Saw It, Pinned It, Did It: Buffalo Chicken Bites

My fiance and I love anything buffalo chicken related, so when I saw this pin for Buffalo Shredded Chicken Bites, I knew I had to try it out.

Original Pin

They were super easy and tasted good too!  The most time consuming part was shredding the chicken.  I might try to use canned chunk chicken next time.  I varied a little from the original recipe and it still turned out great  Here's what I did:

Ingredients

2 cups shredded cooked chicken

2 tablespoons buffalo sauce

3 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs, lightly beaten

3-4 cups of bread crumbs

Step 1

Heat Oven to 350.  Line large baking sheet with foil.

Step 2

In large bowl, combine chicken, cream cheese, buffalo sauce, and cheddar cheese.  Roll a heaping tablespoon of mixture in to a ball and place on to a plate.  Repeat with the remaining mixture.

Step 3

Please flour in a shallow dish.  Place eggs in a second shallow dish.  Place bread crumbs in a shallow dish or zip-lock bag.

Step 4

Dip each chicken ball first in the flour, then the egg, then the bread crumbs.

Step 5

Place on prepared baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Serve with ranch or blue cheese dressing and enjoy!

Hope you enjoy these if you make them.  Now go check out all of the other awesome SI, PI, DI projects!

UPDATE:  These were featured on Delicious Dish Tuesday!

-Ericka

Weekend Recap...Cincinnati Style! Part 2

You can find part 1 of my Memorial Day weekend recap here.  Prepare for picture overload in this post!

Sunday morning we got up and went to the Horseshoe Casino.  It's a new casino in downtown Cincinnati that just opened not too long ago.  Too bad we all didn't come back winners!

For lunch on Sunday we went to Taste of Cincinnati.  We tried so many AMAZING foods, but here are some of my favorites:

Dill Pickle Chips - probably my favorite thing.

Giant Cream Puff - and it was HUGE!

Deep Friend Peanut Butter & Jelly.  This what Kevin was most excited about.

Drew, Lisa, Chris, and Kevin enjoying their PB&J's!

Tons of people downtown for Taste of Cincinnati.

After Taste of Cincinnati, we headed to the Cincinnati Reds v. Chicago Cubs game.  It was a perfect day for a baseball game!  The Reds ended up losing in extra innings, but it was still a fun game.

Perfect day for beer and baseball!

After the game we went to Hofbrauhaus for dinner.  It's a German restaurant (if you couldn't tell from the name) and it was a really cool place.  The food was excellent and the atmosphere was fun too.  I was so hungry, that I totally devoured my food before I even thought to take any pics.  But trust me, everything was amazing!

On Monday morning we went to the Cincinnati Zoo.  We love going to the zoo when we go to Cincinnati :)

 

After the zoo we went to Maggiano's for lunch and again, ate way too much!  They had great bread, pasta, and dessert.  We couldn't even finish it all.  After lunch we headed home.  It was a long, rainy, 6 hour drive home but totally worth it after all of the fun we had over the weekend.

Thank you Chris and Lisa for always showing us a great time when we come down to visit and for letting us stay with you!

Hope your Memorial Day weekend was as great as mine!

-Ericka

Weekend Recap...Cincinnati Style! Part 1

What a great weekend!  It was so great, that I decided to break this weekend recap in to two parts...I'll post the rest tomorrow :)

I took Friday off from work and dropped Admiral off at my parents for the weekend, then I picked up Kevin when he got done with his half day of work and we headed down to Cincinnati for the weekend.  Kevin's brother (Chris) and sister-in-law (Lisa) live in Cincinnati, so we went down there to hang out with them for the weekend.  Kevin's cousin (Drew) met us there (he lives in Chicago), and the group of us had a blast together.

We ate so much great food over the weekend and it started with Five Guys Burgers and Fries on Friday night when we arrived.  I'm pretty sure it was the best burger I've ever had.  After dinner, we all just hung out at Chris & Lisa's apartment and enjoyed delicious cupcakes from Abby Girl Sweets.  I had the carrot cake one and it was to die for!  If you're ever in Cincinnati, you have to get some of these cupcakes!



On Saturday morning, we got up and went to Gilpin's for breakfast.  They make steamed sandwiches.  I had the "Morning Breath" breakfast sandwich and OMG so good!  After breakfast we went to Sawyer Point and played tennis for a couple of hours.  I haven't played tennis in years, so I am definitely NOT a good tennis player, but I still had fun.

After tennis we came back to the apartment, got ready, and headed to the movies.  We saw Star Trek Into Darkness.  It was a great movie!  Our lunch that day was popcorn at the movies because we had to save our appetite for dinner.

