Pesto Stuffed Chicken Breasts

When a cousin requests a recipe post, I give them a recipe post!! (You're welcome Paige!!)  Dinner tonight was really good! I didn't have high hopes since this was the first time I had ever made this recipe and I changed it a bit from the original, but it all worked out! 

Tonight, I made Pesto Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Here's what you need. 

Ingredients: 

• 3 large Chicken Breasts 
• 2 tbsp. Basil Pesto Sauce 
• 2 tbsp. Sour Cream 
• 1/3 cup Mozzarella Cheese 
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp. Bread Crumbs 

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken breasts in a ziplock bag, making sure to get all of the air out. Using a meat tenderizer (or a hammer if you don't have one), beat the chicken breasts until they are very thin. 

In a small bowl, mix pesto, sour cream, and mozzarella cheese until combined. Spread mixture thinly onto each chicken breast. Roll chicken breasts fairly tightly, using toothpicks to hold the roll. 

Place chicken rolls into a shallow baking dish and brush with a whipped egg. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top and bake for about 30-35 minutes. *About 5 minutes before finished, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Enjoy! 

Along with our Pesto chicken creation, I made a chopped salad, some angel hair pasta, and some homemade garlic bread! 

Next time, I plan on squeezing the juice from a lemon on top of the chicken breast to bring out the flavors of the pesto! Let me know if you try this recipe!

Lisa's Bachelorette Weekend

Friday afternoon, I flew to Raleigh, NC to begin celebrating one of the last single weekends for one of my best friends, Lisa.

Mallory (Lisa's sister) picked me up from the airport at around 2:45 and we drove out to Lake Gaston for the weekend! We spent our first few hours lounging on the balcony, sipping wine, and catching up with one another. Around sunset, we took the pontoon boat out for an evening cruise before heading back in for burgers, some fire pit action, and a rendezvous in the hot tub!

Our view from the balcony!

Super smug Bride-to-be!! 

The Pucci's beauty of a lake house!  

Did I mention it was a little chilly?! 

Saturday: 

Saturday morning, after a feast of a breakfast, the girls took the boat out for some wake boarding. Everyone gave it a go (minus Vida with her poor hurt ankle) and everyone stood up (for at least 3 seconds! Go Kate!) We took the boat back in when it started to rain and decided to eat lunch (phallic pasta for the win) and lounge around for the rest of the afternoon to save our energy for the evening! 

I haven't wake boarded in Lord knows how long! 

I mean.... it WAS a bachelorette party.. How could I not throw this picture in there?!?!

Saturday evening, we were in full Bachelorette mode! After everyone got dressed and ready (1 blow dryer, 7 girls), Lisa opened up her bachelorette gifts! Stay tuned for a blog post on my gift to Lisa! We took some pictures, drank some margaritas, and headed out to dinner at a restaurant/bar on the lake. 

Sarah, Taylor, me, Lisa, Mallory, Vida, and Kate! 

After dinner, we stuck around and listened to a local band play some great 70's-90's music and watched a couple 40+ year old men pole dance on the tent poles. I have to say there was definitely some AWESOME "people watching" going on at this place!

All-in-all, I had a great weekend celebrating Lisa and catching up with some awesome friends from college. I can't wait to do it again in October for the real deal!

My souvenir reminder of the great weekend we had! Lisa's mom MADE this mug! How incredible is that! 

 Congrats again Lisa! I hope you had the PERFECT bachelorette weekend!!

Baked Scalloped Potatoes

The theme for Life Group yesterday evening was "Edible Food", which, clearly, narrowed things down for me! With a plethora of options and plans to go out of town this weekend, I decided to search our fridge for something I could throw together. (Sounds like it should be super appetizing, right?) My eyes spotted the bag of potatoes and I instantly knew what I was going to make- Baked Scalloped Potatoes!

