Best.Casserole.Ever

We do a lot of casseroles around our house since we are always at athletic events. To date I have never made one this good. YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS!

Ingredients:
1 can Cream of Broccoli soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk (I used organic skim, but I'm thinking whole would be better)
1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1 cup uncooked instant white rice (I use Texmati long-grain)
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Salt
Pepper
1 10-oz package frozen broccoli spears, thawed
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese (I used Monterrey Jack, totally made a difference)

1. Combine soup, sour cream, milk and basil. Set aside 1/2 cup of the soup mixture for later. Add uncooked rice to remaining soup mixture and transfer to ungreased baking dish.
2. Sprinkle chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Arrange chicken and broccoli over rice mixture. Spoon reserved 1/2 cup soup over top.
3. Bake, covered, at 350 for 60 to 70 minutes. Sprinkle with Swiss cheese and let stand 5 minutes before serving. (I baked for 60 min, sprinkled with MJ and put back in for 3 minutes.)

452 calories.

Colorado Ski Trip

Right after Christmas (a long time ago, I know, we are still in the catch up phase of blogging) Mr. and Mrs. McDaniel took all of us to Beaver Creek, Colorado for a ski trip. We flew into Denver and then drove from Denver to Beaver Creek, about 3 hours. When we landed in Denver it was cold but not snowing. Through the course of the drive to Beaver Creek snow slowly started appearing and as a first-time snow see-er I was SUPER excited! Some pics from the drive up:

We stayed at the Beaver Creek Landing with Aunt Debbie and Lisa and their 4 kids. It was crowded but a fun family time. We got to spend a lot of time together with some really fun people. Some pictures of the condo:

Some highlights of the trip include:

• Stephanie being the most wonderful and patient ski instructor. After dominating the bunny slopes we went down "Sawdust"- a not so easy green slope. Needless to say I busted it about 200 yards into it and immediately started crying and wanted to give up. Stephanie coaxed me up and helped me the rest of the way down (without falling). She also spent a whole day teaching Mr. Sammy and a whole day teaching Mrs. Diana. Without her we would not have had a successful trip. Thank you Stephie!
• EXTREME skiing with Matt and Blake. Let's just say they were both naturals and fearless skiers. I think Matt's goal during the trip was to jump off anything and see if he could go high enough to hit the sky.
  

• Riding in the lift with the former governor of Colorado
• Riding in the lift with the mayor of Avon (the town Beaver Creek is in)
• Ally schooling Robby in the caterpillar

• Going down a blue with Matt, Blake and Sara, Steph and Rob. I was so scared but they helped me down. And it was so fun!
• Leave the Beave!
• Sara and I going down the wrong trail. Sara decided to WALK back UP the mountain because she was convinced Blake and Matt would be waiting for us (they were not.) I continued on the trail and ended up in Beaver Creek Village. Had to take a trolley back to our condo and a lift back to the Ritz Cartlton to meet back up with her. (Oh and I also had to cross a black on my way to the Village. I survived.)
• Spending a week all together. It doesn't matter where we are, we always have a fun time.
  

State Champs!

I'm slowly catching everyone up on the past few months and I think the first thing that needs to be mentioned HAS to be about football (is there anything else??) December 20, 2008 the Katy Tigers went back-to-back beating the Wylie Pirates 17-3 to keep the crown as Texas State Champs! It was a wild season that started slow and included a hurricane and our first district loss since 1995, but it ended well. Here are some of our favorites from that day:

We're back!

So somehow life has gotten away from us which, unfortunately, has included our blog. We had a few months without Internet which is my main excuse, but mainly I just forgot. But don't worry, now that we are on spring break I plan to catch up with the past few months worth of life and plan to keep up with our future adventures. Stay tuned!