Dinner that night was unreal.  We went to Boi Na Braza, which is a Brazilian Steakhouse.  You do not leave there hungry, that's for sure!  For starters they have a HUGE salad bar that included different cheeses, salad, beans, mashed potatoes, potato salad, rice, cheese covered broccoli, pasta, and so much more!  Then, for your main course, they bring out all different cuts of meat.  I mean they have everything...leg of lamb, filet mignon, bacon wrapped chicken, sausage, ribs, and sooooo much more.  You can eat as many different kinds as you want (or don't want).  I'm not a huge meat person (not a vegetarian-just never been really in to eating a lot of meat) and I loved it.  You have to try it if you've never been!

We were so full after dinner, that we just walked back to the apartment and hung out for the rest of the night.

Part II of the recap coming tomorrow, which includes a baseball game, more food, the zoo, and lots more pics!

-Ericka

Wedding Wednesday: Reply Card Stress

When we mailed out our wedding invitations, we gave our guests until June 1 to send back their reply cards. There are now 10 days until that deadline and we only have about half of reply cards back.  I'm starting to get a little stressed.

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I didn't realize how much really depends on the total number of guests attending.  Not only do I need that number for the caterer, so we know how much food to order, I also need that number to know how many tables we need to set up, which also includes how many centerpieces we need.  We need to know that number so we print enough programs for the ceremony and have enough favors for at the reception.

I know that everyone always has people that don't RSVP and show up, and I know that we'll get reply cards after our "due date" has passed.  I also know that I will be able to estimate how people will be coming to get my final number.  However, it would be a lot less stressful for me if I didn't have to guess.  I mean, we gave people 5-6 weeks to send in their reply cards...I thought that would be enough time?

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I know that some people might be waiting until the last minute to send in their reply card because they just aren't sure yet if they can come, and that's fine...but I just hope we get TONS of them in these next 10 days. I consider myself a planner and an organized person, so this kind of stuff stresses me out.  I don't want to be running around the week of the wedding picking up more things for centerpieces or favors, ya know?

Maybe I'm over-reacting.  Am I?  Or did you get stressed about this for your wedding too?  Is ok to start calling/emailing people shortly after the deadline to find out if they are coming?

Sorry that this post was kind of a rant, but I just had to get it out there.  Whew.  I feel a little better now :)

-Ericka

Weekend Recap

This weekend wasn't very eventful and that's fine by me!  I had to work Saturday and we spent a lot of time doing yard work this weekend.  Here are some pics to sum it all up:

Friday afternoon cuddles...I had a half-day since I had to work Saturday.

Woke up to this face on Sunday morning.

Ran some errands on Sunday afternoon then went and saw Iron Man 3.  This is what the car said the temp was after the movie.  It did end up going down to 87 by the time we got home.

Picked up this cute firebowl from Target with some of our gift cards.  Can't wait to use it!

Admiral enjoyed rolling in the grass while we sat outside after some yard work.

Enjoying a nice cold Budlight on Sunday afternoon.  Perfect day!

Rockin' my Birthday Bash tank from a few years ago....getting pumped for this year's Bash in a few weeks!

I hope you had a great weekend and got to enjoy some gorgeous weather too!

-Ericka

It's Crunch Time...Literally

Only 1.5 months until the wedding.  WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?!?  It seems like we just got engaged, but that was 15 months ago!  Since I only have a short amount of time until the wedding, I really need to get moving on my fitness.  

I had a dress fitting about a week ago and I feel great in my dress.  I feel confident and beautiful.  I think the dress fits perfectly.  Do I feel the same confidence in a bikini?  Nope!  And since we are going to Atlantic City for our honeymoon and I plan on spending some time each day on the beach or at the pool, I need to get in bikini shape.

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I don't think I'm fat and I'm not trying to loose weight.  I just want to feel confident when I see myself in a bikini.  I'm just not there yet.  I want to tone and tighten some specific areas, so I'm going to work hard these next 6 weeks to do that.  I'm hoping that putting this on my blog will help hold me accountable.  

Exercise:

Kevin and I usually go for at least a mile long walk with the dog every night.  I know these walks are better than nothing, but it's just not enough for me.  I need some more cardio.  So I started following the Beginner 5K Training Plan on RunKeeper.  I have the app on iphone, so every time we go for a walk or do any other type of activity, I track it through RunKeeper.  The training plans are great, and I plan to continue to follow the 5K plan to help me get back in to running.

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I also need to start doing some toning exercises.  There are some great workouts on the ToneItUp site that I'll be using, along with some I've found on Pinterest.  I think incorporating one cardio workout and one toning workout each day will make a big difference in these next 6 weeks.

Food:

This is another place I need to make some major improvements.  I just need to make some smarter choices. I need to snack on healthier foods instead of junk food.  That will be a huge helper for me.  I don't think I eat terrible, but hopefully just some simple changes (especially in my snacking) will make a difference.

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So like I said, it's crunch time...literally...gotta get those abs toned and ready for Atlantic City!

-Ericka