember doing growing up and enjoyed.  If you dyed eggs, how did you do them?  The kit that Jon's mom bought Michael had you to melt crayons and dyed them that way.  There seems to be a whole lot of different ways to decorate eggs.

This week was another larger budget weeks and that's good because we were completely out of chicken breasts.  Need to restock!  So, Thursday night I actually created the list for dinners and looked in the fridge and pantry to see what we had on hand.  We weren't going to be doing our normal get up, do bills, and then go grocery shopping on Friday.  I had promised to help my brother with his new apartment.  So, I got up early to do the bills to know what we were working with money wise.  We went, did our magic, and went straight to Walmart to start on our grocery shopping.  Here's what I came up with for our dinners:

1. Chicken Wings  (already have the wings)
2. Hot Dogs (Somewhat of a carry over.  Jon had accidentally left the hot dogs from the week before in the trunk of his car while we were at my mom's)
3. Chicken Casserole (As I type this, I'm thinking of changing this.  When I do make this, I will write a post for it.)
4. BBQ Pork Chops 
5. Pizza Casserole  
6. Spaghetti (already have the noodles and sauce)

I must say, ever since we've started calculating and sticking to the list, we've been able to get in and out of Walmart pretty fast.  Now, we do have to stop in the toy and electronics sections for Michael, but sometimes I think it's more for Jon.  This time, Jon found three Hot Wheels that he felt Michael had to have.  I'm ok with getting Hot Wheels since they're only $0.97 and we don't buy them all the time.  Here's the list I had for Walmart and the items prices:

• can of corn  $0.78
• can of green beans
• 2 boxes of chicken flavored stuffing  $1.98 x 2 = $3.96
• steam-able bag of mixed veggies
• hot dogs  $1.98
• french fries  $1.00 x 2 = $2.00
• fruit gummies  $2.00
• loaf of bread  $1.48
• bag of chicken strips  $4.00
• BBQ sauce  $2.48
• wing sauce  $2.08
• birthday card for our nephew, Ryan  $3.34
• Kool Aid  $0.20 x 16 = $3.20

As you can see, there were somethings crossed off the list and the Kool Aid is in green because it was added to the list in the store.  For some reason they were completely out of the style of green beans I generally buy and I thought we might have the mixed veggies in our upright freezer (it's filled with veggies and fruits).  The total that we spent at Walmart was $31.19.

At Wegmans, now that we know were most things are, we can get in and out a lot quicker than Walmart.  Even with a longer list this week, we got in and out fairly quick.  Here's the list and the prices for each item:

• gallon of whole milk  $3.59
• OJ  $2.49
• pepperoni  $2.29
• pizza sauce  $1.49
• mozzarella shredded cheese  $2.69
• chicken  $13.25
• 1lb hamburger  $3.59
• pork chops  $4.55
• butter
• onion  $0.86
• potato chips
• bananas  $0.85

You're probably first thinking, why in the world did she pay $13.25 for chicken?  Well, this is why:
Wegmans' Family Pack of chicken breasts.  Don't let this picture and the packaging fool you, those chicken breast are fairly large.  There are 10 breasts there so when you break it down, we paid $1.33 per breast!  Since I generally use two breast for each chicken meal, this will give us five chicken meals and will probably last us the rest of the month.

We crossed off the butter because we were getting pretty close to going over budget and could last a week on the butter that we had.  The potato chips were crossed off because Jon had forgot about the individual packages his grandparents had bought him.  We added bananas because I wanted some and I'm working on a guest blog for a friend about smart phone apps and bananas was an offer this week on Checkout 51.  The total spent at Wegmans was $36.54.  Not too bad with all the meat that we purchased.

Our budget for the week was $70 and the total spent at both stores was $67.73.  I was so happy that we stayed under budget by $2.27!  When we got home, I did the steps to earn $0.50 for the milk purchase through Ibotta (click here for my post about Ibotta) and uploaded my receipt to earn $0.50 for the banana purchase through Checkout 51.  Yes, you read that right - I earned $0.50 on a $0.85 purchase of bananas!

I'm thinking for next week's meal plan post, I'll be adding the Wegman prices for the items we buy at Walmart and vise versa.  That way we can see if there's a huge savings cost or about equals out.  What are your plans for this week?  How have you kept your grocery bill down?

This past week, my brother moved out of his three bedroom apartment because all his roommates were moving and moved into a rather decent sized one bedroom apartment.  So, what does one do when they move into a new place?  Well, in my brother's case, he calls his sister to come over and help arrange his furniture.  I decided to bring Jon and Michael with me.  I figured that Michael would love to have some fun with Uncle Chuck and Jon could help with all the techy stuff.

Here's what the place looked like when we got there:

As I said, this is a decent sized one bedroom apartment.  I mean, his bedroom is a little larger than our master bedroom!  A major upgrade from his past two apartments that he's had.  After he gave us the tour, my mind started thinking of how to layout  the rooms.  So, while Charles went to get the pizza he ordered for lunch (our payment for our help), Jon and I went to work on his bedroom.  I, with the help of Jon in some cases, moved furniture around and Jon worked on setting up his printer and whatever wire management needed to be done around Charles' desk.  Here's what his bedroom looked like when we left:
I thought that the little nook area made the perfect office area and once Charles puts all his books in his shelves, it will look awesome!  He requested us not to move the bed and I think it's in a good spot.  All I did with his bathroom was add a rug that my brother already had.

