Foodie!

So along with the rest of the United States I'm trying to cut down on food intake this year and one way I'm trying to accomplish that is through making an effort and cooking more. It's not the cooking that I have a hard time with-- it's the fact that we have no dishwasher and I hate washing dishes. BUT last night I made some amazing enchiladas! I'm so mad that I didn't get a picture of them before we all inhaled! Here's the recipe though....

-2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil (the original recipe called for 3tbs but I thought that was a little much)
-1 can of diced tomatoes with green chlies
-1 can of black beans
-1 large avacado
-1 red or yellow onion (I used half of each)
-8 garlic cloves
-3/4 cup of reduced fat cheese (the original called for 2 cups but again I thought that was too much!)
-3tbs of tomato paste
-tortillas

First you dice the onion and garlic and sautee for about 5 minutes. I only used 1tsp of olive oil while sauteeing mine and they were just fine. Then drain your tomatoes and add. Then add your diced avacado, black beans, tomato paste and simmer for about 10 minutes. At this point I liberally sprinkled mine with chili powder. You can use whatever tortillas you like. I found some specialty ones at United that were awesome but clocked in a 140 cal a tortilla. Put about 1tsp of olive oil in your 9X13 pan. Once your filling has simmered put in the tortillas. I had enough to put about 1/3 cup of filling in 8 tortillas and then put some filling on top. Cover with cheese and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.

We had friends over last night and everyone agreed that these were a major hit!

Happy Dance

I've been doing a little happy dance since last night when I got A NEW JOB!!! I about 3 weeks I will start the Management Training Program at Enterprise-- yes like the car rental place. It's an awesome opportunity and a lot of room for advancement!

Resolutions and Weddings

I'm not usually one for resolutions... In fact I am one of those that resolve to not resolve. I think that New Year's Resolutions last for about a month and then that's that! But...this year I am going to give it a try. My resolve is to blog more.....like more than once every 4 months :). So here is the first blog of the year! We spent a day in Dallas going to an old friend's wedding. Here a couple shots from our fun day!

Everything was so gorgeous including the programs!

                                                        Mr. and Mrs. Kurt Lindsay!

I LOVED the centerpieces! They were so earthy and just beautiful.

This week my husband and I are embarking on an exciting task. We are going to do the Daniel fast together this week. Basically that means that we will only eat fruit, vegetables and water this week. I'm very excited to see how we grow together and closer to Jesus this week. We both have some big decisions to make this week and hopefully drawing closer to Jesus will help us to discern the right choice!

Laughter Really may be the Best Medicine.....

Last night I enjoyed a wonderful evening with some wonderful friends. We were celebrating Kristin's birthday and so we broke out pizza, cake and ice cream...oh and I think there was a salad in there somewhere, but really with pizza and ice cream who cares about the salad!?

The pizza was amazing-- if I don't say so myself, nothing can beat a homemade crust.

There was plenty of laughing though. My husband was missing from the party so I conviently got to tell funny stories on him. For example. We have one of those over the door pull up bars at our house-- one of the things that happen to you when your husband works at GNC, but I digress. One day while I was on the phone with my mom he decided that he would  try to make me laugh so what better way to do this than to hang by his feet by the pull up bar. I'll admit that got him a few smiles but what go the laughs is when he tried to get down. He got one foot off successfully but the other tennis shoe got stuck on a bolt. So there we are. I'm trying to keep speaking to my mom in a normal tone and my husband is frantically trying to get me to let him down. I finally got off the phone and admittedly laughed for a bit and then let him down.

All in all it was a fabulous dinner. Jarrod's homemade cake was amazing.

Tarts and Tats

So my friend Becky and I have come up with the most brilliant idea. We are going to open a tattoo shop...with pastries on the side :). We have decided to call it Tarts and Tats. Despite the fact that we are look as likely to step into a tattoo parlor as bikers into a cupcake shop, we are sure that we would be phenomenal at it. We would be the designers (of course) and cooks. I personally think that I would be distracted by the pain of a tattoo if I was holding a scrumptious cupcake or cookie.
Then, I got all deep. Mindless work tends to lead to this. I began thinking that our friends are a lot like tarts and tats. The tarts trick you into thinking that they will always be there to satisfy and are good for you. When in actuality they are gone in just a few short bites and leave you feeling the need to pathalogically avoid the scale for at least a month. Tats on the other had are always there. They are well thought out. Permanent.

Maybe a little deep for a fun convo but oh well.

Fiddlesticks.

I work in an office. In a small room by myself. But that doesn't mean that I can't hear everything these women these women talk about. So- what do moms talk about at the office?

• Weight. No shocker there. Every girl over the age of 16 talks about weight. My favorite, though, is when they talk about their weight while eating an ice cream sandwhich.
• Kids. Some of these terrify me. I find myself praying, "Please Jesus don't let my mother have told her friends these things about me!" Seriously- I know every embarresing story imaginable about these kids.
• Celebrities. Yes. It's true. I know more about Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber (he's a fave) and Katy Perry since I have started the job. I thought at first they were just screening things for their kids to listen to. That theroy was squashed when I heard two 40 year olds get way too excited for Katy Perry to come to Dallas. They plan on going.

Last lovely thing about my office. The British receptionist. She is all things British. She drinks tea, admires the Queen for her hunting skills (p.s. I totally thought the whole dog and hunting thing was only in the movies til the other day!) and says hilarious British catchwords. My favorite is collywobbers.

I Wish I Could Be Like...

Ever since I drug my husband along with me to see Julie and Julia, I've been dreaming of the day I would start my own blog. Big dreams eh? But seriously, I fell totally in love with the movie and was determined that I would do something as fun as blogging, because that of course will translate to fantastic cooking skills! I love reading blogs. Why haven't quite figured out. Why do I read about people I've never met? But there seems to be something about blogging. Blogging about anything, cooking, weight loss, photography and just simply life. So here goes. I'm taking a leaping dive into the world of blogging!