Parent / Teacher Conferences

Last Wednesday was the middle school's parent/teacher conferences. It started at 4:30pm, but we didn't get there until almost 5pm. Basically what we do is go to a door and wait until the teacher is done with the parent she is talking to and then we go in for our turn. My two children, Jileigh and Talon, each have 8 teachers. We were there until almost 7:30pm visiting with each of their teachers, minus Jileigh's choir teacher and seminary teacher. Sometimes we could walk right in, but there were a couple of teachers that we had to wait 10 minutes or so to speak with them. Fortunately, I had a dinner planned and half of it prepared. Matt took over and finished making dinner while we were gone and we were able to come home to a warm dinner. Jileigh has 3 honors classes and so I really need to know how she was doing and what was coming up in the classes. Talon's doing OK. He just forgets to hand in his assignments and so in half of his classes he was handing in homework and was finding out what else was due. It was a crazy, exhausting afternoon.
For dinner we had a new recipe that I found on Allrecipes.com called Brown Rice and Black bean casserole. I changed it a little to make it better and it turned out fabulous. No picture this time. I was too tired to think about it.

Brown Rice and Black Bean Casserole from Allrecipes.com.

Ingredients
1 C brown rice
3 C vegetable or chicken broth
¾ tsp salt
2 T butter
1 T olive oil
½ C diced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
2 cooked skinless boneless chicken breast halves, chopped
1 C sliced mushrooms (optional)
½ - 1 tsp cumin
Salt to taste
Ground cayenne pepper and/or chili powder to taste
1 (15 ounce) can each black beans and pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chili peppers
1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes
1 C shredded carrots
2 cups shredded Cheddar, Colby Jack, or Mexican mix cheese

Directions
1- Sauté onion in 2 T butter until soft. Add 1 T olive oil and minced garlic. Sauté for 30 seconds then mix in the brown rice, salt, and broth in a pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 hours.
2- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a large casserole dish.
3- Season diced chicken with salt, cumin pd, chili pd, onion pd, and garlic pd. Heat 1-2 T olive oil or bacon grease or beef tallow in a large cast iron pan. Sauté half of the chicken until cooked through to 165 degrees. Move chicken to a bowl. Sauté the second half of the chicken in a little more oil until cooked through and add to the chicken bowl. Set aside.
4- Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté zucchini, carrots, and mushrooms. Season it with cumin, chili powder, salt, and a dash of ground cayenne pepper. Cook and stir until zucchini is lightly browned.
5- In large bowl, mix the cooked rice and onion, chicken, zucchini, carrots, and mushrooms, beans, diced tomatoes, chilies, and 1 cup cheese. Transfer to the prepared casserole dish, and sprinkle with remaining cup of cheese.
6- Cover casserole loosely with foil and bake 30 minutes in oven. Uncover, and continue baking 10 minutes, or until bubbly and lightly browned.
7- Top with sour cream and cilantro.