Sunday's Crock Pot Dinner (inspired by Mona) a Raging Success and the Martha Girls story...

I have a wonderful group of friends I met way back P.C., which is of course, Pre-Carlos. These women are all dear and special and unique. We met at an online bulletin board at Marthastewart.com. The board we visited was dubbed the baby boards. It was were women who were trying conceive, or were pregnant or just had children went to exchange ideas and communicate with others doing the same thing. I stumbled across this board very accidentally, actually, back in 1999. Right, Marissa? Is that right? There were dozens upon dozens of women there and we all exchanged experiences and supported one another as we built our families. Remember crazy Megan? and her little crush on Bekah? LOL! Yikes! Anyway 10 of us migrated to our own private spot after a bit of time. Aileen from California, Amy from Massachusetts, and then California and back to Mass., Bekah from Ohio, Lara from Mass. and now in Seattle, Marissa from Pennsylvania, Michelle from Mass., Mona from Utah, Simone from London and Tanya from Edmonton and now Vancouver. We have gotten together twice over the years as a group. We named our get togethers "Ya Yas". We have all had "mini Ya Yas" where a few girls have gotten together. I have been to see Lara twice in Seattle, have had drinks and dinner in LA with Aileen, Mona and Tanya YaYa'd at Lara's house and Bekah and Marissa have gotten together, Mona and Aileen, Tanya and Aileen the list goes on. The point is we all love to see each other as much as possible and if our individual or family travels take us anywhere near the vicinity of each other, we make a point to see each other. The picture above on the beach was our first get together at Lara's house in Massachusetts. We took a day trip to Kennebunkport, Maine, we all went to get pedicures one day and went to several of the girls favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory. We weren't all able to make it but we were in spirit. I sobbed and sobbed all the way home. It made me so sad to think of how we are all so geographically far apart, yet our hearts have all been stitched together so tightly and that we can't see each other often. It was so wonderful to finally meet these women in person. They had been with me through our whole adoption of Carlos and it was so wonderful to bring the video of us meeting Carlos for the first time. It was so emotional watching this with them. We all cried! Happy tears of course! We have been through 9 pregnancies (I think Brigid, Jane and Olivia were here or had just been born?), 5 adoptions and now our Bekah is expecting her baby girl, Violet any time now, and Amy had her 2nd baby girl not too long ago! We got together again the following year at my house. One of the things we all love to do is cook! On our private site we have an AMAZING collection of recipes. Today I am going to share one that I made tonight. Mona's Italian Crockpot Chicken....except I used a pork loin and added a few extra things that are most definitely optional. Mona is the beautiful one on the far left in the white shirt in the picture at a restaurant in Maine, where we enjoyed Lobster Rolls-my first. Love your stinkin' face off, babe!

Here it is:

ITALIAN CROCK POT CHICKEN

4 skinned chicken breasts I used a plain unseasoned pork loin

1/2 stick butter

1 pkg. dry Italian dressing seasoning mix (I prefer Zesty Italian)

1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese
I added a can of Rotel tomatoes and another can of just diced tomatoes
Directions:

Put butter and chicken into crock pot. Sprinkle Italian seasoning over chicken. Cook on LOW for 6-7 hours, or on HIGH for 3-4 hours (or until chicken is tender). Half an hour before serving, melt cream cheese and soup in saucepan. Thin sauce with water or milk if you desire a less-thick sauce. Pour into crock pot and stir until blended with the butter. Serve with white rice or noodles. I made egg noodles, but rice would be awesome too!

Thank you, Mona for an easy yummy Crock Pot recipe.