Category Archives: food

One Word: EXHAUSTING

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That is how my weekend can be summarized.

This weekend was the fastest, longest weekend in the history of weekends. If that makes any sense at all.
It all came to a head Thursday when I realized everything we were trying to take on.
Grocery shopping. 3rd birthday party prep. Ry’s 3 year photos. Showing our rental to about 11 different interested parties. Dishes. Tons and tons of dishes. The actual birthday party. Remembering to feed and bathe my child.
On top of all that, Rylee woke up Thursday with a nasty little cough (she still has it!). And it was supposed to rain all weekend. 
I ended up and rescheduled Ry’s photo shoot. Which I was sad about but it was the smartest thing to do.
I was up late and up early all weekend and this morning? Today I’m feeling it and I have the venti iced coffee to prove it.
All in all, the weekend turned out great. Thanks, in a huge part, to my brother who came to my rescue to help with the party prep and toddler wrangling! The house showing was a success. We have some great applicants, now we just need to do our homework before we offer it to anyone. The party was all in all a success. And I somehow even remembered to bathe Rylee on Saturday night. 
This week will be busy as well, but I promise I will post Ry’s party. I also have a cute video of Ry singing Happy Birthday to Andy and another of her “reading” a book to her Cousin Connor. And I was even thinking about doing a series on the renovations we’re doing on the upstairs of the rental house. Interesting? Yes? No?
For now, I will leave you with this…
 
That’s it for now. I’m going to go fill up my coffee cup. If anyone would like to join me in a strongly worded letter writing campaign to instate nap time in the work place, let me know. Because I am really, really considering it.
How was your weekend?

Recipe: Shredded Beef Enchiladas (Homemade, from scratch)

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Have you guys noticed that all of my recipes so far have been Mexican food? We kind of eat that a lot. I was watching America’s test kitchen one Sunday morning and they were making shredded beef enchiladas. I thought it looked really good so I figured I try them out. I couldn’t find the actual recipe, so I went off of memory, and combined a couple of other pieces from other recipes I found. This is what I ended up with and you guys? It’s de-lish!

It’s pretty hands on in the very beginning and at the end and overall it takes about 3 1/2 hours, so keep that in mind! If you try it, you have to tell me what you think!


Ingredients:


For the sauce/filling:
2 lbs Beef {I use a 3 lb chuck roast and trim fat/cut out the bone}
1 Large onion, chopped
3 Tbl chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
8 oz can tomato sauce
4 oz water
4 oz heavy cream
Cilantro

For Enchilada Assembly:
12 corn tortillas
More Cilantro
Cheese…lots of cheese

How this magic all goes down:

Heat up olive oil in a heavy bottomed ducth oven over med-high heat until shimmering. Brown the beef approx. 4 minutes on both sides. Remove meat and set aside.

Sauté onion in beef drippings until just softened. Then add in all of your spices. Cook until fragrant. Only about a minute.


Stir in tomato sauce, water and cream.

Stir in chopped cilantro. Bring just to a boil.

Return the beef to the sauce. Cover, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

After 2 hours or so, remove meat from sauce and set aside. Using a colander, sift the sauce into a bowl. Keep all the onion and cilantro goodies. Place the goodies and the meat into a bowl and shred using 2 forks. Mix well.

Pour enough sauce to just cover the bottom of a 13×9 baking dish. Then, heat 2 to 3 tortillas at a time in the microwave, using wet paper towels in between and on top so they do not try out.

Assemble the enchiladas with meat, cheese and more chopped cilantro until all the meat mix is used.

Top with the remaining sauce and cheese…lots of cheese. Cover as much of the tortillas as you can so they do not dry out in the oven. Cover with tin foil {make sure you spray your tin foil w/ non stick spray before!!}. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes…just long enough for the cheese to brown a bit.

Then serve and enjoy!!!
Also? Happy Cinco De Mayo! 
{I actually had this whole post planned for today before I realized that today was in fact May 5.}
 

An Easter Win and an Easter Fail

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Ok, so I have a dilema.

Andy spoils me at Christmas and buys me a great new camera and during the “important” times like holidays, parties and such, I never take photos. I know it’s because I am busy prepping food and what not, but really? I should totally be able to be in two places at once because these photos from our awesome Easter weekend are just kinda lame…

On Saturday, Ry and I had a quick Target/grocery run, then I had to go into work for a few hours. Auntie Kristen arrived not long after I got home. We had a glorious hot dog and french fry dinner, then colored our Easter eggs!

{Uhhh…nice face kid.}

{All ready to go.}

{Rylee wanted nothing to do with Andy & Me…it was all about Auntie.}

{Having FUN.}

{Patiently waiting…}

And all of Easter…this? is the best picture I got on Easter morning? Really?

I did get a short video of Rylee finding her Easter basket. I will get that up at some point this week. And I know that Kristen took a few photos on her camera, so I’ll have her e-mail them to me and I’ll work on getting those uploaded later this week too.

Rylee was a serious kick in the pants…totally into the egg dying and egg hunting and Easter dress wearing and basket finding and appetizer eating.

