(Really Awesome) Spinach Coated Chicken

It's no secret around here, I'm not a professional food blogger and I'm really bad about taking pictures to share amazing recipes. However, there is the brief moment where I shine through and remember to document experiments in the kitchen!
For this particular recipe, I was inspired by the mayonnaise commercial that tells you to coat the chicken in mayo and then top with bread crumbs. Apparently to keep the chicken moist or something like that. Whatever the commercial said. Clearly I paid attention. 
I did a little google search on that recipe and found this one: "Amazing Chicken Recipe" I, however took a twist on it. Mostly because I *ahem* ran out of mayo. Oops. Improv to the rescue in Kitchen Camacho!

What You'll Need:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves. 
• A Spoonful of mayonnaise. 
• 1/2 cup Spinach Dip of your choice
• 2 Cups Seasoned bread crumbs * 

** I used my homemade Seasoned Breadcrumbs

• Garlic, Salt & Pepper to season chicken. (season to taste). 

What To Do:  + Pre-heat your oven to 425
+ Grease a shallow baking dish + In a small bowl, mix the mayo and spinach dip + Season your chicken and coat with the dip mixture + Roll your coated chicken in the bread crumbs + Bake uncovered for 30 minutes, or until the chicken isn't pink & the juices run clear. 

Enjoy!  The whole family loved this dish. It paired well with mixed veggies!  Do you ever have to improvise with recipes to make sure dinner gets on the table?

Rambles on Exercising.

A Random picture to go with my Rambles today!

I found that picture on google a while back, and I need it framed for when I get an office in our house! ... moving on... 
I must confess, y'all. I'm a bad blogger. Or maybe I'm a liar. Maybe both.  Allow me to explain... On my sidebar, I say I blog about staying healthy. Except, when was the last time y'all read anything from me about staying healthy? Oh wait... I can tell you... it was Jan 1, the last time I went running. 
Y'all, I even said in that post that I would do better with the My Fitness Pal app. I have not done better. In all fairness, for the entire month of Jan, I was kind of M.I.A. So there's that. I also have not been running since that last week of December. I could use the excuse that it's been entirely too cold to justify running. (Yes, 30 degrees in GA is cold! Sorry to those that are in the teens and negatives, but I will complain about 30 degrees!) 
I do have good news for y'all though. I haven't been completely inactive since my return. It may have taken me several weeks to get back on track, but I am going to do this. I do have some accomplishments to celebrate and some goals that I want to meet. I'm sharing them with you so maybe y'all can help keep me accountable. Deal?
Why I'm celebrating?  I did get back into working out. All by myself (without anyone saying, "Hey, Melissa! Maybe you shouldn't eat that donut.") 
What am I doing? Zumba mostly. No, I'm not going to any classes outside of my house. We have an xbox and a kinect, so I'm using the Zumba Rush game. I've mentioned playing it before in my old blog. Basically, you can make your own Zumba class by picking songs, or choose from a pre-loaded class that comes with the game.  In addition to Zumba, I'm doing Dance Central on xbox and free weights in my living room. (Lots of squats, y'all!) I'm also using my fitness pal to keep track of what I'm eating. I may not always eat the BEST foods in the world, but at least I won't eat the whole box of cookies... just a few of them! 

What are my goals? Well, honestly I'm not 100% sure of my current weight. I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in the rage of 185 - 190 lbs. (Yikes!) I do know, whatever my starting weight is, I would like to lose 25-30 lbs by my brother in law's wedding.  So, to break it down, I would like to lose 1-2 lbs a week. I want to be healthy about it though.  I plan to start linking up with Rebekah for the Step up Sunday to help keep me accountable. I feel like posting my success and/or failures publicly each week will help me. That's the idea anyway. 
How can you help? Add me on my fitness pal! (MCam87) for starters. If you're already friends with me on there and you don't see me do anything for a few days, feel free to yell at me!  Tweet me, message me, do whatever you need to to push me back on track! Tough love is welcomed here, y'all!  Any suggestions on healthy snacks or stuff y'all do to exercise at home is welcomed as well!
Now that I think about it, I need to go back and re-read Cassie's post about staying motivated! 
I'm starting this week with a grateful heart & linking up with Emily. 

I'm grateful that I have the willpower to do this in a healthy fashion. I don't have to rely on pills or crash diets. I think because I stick to healthy choices is a big reason that I've been able to maintain my weight for the past 6 months.  I'm grateful for all of the support I have from my friends and family outside of the blogging world. It's a big help, seriously.  So what have you done lately to get back on track? 

Things I Love: Photography

There's a lot of things I love in life. A few I should probably mention immediately are my kids, my husband, and really great chocolate. I also love amazing photography! I have a deep appreciation for people that can snap a picture and turn it into something that gets hung in museums and are priceless works of art.

Today I'd like to introduce y'all to my sister, Becca. She's a recent graduate from Gwinnett Tech for photography, and she's pretty amazing. Her photos are something I really love, and I feel like the blogging world needs to know about her! Now, I'm not saying my sister has pictures in museums, but I am saying that she could. I might be a bit biased but I love her work.

Becca doesn't like to have her face in pictures ;)

When asked what type of photography she does she said,

"I specialize in Commercial Advertising Photography and play around with Conceptual Photography."

I also asked what her goals for her photography is. She answered with,

"I am trying to put together a portfolio of stuff I have edited or retouched to try and get my feet in a business of my own. Hopefully I will have that up soon!"

Personally, I think she has a real talent when it comes to retouching and editing. While she was in school, one of her projects was to retouch a photo. The photo she used was one from our Grandmother. It's got to be over 100 years old and the result was incredible. Well, just take a look:

Want to see more of her work? Easy... Bex Photos is where you want to go. On the site, she has a blog (it must run in the family!). It's a photography blog, but what else would you expect? I love scrolling through her new pictures each week. Last week, she "Illustrated a song"... Can you guess which song?

I love my sister, and I love that she's found her passion. It's not everyday where you know exactly what you want to do when you "grow up" Becca has figured it out. If you ask me, photography is her calling! She knows she doesn't enjoy photographing people because she's not comfortable "bossing" people around, and that's OK because she's making art with everything else!
Interested in buying one of her (amazing) pieces? Even easier! She has an etsy page!

"Trees" One of her pieces for sale

Do you share my love for photography? Do you know a local photographer that's just starting up?