Greek Chicken Bake!

I'm sharing a secret recipe with you today. You probably won't find it in any cookbook. I heard a friend mention this one day and decided to try it out. It's in our regular dinner rotation. It is the most delicious, most colorful, healthiest, tastiest, most awesome dish you will eat! Did I mention this dish is great? The main bonus.....it's so EASY!!! Brian always gets seconds when I make this. I think it almost has negative calories (minus all the feta cheese we use!).

This is all you need, plus cooked chicken.

Ingredients:

Baby spinach

Feta cheese

Roma tomatoes, sliced

Grilled chicken

Balsamic vinaigrette

Directions:

Place baby spinach in bottom of 9X13 baking dish.

Layer on top of spinach bed sliced tomatoes and grilled chicken.

Sprinkle with feta cheese over the top.

Drizzle balsamic dressing over all. Don't use too much! It will get very runny. I always think I didn't put enough, but trust your instinct. Just one coat over the top is plenty.

Bake at 350 degrees about 20 minutes or until spinach is wilted.

Serve with a short cut pasta along side, or like we do, put it on top! YUM!

One of my favorite things about this dish. No measuring! I'm very type A so this is a hassle for me. It's the one time I'll try and get "creative" in my cooking. You can just eyeball every ingredient. Use as many or as few tomatoes as you want. You as much cheese as you want (Brian's fav). Add extra toppings such as olives. Delicious. I promise you can't mess this one up. Try it tonight!

Happy Fall

Happy first day of fall everyone (starts later this evening)! I couldn’t be more excited for a new season to come. So what if it was a record breaking 96-97 degrees yesterday? It is the SOUTH. We have a short fall here, but it does come……….eventually.

I'm ready to see this........

And these...........

How about you?

I’ve been so ready to decorate our place with new fall décor. We haven’t celebrated any holidays yet as a married couple, and I am looking forward to it. Brian is rolling his eyes at my cheesiness, but I don’t care. I love the holidays now that I have my own space to decorate and can put my own touch on things! I've become obsessed with all things pumpkin. (I have a special pumpkin surprise to show after Halloween. It was a gift from Brian's mother and I think you will all want one!) Here is a little taste of what is decorated in the Ondocsin household. We will continue to build throughout the fall season. It just puts a smile on my face to see change in decoration!

Our new picture above our TV "mantle"

Our new fall table centerpiece

Nashville

Hello blog world. It's me, Calley. Have you forgotten who I am? I must apologize for my short hiatus. I will try to get better about posting. I must get better with my photography as well. I always forget to take pictures. Maybe if I had one of those digital SLR cameras. I am saving up for this. I've been researching nice cameras and WILL have one before we ever have children. It's a MUST!

This past weekend we went to Nashville, TN for Emily and Justin's wedding. We had a blast! It was a long weekend of fun.

First stop on our journey was to Madison for dinner with the Ondocsin's. We went to Greenbrier BBQ. Delicious BBQ chicken! We hadn't seen Brian's parents in quite a while, so it was a nice visit.

We then made it to Nashville late, but Brian wanted to see the sights. I took him to Broadway.

The Stage

Broadway. I just thought this picture had a neat look/focus to it.

Saturday was wedding day but also ALABAMA football. We watched the game at the Crowe's Nest. This was a great hangout in Nashville. Lots of Bama fans were there. It's a great place to stop if you are ever in Nashville during football season.

That evening was the wedding. Here is where my poor photography skills show. I don't have one picture of the bride and her dress. I know, I know, I'm a slacker. I will get better with my photos. It's my goal.

But I did get a photo with this lovely lady, Hylan. I miss her!

On Sunday, Whitney had a last minute idea to go see the Titans game since it was an early kick off. Well you know Brian jumped on that idea. We got to go to our first NFL game. Lots of fun!

Brian and I with the Titans stadium in the background.

NFL fans are of a different breed I must say. The Titans lost and looked pitiful, but the atmosphere was great! It would definitely be fun to plan a weekend trip to Nashville again someday.

Birmingham Hillbillies

You do not need to adjust your computer screen. This REALLY HAPPENED. And there is Brian, standing proud and tall to prove it.

Here is how it all went down. We spent a recent Saturday morning in a driving lesson and decided to run a few other errands. I’ve been wanting to check out the Alabama Furniture Market in Calera. It really was awesome. We will be going back when we need to furnish a house one day.

Well, needless to say we were in his little BMW to go furniture shopping. NOT SMART. We have been looking for corner bookcases forever for extra storage in our dining area. They had one for a steal! We both couldn’t resist the purchase, and someone (my husband) would NOT drive back to pick up the bookcase the next day. He wanted it NOW. Remember, if his mind is set to something, he is doing it RIGHT THEN. Just read a few blogs back and you will see this recurring theme.

I said, “Brian, your car is too little.” He responds, “It’ll just hang out the window a little.” Yeah right!

So we pull around to the furniture pick up area and the three men are there ready to load your car. The men just laugh and say, “That ain’t gonna fit in there.” Brian says to them, (the guys who load furniture for a living) “Well let’s just try.” I just sat down and waited for failure.

After every angle and adjustment was attempted, one man scratches his chin……Hey, does that sunroof lift up or slide back? Brian’s eyes got so big. It slides….ohhh I think that may work! Can we try? So here you have it folks. You know it is bad when the furniture men are taking pictures of your car and laughing telling you they have never loaded furniture into a vehicle like this before!! We all agreed there would be no road hazard involved and our car sat low enough for clearance under a bridge.

So away we went on the 25 mile trip home with this gigantic thing sticking out our sunroof through Birmingham. We were really quite surprised that we weren’t getting that many honks or looks or stares. Finally, once we reached Hoover, a teenager discretely stuck her camera out the window at a traffic light. All I could do was laugh and wave. I knew we were ridiculous looking. As soon as I waved, I noticed the huge AUBURN sticker on the back window of her car. I immediately remembered Brian has an ALBAMA tag plate on the front of his car (as seen above). I seriously hope we are not floating around in a chain email amongst Auburn fans now.