cuz we like to eat

I scrapbook with some buddies.

We’re quite a crew.

There’s the vegetarian.

And the one that doesn’t eat mayo.

The one that’s allergic to cinnamon.

And the one that can’t do milk products.

And believe it or not, we still find things we can all eat and enjoy.

But it’s hard.

I was so excited the other day when I found a recipe tucked into the back of my recipe folder.

Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas

I’d never tried them, so I made them for our weekly get together.

They were so good.

And since I’m just full of love and the spirit of giving today.. I thought I’d share the recipe. It’s so easy and we didn’t miss the meat at all. Really.

Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas

• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (I just put in a bunch of garlic powder)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 14 ounce can “tomatoes with green chilies”, undrained..who are we kidding here people, it’s called ROTEL and I used the regular
• 1/4 cup picante sauce
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I left those out and it had enough ‘heat’ to go around)
• 2 cups cooked brown rice (I didn’t have all day so I used ‘instant’ brown rice and it worked fine)
• 8 flour tortillas (7 inch size) warmed
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese (I brought it in a bag separately and the girls put in on their enchiladas if they wanted it and zapped it a little bit in the microwave to melt it. Worked fine.)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (Now there is a hot topic..people either love it or hate it. I am not that fond of it, so I omitted it and it tasted fine.)

In a large non stick skillet, saute the green pepper, onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add the beans, tomatoes, picante sauce, chili powder, cumin and red pepper flakes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until heated through and mixture thickens.

Add rice; cook 5 minutes longer or until heated through. Spoon a rounded half cup down the center of each tortilla. Fold sides over filling and roll up. Place in a 13 by 9 inch baking dish coated with non stick spray. Spoon salsa over each tortilla. Cover and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with cheese and cilantro. Bakes 2-3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Yield: 8 servings.

It sounds harder than it is. I used Pace products for the salsa/picante sauce. One of them is thicker than the other, but for the life of me I can’t remember which. I just bought both and made it according to the recipe. But you could probably wing it. Pace isn’t really my favorite flavor, but I couldn’t think of anything better, so I just went with it. I used mild sauces also and there was enough kick in there for me. I ate a spoon full of filling as I was filling the enchiladas (I got a clean spoon!) and I thought for a minute it was going to be too hot, but it was just right. And if you do the cheese, that helps with the heat too. 

We liked it so well we froze the leftovers. I can’t tell you how well that goes, because we haven’t defrosted it yet.

That’s next week. : )

*tap tap tap*

Is this thing on?

Remember me?

I haven’t posted much lately. It feels like I’m busy but I haven’t been up to that much either. I do know one of the things that has taken up some time is BSF. It does take time to do the homework. Sometimes the questions are ‘easy’ and other times they require a little more digging. But it’s been good. Yippee.. this week Jesus *finally* gets to raise from the dead. I’m so glad. It’s hard to stay with His walk to the cross and His time on the cross for such a long time. So this will be an especially good week of study.

And now for some little bits of random… remember the other day when I asked your opinions on hard anodized non stick cookware. Well here’s the deal.. I bought this the other day.

It’s made out of aluminum and then it’s got some fancy-dancy coating on it and I just wasn’t sure I wanted to cook with it. So it’s been sitting on my floor for a while now while I made up my mind.

Well I made it up. It hit me yesterday that I already have some really nice non stick cookware.

They’re called IRON SKILLETS. Aaaand, I can buy a universal lid for the bigger one and it will work exactly like the pricey model with the fancy coatings on it. So, that’s what I’m going to do!

I started using some new shampoo recently.. told you this was random.. Dove. And I really liked it. I really really liked it..more than Sally Field. Sorry, couldn’t resist throwing that in. Anyway, I went to buy another bottle the other day and they had changed the packaging. That drives me nuts. But I read all my buzz words… cucumber…cool moisture.. and thought we’re all good. And got it home and started using it.. and and and.. I can hardly say it.. they CHANGED IT. I guess I missed the words weightless formula. Y’all, they added conditioner. Kiss of death. It makes my hair all slippery and limp and it won’t do a dog-gone thang! So! I had a chit chat with the girl that does my hair, who knows I have a leaning toward wanting to pick up my shampoo at the Walmart instead of hoofing it over to Sally and paying an arm and a leg. She told me to try TRESemme. I went straight to the Walmart yesterday to get some and I thought I was gonna have a stroke just trying to find the right ‘formula’.. no, not color treated, not extra body, not damaged, not breakage control. I was thinking good-NESS, y’all, I just wanna wash my hair and without it leaving an oil slick. And then I found NORMAL shampoo on the bottom shelf about 4 inches off the floor. Evidently there aren’t very many people out there with normal hair. I feel special. I got home and used it and felt even more special. I’m in love again. Yay!

