Easy Enchiladas

1 1lb ground beef or turkey
1 can refried beans
2 cans cambells cream of chicken soup
2 cans el paso enchilada sauce
shredded colby cheese -lots!
shredded jack cheese - lots!
1-2 pkgs jumbo size tortillas

* I always use the fat free refried beans and low fat cream of chicken soup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine soup and enchilada sauce in one sauce pan and heat. Brown the beef in another pan, drain, and rinse. Add refried beans and enough of the sauce mix to make the meat and bean mixture pasty. Put about 1/2 to 1 cup of mixture in each tortilla and add some shredded cheese. Roll up and put in dish. When finished putting into casserole dish pour most of the sauce over mixture, add lots of cheese to the top. Bake 30 - 45 minutes until heated through. Sometimes I bake it covered for 20 minutes and uncover for the last bit of time.

I serve this with saffron rice and over shredded lettuce or avocado slices. I pour a little of the leftover heated sauce mix over the rice and enchilada.

Salsa is because you can't eat without some tortilla chips - enjoy!!

What I'm drinking now - continued

Sweet Potato & Red Pepper Chowder

Big cravings for soup. Big thank you to kajal's blog where this is shamlessly lifted.

I pureed the whole thing in the blender, because again, I am drinking my meals.

Sweet Potato & Red Pepper Chowder

1 tablespoon olive oil1 onion, chopped
1 big sweet potato, chopped
1 tablespoon flour
3 cups vegetable stock
1 cup corn
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 red chili or a tablespoon chili powder
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
small handful chopped cilantro
salt/pepper

Heat the oil with the onion and sweet potato for 5 minutes. Add the flour (1 more minute) and the stock. Boil and then simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Blend until smooth. After it's back in the pot, add the corn, red pepper, chili, and green onions. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the cream and cilantro. Add salt/pepper to taste.

What I'm Drinking Now

This salsa recipe originated with my aunt joann, and having visited her recently, I think everything just tastes better in the midwest. Up there you can visit an actual diner where you can eat a home cooked meal. (In case I'm missing something, please let me know if you have a place like that in PTC. Umm besides Atlanta Bread.) I've been drinking this salsa like soup, it is SO good. (Although admittedly it could be a pregnancy* thing).

Combine ingredients** in food processor:

1 can 16 oz diced tomato
1 small onion
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
4-5 cloves garlic
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 tbsp cumin
3 small jalapeno peppers
cilantro to taste - I personally don't think you can have too much
salt and pepper to taste

*A friend recently told me that salsa made her nausea go away...and guess what, it works!! Ha, ha the power of positive thinking. Who knows...who cares??
**Most of this came from Adams Farm and I think it made a huge difference in the freshness (as well as the cost)

Hi there, Mia!

The reason for my absence status in the blogger world* is at least a good one. Well it's been three months exactly...Baby No. 2 has already gotten the best of my attention! Yeah!! We are thrilled to be welcoming it [which is surely a "her"] January 11th! For now, I'll just refer to the fetus as Mia.* She will be My "something" anyways...We'll find out if I'm right Aug 25th.

So, my days are now composed of the following:
Try...
1. To keep up the exercise with the fetus bopping along. So far she [unlike Karina] is a good sport about it. Thanks, Mia!
2. To keep down the nausea which is ever present (and prevents most of the list from getting done) Complicating matters is the intense craving for, but not limited to: McDonald's french fries (whaaaaaaaa?), mexican food, and red meat. Or whatever sounds good, ie I think I can hold down. I'm dreaming of dinner at the Melting Pot with all you can eat cheese, fondue, fruit (the only healthy craving I have), and of course chocolate. Just my stomach isn't there yet.
3. To cook more (Alas an ever present resolution) Cooking, I have a plan for you yet.
4. To scour craigs list and consignment sales for all the items I "need" Yes, I need more than one stroller and that is just the way it is. Otherwise I don't feel I am high maintenance.
5. To have Karina at least interested in things bathroom related
6. To have more playdates for Karina
7. Have a baby, then do the next most logical thing...move! ha! Following a tradition of sorts.
8. To not let any fill in the blank [organizing, stress, mysterious illness(God willing), spiritual warfare] steal my joy. OK I may not be the pregnant person who is perpetually happy. You know, the one that would prefer to be pregnant as a permanent state. I like her, I even envy her, but I am not her. But I can do my version of her. Because the end product is definitely worth it. Welcome little one...you are intensely wanted, believe me.

I'll be busy until and beyond 2010. As a bonus I'll be off the hook for new years resolutions! Thanks again Mia...I like your timing already.

*I'm soon going to take this blog off the beaten path of the Internet. It's going to be more of a journal for me. Same stuff though. [If I'm really ambitious I'll add some new recipes. ] But if you want to read along, that would be cool. There will be an option to add yourself to the list - it's really easy.
**I reserve the right to change names at any point in the pregnancy. Annoying I know.

Happy Spring

You would never know it but Karina's favorite holiday IS Easter. Every day since then she has asked if we are going to an Easter party.* She's not a fan of any large person's lap - Dora and all Disney characters excluded of course. She knows Mickey intimately but the Easter Bunny and Santa are apparently fair weather friends...