And oh my word…speaking of eating…I ate (and drank) entirely too much. {Ok, well, I suppose I could have drank more, but that’s beside the point!} We had a nice spread of meats and cheeses and crackers for apps then moved on to Prime Rib, ham, mashed potatoes, salad, deviled eggs, asparagus and rolls for dinner. Then, we followed it all up with strawberry cheesecake and blackberry rhubarb crisp with vanilla ice cream and not to mention the occasion chocolate egg for dessert.

The one where I skipped the gym to blog instead…

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First of all…you’re welcome. I mean…really, I’m totally skipping the gym for you guys…
{did you just believe that? Good then…moving on.}
How has it already been one whole week since the last time I logged into le’ old blog? Seriously…where did last week go?
I don’t even have any “work was slammed” type of excuse. 
I suppose I just got caught up in…life.
Tuesday & Wednesday are so long ago I don’t remember anything about them…
Thursday was my dad’s birthday so my lunch break was spent running errands for his birthday dinner. Kristen came down and made a great dinner and we followed it up with ice cream cake. Rylee had so much fun playing with Grandad and Auntie Tisten. It was nice just hanging out with the family. 
Friday was a gorgeous day in the good old Willamette Valley. And in my infinite wisdom, I decided that instead of going to the gym on my lunch break, I’d go for a run…outside…one the first real nice day of the season…in the grass seed capital of the world…without taking any allergy medicine. It was about as awesome as that sounds. I was miserable for the rest of the day and super sore to boot. Road running kicked my fanny, folks.
Saturday morning I was up bright and early for a yoga class at the gym. I seriously love me some yoga. Later that day we headed into town to pick up some garden-goodness from Grammy’s house. The in-laws came over for dinner. We hadn’t seen them for nearly 3 weeks as they were out enjoying retirement or something…
Sunday morning I made a mad dash to the grocery store for some speed shopping. Got home, put away the groceries and we all jumped in the car to meet Julia and Spencer for brunch. After brunch, which of course ended with them giving Ry a bag of “potty treats”, we headed home to change our clothes and go outside! Aside from Ry’s quick 1 hr nap, we literally spent the entire rest of the day outside! We weeded the garden, planted trees our front and in our ever-expanding “orchard”, I started some broccoli, carrots, onions, rhubarb, artichoke and potatoes in the garden. I am SO ready to get in and get the rest of the garden planted!
We wrapped up Sunday night eating one of the best meals I have ever made {insert humble brag comment here}. Seriously though…it was so good. I made FROM SCRATCH shredded beef enchiladas. It took about 3 1/2 hours from start to finish and so worth it! Also? so begins the weekends of not eating until almost 8 PM just so we can be outside for as long as possible. {Next time I make it I will take pics and post the recipe}
Today? I am tired…oh so tired…I forgot how hard/tiring yard work is on your body. I also forgot out exhausting working in the sun can be. And, apparently so did Rylee…
This is how I found her when I went to make sure she was covered up before going to be last night…really kid?
How was your weekend!?
Also? Happy Monday…

Super Easy, Really Tasty Tortilla Soup

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When I put it out there to the Facebook world that I was looking for a tortilla soup recipe, I wasn’t sure what kind of response I would get. First of all…thank you to everyone who sent me their recipes! Secondly…holy moly there are lots of different ways to make tortilla soup! I decided to take bits and pieces from different recipes and make one up myself. Daring, I know. Since this was a new kind of adventure, I thought I’d share it with you, no matter how it turned out.

Tortilla Soup
Yields: 6 servings
Total Time: approx. 1/2 hour, start to finish

Ingredients:
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, cooked
6 Corn Tortillas
2 Cans Chicken Broth
1 Can Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1 Cup Frozen Corn
1-1/2 Cups Salsa
1/4 Cup Sour Cream

Serve With:
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425 Degrees. Take 2 of the tortillas and slice them in thin strips, place on a baking stone or cookie sheet and toss with olive oil. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, checking and tossing again and salting if desired halfway through. 
While you’re at it, chop up the remaining 4 tortillas into bite size pieces, set aside.
In a large dutch oven or stock pot, sauté the chicken on medium heat in a little bit of olive oil. 
(I did this mostly to break up the chicken)
Add the chicken broth, black beans corn and tortilla pieces. Stir well.
In a food processor, or a blender if you’re lazy like me, combine the salsa and sour cream.

Add it to your soup. Stir well. 
At this point, you may wish to season it with different spices. I used some red pepper flakes and a touch of salt.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and let it simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. 
Dish it up and top with the crispy tortilla strips.

I also served it up with some shredded cheese, sour cream and sliced avocado along with a nice, big salad.

I got so caught up in my excitement to eat it that I forgot to take a photo of the soup all dished up and topped with cheese and sour cream.

Andy really enjoyed the soup (WIN!) and you know it’s good when he goes back for a second HUGE bowl AND takes some for lunch the next day. My husband? Not a leftover guy.

And for the double win? One serving of this soup, including cheese and sour cream on top was only 350 calories!

Things I will try next time: chopped onion sauteed with the chicken. And maybe some garlic, because really, garlic makes nearly everything better.