Recipe, Giveaway & More!

Hey!

I'm sorry I'm late getting this posted.

I was in kind of a slump.

I don't think I ever mentioned this, but 2 1/2 years ago

my husband's job of almost 25 years was eliminated.

For the past 2 1/2 years he's been a 'temp' employee.

Anyhoo...he had an opportunity to apply for a pretty awesome job...and so he went for it.

He scored high on his test.

His interview went incredibly well.

They gave him a tour

(no one else had made it that far)

and for the first time in 2 1/2 years, we had hope.

Hope of a secure future.

You never know how much that means to you until you loose it.

Friday he came home from work.

He came up to my sewing room

and looked at me with those sad, brown eyes.

He had received a voice mail from this business.

He didn't get the job.

Ugh.

But we continue to have faith.

Heck, we aren't the only ones in this boat.

So God must have better plans for my little Skeeter.

He's a good man.

And I do believe deep in my heart

God has something great in store for him.

But if you are the praying kind,

and could keep my sweet hubby in your prayers,

along with everyone else out there looking for permanent employment,

we would greatly appreciate it.

Yeah...and the Iowa Hawkeye's lost the football game this weekend.

That was the icing on the cake, I tell ya!

Now on to happy thoughts!!

So here's what I worked on this week.

A cute dog and matching pillow case.  

Hhhmmm....who could this be for?

And I made these to sell at our local craft shop.

Three Ghastlie pillows and two Iowa Hawkeye pillow cases

(I hope they sold before the game!)

 And the recipe I told you I was going to post the other day?

Well...it's my own, made-up version of chicken roll-ups.

I was scrounging for something for supper.

I had some leftover lasagna noodles and a few pieces of boneless skinless chicken breasts.

I boiled the breasts in chicken broth.

Once they were done, I took the chicken out and shredded it,

then started cooking the noodles in the chicken broth.

(So far I had 8 noodles and 3-1/2 chicken breasts)

To the shredded chicken I added cream cheese (about 5 oz) and sour cream 

(just enough to make it easily spreadable)

Then added some parsley flakes, garlic powder, salt & pepper.

(all to taste)

Set that aside.

In a skillet I melted some butter and added some flour.

By this time, the noodles are done, so I laid them out flat on a cookie sheet.

To the skillet mixture I added the broth from the chicken/noodles

( just to make it almost creamy...just keep adding by the spoonfuls until it turns into a thick, creamy mixture,

but not too runny)

Let this come to a boil and add your garlic powder (yeah...I'm a garlic junkie), salt & pepper to taste.

Once you've added that, pour in a 14 oz can of petite diced tomatoes - juice and all.

(this is why you don't want your mixture too runny - the juice from to tomatoes will finish it off)

Stir, turn the heat of, and get ready to prepare your noodles.

Spread the chicken mixture on each noodle, then sprinkle with shredded cheese (I used cheddar).

Roll them up and place them into a greased 9x13 pan.

Once you have all 8 roll-ups done, take  your sauce and pour over the noodles.

Top with shredded cheese and cover the pan with foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

If you try this, let me know what you think!

And now on to the best part of this post!

As I've mentioned, I've been the very lucky winner of a few blog giveaway's, so I would like to return the favor.

Halloween is on of my favorite holiday's.

So in honor of that, I got you some of these cool little things.

This stuff is SO much fun! 

The skull tray is a silicone one that you use to make ice cubes.

Then you have your Halloween cupcake cups with little happy toothpick decorations,

along with a set of test tubes filled with sprinkles for whatever you choose to sprinkle!

Here's a close up of the tray

Are these cute or what?

And all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what you love about Halloween.

Any favorite traditions?

Any favorite costume?

Any favorite memory?

If you want to follow my blog, that's even better!

If you want to share this giveaway on your blog, or twitter, or whatever, that's ever better times 2!

But the only thing you HAVE to do is leave a comment and make sure you're not a "No Reply Blogger".

To make sure you're not,

click on this site.

Jodi, from Pleasant Home, 

does a beautiful job of explaining this.

So I can't tell you if you've won, if you're a "No Reply Blogger".

This is open to my International friends too.

Only one comment per person.

The drawing will be held on my sweet mommy's birthday, October 14th, so you have until midnight

October 13th to leave me a comment for your chance at these cool Halloween goodies!

Good luck, my friends!!

xoxo

Cindy