Recipe for Home Made Tortilla Chips

My sister gave me a recipe for home made tortilla chips and these things really hit the spot when I am craving something crunchy that is not a vegetable, and they are super yummy when they are hot. Super simple to make as well!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray cookie sheet with nonstick spray.

Cut wheat tortillas with a pizza cutter and arrange on cookie sheet.

Spray over the top of the cut tortilla and flavor. I use salt and garlic powder.

Bake in oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

I have also thought of baking these for 8 minutes and then taking them out and putting a small slice of 50% fat free cheddar cheese on top and then letting them finish baking. I haven't tried this yet... but it sure sounds good. Especially if you have a fresh salsa dip!

Chicken Chili Recipe

I found this recipe on Googies blog and she found it at about.com. It was super easy to make and super yummy! I even loved the left overs. So here is the recipe!

Ingredients:

1 to 1 and 1/2 lb chicken, cut into 1/2" pieces

1 chopped onion (I used 2 yellow onions diced)

1 15 oz can drained pinto beans you can use white or small red beans too

1 15 oz can drained black beans

1 can stewed tomatoes, Mexican style, (I used 2 cans of Rotel)

1 15 oz can corn (drained and optional)

2 tablespoons chili powder or seasoning mix (I used powder)

Preparation:

In large skillet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, brown chicken and onion over medium heat. Stir in remaining ingredients; bring to boil. Reduce to low; simmer for about 20 minutes.

I flavored my chicken with salt and garlic powder. I also added red pepper flakes.

Hmm, I Have Been Bad!

So I blogged yesterday about a bunch of books that I bought. B made me take them back. Not because he is mean, but because he is smart. We bought the same books for $40.00 cheaper than what I had spent originally. He is just a smart man!

I am excited to get them so that I can start to read them. How great will that be to read again. I just don't do that enough.

So I mentioned that I have been bad, and I really have! I have been eating awful things, and drinking them too. It is not as though I can afford to do this. I am by no means skinny. Geez, I just dunno how to kick this eatin' crap habit. I do so good for so long and then it all goes to pot!

Tonight I will do better. I will make a good dinner for us and it will be yummy. I will not cheat... except I already did. I ate three pieces of red ropes. My favorite. We still have candy in the house from when we went to the movie on Sunday. It is calling my name... I must find will power! One slip up man and all I wanna do is cheat and eat.

In other news...

Arnold hates his mouth spray. Tough crap, he's gettin' it until I feel that it is not working or until it works. It is just gonna have to be one of those things. He is a sweet pup and I don't want him to lose any of his teeth.

At work we got lab coats for the nurses to wear. They are so ugly. Whoever ordered them ordered all larges, x-larges, and 2x-larges. Keep in mind that these are mens sizes. And we have to wear them. My boss thinks that they are ugly as well. She is working on getting us some that are feminine. I am happy about that. I am also happy about the idea of wearing a cute shirt underneath the lab coat rather than a dumb old scrub top. So that is good.

Today I am going to work out. It may just be a jog, it may be a longer jog on the treadmill as I have been meaning to try the from couch to 5k thing. I just don't know why I am so damn lazy lately! I have got to get it together.

Well, that is that. I hope everyone is doing much better than I am!

Friends, Food, Dogs, Books and a Shower Head

We have been doing great lately... except not so much on our diets (gulp). B and I have just been doing a lot with our friends Brett and Stacey. They are great people.

On Friday, I decided to make us all dinner. I found a recipe on Googie's blog and it sounded delicious. It was too. It was a recipe for Chicken Chili. I made it a little bit my own and will post the recipe later. Here is the first photo of the chili. I put more chicken in that it called for.

I then decided it needed something else. So I added a can of corn. It not only made it prettier, it also made it tastier! I love canned corn.

With the chili we made some tortilla chips, recipe thanks to Raw, and yes I will post it. It is quite easy and very yummy.

Before they were cooked:

After:

They were perfect to dip in the chili. We also had baked potato's. I was a bit skeptical on eating a baked potato without any butter, but really, salt and pepper was all it needed. After dinner we just all hung out for a while.

Friday was also the day that Brett and Stacey saved a life. They adopted a dog from the Humane Society that had been short listed for being put down. He is a pit bull, and he is a sweet heart. Brett has been very good to work with him daily. Troy is doing well. And he gets along with their smaller dogs (a yorki named Dax and a fluffy one named Elli). Both their smaller dogs are 15 pounds at most, if that.

Here is Troy:

How could you not love that face? When I went to get this snap shot Brett was teaching him to 'sit'. He is doing quite well. Below is another photo just to gage his size better.

When Arnold first met Troy, he ran up and bit Troy on the chest. Troy didn't really react at all. He didn't growl, snarl, bark, or anything. He just looked at my dog and sat there. Not a very vicious dog at all. Which is interesting because the Humane Society tried to talk Brett and Stacey out of taking this dog as they said he will eat and kill smaller dogs. Not so. Smaller dogs will most likely eat and kill him... just kiddn'.