And speaking of fancy-dancy and hair... we had a hair rehearsal last weekend for a fancy-dancy par-tay the girl is going to on Saturday night. I am not much of a hair ‘doer’ and didn’t have a clue what to do to make her hair look special. So the girl who does my hair make a couple of suggestions and viola…

I think I did a perty good job, thankyouverymuch. And just an fyi.. no she won’t be using the orange clippy. That was just to practice.

The end.

opinions please!

This is probably going to be a temporary post.. but I have a question to ask.

Has anybody used hard anodized non stick cookware before??? I bought a skillet at Bed Bath and Beyond..with a coupon!!!…and then started reading reviews of it and they are very mixed. Some people said the coating got sticky after a while and others said you can’t use oil. Confused! I haven’t used it yet and don’t want to until I can decide whether it’s a keeper or not.

Thoughts???

further ‘from the wall’ evidence *updated with link

Yesterday was BSF. They have monthly luncheons for the small groups. I went the first week I was in a group. I was brand new and only listened. The second luncheon was when I had bronchitis, so I didn’t go. And then yesterday was our last one. So I decided I would go.

The point of this luncheon is to share what God is showing you in real life with what you’re learning through in the lesson. I love that. It’s not a ok, we’re not at church now, so let’s all gossip and talk about whatever we want to talk about. It’s on topic and it truly a sharing time. And the ladies are just precious.

So every girl at the table shared and then it was all eyes on me. I had shared with my BSF group leader that calls every week, as I worked my way through ‘the grief time’ this year. One week she called and I ended up crying all the way through the call. And then the next week, things were better and then the next week, even better.  And she wanted me to share.

For the life of me, I could not think of what to say or how to say it. I didn’t plan anything in particular to say. I’m not even sure I felt led to share. But share I did. I have a hard time when I’m nervous (don’t know these ladies very well) and semi-emotional at the same time. Not a very good combination. I came away thinking I had not conveyed anything of value to them. Just a bunch of scrambled thoughts. I know there were some things God was saying in the midst of my nerves and jumbled thoughts, so I hope they could pick those out. : ) 

But I certainly don’t see any future in public speaking. Blogging is more my medium. I can think without a bunch of eyes staring at me. That gives me time to think through what I’m going to say and I think it edits my words so I don’t ramble and it helps me say just the things God would have me say (hopefully).

So now I’m just praying that God takes my inability to communicate and speak to these ladies in a way that I can’t.

lingering over the lamb

I’m in BSF this year…started in January. So I jumped into the middle of the study of John. I’ve really enjoyed it even though it’s very different from anything I’ve ever done before.  In recent weeks, we’ve been studying Jesus and His days before the cross and now we’re up to when Jesus breathed His last and gave up His Spirit, basically. I’ve had a hard time the last couple of weeks concentrating while doing my study at home. Sometimes I just blamed it on things going on around me or in me and kept going.

I finally stopped the other day to realize that one of the purposes of taking it so slowly (for me anyway) was to really take in all that Jesus had done for me. Awkward. Not something that’s easy to stay with week after week. I know sometimes we talk about Good Friday and then say something about Sunday’s coming. Well, sometimes it feels like Sunday will never get here since we’re dissecting the verses so slowly (which is good). But it is hard to linger over the words of scripture about the spotless and holy Lamb of God and all He willingly suffered for me.

The other day I went to lunch at a friend’s house. It was her birthday and several of us got together to eat and scrapbook. One of the girls brought take out. And it was something I’d never eaten before.  I didn’t say anything about it to them, but it was very hard for me to eat it. I looked at it. I smelled it. And finally I ate it…savoring every bite..being fully aware of every aspect of eating it.

It was lamb.

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19

It’s random time!

1. How do you feel about "Gladiator" sandals, also called "Roman" or "Jesus" sandals? A fashion yea or nay? I guess if you’re 6 feet something and a size ‘zero’ than maybe they would look ok. But for your average Joanne, umm.. not so much.

2. What is your favorite pizza? The girl and I get ‘the works’ without cheese. And since cheese makes me sick, then I guess that is my favorite.

3. There are plans in the works to sell roughly 1,000 items from Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. This means you could buy Picard's chair for your family room. If not a Star Trek item, what prop, background, set, etc. from what TV or movie would you buy if you could?
[Ex: Hurley's "I Love my Shih tzu" shirt from LOST, the plantation home "Tara" from Gone With the Wind, or Tracy's tambourine from the Partridge Family.]  I would love to have the front porch from Andy Taylor’s house. (Andy Griffith Show)

4. Name a local food or restaurant that your area is famous for.  Corn dogs were ‘born’ at the State Fair of Texas, as were a bunch of other artery clogging fried things that I won’t mention.

5. What is your current favorite snack? I’m on a Chex Mix kick right now..but I don’t eat the pretzels or those funny looking skinny white things. Neither of them have any flavor. And it bugs me because I pick them out and it seems to be about 50% chex stuff and 50% pretzels/weird white things. Seems like a bit of rip to me.