Once he got back with the pizza we ate, watched Disney Junior, and basically discussed on how would be the best way to layout the living room.  The apartment has baseboard heating so we had to try and keep furniture as far away from them as possible.  Not a problem in the bedroom because of it being so big, but the living room was almost completely covered with base board heating.  Here's what we came up with for the living/kitchen area:
I think it looks great and Charles seems really happy with it.  I did recommend that if he wanted to have a table and chairs in the area behind the love seat, that a fold able set.  That way if he's not using it he could fold them up and store them in the closet, but has it for when he needs it.  So with that all being done, it was squirt gun fighting time!

Once he gets all his stuff put away, I think this place will work great for him.  Hope this might help you out with some ideas to arrange your furniture in your place.

This is my brother, Charles, and I in their parking lot.  Celebrating with my mom's family about my brother being on leave for a week while he was stationed in Seoul, Korea back in 2006.
We celebrated my grandparents' 60th anniversary and my grandma's 80th birthday at the same time a few months early back in 2011.

Whenever I go in to visit my mom and grandparents, Muriale's is a must stop for us.  No matter the occasion.  I've not been able to find a place to surpass it.  I used to do take out sometimes when I lived in Morgantown.  Yeah, a long trip for take out, but it was so worth it!

This occasion was to celebrate my birthday!  It was just Jon, Michael, and my mom.  We got right in and even though it seemed the waiter was serving the whole room, he was pretty prompt on getting us what we needed.  I didn't think that take a lot of pictures at first because I wasn't planning on posting about this, but then realized people needed to know about this awesome place!

We went after traveling from my mom's church in Parkersburg, WV and then spending some time with my grandparents so, all the church crowd was gone and we didn't have to wait to get a seat.  There's generally a long wait after church and after any type of sporting event that went on in Morgantown that day.  Not a good thing with a toddler.
I hardly ever change what I get to eat and Sunday was no different.  I love their regular size spaghetti and meatballs.  Sorry, this is when I decided to start taking pictures and I had already started eating my meal.  I believe there are three sizes of spaghetti and this is the middle size.  Comes with a side salad that I always get with their house dressing (a yummy vinaigrette dressing) and two meatballs.  My mom got the same meal as me.
Jon, being Jon, got the pizza.  There was a smaller size, but Jon decided to get this and share with Michael.  That way we didn't have to buy Michael his own kids pizza.  Their pizzas come with two toppings.  Jon got pepperoni and extra cheese.

I know that when my aunt, uncle, and cousins go they get other items and enjoy them.  Maybe one day I might try something else, but for now I will enjoy the spaghetti and meatballs.  Another thing to note, they also have wheat spaghetti.  My grandfather for the past few years has been ordering that for his spaghetti pasta.

So, I wasn't planning on writing a blog post about this since I had already posted about making yummy steaks (Juicy Steaks at half the cost of a restaurant meal), but Jon wanted to take pictures of me cooking the steaks.  Yes, you read that right - I cooked my own birthday dinner.  Normally we go out for my birthday, but we had already gone to Texas Roadhouse for Easter the week before.  I decided that since Jon's been coming home later than normal that it would just be better for me to cook my birthday dinner.  Plus the plate you see above is my plate - Jon would only eat the steak and mac-n-cheese (which I made for Michael).

When we went grocery shopping at Wegmans on Sunday, we picked up a two pack of Strip Steak First Cut (not exactly sure what that means, but it was all we had to choose from in our price range) for $15.19 (roughly $7.60 per steak).  You may think that's a little to much, but that is for two extremely think pieces of steak.  Plus if I had gone to Texas Roadhouse, I could easily spend with my drink included that much on my meal alone!

Monday afternoon I prepared the steaks with a McCormick Grill Mates marinade called Backyard Brew.  It said on the packet that instead of water you could use beer, I wonder how much that would of changed the flavor?  Once I had the marinade mixed, I took a fork to the steaks and poked holes so that the marinade would soak into the meat.

Jon normally calls when he's leaving work so, once he called I pulled the steaks out to bring them to room temperature and started heating up the George Foreman Grill.  Since it was for my birthday, I decided to make all the sides that I would want to eat.  I pulled out a can of green beans from the pantry and added some onions and bacon grease to them in a pot and let them cook.  While the green beans were cooking, I poured water into a pot and got that boiling for the noodles for the Kraft mac-n-cheese.  Also got my potato flakes to make mashed potatoes with (I know, it's better when it's from real potatoes) out and started bringing the water, milk, and butter to a boil.  A little trick that my mom taught me that my Grandma (my dad's mom) taught her:

Switch the milk and water.  The amount that the instructions says for water, use it for the milk and vice versa.

I use that little trick every time I make my instant mashed potatoes.  Makes them super creamy!

Time to grill these super large steaks!  It rained all day Tuesday so, even if I wanted to grill them on the charcoal grill that was not an option.  I had a hard time at first to get both steaks to fit and make sure that all the steak was being cooked.
I like to brush the marinade on both sides of the steak when I first put them on the grill and every time I flip them.

I'm not sure how long I cook them.  Every few minutes I would flip and brush more marinade on.  When I felt they were good, I cut through the center of each to make sure they were cooked the way we like them.  Then put them on a plate to rest.  Finish up with the rest of the sides and then it's time to come and get it!

What do you all normally do for your birthdays?