B and I have decided we really need to work on our dogs temperament much more. We have started this by making them walk next to us or just slightly behind us when we do take them out walking. Arnold is slower to learn this than Gordon. I have faith that they will get this skill soon.

Let's see, what else to tell you.

I had to work at Terrace Grove this last weekend and the shifts were really good. I do have another lil' fella who isn't doing so well, I am afraid he may have passed away since I worked last, which was yesterday. He is a sweetheart, and he will be missed.

On Sunday, after work, Brett, Stacey, B and I went to the movie 'Shutter Island'. It was not at all what I thought it would be. It was still a good show, but I expected a horror film and got a drama with some scary parts. It is good though.

Today was my day off from Terrace Grove. I did a home health visit and had a good time. I also installed our new shower head this evening. Below is a photo of the old one, don't mind the calcium deposits on our dirty little shower head, those things are a pain to clean.

B had bought this shower head about a month ago and has been too busy to install it. So tonight I came across it and B told me that I could probably handle installing it. So I did. And I interrupted him a lot to help me. B was sweet and obliged.

Here it is all hung up and ready to go. After I first turned it on it was leaking where I hadn't tightened it enough, so B had to tighten it better. Now it doesn't leak and I am looking forward to my 4:30 AM shower tomorrow!

Today was also Gordon and Arnold's annual physical/rabies boosters. They did well. Gordon weighs 21 pounds even; Arnold is at 19.7. Gordon got gold stars all across the boards. Arnold however has a lot of plaque on his teeth. We try to brush his teeth, we really do, but he will not allow it most of the time. His fronts are better than his backs, as they should be, he let's us brush them better than the backs. Anyway, I explained this to the vet and he said that Arnold had so much plaque that if we didn't do something about it he will eventually need to have some of his teeth pulled. He then suggested sedating him and having them polish his teeth for a mere $100.00.

We are gonna try something else first. I called a pet place and they suggested this:

Apparently this is a spray that you spray twice a day in your pooches mouth and it gets rid of plaque in 3 to 6 months. The pet store person said that the did a trial run with her poodle who also had awful teeth and that now the teeth are perfectly white. So Arnold got his first sprays tonight. We didn't want Gordon to feel bad so we gave him a couple of squirts too. Gordon's teeth are perfect though. He is better with letting us brush them.

Both the boys are a little tired tonight from their booster shots. The vet said that would happen. It is pretty cute how lethargic they are.

Tonight I also got some books. I am just tired of the same old low-carb recipes, so I bought some stuff to help supplement the p90x diet. Some of the books I feel will really help me keep on my diet rather than cheat on my diet. The 'Panic in Level 4' book is my guilty pleasure book. It looks good and I just need to read more books anyway!

I have also hear good things about the other books as well. I will let you know what I think about them, as if my opinion really matters.

Well, that is our lives thus far. Tomorrow is a work day. Therefore, since the 9:00 PM hour is approaching, I now must get ready for bed and stay there.

I hope all is well with everyone else.

An Egg Blog (Mostly)! :)

Today has been a pretty good day so far. It is my day off from Terrace Grove. However, it is my first day of visits for Primrose. I really had a blast. I ended up laughing at myself (out loud) on my way to my 2nd visit.

My first visit was with a little gal that lives quite close to me. My instructions were simple and basic. Just check the blood sugar, give the insulin, and light meal prep. I have had no formal training with Primrose as they have recently acquired a lot of these diabetic patients due to the recent health care decisions from Obama. Just a quick overview, Obama has made it impossible for medicaid to pay for diabetic patients to live at home and get 3 - 4 home health visits a day. Medicaid can now only pay for one visit. Families are having to supplement this care, and unfortunately we will see most families have to put their loved ones in nursing homes. Some home health agencies had to drop many patients as they were going to be losing money for just one visit per day. Primrose is relatively new and picked up quite a few of these diabetic patients and needed some help, fast. I am happy to help out!

Anyway, I get to my first patients house and after having woken her up, I realize that I have no idea where everything in her house is kept. I had to call the case manager to find out where syringes and things are kept. Easy enough.

After I had given her shots I asked her "What would you like for breakfast?". I thought she was just going to say something easy like cereal or something. Oh no, she wanted an egg over hard. I don't make eggs. B makes eggs. My stomach jumped a little, but I played it cool.

I made her what I thought was an over hard egg. She said it was good, so I guess I did okay. That is what I laughed out loud about in my car. I called B and he laughed at me too. He also told me the proper way to make an egg over hard. Apparently you only need to flip it once and cook it a little longer after it has been flipped.

After talking with him, I went to my next visit. I have never seen these people until today, and the patient in visit number 2 was hard to find. I had no idea who I was looking for but luckily the front desk lady was there to help. He was a sweetheart and I am so happy to have this job!

After my second visit, I decided to go home and practice how to make an egg over hard. Here is how that went.

