Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Rice Casserole... Adventure

So between moving and settling into our new place, we've picked up the nasty habit of... eating out. We've spoiled ourselves so much with various breakfast restaurants, Thai, local gourmet pizza, local Mexican hot spot restaurants, Italian... Chinese... gourmet burgers... Mongolian BBQ, you name it! We didn't hold back on the drinks either... frappuccinos, boba drinks, multiple smoothie quick stops! We are very fortunate to have so many great options for eating out (even some awesome food trucks! ... That's for another post... soon!) I finally had to practice some restraint and find a recipe to break in our kitchen. It seems like it isn't "Home" until you bake something or cook up a production in the kitchen. So after a month an a half, it was time to get to know my kitchen a little better...

I poked around on Pinterest for a recipe that called for things that I had on hand... chicken... broccoli... rice... cheese. I came across a simple casserole from Iowa Girl Eats that she calls: Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Rice Casserole. Key interest in this recipe that caught my eye (aside from having all the 'right stuff,' is that it doesn't call for "cream of mystery" and it includes the option for brown rice (which i've noticed that I seem to have a heep of in my pantry, funny the things you unearth when you move!)

I also love how fool proof her instructions are, she puts in little tips that help things to flow so that you can be prepping one thing while the other is cooking and the next ingredients and tools are lined up, ready to go. I'm not the sharpest knife in the block when it comes to the kitchen. It seems inevitable that something is bound to break/get miss-measured/ accidental shortcuts taken/ ingredients omitted... But things usually turn out alright in the end, so I'm not entirely discouraged from clambering some new kitchen adventure!

Having said that, this "fool proof" set of instructions were not prepared for my knack for "recipe skimming." This was evident when I had the hood vent on full blast, window thrown open and Husband chiming in with, "why does it smell like something's burning?" My response, of course, (nonchalantly) "I'm cooking." We had a laugh and despite my incompetence, I was able to pull out with a champ dish.

We like to keep things simple and then conjure extra fixings afterwards on how to personalize the dish more to our liking - wich usually involves red pepper flakes <3

Overall, we loved the casserole and will for sure be making it again.

Here are some shots of the finished product: