Chicken Broccoli Shells

We tried this recipe last week and it was actually really good! Here are the ingredients:

1 (16 oz) jar alfredo sauce (you really need two)
2 cups frozen chopped broccoli (thawed)

2 cups diced cooked chicken (I used a food processor to shred the chicken..the shells are not that big so you would need to dice it into fine pieces or shred it like I did)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

24 jumbo pasta shells (1 box--cooked and drained)

Chopped onion to taste
Minced Garlic or Garlic powder to taste
Italian seasoning to taste

Salt and Pepper to taste

How To Prepare:
1) Preheat oven to 350. Boil shells and drain--set aside

2) Cook chicken--I cooked the chicken in a frying pan with a little olive oil and added some garlic, chopped onion, italian seasoning, and salt and pepper. Then I put it in the food processor so that it was a nice shredded mixture that fit well in the shells.3) In a bowl, mix one jar of alfredo sauce, chicken, and broccoli, and cheeses.

4) Place shells in a greased pan and spoon mixture into the shells. (Here you have the option of pouring another jar of alfredo sauce over the shells which I did--Next time I would only pour 1/2 of the jar because I don't like things extra "saucy"). Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

5) Enjoy! We were so hungry that I couldn't even get a finished product picture!

The only thing I would change is next time I would add more cheese on top of the shells before baking. Other than that it was great! :)

Weekend in Charlotte

William and I had a busy week as usual but we were excited by the fact that we were going to spend the night in Charlotte on Saturday! I took on an a project a few weeks ago and we put a desk in the guest bedroom that we can use for studying and bill paying and overall just more organization. Well, then we needed a chair for it and we also needed a picture for above the bed so we thought what better place than IKEA? At the same time we had a melting pot coupon and since they are both located in Charlotte we thought why not just get a hotel room and make a mini trip out of it (it only takes us about an hour and 20 min to get to Charlotte).

I had to work Saturday but I got off at 1:00 and we headed out on our way. We got to our hotel and looked around, changed clothes, and headed back out to our reservation at the melting pot. Here is the inside of the hotel (the elevators were really neat):This was only our second time at the melting pot and it was just as amazing as ever. Here's a pic of William (complete with the steam!) and our after dinner chocolate drinks!

We went back to our hotel after that (completely stuffed) and the hotel had this awesome feature where you can rent movies that our in the theater. Of course it cost $15 to rent the movie but that's how much it is to go the theater so why not rent it in the room where you can lounge around! Anyway, we rented The Help and it was SO good! We loved it! We slept in the most comfortable bed and got up in this morning to the hotel's breakfast buffet. After we checked out at the hotel we went to IKEA and bought the things we needed and then we shopped around a few other places and came back home. It was so good to get away even for a little bit and then we came home and set up all of our stuff. Here's a picture of the new chair and the picture above the guest bedroom:

Last weekend we caught a grand opening of a linen store here in Winston and we got a "luxury" bed ensemble for $70. They run almost $200 at places like Belks and Bed Bath and Beyond. Here's a picture of it on our bed:
We had a great weekend and now our apartment looks better than ever! We tried a new recipe last week that I will post soon because it was a keeper! Hope everyone has a good week!