With Easter, my life is finally - and sweetly so - uneventful. I am no longer working and back to torturing my husband with deceptively delicious cooking. There is not much to write about, in a good way. I am feeling better and so is my mom.** It did make for the best Easter party ever.

Thanks Jesus!

*According to Mickey Mouse (repeat over and over and over): It is going to be the best Easter party ever! The best part is we'll be together! In Springtime...a walla walla bing time...Springtime! a lalalalalala la la la la la!!
**My new chiropractor has worked wonders. I'm not "cured" but it's only been a couple of months. All of my mom's levels are in remission and she can walk around the whole lake Peachtree.

Feliz Cumpleanos a Karina!!

Finalmente, Dora se ha llegado a la casa de Karina!



Karina y sus amigos pasan un buen rato. Es una fiesta muy divertida!!*





Karina le gusta la tarta de cumpleanos...



y Dora le gustan las chicas...



Karina tiene ya dos anos!! Como pasa tan rapido! Pero no importa, cada etapa es mas bonita que la anterior.

Feliz cumpleanos a ti...espero que pruebes el exito!



*Por que se Dora jugando con el palo?? Hmmm...
**This post is dedciated to Karina's grandmother Shirley. She thought we were teaching Karina Spanish based on the Dora invite. Que buena idea!

Back on the Boat

After 2.5 years of not having a vertigo attack, this past Wednesday I had just that. It really was my worst nightmare come true, considering I thought I had kicked this dizziness deal. So I spent a lot of the week in the ER, then up at Northside hospital. All the while I was sad for Karina missing her two valentines day parties this week - dumb mom guilt but all the same...
If you know of anyone who has gotten rid of vertigo (specifically vestibular neuritis) I would love to know about it!

Meanwhile, in an attempt to make the best of things, I've thought up the following silver linings:

-I now know I will never, ever take a cruise. Lots of money saved when I can have the experience for free. When I am old and traveling around, we will just have to take the tour bus. And sit in the front seat.

- I got to see my friends, the neurotologists up at Northside. Long time, no see. They like me because I give them lots of practice on my weird inner ear.

-Good incentive to work out. As strange as it sounds, the only way to get off the boat is to exercise. The more I work my vestibular system, the stronger it gets. When I can finally ride a bike I know I've got my equilibrium back.

- I am going for another opinion to see a doctor in florida. Weird way to get a trip to the beach, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless.

- My throat feels great. That has nothing to do with anything, but it makes me feel good so I'm counting it. One issue down, one to go.

-This time I am not in my third trimester and can hardly walk as it is. I'm already mobile unlike when I missed my own baby shower. This time, Karina's b-day party will definitely go on.

Dora is already on her way...

Just like Marley

Like I said I used the break and recovering from tonsilitis to watch movies. I saw Nights of Rodanthe and High School Musical 3* and liked them both. (I won't be offended if you stop reading now).

But the one I really liked was Marley & Me with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston. Obviously it is a movie about a dog. But, no I didn't think it was that sad. Probably because we had a laborador just like Marley...
Ours ran through [invisible] fences and escaped as well. He liked to take a walk around the lake, specifically the one that ends up at the PTC police station.** Only one time he ran away and never came back. It was really, really sad...So I tend to think my dog sob story trumps the movie.

(OK, still I cried at the end).

All sobbing aside, I thought it was a movie more about a dog, a guy, and his career. Wilson plays a family man who is always looking over his shoulder at his cooler co-worker [McSteamy on Grey's]. They both play journalists living in Miami in the 70s when the newspaper biz was thriving and we all used DOS. Only McSteamy has a much cooler "beat" - the Latin-American drug connection. Which reminded me at one point I felt just like Wilson...

When I worked at the CIA, I was so envious of my co-worker friend Margaret, who worked in the Counter-Narcotics Center (CNC). Basically, I thought her bad guys were much cooler than mine. They were glamourous, brooding, latin-american, hard core business types. They knew how to survive AND make money - in short they were smart and I was intrigued by her stories. My guys, a la Richard Reid, spent a lot of time in the bathroom trying to light their shoes on fire. [Umm there is a reason why the losers [thankfully] get chosen for that honor].

But, like Wilson, I wasn't intrigued enough to pass up the opportunity of having a great family life.

The point being I could totally relate to Wilson always wanting to do something else. That "something else" usually turned into having another child. There is one scene where Aniston says I want a baby more than anything and I swore she jumped right out of the screen, it was so believable.

To me, this was a good movie dog lover or not. It may not win any Oscars because it is not weird enough. Which is probably a good thing for me, considering I related so well to it.

*I thought it was like a modern day "Grease." But take with a grain of salt. I am thrilled by anything with good dance moves.
**think thousands in fines and you'll know I come from dog-lovers

A Happy New Years

...Enter stage right

Like a breath of fresh air, the mom's club arrived. Right at 5:00 pm for several days they brought us meals.

It was a wonderful scene, and we all three looked forward to it.

When I first moved here, I [wrongly]thought I wouldn't have much time to do mom's club. The opposite has proven true.

Instead, the club has given me the time and opportunity to be a better mom.

Now, I think what would we do without it?