Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Chicken Tortilla Deliciousness!

As many people know, I am not a chef. I don't like to cook and I would prefer to live on pizza, soda, and cheese. Unfortunately for me, my family needs to eat and they don't want the same thing everyday. My twin sis (who also hates to cook and actually does let Chili's and Wendy's supply most of her meals) and I LOVE the chicken tortilla soup at Max & Erma's. We usually pair it with a giant plate of bacon cheese fries since we are obviously health nuts. Anyway, I have FINALLY found a recipe comparable to this soup and it's DELICIOUS! It also took me less than 15 minutes from beginning to end, made enough to feed 4, and for once I had leftovers that I would actually eat after a second heating. In fact, I had twice as much as my husband did and that is very rare. After dinner I called my sis, my Mom, and one of my best friends to share the recipe. I was so excited you'd have thought I popped out another kid or something. I'm still waiting on the review from Bon since my mom and sis have some irrational fear of refried beans.

So here is the recipe! It's very easy, and all but the chicken comes in a can! I suppose you could use canned chicken too and this would take you less than 10 minutes! Perfect for a fam on the go, such as mine!

Ingredients:
1 can of fat free refried beans (use regular if ya want, but they taste the same, so why not?)
2 cans diced tomatoes w/ green chilis
2 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth (I go with low sodium here because again, it tastes the same)
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/2 cup of corn (I leave this out... I don't like things you eat, chew, and they end up whole again, it's incredibly weird)
Some chicken (I used chicken breast strips, 8-10 of them)

Boil chicken in the chicken broth till almost cooked through.
Remove chicken from pot.
Add refried beans, cheddar cheese soup, corn, and tomatoes w/ chilis to the pot and wisk together.
Shred the cooked chicken and throw it back in the pot.
Cook till your chicken is completely done.

Voila! It's done already!
Top with some cheese (you can never have enough cheese!) and eat with tortilla chips if you'd like.

Believe me, you'll thank me for this one!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Are You There Tequila? It's Me Delainie.

So I'm here today to admit my girl-crush on Chelsea Handler. I always used to be partial to Sarah Silverman and her overly offensive opinions on people, and then Chelsea came along and all that changed. I'm halfway through Chelsea's new book Are You There Vodka, It's Me Chelsea and it is HILARIOUS! I believe it's chapter 6, Chelsea and a gf head to Paris and end up at some wacky restaurant where people eat in the dark. Now I've worked in more than a couple restaurants and there is no way in hell I would eat at one in the dark! Gross. There's restaurants that I wouldn't eat in with lights on even if the food were free... but that's a whole other issue I suppose. Anyhow, Chelsea's friend got clausterphobic and needed to take off her shirt. It was dark, so who would see? Chelsea removed her pants in what she called an act of "sympathy disrobing." This whole scenario reminded me of New Year's Eve, 2002-ish. Might've been 2003, or even 2001, who knows, who cares. Anyway, I managed to make it to the party from my lame-o job as a radio DJ 15 minutes before midnight, just in time for my best friend Megan to fall down the stairs and spill beer all over her crotch. Drunken and begging me for a ride to get new pants, I poured my beer on my own crotch to both shut her up and avoid a ride across town. Misery loves company right? I am such a good friend. :) Chelsea Handler would be the coolest friend, it's too bad I'm 5'9"... it would never work out. I wouldn't let her call me Nugget either. I'm much more of a String Bean. Buy the book!

Monday, September 1, 2008

3rd Shift, An Etsy Shout-out, and My Baby-phobia

I'm the worst at updating this blog.

Happy Labor Day! Why are holidays so much work? Isn't it supposed to be a day of rest? We had an excellent time, but D and I were on the go all day long. We hit up Danielle's lake for a bit and grilled at Shan's, I'm exhausted from way too much sun today. Came home to find my kitchen all smoky because Dave fell asleep with his dinner in the oven. 3rd shift sucks. Kitchen fires are only proving my point that this is just not going to work for a year. How do people do this?? I'm also having a hard time being quiet all day. That's just unnatural. I need music and loudness. I feel like I'm banishing my husband to the basement everyday so he can sleep and we can be loud. 3rd shift sucks.

Everytime I see the pic that I put on this blog, over there ---> I want to go shopping. Specifically at http://curlygirlglass.etsy.com for some Bitty Swirls Earrings. My ears are too naked. I would post a pic of the Swirls, but the only one available would have to be stolen from her Etsy and I haven't even asked if she minds if I blog about her, so I'm not about to go stealing her pictures too :) ... so go to her Etsy store if ya wanna see. Don't blame me if you leave her shop B-R-O-K-E because everything in it is so freakin beautiful while being simple and fun too. Great prices, great products, great Etsy seller. I've bought these Bitty Swirl Earrings before, along with a custom order of 3 really neat curl earrings, and I'm about to buy more Bitty Swirls because I lost one. I'm an Etsy addict as many people know. I love selling there, and I love shopping there even more. There are not many shops that I frequent just to browse or with full intentions to shop there. I usually just happen upon things and drain my Paypal account on a whim because I have no self-control. Curlygirlglass is the ONLY Etsy shop that I check at least weekly for new stuff... I'm tellin ya GO FORTH AND SHOP -- HTTP://CURLYGIRLGLASS.ETSY.COM !! My apologies Curly for putting this after my '3rd shift rant.' :) PIC NOW ADDED WITH CURLY'S PERMISSION!! Now just look at these earrings! They are so simple and lovely and I NEEEEEEEEEED more!!

Lots of talk goin on around here again about a possible move to Philly. I think I need to take a trip there. I wish I could do it before it gets cold. I'm not going to like the place if I visit when it's cold, I don't like any place that's cold. I only like it here because the people I love live here. Philly will be full of strangers and cold and that scares me a bit. But then I get to thinking about this school and how awesome it would be to finally go to school for something I enjoy and am passionate about and Philly becomes a little less scary. WMU was an ill-timed joke full of confusion and stupidity (mostly on my behalf unfortunately) and I refuse to let this opportunity pass me by. But of course, school talk always leads into family talk and when I'm ever gonna pop out another bouncing bundle of poo and crying, not to mention spend endless weeks on bedrest. Don't get me wrong, I love my baby more than anything in the world, but he's going to be 4 soon and I am still not ready for those sleepless nights again, I don't want to not work, and I don't want to spend weeks in a hospital NICU with a too early baby wondering what the hell is going to happen next. Been there there, done that, it's not much fun. Is waiting till he's 10 really such a cruel thing to do to both kids, not to mention Dave (who acts like he's gonna be in a walker by the time a 2nd kid hits 1st grade because he's sooooooo old (riiiiight))? The whole decision process is making me feel really selfish. School or kid#2..... My gut tells me it's time to think about ME.