Step One: Pretty basic. I got out my supplies and set them up like any professional chef would do.

Step Two: Crack the egg in a pre-heated pan. So far so good. I am a master at these two first steps, as you can see!

Step Three: Add some salt and pepper and let it cook. I am still doing pretty awesome.

Step Four: Prepare to flip the egg over WITHOUT breaking the yolk... Um... What? How is this possible? I was able to successfully scoot the egg across the pan, as you see below:

Scooting was easy, but flipping it? Gee whiz. I am sure that I can do this...

Step Five: A SUCCESSFUL egg flip!!!! And yes I was successful in this mornings first egg flip. This morning, I flipped the egg about three times, and this resulted in a yolk breakage.

My egg practice at home was a success though.

Step Six: Celebrate your successful egg flip and cooking the egg over hard with a photo!

Step Seven: Cut into the egg and see how you really did.

Looks pretty good, but oh my, what is that on the right side of my egg?

Whoops! It is liquidy yolk!

Step Eight: Eat it anyway. Even though your diet only allows egg whites. Celebrate your 95% victory and eat that yolk... leave the whites! That's right, I said leave the whites!

Step Nine: First wonder why your font is reddish now, and why you can't fix it... then say 'mmm, I just ate the best, almost hard, egg yolks on the planet!'

Now, onto other things. We bought the cutest banana's in the world. They are perfect for the size smoothie that I usually enjoy in the morning:

Oh, welcome back normal colored font!

Below: Momma banana and baby banana unite! How cute are these things?

Enough about food!

In other things, I finally finished the throw that I made for Dee and Angie. It is a beauty! Here it is draped on our captains seat... for the captain!

Here is a close-up of the detail. It is a pretty easy pattern. I sure like it anyway. I hope they like it!

I really don't have too many other exciting things happening right now. I think that might be obvious as I have spent the better part of my blog all about an egg.

I am getting extreme spring fever! I cannot wait for warm weather. It is gonna be a good, fun, and active spring/summer. I really cannot wait!

Things at Terrace Grove just may start going my way too as far as going back to 12 hour shifts. I am hoping that we can go back. Three shifts a week are nice, and it would be even better for me now that I have this new job. I guess doing 4 days a week throughout March isn't all that bad though.

In other thoughts... I am almost 30! Oh my heck! I should probably have a baby by now, or at least want one. But some days I do, most days I don't. Is there something wrong with me? One of these days I just might have things figured out, but I guess for now it is not so bad to live in the moment.

As for now, it is time to end this post. My love to all out there who actually read my endless bull crap!

The Happy Haps

This last weekend was pretty fun. We hung out with our neighbors and just had a nice relaxing time.

On Saturday we drove down to Lindon and got Brett's new bike. It is pretty nice and we are all excited that he now has a bike that is road-ready. We also all dreamed about spring and summer and just can't wait to get out and cycle!

After Lindon we saw B's parents. That was a fun, but quick visit. From there it was on to SLC to a tattoo convention. That was actually quite interesting. And I honestly must confess... I want a tattoo! There are so many pretty and feminine tattoos out there. And yes, I really do want one. Whether or not I get one is another story.

After the convention, we drove home and just bummed out on our couches and watched programs from Netflix. Very fun and relaxing.

On Sunday (Valentines), we slept late. B and I made a not-so-healthy breakfast. Regular waffles and maple syrup (with sugar...) ugh! Oh well, it tasted good, and, after all, it was a holiday. We later went shopping with Brett and Stacey. I got some very cute purses. Below here is one of them:

And it gets cuter than that, just look at the inside:

And I also got this little cute one. I am currently using it now:

After shopping we all had dinner at our house. B and I moved our table into the living room and we watched more programs. It was very fun. Our neighbors are the best!

Overall it was a very good weekend.

B and I have been drooling over the new road bikes that we want and can't afford until we sell some of our current bikes. We also have been really wanting to plan a trip to Hawaii, yet another fantasy we have been drooling over. One day maybe.

So that is that, short and sweet.

So I For Sure Got the Job!

Things are great!

I was officially offered the job with Primrose Home Health and Hospice yesterday. I went to do my first visit tonight. As it turns out, the family didn't need the visit done tonight. But I went and I met the family and that was good.

I am really excited to be trying a new job. That is great!

I am happy with my other job too. There are still some nurses being drama queens there, but such is life. I think that my schedule will change next week so that I am only working at Terrace Grove 4 days a week. Two shifts at 12 hours a piece and 2 shifts at 8 hours a piece. That is nice. It frees me up for one more day that I can go and do visits with my new job... and that is wonderful!

This weekend is really going to be fun. We just may get to see B's parents too! How fantastic will that be? I am just a happy little lady.

I weighed in today and I haven't lost any more pounds but... I haven't gained any either. This too is good news!

Just a quick update. More blogs to come in the future... with pictures even! But for now I must get back to my ghost show... it is scaring the hell out of me!

Love it!