rainy day dinner: chicken noodle soup casserole and almond cookies

It is finally starting to feel like Fall! Putting up Christmas lights in our t-shirts and blowing the A/C in the car while listening to Christmas music was starting to feel funny.  Yesterday the temperature dropped 20 degrees... good ole North Carolina.  It was a great day to spend the morning in the kitchen.
Ty LOVES baking with me. Cooking, in general, really.  He loves stirring ingredients together and hopping up on the chair to see what's on the counter.
Tonight is the annual Cookie Swap I have with some of my girlfriends.  We are having it early this year because my girlfriend, Breck, is due anyday now with her first little baby.  And there was no way we would make her miss out on cookies--especially being days from her due date!
I usually make Lemon Ricotta cookies for this, but decided to change it up this year. Trust me, though. The Lemon Ricotta cookies will happen later in December.
My sister makes Almond cookies every year and I love them!  So I decided to try my hand at it. I used this recipe:

Almond Sugar Cookies from Taste of Home

These were the perfect cookies to bake with Ty because he could eat the batter (NO EGGS!) and he could roll the batter into balls for me.  The dough was a play-do like consistency so it worked out well. And to top it off, he got to smash them with the bottom of a glass.  He loved it. 

Here are the treats for tonight! Each girl brings three cookies to share and we sit around the table tasting each cookie with a cup of coffee or hot cocoa. It is the BEST!  I have Christmas music blaring in the background and the lights all lit up. It really puts me in the spirit! 

For supper, I wanted to make something perfect for the Fall weather.  I usually do chili, but we already had that on Sunday, so I went with Chicken Noodle Soup Casserole. It was so easy and gave the feel of Chicken Noodle Soup, but much easier for my kids to eat.  I adapted Life in the Lofthouse's Chicken Noodle Casserole recipe.  YUM! Definitely a new meal for our weeknight rotation!

all ready for the oven

Adapted from: Life in the Lofthouse's Chicken Noodle Casserole

Grocery List

2 lbs. cooked chicken breast, chopped

2 cups uncooked egg noodles

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup frozen peas

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup corn

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

seasoned salt to taste

cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Cook egg noodles according to package instructions.  Drain. Mix all other ingredients in a big mixing bowl.  Add egg noodles to mixture. Prepare 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray.  Pour chicken and noodle mixture evenly in dish. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Uncover and top with italian bread crumbs.  Bake for an additional 10 minutes without foil. Enjoy!

Honestly, we dug into this so fast that I didn't have a change to finish it. It was perfect for our family. Even Elena gobbled it up!

Have a fantastic December FIRST! Only 30 more days of 2015. It is unreal!