Here's what you need:

• 4-5 medium sized Baking Potatoes
• 4 tbsp. Butter
• 4 tbsp. Flour
• 1 1/2 cup Milk
• Salt, Pepper, and Paprika (to taste)
• 1 1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour and whisk until there are no lumps. Let the mixture sit and thicken.

Pour in milk, salt, pepper, and paprika and whisk until everything is incorporated. On medium-low heat, bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and stir in 1 cup cheddar cheese.

Thinly slice potatoes and place half on the bottom of a lightly greased baking dish. Pour half of cheese mixture over top potatoes before repeating the process with the remainder of potatoes and cheese sauce.

Top potatoes with 1/2 cup of cheese and sprinkle with a dash of paprika. Bake, uncovered, for about an hour. Enjoy!

It seemed to go over well with my fellow life-groupers so that's a definite win in my book!

-Sarah

Scotcharoos

Scotcharoos have become my go-to dessert for group functions or anytime where I'm asked to bring something sweet! This recipe was passed down to me from my Mother-in-Law, Susan, who I believe got it from a sweet friend of hers, Sheryl. It's a pretty easy, no-bake recipe and I almost always have all of the ingredients on hand so I end up making Scotcharoo's more times than I probably should! (Hey, I work out for a reason!!) 

Anyways... here's what you need.

Ingredient: 

• 1 cup Sugar 
• 1 cup Corn Syrup 
• 1 cup Peanut Butter 
• 6 cups Rice Krispies 
• 3/4 cup Chocolate Chips 
• 3/4 cup Butterscotch Chips 

Everything minus the corn syrup! 

Directions: 

Mix sugar and corn syrup together in a large pot and bring just to a boil. Take the pot off of heat and mix in peanut butter until well incorporated. 

Add in the rice krispies, stir everything until blended and transfer to a buttered 9x13 casserole dish. When pressing rice krispies mixture into the dish, don't press down too much or the bars will become very hard. (I can't even tell you how many times I've pushed the mixture down too much in the pan!) You want to lightly press them down- the more air the fluffier the bars will be!

In a medium saucepan, over medium-low heat, melt the butterscotch and chocolate chips, until there are no more lumps in the mixture. 

 Pour chocolate mixture over the rice krispies and place dish in the refrigerator until completely cooled.

When cooled, take the casserole dish out and cut into bars. Enjoy!!

Like I said before, I really think this will always be one of my favorite recipes! So, thanks Susan and Sheryl for passing this one down to me!! 

-Sarah 

Looking Forward To...

If you've been reading my blog this summer, you know just how go-go-go we've been! Although we're in the last few weeks of summer, I still have a LOT of fun things to look forward to!

First off, tonight I finally get to have a girls night with Rachel at her new house!! Even though we live 10 minutes from each other, we've both been busy and have had a hard time getting together in the last few weeks, so I'm definitely looking forward to some quality girl time this evening!

**UPDATE: Something came up for Rachel, so we're pushing our "girl time" to tomorrow!!

Rachel and I (and a very blurry Kristen- who I also miss!)

Friday, I'm jetting off to Raleigh to finally celebrate Lisa at her Bachelorette Party!! I can't wait for a weekend full of Bach festivities and to spend some time with some of my best friends, Lisa AND Vida! Lisa, it's all about you this weekend and I am SO excited!!

Lisa and I in 2008 

Lisa, me, and Vida!  

Can't wait to celebrate YOU!

August 24-27 my childhood best friend Stephanie and her boyfriend Ben are making the trip up to Boston to visit and help me celebrate my 24th birthday!! I'm so lucky I get to spend my birthday with my bestest friend (est. 9096) for the first time in a LONG time (darn you long distance relationships!) We have a weekend full of fun things planned and I'm counting down the days until they get here!

Unfortunately, when Steph and Ben leave, it'll be back to the grind for me. I am scheduled to take my final MTEL on August 28 (wish me luck!!) and then, on September 4, I'm doing a running cannonball into my career- starting work and grad school on the same day! It should be an interesting transition (from doing NOTHING) but I'm looking forward to getting everything going!

-Sarah