6. Hypothetical: You are required to be a reality show contestant. Which show would you choose based on your probability of success? (You cannot choose "none.")
A. Dancing with the Stars
B. Biggest Loser
C. Survivor

Let’s see..can’t dance. Never have and don’t plan on starting now. And frankly, I just don’t know that I could pull off that hot and bothered look that Pamela Anderson some of the female contestants seem to have mastered. So there goes DWTS.  And I think I would cry if I had to live out in the elements and eat bugs and get eaten by them, so no Survivor for me. I guess that leaves The Biggest Loser. Hey.. I need to lose some weight, so that might work for me. I would be the whiny one.  Hey, I’m not proud.

7. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being uninhabitable and 10 being cleanliness that meets the standards of OCD, how clean is your vehicle's interior? It’s decent. It’s got some clutter, but nothing gross. Probably a 7.

8. It doesn't feel like Spring until _________. .. it gets warm.

9. Something that made you laugh really hard recently is ____. The other day, the girl was working on a science worksheet and hubs walked past her door and overheard her reading the question out loud and saying “Psssth, I don’t know the answer to that!” (it’s called learning…you do it with books) Hubs told me what he heard and I think I laughed harder than I’ve laughed in a long time. It just struck me funny.

10. Tell me about a goal you're working toward.  Getting all the photos from the little kid/sick kid years into books so we can look at them. I’ve begun the process and Boo has enjoyed seeing pix of herself she’s never seen. That has made me feel bad and spurred me on to complete the task.

11. Share a thought-provoking or inspiring quote this week. This is something that has come to mind over and over as I’ve been studying the crucifixion in BSF and being asked to answer questions about various events. “Satan is a great help heavenward.” I believe E.M. Bounds said that and it’s just so profound and applicable sometimes.

12. Name one thing that you do as a parent that you absolutely know will make your kids happy. If you're not a parent, feel free to substitute "friend" or nomenclature that works for you. Working on the photos. She’s already enjoying the fruits of the little bit of labor I’ve put into the process.

To check on other’s Random, hop on over to Linda’s place at 2nd Cup of Coffee.

I have a confession to make. I haven’t been a very good Random’er lately. I link up on Wednesday mornings and then head out to BSF. When I get home, I usually try to get a jump on the homework. And by the time I get back to the random, I feel like I’m the last one to the party. But I will try harder to check more of you out this week.  : )

First April Random

1. Define a great relationship. I love this question!  A great relationship is one where you show up not wearing makeup and nobody notices or cares. Mutual service… putting the other ahead of themselves. I’m really thinking about girl friends.. I’m not getting into spouses and all that stuff.

 
2. Why is it called a "drive-through" if you have to stop? (Real question: What was the last food/drink you purchased at a drive-through?) Chick-fil-a sandwich and large unsweet tea.  I really love CFA sweet tea, but I don’t need the extra calories, so I’ve been adding Sun Crystals instead.  : (

3. As I type this, the Butler Bulldogs are getting ready to play in the NCAA championship game. Every Hoosier is hysterical about this except me. So in honor of the Bulldogs ... what is your favorite breed of dog? (I tried.) Poodle. (Not the big kind.) We had one when I was a kid and that was the best and smartest dog ever. I still miss him sometimes..especially when my cat goes on a hating spree.

4. If you had to move to a state besides the one you currently live in, where would you move?  Hmm.. somewhere warmer? Florida maybe?

5. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be? pass on this one. : )

 
6. Who's the funniest person you know? My husband! I never know what he’s going to say next. I think we both embarrass our girl by laughing and carrying on sometimes.

7. Did you get enough sleep last night? Nope. (wrote this on Tues)

8. What's the first thing you thought about this morning? Don’t forget to make lunch for the girl. I forgot yesterday and had to take it up to the school.  Just needed a big sign on my head that said “Pre-occupied. Watch out!”.

9. Grilled or Fried? –HONESTLY Fried! See the drive thru question! I love fried food. But I try not to eat it very often. Chick-fil-a is just about my favorite thing ev-er, so I get that one fried.

10. Are you afraid of the dark? A little bit, yes. We had a  power outage recently during the evening. I was sitting at the computer and behind me the hubs and the girl were discussing school work at the coffee table. Poof! Everything went black. I had to hold back that panicky feeling. Hubs stumbled to the cupboard and got a flashlight. At bedtime it happened again, and I couldn’t sleep until it all came back on. So I stayed up playing solitaire on my iPod Touch waaay late into the night.

11.When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Ya know, I really have no idea. I took a very short ASL class at summer camp one summer and thought it would be fascinating to work with the deaf, but that’s about it.

12. If you had one word to describe yourself , what would you choose? Silly. Scatter-brained. Antsy. Serious. Emotional. Thoughtful. Spiritual. Oh wait..that’s more than one word. I guess it just depends on what kind of mood I’m in, now doesn’t it?! Hubs just walked by and added ‘patient’..(NOT). He’s a funny one, remember?!

For more April Randoms, check out Linda at 2nd Cup.